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Women and cake – a history

1 ‘My husband won’t bake cakes. He’s also not interested in eating them: nor is my ten-year-old son. My father can’t bake, either, though he has always rather liked the results. Yet all three of them are keen and willing cooks. The problem seems to be with baking, and with cakes in particular. They are just too feminine. I don’t think this issue is unique to my own family: many men see cake-making as the final frontier beyond which they will not venture. Very few male food writers have much to do with cake – Nigel Slater, who has always been willing to embrace his female side, is an honourable exception. Cake is one of the few foods that our culture unequivocally genders. It is not just that it is sweet: pudding is an acceptably masculine food. Consider the traditional gentlemen’s club with its full assortment of solid steamed puddings and compare it with the tea shop with its array of cakes: one a male space, one a female. So how do we account for the strangely gendered identity of cake, and has it always been thus?

2 In most cultures, and for a very long time, cakes were an offshoot of the bread-baking process, and the preserve of men – professional bakers or the cooks of large houses. Cake in the modern Anglo-American sense (soft, spongy, raised with agents other than yeast) does not really come into being until the early-eighteenth century, when cooks realised that if enough eggs were incorporated they could dispense with the raising powers of yeast. Before this, cake was a form of enriched bread – sweetened with sugar or honey and the addition of dried fruits, and made softer and richer with extra fat and sometimes eggs. These cakes were most commonly found as ‘fairings’: special occasion treats sold at fairs and carnivals. They were usually small, what we would call today buns. They are the ‘cakes and ale’ of Sir Toby Belch’s retort to the parsimonious steward, Malvolio, in Twelfth Night. Large ‘great cakes’ were the preserve of royalty and the aristocracy, and even then were only produced for special feast days. This was in part because of the expense of the ingredients, but mainly because of the difficulty of baking successfully the rich mixture in the scorching heat of a wood-fired bread oven. Throughout the middle ages such baking could only be carried out by commercial bakers or in large manor houses or monasteries where there was often a separate bake house because of the risk of fire. It was not until the sixteenth century that the walls of cottages began to be sturdy enough to safely incorporate an oven.

3 The glory days of British home baking began in the Elizabethan period,

when the management of large houses and manors passed from male stewards into the hands of the gentlewomen housewife. She took responsibility for overseeing the provision of bread, beer, butter and cheese, preserving meats and vegetables, drying herbs and candying fruits. She also oversaw the baking of cakes for feasts and holidays. This gentlewoman housewife was a figure of some cultural interest: Gervase Markham laid out the virtues she must possess in The English Huswife (1615): She … must be cleanly in both body and garments, she must have a quick ear, a curious nose, a perfect taste and a ready ear; she must not be butter-fingered, sweet-toothed nor faint-hearted.

[Extracts from Cake: A Global History by Nicola Humble first published in 2010 by Reaktion Books Ltd. London ]

Extract from previous issue of the Ratpack

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Comprehension and language Read the text entitled ‘Woman and cake – a history’ and answer the set questions below.

Paragraph ONE 1.1 How do the writer’s husband and father differ in their attitude towards cake? (2) 1.2 Why has the writer italicised the word ‘feminine’? In your answer consider the

effect she hopes to achieve. (2) 1.3 Explain the metaphor in ‘many men see cake-making as the final frontier beyond

which they will not venture’. (2) 1.4 ‘Cake is one of the few foods that our culture unequivocally genders.’

The word ‘gender’ is usually classified as a noun. Discuss the writer’s use of the word in this sentence. (2)

1.5 Do we still consider a tea shop with an ‘array of cakes’ as a female space? Substantiate your point of view. (2)

Paragraph TWO 1.6 Supply a reason for the quotation marks used in ‘fairings’. (1) 1.7 Twelfth Night is a dramatic work, written by Shakespeare, yet it is referred to here

in its capacity as an historical document. Explain how it can offer factual evidence of life in the sixteenth century, in addition to its literary value. (2)

1.8 Quote the word from this paragraph used to describe someone who is excessively frugal. (1)

1.9 A synonym for ‘preserve’ in ‘preserve of men’ is A. Intuition or hunch B. Judgement or conclusion C. Domain or sphere Choose the correct answer and write down only the letter of your choice. (1)

1.10 Find evidence to prove that prior to the eighteenth century cake was not an ordinary, everyday occurrence. Quote to support your answer. (2)

1.11 Identify two factors that made the baking of cakes difficult during the Middle Ages. (2) Paragraph THREE 1.12 In the first paragraph the writer stated, ‘Cake is one of the few foods that our culture

unequivocally genders.’ How does Humble prove the truth of this assertion in paragraph 3? (2)

1.13 In ‘The English Huswife (1615)’, what does the date supplied after the title refer to? (1) 1.14 Explain the use of ellipsis in the extract from The English Huswife. (1) 1.15 ‘She … must not be butter-fingered, sweet-toothed nor faint-hearted.’

Which of these qualities that the housewife should NOT possess do you find the most surprising? Motivate your answer. (2) TOTAL: 25 MARKS

Women and cake – a history

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Summary skills Read the following extract from ‘Woman and Cake – A History’ then follow the instructions below.

Home baking continued to be an ideal throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with the variety and complexity of sweet baking developing considerably throughout the period. In England in these centuries, the country house and its cooking functioned as an ideal to which others aspired. There was a great deal of continuity in its cooking, with housewives keeping manuscript books which they passed down to their daughters and granddaughters.

The situation was very different in France. Here a huge social gulf separated the country and the city in the centuries before the Revolution, and the desirable recipes were the innovatory perfectionist dishes of the great chefs who served the court. The English housewife was crucially a gentlewoman – of high rank. Her equivalent in France is difficult to find, as the French social system operated very differently, with a much larger aristocracy and a culture that looked to the court rather than to the country for its values and practices. What is clear is that the French woman of high rank in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did not occupy herself with the affairs of the kitchen. Cooking was a job for a man whose profession it was. The job of pâtissier was separate from that of either chef or baker in the French culinary profession, a specific trade requiring a high technical skill. Many of the differences between English and French cakes are traceable to this fundamental distinction in their baking practices and history. French cakes are the product of centuries of professional refinement and perfectionism. Little masterpieces, they are showy, transitory affairs. English cakes are cakes for the household, baked once a week on a designated baking day and therefore prized for their keeping qualities. They make use of simple ingredients, ideally those produced locally (on the estate in the case of those early manor houses) and part of their function is to use up materials of which there is a surplus, so cakes requiring many eggs would be baked when there was a glut. [334 words]

Instructions: There are a number of differences between the English and French tradition of baking cakes. You have been asked to outline these dissimilarities for a new cookbook, Confectionary for Connoisseurs, which is to be published next year. As part of your preparatory notes, complete the table below: TOPIC HISTORY OF ENGLISH CAKE HISTORY OF FRENCH CAKE Gender (Who made the cake) Setting (Where was the cake served?)

Nature of the cake (Its purpose)

Nature of the cake (Its ingredients)

Note: You must write your point in the block provided. [The topic or point that

you will make has been identified in the sub-heading to help you.] Each point should be a full sentence. Each sentence should not be more than 14 words. Write the number of words you have used in each block. Your total number of words should be between 80–90 words.

TOTAL: 10 MARKS

Women and Cake – a History

Extract from previous issue of the Ratpack

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Women and cake – a history Suggested answers: Comprehension and language 1.1 Her husband is not interested in baking or eating cakes whereas her father doesn’t bake cakes but

certainly likes to eat them – ‘rather liked the results’. (2) 1.2 By italicising the word ‘feminine’, she emphasises the point she wants to make. She also imparts a tone

of voice which indicates how men feel about doing something regarded as ‘feminine’. (2) 1.3 Space is regarded as the ‘final frontier’ in Star Trek: ‘to boldly go where no man has gone before’. In the

same way that a space explorer might hesitate to into outer space, perhaps because they don’t know what lies beyond and they might never come back, men do not want to start baking, as there might be no going back. If they start doing one stereotypical woman’s job they might have to do them all. (2)

1.4 In this sentence the writer uses the word as a verb to indicate that culture has actively appointed a gender to cake – i.e. a female gender. (2)

1.5 Own view with substantiation. (2) 1.6 It refers to an archaic / old-fashioned word. (1) 1.7 It refers to what was eaten at the time – cake and ale

and this endorses the accuracy of the article’s information. (2) 1.8 ‘parsimonious’ [check spelling and punctuation] (1) 1.9 C. (1) 1.10 Cakes were ‘special occasion treats’ found at fairs and carnivals, or produced for religious feasts, not an

everyday foodstuff. (2) 1.11 The expense of the ingredients and the fact that the bread ovens were operated at a high temperature

and the mixture often burnt. (2) 1.12 It was only when household duties were taken over by a housewife, a female instead of a male manager,

that baking became so popular – ‘glory days’.(2) 1.13 The date of the book’s publication (1) 1.14 The ellipsis / three dots … indicate that text has been left out (much more was said about the English

‘Huswife’). (1) 1.15 Own answer with motivation. [One would imagine that the housewife would need to sample the

cakes, or at least the uncooked batter to ensure that it was palatable so NOT being ‘sweet- toothed’ is surprising. ‘Faint-hearted’ also sounds a bit odd as one might not think the running of a household would require one to be fearless.](2) TOTAL: 25 MARKS

Summary skills TOPIC HISTORY OF ENGLISH CAKE HISTORY OF FRENCH CAKE Gender (Who made the cake)

High-ranking English housewives baked and passed recipes down to female family members. (12)

Professional male chefs or bakers were responsible for baking. (9)

Setting (Where was the cake served?)

Cakes were made for the household. (6)

Cake was usually served at court. (6)

Nature of the cake (Its purpose)

Cakes were baked once a week and were meant to last longer. (12)

Cakes were refined and decorative; created to show off and be consumed immediately. (13)

Nature of the cake (Its ingredients)

A housewife would use simple ingredients found locally and left-over, surplus ingredients. (12)

Ingredients were chosen for their taste and quality in pursuit of perfection. (12) [No information is provided so be lenient here – presumably rich in eggs, butter, chocolate and cream.]

(4x2=8 marks / 2 marks for style) Total words: 82

Extract from previous issue of the Ratpack

Supplied by © Macrat Publishing April 2020

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