Why I'm baking Emily's Black Cake, a Victorian holiday recipe from the poet Dickinson (video) (2024)

Emily Dickinson had a way with words, and with spice-scented Victorian treats. (Photo at left courtesy Amherst College; cake photo by Debbi Snook/The Plain Dealer)

“Winter under cultivation

Is as arable as Spring.”

--Emily Dickinson

My Christmas baking is done, once again with a nod to a woman wearing a hand-tatted lace collar and cameo brooch. No, not jolly Mrs. Claus, but someone who gave us words as gifts, the poet Emily Dickinson.

Her somber Victorian image lingers on the grimy, sepia-toned paper I pull from a recipe box each year. I’ve photocopied her reprinted recipe numerous times, fearing the ink will finally rub off and break my romantic connection to another spice-happy era. I’m willing to lose a lot of winter holiday traditions, but not this warming, invigorating taste of Christmas past.

Numerous versions of Emily's Black Cake populate the Internet. I found my first one in the 1970s after learning of the cake through public television's "The Belle of Amherst," a one-woman play based on the life of Dickinson starring Julie Harris. The character opens the play with an off-handed recipe for the cake, but the marketing department at PBS back then took a deep dive, finding a well-interpreted recipe from Dickinson's early writings, then baking the cakes, wrapping them in cellophane and shipping them out to critics in a flowered tin.

I was covering entertainment at the time, probably racing between deadlines and hunger pangs. I bit into a life-changing loaf of fruit and molasses, exotic sparks of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and mace, a whisper of brandy, extra levels of eggs and butter. I couldn’t believe such a harmonic world of flavors could populate every bite. I went to the kitchen to make it, and it became my annual edible holiday signature for family and friends.

See it done the non-electric way Dickinson might have made her cakes. (Video courtesy Houghton Library, Harvard University)

When the list of recipients grew to two dozen, I vowed no more increases until someone dies off — my attempt at black-cake humor. They left, of course: Aunt Catherine, who breathlessly said it stirred the flavors of her childhood; Uncle Gene, who, at 92, called me from his nursing home to say it was the best gift he got that year; my mom, who taught me the value of handmade holidays in the years we silkscreened the family Christmas cards she designed. In the last decade of her life, when she lived with me, she helped me wrap cakes with love and military dispatch, first in waxed paper, then in gift wrap. The number of mini-loaves had grown to 45, 14 of which get shipped. This year, with her gone, I took vacation time to get it all done.

Sometimes I call them “fruitcakes,” just to keep the list from growing.

See Also

Gingerbread Latte Cookies RecipeHomemade Biscuit and Gravy RecipeEasy Eggs Benedict RecipeHarry Potter Recipes

If you're making numerous batches, count the cups of flour by placing them in corners of a large bowl. Same with the spices. (Photo by Debbi Snook/The Plain Dealer)

I doubt Emily Dickinson would recognize my version of her cakes. I ditched her candied citron out of boredom and folded in as many walnuts and pecans that could be coated with batter. I try to use organic ingredients, figuring the Dickinson household, if they knew about it, would avoid glyphosate, the suspected carcinogenic weed killer used on many of today’s crops. Organic flour also seems less of a bother to my slightly gluten-sensitive friends.

Along the way, I’ve learned some valuable techniques about baking this rare cake. When pastured hens are producing well in warmer weather, you can crack batches of their eggs into a zippered food bag and freeze until needed. Then thaw overnight in the fridge. Using a low oven temperature keeps the cakes moist and the flavor of the brandy from cooking off. It also eliminates that whole nagging practice of dousing cakes again and again. I’d rather take time to remember to put on matching socks.

Use silicone pans if you have them. If not, line your pans with waxed paper to prevent sticking. (Photo by Debbi Snook/The Plain Dealer)

As for nutmeg, I could go on. Only freshly grated will do. I've brought the brown orbs home from Jamaica, arguably the home of black cake, still netted with orange fibers that produce their sister aromatic spice called mace. One year I sprung for a hand-held, American-made Wm. Bounds Ltd. grinder that shaves nutmeg into clouds, although a microplane also works well.

This is not a perfect process, even after years of practice. Early on, I struggled with the baking temperature. This year, on a pig-headed roll, I stopped in the middle of batter-making for some sleep, setting the mixer bowl in the fridge until the next morning. I never remembered to add the flour. One batch of gooey blocks were fit only for the squirrels.

Unless you have good upper arm strength, use a standing mixer. Then follow through with these hand tools, clockwise from upper left, measuring cups, mesh sieve, straight handled serving spoon and whisk. (Photo by Debbi Snook/The Plain Dealer)

Each year I learn a little more about Emily Dickinson from the Internet and books. This time, her little segment about snow caught my eye:

It sifts from leaden sieves,
It powders all the wood,
It fills with alabaster wool
The wrinkles of the road.

Reading her words invites me to stop and sit with them, uninterrupted in an age of interruptions. Making her black cakes invites me to put aside time to gather up delightful flavors and share them with good people. It’s sometimes a struggle to focus. Dickinson herself was a recluse dedicated to her work, laughing sometimes at the way outsiders viewed her.

Best to add enough fruit and nuts so that there's just enough batter to hold them together. (Photo by Debbi Snook/The Plain Dealer)

I’ve fallen in love with more than her pitch-perfect cake. It’s also the way she thought it was okay to shoo away the world, and then, when she was ready — and only when she was ready — tempt it back with a treat. Genius.

The house smells great while this is baking. (Photo by Debbi Snook/The Plain Dealer)

For years, I was a territorial cook like my grandmother, declining to give out my favorite recipe. With so many versions of Emily’s (Dickinson) Black Cake on the Internet, recipe secrets are almost a thing of the past. I want to pass on a version I love and have tested for many years. Maybe if more people made this rich, spice-forward cake for themselves, I wouldn’t have to bake as many.

Emily's Black Cake (Nutted)
Makes 2 standard loaves or 4 small

2 cups all-purpose flour, preferably organic

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ nutmeg, freshly grated

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground mace

5 eggs

½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

¼ cup molasses, preferably blackstrap

½ cup brandy, not Father’s best, Emily wrote

½ pound raisins

½ pound dried currants

¾ pound walnuts (See Cook’s note regarding making without nuts)

½ pound pecans, but have an extra cup or more of either nut on hand, as needed

Plan ahead: Not only are there less-common ingredients to collect, this is also a 3-hour baking time at low temperature.

Cook's note: Instead of two standard-sized bread loaves, you can make four or more smaller ones, depending on how the batter fills your pans. I use an odd size, which holds 3 cups, and the resulting loaf is a good size for gift-giving. But I've also made the standard, 6-cup loaf pan with the same instructions. If you have silicone pans, that will eliminate the need for waxed paper linings. If you don't eat nuts, the recipe still works. Just fill pans to the height stated in recipe.

Equipment list: Baking pans, stand mixer, splatter collar for mixer, measuring cups and spoons, big bowls, big sturdy spoons, waxed paper.

Preliminaries: Prepare your oven by heating to 225 degrees and putting a wide, shallow pan such as a rimmed baking sheet, on the lower rack and fill with water. If you'd like to use a convection oven, turn heat down to 210 degrees (if your oven doesn't automatically adjust for the difference). Prepare baking pans by lining with waxed paper strips, one lengthwise and one crosswise, with extra hanging over each edge. Make them as wide as they'll go without crumpling in the corners. Prepare fruit and nuts by measuring into large bowl and mixing evenly with your hands.

Mix dry ingredients: Measure flour into bowl. Sift into another bowl or whisk to aerate in the same bowl. Re-measure, but not by scooping into flour with the measuring cup. Use a large spoon to fill measuring cups with sifted flour, and level with straight side of knife. (This method prevents adding too much flour, which can make baked goods turn out dry.) Place measured flour into separate bowl. Add baking soda, salt, grated nutmeg, plus ground cinnamon, cloves and mace. Stir, then sift, into alternate bowl and set aside.

Mix wet ingredients: Crack all eggs into a pouring measuring cup, clear any shell bits, and set aside. In bowl of mixer, place room temperature butter and mix until smooth. Add sugar slowly then mix on medium speed several minutes until creamy and fluffy, and sugar grains can't be seen. Scrape down sides of mixer, if necessary, to incorporate everything, and beat until uniform. Add eggs one at a time, and then molasses. Beat until uniform.

Make batter: With mixer on lowest setting, alternately add flour mix and brandy slowly to the sugar and egg mixture. Stand mixers are powerful, and may send flour flying. If you have a plastic splatter collar, use it. Mix on low speed just until uniform. Do not overmix or use high speed here.

Final mixing: Pour batter over fruit and nut mix and use large spoon to blend, making sure everything is covered. You should be able to see the shape of nuts and fruit under a coat of batter. Use large ice cream scoop to fill pans to within an inch of the top of the pans.

Bake: Make sure oven is preheated and there's still water in pan on lower shelf. Place batter-filled pans on shelf at middle level, and all on one level, if possible. Bake for 3 hours. Cool in pans, but as soon as you can handle, pull up on overhanging waxed paper just to loosen cakes. This will make them easier to unmold when they're completely cooled.

Wrap: When cakes are cooled, peel off waxed paper and wrap with fresh waxed paper. Then wrap in holiday paper, if desired.

Serving and storage: Keeps for weeks in the refrigerator, a month or two frozen. Best sliced when chilled.

Source: Adapted from Emily Dickinson by Debbi Snook, Plain Dealer Reporter.