Cider Cake: The 19th Century Dessert With A Patriotic Past

"As American as apple pie" goes the phrase to denote something quintessentially American. The key ingredient is the apple, which grew in the American identity as settlers brought seeds and grafts to the New World, and apple ambassadors and folk heroes, such as Johnny Appleseed, traversed the country planting apple nurseries and orchards. Apples even became a legal requirement for settlement, too, in states like Ohio, which mandated planting 50 apple trees in three years to prove permanence — an effort that still puts the state in the top 10 of apple producers in the United States today.

The cider cake — one of America's oldest cakes — came out of these roots. With apples growing almost everywhere in the country by the early 1800s, primarily for the production of hard cider, cake recipes began to record the boozy inclusion, especially as the European brandies traditionally used in cakes were far more expensive. An 1827 version of the "New England Farmer (Boston)" called "two pounds of flour, one of sugar, half of butter, one of fruit [raisins and currants], one pint of [hard] cider, two teaspoons of pearlash, cloves and spice to your taste." Soon after, cooks began letting the cider handle all the fruiting duties, as in an 1836 recipe in a New England cookbook, creating the classic American cider cake recipe that rose and fell in popularity with the fortunes of hard cider over the decades. 

Early Americans drank far more than those in 2024. In fact, at the time of 1827 recipe, they were drinking 7.1 gallons of pure alcohol per person of drinking age, compared to just 2.3 today. As the most popular drink in America at the time, hard apple cider contributed much to the total. This is because most families had apple orchards, and brewing hard cider was a great way to preserve the harvest. More importantly, alcohol was safer than water, making hard cider an ideal choice. It was also a great selling point for politicians, as George Washington famously gave voters cider to hopefully swing their vote (it worked), while William Henry Harrison became "the log cabin and hard cider candidate" in the 1840 presidential election and won.

Considering how much it was part of their day, it's no wonder hard cider found its way into cakes. Even with Prohibition, which helped destroy the hard cider industry in the United States, the cloudy, alcohol-free version grew in popularity in the wake, keeping the marriage of apple and America as close as ever. That may help account for the ongoing revival of hard cider as a craft alcohol and why it's showing up in cakes yet again, be it at Whole Foods  on cooking blogs, and on cooking shows. As hard cider re-establishes its rightful place in American society, and more people learn everything you need to know about cider and how to taste cider like a professional, so, too, is it becoming a great way to spice up the best apple dessert recipes.