Wellesley Tea Room Fudge Cake (circa 1898)

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FAVORITE RECIPES OF WELLESLEY ALUMNAE
Compiled by Wellesley-in-Westchester
for the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Fund
of Wellesley College, 1975-1950

Pg. 94:
      _WELLESLEY TEA ROOM FUDGE CAKE_
      _The Original Recipe_
2/3 cup butter
2-2/3 cups brown sugar, well packed
1 whole egg and 3 egg yolks, well beaten
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2-2/3 cups sifted pastry flour
2/3 cup thick sour milk
1 1/4 teaspoons soda. dissolved in milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Salt
   Cream butter and sugar; add eggs.  Dissolve chocolate in boiling water;
stir to consistency of thick paste and add.  Add baking powder to flour; add
alternately with milk (and soda).  Add vanilla and salt.  Bake in two 9-inch
square pans in moderate oven.  Fill and frost with chocolate frosting and
chopped nuts.  (Serves 24.)
   Alice G. Coombs, '93  (1893--ed.)

EDITOR'S NOTE: To many alumnae the recipe for the famous Fudge Cake served in
the original Wellesley Tea Room will be the "sine qua non" of this book.
Although recent alumnae may remember only Miss Snow's Blue Dragon or
Seiler's, Alice Coombs and her sister, Grace, '94. ran "The Tea Room" for
many years.  Miss Coombs writes, "I found the recipe originally in a Boston
newspaper and changed the measurements from cups to weights for greater
accuracy.  I have now tried to get it back to cups again, as I did not keep
the original clipping.  THe brown sugar for the cake weighed 14 1/2 ounces
and the flour weighed 10 ounces."


BAKER'S AD (1982 General Foods Corporation copyright date is shown--ed.)
      _Baker's Masterpiece Series_
      _Wellesley Fudge Cake._
      _Circa 1898._
   _Only the Finest Real Baking Chocolate Would Do._
   In 1898, two Wellesley graduates spotted an intriguing recipe for
chocolate fudge cake in a Boston newspaper.  No doubt, they used Baker's
baking chocolate for its unique richness.  Baker's had already been making
fine chocolate for 135 years.
   The graduates made the cake for the Wellesley Tea Room.  And this simple,
incredibly fudgy cake has been famous ever since.  Taste it tonight.

_Classic Fudge Frosting_
Melt 4 squares BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate and 2 tablespoons butter or
margarine over very low heat.  Combine 4 cups unsifted confectioners' sugar,
a dash of salt, 1/2 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla; add chocolate mixture,
blanding well.
   Let stand, if necessary, until spreading consistency, stirring
occasionally.  Spread quickly, adding a small amount of additional milk if
frosting thickens.
   Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

_Wellesley Fudge Cake_
4 squares BAKER'S unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup _each_ hot water _and_ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour*
1 teaspoon _each_ baking soda _and_ salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk

*Or use 2 cups sifted SWANS DOWN Cake Flour

Heat chocolate with water over very low heat, stirring until mixture is
smooth.  Add 1/2 cup sugar; cook and stir 2 minutes longer.  Cool to
lukewarm.  Add vanilla.

Sift flour, soda and salt.  Cream butter.  Gradually beat in the sugar;
continue beating until fluffy.  Beat eggs in thoroughly, one at a time.  Add
flour and milk alternately, beating after each addition until smooth.  Blend
in chocolate mixture.  Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch layer pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, or until cake tests done.  Cool 10
minutes; remove from pans and finish cooling on racks.  Fi and frost with
Classic Fudge Frosting.  Garnish if desired.

_For high altitude areas_: In chocolate mixture, use 1/3 cup sugar; use 3/4
teaspoon baking soda.  Add 2 tablespoons each flour and milk; bake at 375
degrees.


CHASE, MARY (Mrs. Harry Curtis Lockwood)
   (Clipping from November 1955 WELLESLEY ALUMNAE MAGAZINE?--ed.)
(...)  Her sister Alice writes, "Mary and Clara Shaw '97 established The
Wellesley Tea Room in '97.  In 1900 she and Carolyn _Rogers_ Hill (1900)
started The Wellesley Inn where the famous Wellesley Fudge Cake originated.

(So it was The Wellesley in in 1900, and not the Wellesley Tea Room in 1898?
Mary Chase "retired to Washington, in good health and very young in spirit."
Is there a Washington obituary?--ed.)


HANDWRITTEN NOTE IN FILE
   Wellesley Fudge Cake
1/2 cake Baker's chocolate melted
2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup sour milk (or buttermilk)
1/2 cup cold water
1 teasp. soda
2 cups flour
1 teasp. vanilla

Bake in two layers and put together with frosting and English walnuts

   Frosting
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup cream
2 squares chocolate
Butter size walnut
1 cup Eng. walnuts added after cooking
Cream butter, add sugar, then melted chocolate, eggs, milk and water, flour,
etc.
   Frosting
When cooked, (stir until sugar and chocolate melt but not during cooking) let
cool before stirring down.  If frosting is of the right consistency it takes
quite a lot of time to stir it down.

Kindly do not give this recipe away freely, as I obtained it on that
condition!
   J.W.P.
   (Josephine W. Pitman, Class of 1912)


WELLESLEY: PART OF THE AMERICAN STORY
by Alice Payne Hackett
New York: E. P. Dutton &  Co., Inc. Publishers
1949

Pg. 57:
   There were disappointments, too, in store for Henry Durant when he came to
cope with three hundred intelligent, active girls in their teens.  It was one
of his principles that "pies, lies and doughnuts should never have a place in
Wellesley College."

(If they're interested, I've got pies, lies, doughnuts, and chocolate right
here in the Popik Collection--ed.)