Wedding Cake Recipe from 200 years ago | How To Cook That Ann Reardon

Hi I am Ann Reardon, How to Cook That is my youtube channel it is filled with crazy sweet creations made just for you. Join me for creative cakes, chocolate & desserts, new video every Friday.

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[missmouse]

French units of measurement at that time in history were actually different than English units despite sharing the same name. That's why everyone thinks Napoleon was really short even though he was of average height for the time. 200 years ago, a French inch was actually longer than an English inch, so Napoleon was 5'3 in French inches but actually something like 5'7 in English inches. This is also probably why you had such a hard time with the recipe!

[ieatchikin]

This is a :
History
Math
And baking lesson in one

[fredii]

My grandma is French she made this cake once for Easter and she said the book's measurements weren't correct in French either.

[ghostbones]

I bet the original chef would be so heckin pleased someone's still using his recipes. Especially because Ann is so impressed, I wish he could see this video.

[gogobootgogoboot]

it's so amazing that someone like him, who was so ahead of his time, is still a marvel even today. It's so great that you've kept his memory alive, you did such an amazing job, really well done.

[ashleyweston]

This I wasn’t a cake recipe, it was a blueprint for cake construction 😂

[moonvathna]

Me: I don’t need maths, I’m going to be a baker
Math teacher: *throws this video in my face*

[adrianghandtchi]

This reconfirmed my suspicion of pastry arts as not only chemistry but edible carpentry.

[theblackcatgirl]

How many eggs should there be in this recipe?

Napoleon's Pastry Chef: *Yes*

[TheMilitantHorse]

I'm just imagining the decadence of this cake back then. Everyone in fancy dress, bottles upon bottles of wine filling everyone's glasses. Ladies chat and dance with their husbands/betrothed, and suddenly, this massive cake is carted out before all. Jeez that would have been a sight.

[whiteedk]

How amazing. These cakes was more like centerpieces to show how wealthy you where, sugar was very very expensive and this has A LOT of sugar

[LaDivinaLover]

The Egg amount problems Is most likely because they were using duck eggs instead of chicken eggs. People used a wider variety of eggs in the past.

[literallythefloor]

Her at the beginning: this is gonna be fun I can’t wait I’m so excited
Her in the middle: what have I gotten myself into
Her at the end: I’m dead inside and will never bake anything again

[ZaraKarimi]

I don't speak French, but I think I might have the answer to your measurement issues, Ann. So the standardization of measurement units was something that only happened after the French Revolution in the 1790s. It was done to prevent the widespread abuse of systems of measurement, which allowed the ruling class to extract more wealth from everyone else. It wasn't very well implemented, but it was a good idea, which is why by 1860, a group of scientists from Britain got together and established the Imperial system of measurement that we know today.

But before that, a French inch (or pouce) was equivalent to about 2.71 centimetres. The Imperial inch used today is about 2.54 centimetres. Since Napoleon's chief pastry chef started out as poor and was thus likely uneducated, he was probably still operating on the old French system when he wrote this recipe!

I haven't done all the math because I don't have the recipe, and generally operate on the metric system, but you could try try substituting all the numerical quantities with the pre-Revolution French values for inches, ounces and pounds, if you're curious.

[wrongturnVfor]

It took her two and a half days to make this with modern appliances, imagine how long it would actually take done in the original way. I would really like to see Ann make a recipe (an easier one) with the tools of the time and then tools of today and see what the difference is. Because some things can massively affect how things turn out - kneading the dough by hand and in a mixer result in massively different end results. I would be very interested in the actual history part of it too. Like when was this made, some history associated with the food stuff.

[Locomaid]

The pastry is similar to a very old Swiss Christmas pastry/cookie made with honey and pressed into decorative molds before baking. It is very hard and is not bitten, but rather sucked on. The enzymes in the saliva convert the starch to sugar in the mouth and it tastes sweeter so than if it were nibbled or chewed. It also lasted a long time. A true treat, especially in winter and times of hardship.

[doodlepenguin]

I bet there were only two people who did this cake: Napoleon's pastry chef, and you. Like, wow. #MindBlown

P.S.: Just imagined Gordon Ramsay attempting this. XD XD XD

[ThiccOgreBoi]

Title correction-
"I spent two days correcting a 200 year old recipe cause their measurements were wack"

[eeaarrllaalloo]

CAN SOMEONE JUST APPRECIATE THE EFFORT

[jashfan]

You should do "I modernize a wedding cake from 200 years ago. " I think that would be rlly cool and you would have some great ideas on how to make this wedding cake
siper cool but also preserving the ideas of people a long time ago!