The first known recipe for Election Cake, one of the first foods
to be identified with American politics, was published as early
as 1796 in Amelia Simmons’ “American Cookery” cookbook. In the
1800s, the cake was served at election time and by the 1830s it
had became popularly known as Hartford Election Cake. Election
Cake actually tastes more like a fruit bread, similar to an
English fruit cake, but not as dense. Its purpose is to fortify,
not serve as a sweet finish to a meal. In fact, these cakes were
originally known as “muster cakes,” prepared and packed for
farmers when they left the fields to travel into towns for
military training or “mustering.” Do you know why Election Day
is held on a Tuesday in November? Washington staff writer Peter
Grier for CSMonitor.com explains, “For a society in which most
people lived on farms, November was a good month to vote. The
harvest was in, and snow hadn’t yet closed the roads. Why
Tuesday? Records of lawmaker debate show that officials thought
Sunday wouldn’t work,