The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-10-05
ANCIENT PASTRY MoULDs.
When They Stamped Elaborate Pictures
On Cakes and Buns.

ii the gingerbread Of Elizabetban
times was going out of fashion in the
seventeenth century. the biscuit and
the bun were appearing in quaint and
ornate state OF infancy. kingly eiiigies
and royal features were vigorously and
not always hatteringly impressed upon
the small discs of paste and caraway
that lay in the windows of the fash
ionable bum houses.
Tales were told upon the delectable
area of sugary cake by means of a
firm impression from the pearwood or
lockwood die, or romance was carried to
the lips on the surface Of crarknel
possibly telling the story Of the famous
Biddenden maids.
Stamping and enclosing of delicate
cakes and "jumballs" during the late
Stuart times became a Characteristic
branch of the pastry cooks profession,
while in private life, at a period when
cookery was considered lady's most
graceful accomplishment, the country
chatelaine must have despatched many
an order to her agent in town for a
pearwood mould, preferably one depict
ing the equestrian energies of the reign
ing monarch, With these the loyal host
ess could do herself and her neighbours
justice.
In Newbery's Dives Pragmrticus,"
1868, rhymed catalogue of the uten-
sis of an Elizabethan kitchen, we get
long metrical enumeration of the in
cised rollers for the paste and various
moulds and ornaments Another old
book of fayorite dishes, "A Queens De-
light" refers to the moulds as cards.
Put your cake between wooden cards
and sew the cards together till the
cakes are cold. Currant breads, very
popular throughout the seventeenth cen
fury, called forth all the energies of the
mould maker; prominent persons and
even political crises left their mark
within the followed cavern of the die.
The favorite material for these old
pastry moulds was undoubtedly pear
wood, but there are many made OF box
wood still in existence, and set in
beech is discovered occasionally The
solidity of the moulds is a noticeable
feature; frequently they were more than
an inch thick and very heavy, so that
their impression on pie and cake must
have been an emphatic one. On the
other hand, the early biscuit and house.
hold bun was of equally robust consti
tuition and quite able to hold its own
against the assaults of ornamentation.
Sometimes the alphabet was stamped on
a cake to sweeten the way of learning
for babies.
For Easter cakes there were pearwood
moulds Of the Paschal lamb. Heart
shaped cakes with embossed lovers on
them appeared at betrothal festivals
Hunting scenes were popular throughout
the seventeenth and eighteenth cen
turtles, sleighing parties proved ia
vorable winter subject, nor We're scrip
lures and mythology overlooked The
vigorous mould depicting Hercules and
the Nemean monster under stress of cir
cumstances did impartial duty as Sam
son staying the lion.
An old lockwood set of blocks carved
in intaglio with flowers and geometri-
cal designs is still in existence, bearing
the arms of Henry de la Peer, the sec
and Marquis of Waterford. They date
from the end of the eighteenth century
and bear the makers name Hawkins Of
Vigo street, London But it is to the
days of William and Mary
and Anne that the most interesting
specimens of these old moulds belong
From the Queen.