Election Cake With Maple Cream

The American or Hartford election cake is American in name only. The cake itself is a classic English “rich cake,” “loaf cake,” or “fruitcake,” which went by many names and varied many ingredients. Martha Washington supplies the essentials in her many kinds of “great cake,” listed in The Booke of Sweetmeats, always beginning with barm, the froth produced by fermenting ale. Amelia Simmons calls these “emptins,” a contraction of “emptyings,” which meant