Recipes from How Do Earls Fall in Love?

For your convenience, each recipe has been printed on a separate page.

Trifle

(Which Juliana and Corinna make in Chapter Seven)
Take yokes of four egges and a pinte of thicke Creame, and season it with Sugar and Ginger and Rosewater, so stirre it as you would then have it and make it warme on a chafing dishe and coales, and after put it into a Silver piece or a Bowle, and so serve it to the board.

Extra-strong Rosewater will put Roses into your cheeks.

—Lady Jewel Chase, 1687

Pour cream into a saucepan, add rose water and ginger, and heat. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and sugar together. Pour in the hot cream mixture, beating constantly. Cook in the top half of a double boiler, over simmering water, until mixture has thickened enough to coat a spoon. Pour into a metallic bowl, cover, and put in the refrigerator to chill.

Lauren's notes: This isn't anything like the trifle we eat these days; rather than cake with fruit and whipped cream, it's simply a soft, slightly grainy custard. The color isn't very pretty—sort of a light beige/gray—but it's not too sweet and tastes delicious!

Shrewsbury Cakes

(Which Juliana serves at a sewing party in Chapter Eleven)
Beat half a pound of Butter to a fine cream, and put in the same weight of Flour, one Egg, a measure of grated loaf Sugar, and small spoons of Nutmeg and Cinnamon. Mix them into a paste, roll them thin, and cut them with a small glass or little tins, prick them, lay them on sheets of tin, and bake them in a slow oven. Serve spread with raspberry Jam if you wish.

Should you wish to convince someone of something, these cakes will do the trick.

—Helena Chase, Countess of Greystone, 1784

Preheat oven to 350°. Beat butter with powdered sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, nutmeg, and cinnamon and mix. Stir in the flour and roll the dough out on a floured surface. Using a tumbler, cut into circles. Bake on a greased cookie sheet until browned, about 16 minutes. Serve with raspberry jam to spread on top.

Lauren's Notes: These are rather plain cookies, very like shortbread. They are good without the jam, too!

Almond Macaroons

(Which Juliana and Amanda make in Chapter Fifteen)
Beat Whites of Eggs with salt until stiff, then add Almonds ground fine, Sugar and a bit of ground Rice. Put in little mounds and make flat on Paper, then add an Almond in each middle before baking in your oven.

When I wish to see my husband amorous, I feed him these macaroons. They've never failed me yet.

—Katherine Chase, Countess of Greystone, 1763

Preheat oven to 350°. Beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff enough to hold a peak. Fold in the ground almonds, sugar, and flour. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop batter onto it in little mounds. Place an almond in the center of each one and bake until crisp, about 25 minutes.

Lauren's Notes: These aren't like the macaroons we make today—there's no coconut in them, and they're crispy instead of soft. If you live near a Trader Joe's store (and I feel sorry for you if you don't!), their Just Almond Meal works great for this with no grinding necessary. The original recipe called for ground rice, but I didn't know where to find that, so I used flour instead and the macaroons turned out fine. (If anyone tries it with ground rice, let me know how they turn out!) There is no need to make flat on paper like the original recipe says, because these flatten well enough on their own. Make sure not to overbake like I did with my first batch, because the cookies will turn hard as rocks! My son loved these so much that he microwaved the hard ones to soften them rather than throwing them away…they're really delicious little treats.

Marchpane Fruits

(Which are served at the Cainewood ball in Chapter Twenty-One)
Take a Pounde of almonds, Blanched and Beaten in a stone mortar, till they begin to come to a fine paste, and then add a Pounde of sifted Sugar and make it into a perfect paste, putting to it now and then the white of an egg and a spoonful or two of rose-water. When you have Beaten it sufficiently, separate into balls and colour as for fruit, red for apples and cherries, yellow for lemons, orange for oranges, purple for grapes, and the like. Shape small pieces of your coloured Paste into fruits and leave out to dry.

These festive fruits are lovely for parties and elegant enough for a ball. Or anytime at all, for like all sweets, they are truly delicious.

—Kendra Chase Caldwell, Duchess of Amberley, 1690

Combine the ground almonds and sugar in a bowl with the egg white. Using your hands, form a paste, adding rose water as needed. Color some of the mixture red, some purple, yellow, orange and green (you will use more red than the other colors). Form small pieces of the red paste into apple, cherry, and strawberry shapes. Roll strawberries in granulated sugar to simulate seeds. Use green to add leaves to the apples and strawberries, pressing well to attach. Purple can be made into grapes by forming tiny balls and pressing together into bundles. Purple is also good for plums; use a knife gently to score an indentation down one side. Use yellow to form bananas and lemons, orange to make oranges. Roll the lemons and oranges on a fine grater to give the illusion of textured rind. Be creative, and have fun!

Lauren's notes: Forming the fruits takes a lot of work, but if you have the time and talent, the final results are charming. And delicious, too!

Back to top ↑