October 10: Angel Food Cake and Funerals

On 10 October 1871, the first angel food cake recipe was documented. It was named Snow Drift Cake and was, at the time, a traditional Southern food. There is speculation that the first angel food cake was made by slaves because it required a lot of hard whipping to let the air get into the mix.

There were many traditional foods in the Southern African American culture. One popular food that is black eyed peas which many people in the southern states eat during New Year because it is said to bring them prosperity for the rest of the year. Although many southern foods are typically regarded as fattening, black eyed peas and angel food cake are both healthy options.

Angel food cake is also a funeral food where people mourn over the loss of a loved one or a friend. Before the angel food cake and luncheon, in the Southern states, a traditional short funeral service involves viewing of the body which is then buried in a cemetery next to family and friends. However, there are many different types of funerals and ways to mourn.

For example, there is the sky burial in Tibet in which the deceased body is incised and left on the mountains for nature, mostly birds, to take its course. Sky burial is necessary because the ground is too hard for a traditional Southern burial. In Chaldean culture, for instance, it is typical tradition for the wife to wear black for the rest of the year if her husband passes away.

–Matthew R. Brooks

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Meet the Author: Matthew R. Brooks

Matthew is a Freshman at Schoolcraft College where he is pursuing a Associates Degree in Liberal Arts.

3 Responses

  1. Garrett Domke says:

    Angel Food cake, or Angel cake, is a type of sponge cake originally from North America that first became popular in the U.S. in the late 19th century. Most Americans put some type of fruit like strawberries or blueberries on top of the sponge like cake to make it more hearty and healthy. Angel food cake was first seen in Mrs. Porter’s New Southern Cookery Book published in 1871 by M. E. Porter, and had a recipe for Snow-drift Cake which is similar to angel food cake, this recipe later showed up in a cook book by Abby Fisher who was the first African American woman and a former slave from Mobile, Alabama, who recorded her recipes in a cookbook called What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc. In her book, the cake is named “Silver Cake”.

    -Garrett Domke

  2. Hina Gandher says:

    Reading this, I got to thinking about different ways varying cultures mourn death. The Hindu funeral customs, for example, do not bury the body but cremate it. The Hindu religion believes in reincarnation of the soul, not the physical body and many believe it necessary to cremate the body so that the soul will be released and reborn. The choice to cremate is also an important decision because of the purifying qualities of fire. It is also traditional for the eldest son or younger brother of the deceased to be the first to put fire on the deceased. The ground on which the cremation takes place is called “Shmashana in Sanskrit” (wiki).

    • Matthew Brooks says:

      Hina and i also read about Muslim funerals and how their funerals last several days and if someones husband dies the women must wear black for the rest of the year represent the death of her husband. I am not quite sure what happens if the the wife dies so i will keep you posted. During the Islamic funerals they bathe the body and enshroud the body before they bury the body.

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