- shortbread
- gyngerbrede
- marchpane
- sugar paste shields

The subtlty was made in the shape of a grassy mound, strewn with flowers and surmounted with banners displaying the Arms of the Barony of the Cleftlands and the personal arms of the Baron and Baroness.

The mound was made of layers of period gingerbread and shortbread. They were build up in layers about 3/4 of an in thick. The surface was then smoothed with additional gingerbread. Finally a layer of green-colored marzipan was placed on top. The mound was then strewn with blue and white sugar-paste flowers and a lined with a row of strawberry halves around the base.
The banners were made of sheets of sugar paste that had been painted with the appropriate heraldry using food coloring. The banners were suspended on wooden dowel rods.

Gingerbrede
Curye on Inglysch - Goud Kokery: V-19
To make gingerbrede. Take goode honye & clarefie it on the fere, & take fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it, & caste it into the boylenge hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a skylse that it bren not to the vessell. & thanne take it doun and put therin ginger, longe pepere & saundres, & tempere it vp with thin handes; & than put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe theron suger & pick therin clowes reounde aboute by the egge and in the mydes, yf it plece you &c.

To make gingerbrede. Take good honey and clarify it on the fire and take fair white bread or waste bread and grate it and put it in the boiling honey and stir it together with a spoon so that it does not burn to the bottom of the pot. And take it off the fire and add ginger, long pepper, and saunders and kneed it with your hands and put it on a flat board and sprinkle sugar on it and stick cloves in it about the edge and the middle it you want, etc.

I boil honey and add ginger, cinnamon, and pepper to taste. It should have a good strong bite. If you want it really red, add saunders. Since I put in cinnamon as well as ginger, saunders doesn't affect the color much. Add bread crumbs until it becomes a firm dough. At this point it can be formed or pressed in molds as you wish. Work while it's still warm, as it becoms quite firm when cold.


Marchpane

Insert Recipe Here
Marzipan. - I warm the almonds in the oven until the oil begins to come out on the surface. This helps them to grind to a paste rather than to almond flour. While still warm, I put them in a food processor and grind to a paste. I then add some rose water, almond extract, and powdered sugar (half of a pound per pound of almonds). I prefer mine when it is not cloyingly sweet, but you can adjust to your taste.

Sugar Paste
In period, sugar paste was prepared from sugar and gum tragacanth soaked in water. I usually use a commercial sugar paste mix, which can be purchased at cake and candy supply stores. Depending what I'm doing with it, I may of may not follow the directions. If I want a plain sugar paste I follow the directions pretty closely. Some items contain a large abount powdered spice. When doing this I add less sugar and then add the cinnamon or ginger until I get the desired consistancy.

For this event, I made plain sugar paste flowers flavored with spearmint and peppermint extracts. I rolled out the sugar paste and cut them out with a decorative cutter. In the past, I have also painted on details with a small brush and food coloring. (As a note: the popular candy "Altoids" are actually just sugar paste flavored with peppermint oil.)

On this occasion I also made rashers of "bacon". Laid down layers of ginger and cinnamon sugar paste, pressed them together, & sliced them to look like bacon. I then rolled out the slices to be a bit thinner. Since the ginger is a light tan and the cinnamon a red/brown, the resemblance is quite striking.

For previous events I have also pressed the cinnamon sugar paste into moulds shaped like walnuts.

Insert Sugar Paste Recipe.


Suckets of orange
Better known to the modern world as candied orange or lemon peal, these are not hard to make, but do take a lot of time.

To make sucade of peeles of Lemmons
First take off your peeles by quarters and seeth them in faire water, from three quartes to three pintes, then take them out, and put to as much more water, and seeth them likewise, and doo againe, till the water wherein they are sodden have no bitterness at all of the peeles, then you are ready, now prepare a Sirop [of] the same liquor... one pint of rosewater, and for every quart of liquor one half pound of sugar; seethe them againe together on a soft fire of coles till the Sugar bee incorporated with the liquor, then put in your peeles, let them seeth softly till you percieve that your sirop is as thicke as lite hony. Put them in a pot of stone. [John Partridge, The Treasurie of Commodious Conceits, and Hidden Secrets, 1573] - Banquetting Stuffe, edited by C. Anne Wilson ©1991, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh ISBN 0 7486 0103 1.

Here's how I make them.

1) Take the peels from the fruit in large pieces and boil them in water for a few minutes. Drain them and add cold water. Using a spoon gently scrape the white pith from the inside of the peels.

2) Put the peels in a pot of water and boil gently for about 10 minutes. Drain and add cold water. Let sit in the water overnight. Repeat this step 4 or 5 times. The peels should be quite tender and no longer bitter when you're done.

3) Make a saturated sugar solution. I start with 4 cups of sugar for 2.5 cups of water. When it is hot and the sugar is dissolved, add the drained peels to the sugar solution. Turn off the heat and let the peels sit in the sugar overnight.

4) Remove the peels from the solution and boil the solution until it is the thickness of syrup. Put the peels in the syrup and boil gently until the syrup is very, very thick.

At this point, you can either serve them in the syrup as "wet suckets" or dry the peels on a rack in a barely warm oven. If you do the latter, they should become firmer and have a candy coating on them when they are "dry". If they are still a bit too sticky, you can toss them in a bag with granulated sugar to coat them.

Violet Pastilles

Shropshire Cakes