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Original poster

Cakes in cafes in older books

83 replies

Tanaqui · 04/12/2021 15:03

Just reading an Agatha Christie, and Miss Marple and an acquaintance are "pressing cakes on each other", and it occurred to me that I have often been puzzled by this in books set before about 1960- did people buy a whole plate of cakes? Did they pay for the plate, or what they ate? Or did the waitress bring a hostess trolley or tray over? It's just there often seems to be a selection, or discussion on who will have the last one; and in children's books, often a feeling of being stuffed afterwards. So how did it work?! It sounds much nicer than the 'order one cake each' we do now!

OP posts:
AtlasPine · 04/12/2021 15:09

The meal of afternoon tea seemed to be much more standard in some types of home before the 50s. Jane Eyre is given seed cake in Miss Temple’s room. I think they would have had a cake which may have been different each week. Bread and butter, maybe scones. Not loads of different individual cakes unless it was a full on party.

AtlasPine · 04/12/2021 15:10

And in a cafe - a trolley to choose from I think.

AtlasPine · 04/12/2021 15:11

Unless it’s a full afternoon tea with a pyramid of cakes on plates! That can’t have been an every day type of thing though.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 04/12/2021 15:16

In a teashop I have a vague idea there was a tiered cake stand used to display all available cakes and customers either had the whole thing on the table or selected what they wanted when they ordered. They wouldn't be huge muffins or cupcakes/slices with more icing than cake. Fairy cakes, small slices of Victoria sponge or coffee and walnut cake, rock cakes, bakewell slice - that sort of thing.

oneglassandpuzzled · 04/12/2021 15:19

Yes, lots of small cakes or slices on a tiered cake plate.

Not one enormous slab or muffin, like today.

Shortpoet · 04/12/2021 15:23

I used to work in a cafe in 80s where you took a stand of 8 cakes to the table but only charged for what was eaten. It was generally things like an eclair, a slice battenburg, a scone, fairy cake, meringue with cream, iced finger.

AtlasPine · 04/12/2021 16:37

Oh god I want a cake now

JaneJeffer · 04/12/2021 17:08

My thoughts exactly @AtlasPine Grin

sqirrelfriends · 04/12/2021 17:10

Mmm, cake

GoGoGretaDoll · 04/12/2021 17:14

In the Chalet School books they always wang on about the 'continental custom' of taking a plate and fork to the counter to choose the cakes you'd like, so by definition in Britain the custom must have been the opposite - to take a pile of cakes to the table.

Doomscrolling · 04/12/2021 17:14

A fairy cake is about a quarter of the size of a cupcake. Plates with several small slices of cakes were common among my great aunts. If they only had one type to offer you they would apologise.

hotmeatymilk · 04/12/2021 17:16

@Shortpoet And then did you refill the gaps before taking it to the next table? Or take a half-filled one round? Did you ever have the same tired cake untouched all day on an otherwise refreshed plate? So many cake logistics queries

AdaColeman · 04/12/2021 17:17

This has reminded me of a childhood treat. A visit to one of my Mother's favourite tea shops, the one where they sold Kunzle cakes.

When out with my Mother, no shopping trip was complete without a pause for a cup of tea and a cake. Sometimes, the cafe by the station with slices of home made jam sponge, occasionally a Lyons teashop for a chocolate fairy cake, but the little place with the Kunzle cakes was the best.

The waitress would bring a plate with a selection of the delicate chocolate and sponge, intricately decorated, little cakes, a tempting delight to behold.

So as we sipped our reviving tea, we did indeed press each other to have yet another cake!

StillWeRise · 04/12/2021 17:19

sounds a bit yucky if the uneaten cakes then get offered to other customers

Shortpoet · 04/12/2021 17:22

There was a bakery out the back, and a shop bit at front with all the cakes on display in the window and a counter where you could buy the cakes to take home.

You’d take the uneaten cakes on the stand back to the counter and they’d put on more cakes from the window display so there was 8 again and the stand would go to the next table.

Probably couldn’t do that now because of hygiene rules.

FelicityBeedle · 04/12/2021 17:25

It’s not that unhygienic if they weren’t touched, not that different tk standing on the counter. @GoGoGretaDoll I was wondering who would bring up the chalet school!

GoGoGretaDoll · 04/12/2021 18:25

@FelicityBeedle

It’s not that unhygienic if they weren’t touched, not that different tk standing on the counter. *@GoGoGretaDoll* I was wondering who would bring up the chalet school!
Quite fancy a continental cake with a side of coffee and a featherbed of whipped cream now!
Phineyj · 04/12/2021 18:32

I went to an old fashioned cafe in Dublin in the 1990s and they put a 3 tiered stand with sandwiches on one layer and cakes on the other two on the table. We were students. We ate it all Grin. I remember a Lord Peter Wimsey (I think it's Strong Poison) where Miss Climpson has to stakeout all the cafes in a town and eats cake in all of them.

Original poster
Tanaqui · 04/12/2021 18:35

It sounds so delicious! (Although can no longer eat gluten, so also sounds like torture!). I am a big fan of the traditional English fairy cake; cupcakes have far too much icing (although I do like an American muffin!). Éclairs don't seem to be so popular in cafes now. On a side note, a traditional Swedish afternoon tea (fika), had 7 different cakes, although some are perhaps a bit more biscuitty.

OP posts:
NorthernTights · 04/12/2021 18:48

I remember reading about seed cake in lots of books, it seemed the last resort, nothing else to offer type of cake. I’ve never seen one in real life but always imagined it like those budgie treats made of sesame seeds but in cake form!

eddiemairswife · 04/12/2021 18:53

Lyons Corner House, Oxford Street 1940s/50s with my mother and aunt. We would have a pot of tea for 3 , bread and butter and a plate of fancies. It was one of the few places where there was real butter on the bread (rationing). We only had one cake each. I always considered it a great treat.

CMOTDibbler · 04/12/2021 18:55

I once begged my mum to make seed cake so I could taste it. It was a heavy sort of sponge with caraway seeds in, which as it turned out, I couldn't stand.
@Phineyj this thread made me think of Murder Must Advertise where two of the ladies from the office were totalling up and dividing their tea bill and one had 2 cakes and the other 3 (or some such)

StrychnineInTheSandwiches · 04/12/2021 19:00

I made carraway seed cake once. It was fine but my modern palate, used to custard slices and brownies and choux buns, found it to be a bit Calvinist.

Dinosaurwoman · 04/12/2021 19:02

My grandma used to make seedcake, it was something that you ate sliced and buttered. The seeds are caraway seeds, so an acquired taste.but I thought it was delicious. In fact I might make one tomorrow, it’s an old fashioned recipe from a book written in the 50’s.

CaptainMyCaptain · 04/12/2021 19:08

@NorthernTights

I remember reading about seed cake in lots of books, it seemed the last resort, nothing else to offer type of cake. I’ve never seen one in real life but always imagined it like those budgie treats made of sesame seeds but in cake form!
It was caraway seed. Not very popular now.