How Two 19th Century Inventions Transformed Baking and Led to the Fruit Buckle

Imagine hunching over an open fire, adjusting coals periodically around a cast-iron Dutch oven and attempting to get an even interior temperature throughout, all so you could bake something made with a batter. It took great skill to do this well and produce the kind of cake or quick bread results we enjoy from our range and wall ovens with ease.

Two introductions changed how and what women baked for their families, the cast iron cookstove and the mass production of baking soda.

With the roll-out of the wood and coal stoves in the mid-1800s, a wide range of desserts became possible. No longer did everything have to be cooked and baked over an open fire or coals. Instead, the dry, steady, and semi-controlled heat of the cookstove's oven allowed variety beyond steamed desserts or roughly-baked cakes. It also meant the cook didn't have to constantly return to the heat of the fire to check on the progress of her baking.

This change from hearth-baking to stove-baking coincided with the introduction of baking soda to home cooks in the 1840s, which allowed quick and reliable leavening of doughs and batters. Prior to baking soda, cooks relied on hand-whipping egg whites for the leavening of light cakes.

Around the same time, the buckle, itself, saw its introduction in the New England states, primarily using berries as the fruit part of the topping. Wild blueberries were abundant in this region. And so the blueberry buckle came into existence.

With time and interregional travel, the buckle migrated to other parts of the country. While New Englanders were fiercely loyal to the blueberry buckle, home cooks in other regions adapted the recipe to suit their local fruit. In the American South, plums and apples were often featured.

The Buckle Into the 20th Century

By the 1930s, various fruit buckles were enjoyed by many, using handwritten recipes that had been passed down from one generation to the next. However, the fruit buckle would not become nationally known until about 1950, through its introduction in major cookbooks.

Buckles get their name from the baked crumb and fruit topping that causes the cake's surface to sink, crack, wrinkle or "buckle." The cake rises up around the fruit, while their heavy weight causes the berries/fruit to sink along with the topping, as the cake "buckles" under the weight.

Today I have a thrifty 1930s recipe for a buckle dessert or coffee cake to share with you. Cakes from this era were less sweet, less fatty, and lighter than today's versions. 

While my recipe doesn't indicate how many servings this recipe yields, you'll notice it is baked in an 8-inch square pan. In the 30s, the standard 2 x 2-inch square was considered the classic dainty size for an afternoon sweet treat. So this recipe would yield 16 servings. If a slightly larger portion was desired, it may have been cut on a 3 x 4 grid, yielding 12 servings. Compare this to today's portions. Many folks today would instinctively cut an 8-inch square cake on a 3 x 3 grid, yielding 9 servings. 

Another interesting thing about baking cakes in the 1930s, all of the cake recipes from my cookbooks from this decade call for shortening or salad oil as the fat in the cake batter, but call for butter in any crumb toppings or icings. Splitting the fats -- using shortening in the batter and butter for the crumb topping or icing -- was a clever way to maximize texture, flavor, and thrift all at once.

The cake batter itself only calls for 2 tablespoons of shortening which is a hallmark of 1930s baking. Bakers during this era were experts at stretching the costlier ingredients. The crumb topping adds an additional 2 tablespoons of butter, for a grand total of 1/4 cup of fat for the entire cake. And remember, this cake likely served 16 portions.

If you're being historically accurate, you'll bake this using whatever fruit you have in abundance. I used blackberries, as that is the current fruit-glut that we have. If you have peaches or plums, they would make a delicious cake addition. And if you're lucky enough to have blueberries, you can make the true (original) blueberry buckle.

Here's the recipe:

1930s Fruit Buckle

Batter:

1 beaten egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted shortening (I used butter)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup diced fruit or loose berries

Combine egg, sugar, milk, and shortening. Add flour sifted with salt and baking powder. Mix well and place in greased 8-inch square pan. Sprinkle fruit over batter.

Topping:

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons soft butter 

Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter till crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake in  moderate oven (350 degrees F) 30 to 35 minutes, [my suggestion -- until lightly golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean.]

Yields: 16 perfectly too small pieces. I suggest you cut this on a 3 x 4 grid for 12 servings or 3 x 3 grid for 9 servings.

Grunts, slumps, buckles, sonkers -- what's a strange sounding food that you actually liked? If you were to make a fruit buckle this week, what fruit would you most likely use?