Angel Food Pudding

A rich pudding that dates to the same era as its cousin cake.

Wikipedia says the first mention of “Angel Food Cake” in print was in 1884, which seems exceptionally unlikely to be correct, given this mention and recipe of angel food cake in the October 3, 1879 edition of The Iola (Kansas) Register.

That would make the advent of the cake essentially contemporaneous with the pudding. One early recipe appeared in the June 17, 1880 edition of the The Anderson (S.C.) Intelligencer:

ANGEL PUDDING–Two ounces of flour, two ounces of powdered sugar, two ounces of butter melted in half a pint of new milk, two eggs; mix well. Bake in small patty pans until nicely browned, and send to table on a dish covered with a serviette. A little powdered sugar should be sifted over each pudding, and slices of lemon served with them. The eggs must be well beaten before they are added to the other ingredients.

 
But more interesting is to me is recipe with the same proportions as the card, from the “Prize Recipe Corner” in the July 28, 1923 edition of The Toledo News-Bee:

Today’s $1 for the best recipe submitted goes to Marie Diehl of Defiance. Her recipe for Angel Food pudding is as follows: ANGEL FOOD PUDDING Two eggs, one cupful of powdered sugar, one tablespoonful of flour, one teaspoonful of baking powder, one cupful of broken walnut meats, one cupful of dates. Beat together thoroughly eggs, sugar, flour and the baking powder. Add nuts and dates. Pour into a baking dish, set in a pan of boiling water and bake half an hour. Let it cool, still standing in water, chill and serve with whipped cream. This pudding is a great favorite with children. MARIE DIEHL 105 Jackson-av, Defiance.

 
So this recipe made it into this 1960s-era box without much change over 40 years.

If you try the recipe to decide if it was worth the $1 it won, remember, that was 1923. Adjusting for inflation, the question is whether the recipe is worth $13.70 in 2013. Personally, if I saw a $13.70 pudding on a menu, I’d have to order it, because c’mon, that must be an amazing pudding for $13.70.

From a box sold in Chicago, Illinois.