George Eliot's famous Marmalade Brompton Cake

[jackal10]

A friend asks:

Does anyone have a recipe for George Eliot's famous Marmalade Brompton Cake?

The only source for the assertion that George Eliot invented a fashionable cake seems to be the Wikipedia article on George Eliot.

That has been copied, word for word, by other sources on the net. The WP article doesn't cite a source for this claim, so the factoid may just be a malicious joke. Not unknown on WP.

Does anyone here know of a source that predates the WP article?

[The Old Foodie]

I have exhausted my sources - and they are pretty comprehensive. Plenty of marmalade cakes, but none specifically attributed to her.

If she was living in Coventry at the time, then a local librarian might be able to help.

A George Eliot scholar might also be able to help. Any literature scholars out there?

It might all be a myth of course.

[Daniel Rogov]

No hoaxes here. During the research phase of one of my books, I found it fairly well documented that during the time that George Eliot was working as a housekeeper and somewhere between her 19th and 21st birthdays, she actually did invent this cake, in turn sold the recipe to a local baker who paid her considerable royalties as the cake became quite popular. As I say, documentation is fairly easy to come by. The recipe, alas, seems to be lost to the ages....

[jackal10]

Daniel: Could you point me at some of this original documentation please?

[The Old Foodie]

Interesting! I would be most interested in the documentation too.

If it became popular, then it is quite possible that a local newspaper would have a baker's advertisement. Local newspapers should at least give the names of local bakers. Perhaps there is a descendant somewhere with the recipe? Genealogy sites can be helpful there.

Did your research take you in that direction Daniel? Was she in Coventry at the time (which is what I understood) - if so, why was the cake called "Brompton"?

[rooftop1000]

Well I just picked up an undated book of her poetry in a free pile after a garage sale....but that is neither here nor there as it does not mention cake

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[Adam Balic]

For such a popular cake there seems to be little, if any documentation readily avaible about a cake with this name. I should judge it as apocryphal unless some contemporay evidence comes to light.

[cakewalk]

I simply can't see George Eliot in the kitchen, never mind actually creating a cake. (Did she really work as a housekeeper?) I'm wondering if it was perhaps something she mentioned in one of her novels?