On a visit to Colonial Williamsburg last weekend, I picked up a booklet of recipes sold by the reconstructed village's Raleigh Tavern Bakery. The cover promised A Collection of the Most tasteful and Approved Recipes in Virginia Cookery.
Though the language was old-fashioned, the recipes for treats like "ginger-bread cakes," "pear pye" and "apple pasties" (turnovers) sounded pretty familiar. "Shrewsbury cakes" didn't ring a bell, until the notes added by modern authors explained that these are simply sugar cookies.
But the enigmatic "Sally Lunn" was translated into modern English as a recipe for, well, Sally Lunn. It seems to be a type of cake or bread made with yeast, flour, sugar, shortening, milk, eggs and salt. (I haven't tried making it yet because I don't actually own any cake or bread pans. But read on—apparently these can be formed as buns, too.)
Well, that's hard to say. She might have been a real woman, a French-born pastry cook named Solange Luyon who fled to England as a refugee in the late 17th-century. A modern-day bakery and museum called Sally Lunn's still stands on the site in Bath where she is said to have baked and sold a distinctive type of bun:
Legend has it that from her home in France, where the Protestant Huguenots were being cruelly persecuted, came young Sally Lunn to find employment with a baker who rented premises in Lilliput Alley. She sold his wares in the street, but when her skill at baking Brioche was discovered she no doubt spent for more time in the bakery itself. Sally Lunn's Buns were a tremendous success; others tried hard to copy them, but her skill with the rich, soft and delicate dough inspired customers specifically to request the Sally Lunn.
But other stories abound. A 19th-century British book says the buns in question were invented by a French refugee named Madame de Narbonne, who established a bakery in Chelsea, England sometime around 1800. She specialized in "a particular type of tea cake" which became quite popular in local households, and Sally Lunn was the name of the Scotch maidservant who delivered it.
Or perhaps there was no Sally Lunn, and the baked buns got their name from their appearance, round and contrasting (the bottom side being dark from baking), like the sun and the moon: Soleil et lune, in French, transformed by co*ckney British accents into something more like "Solly Lun."
On the flipside, another story claims that the recipe originated in Britain and was appropriated by a visiting French chef named Marie Antoine Careme, who soon "invented" a slightly adapted version of the sweet bread, called it a solilemme.
Whoever invented Sally Lunn bread in its various forms, it seems clear that British colonists enjoyed this food tradition enough to carry it across an ocean, where it continued to evolve in form and recipe throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. An 1892 newspaper article claims that George Washington was so fond of Sally Lunn that it became known as "Washington's breakfast bread" or "federal bread."
Personally, I don't think the plain, round versions pictured on the Sally Lunn's bakery Web site look all that enticing. I'm more tempted by the bundt-cake version of Sally Lunn, topped with cardamom sugar, on the Brooklyn Farmhouse blog, and the Sally Lunn herbed rolls featured on the Food Channel.
Have you ever tried a Sally Lunn?
Here's the circa 1770 recipe which was reprinted in the Williamsburg cookbook:
Beat four eggs well; then melt a large Tablespoonful of Butter, put it in a Teacup of warm Water, and pour it to the Eggs with a Teaspoon of Salt and a Teacup of Yeast (this means Potato Yeast); beat in a Quart of Flour making the Batter stiff enough for a Spoon to stand in. Put it to rise before the Fire the Night before. Beat it over in the Morning, grease your Cake-mould and put it in Time enough to rise before baking. Should you want it for Supper, make it up at 10:00 o'Clock in the Morning in the Winter and 12: o'Clock in the Summer.
Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.
Amanda Fiegl|READ MORE
Amanda Fiegl was a former assistant editor at Smithsonian.
1680s – Some historians maintain that Sally Lunn cakes were originally made by Protestant refugees from France, who called them “soleil et lune.” Translated into English this means sun and moon, with sun” referring to the warmly colored top, and “moon” to the white and airy interior.
The story goes that Solange Luyon, a Huguenot refugee and baker, settled in the town in 1680 and began selling her breads, which quickly brought her both fame and a new Anglicized name, Sally Lunn.
Serve warm Sally Lunn Buns with Whipped Orange Butter and orange marmalade or strawberry jam. The dough is very versatile; it can be made into large round loaf-like "Buns", Small Pan Buns, or Tea Buns (baked in muffin pans).
Perfect for slicing and serving with a spread of butter, a Sally Lunn is lightly fruited with sultanas, currants and mixed peel. You can lightly toast slices and even try with butter and preserve to make a delicious addition to your breakfast tray.
A Boston bun, also known as a Sally Lunn, is a large spiced bun with a thick layer of coconut icing, prevalent in Australia and New Zealand. Traditionally the bun contains sieved mashed potato, and modern versions sometimes contain raisins or sultanas, the inclusion of which dates from the 1930s.
An Elvis Presley cake is a single-layer classic yellow cake that's topped with a pineapple glaze. Much like a poke cake, the syrup and juices of the pineapple will seep into the cake through fork holes, resulting in a decadent, ultra-moist cake.
So-called Bath Buns, on the other hand, are smaller and sweeter than Sally Lunn Buns, with a lump of sugar baked into the bottom, crushed sugar sprinkled over the top and, often, currants or raisins swirled throughout. Like many aspects of Bath's history, this bun, too, comes with a story.
Sally is an English language feminine given name that originated as a hypocorism for Sarah. Young children often have difficulty in pronouncing the letter r, which resulted in nicknames like Sally that substitute the letter r for l.
A Sally Lunn is a large bun or teacake, a type of batter bread, made with a yeast dough including cream and eggs, similar to the sweet brioche breads of France. Sometimes served warm and sliced, with butter, it was first recorded in 1780 in the spa town of Bath in southwest England.
One of the oldest building in Bath is the Roman Baths, which are located at the heart of the city. They are the site of the excellently preserved remains of what was one of the greatest religious spas of the ancient world.
The bun is generally eaten with a knife and fork but there are no fixed rules. Most guests enjoy their bun with a huge smile on their face. If for any reason your bun does not make you break into uncontrollable smiling then do please speak to a member of our team.
They're buttery and not too sweet with a hint of citrus flavor and a delicate, soft, spongey crumb. Enjoy them sliced or halved (like a hamburger bun) on their own or with butter and jam. Sally Lunn is a large bun or tea cake, somewhat similar to French brioche.
But Solange – who, due to her colleagues unfamiliarity with French pronunciation, became known as Sally Lunn – had arrived in England with a unique skill to share. She began baking a rich, generous brioche bun similar to the French festival breads that she would have been so familiar with before she fled France.
Sally Ann—Vanilla cake filled with vanilla whipped icing and iced in chocolate buttercream. Mary Ann—Chocolate cake filled with vanilla whipped icing and iced in chocolate buttercream with a star of vanilla whipped icing on top.
History. The most popular legend of the Lady Baltimore is that Alicia Rhett Mayberry, a Southern belle, baked and served the cake to novelist Owen Wister in Charleston, South Carolina. Wister was said to have been so enamored with the cake that he used it as the namesake of his novel, Lady Baltimore.
It gets its name from its filling, which is glittering and translucent, like crystal. A stand of crystal cakes. The crust is made with wheat flour, starch and oil, the filling is a mixture of granulated sugar, lard, and pounded rock candy, candied fruits and nuts.
No trip to Bath is complete without indulging in a bun! Today, Sally Lunn's serve a menu based on the world-famous Sally Lunn bun during the day, and are open for fine English food in the evening (including prize-winning handmade pies).
Introduction: My name is Kerri Lueilwitz, I am a courageous, gentle, quaint, thankful, outstanding, brave, vast person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
/tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/94/49/9449416f-07fc-4301-bf27-7f7a9f3a6ab0/sally-lunn-by-wally-g299217382_b52c205d89-266x400.jpg "Colonial Recipes: Sally Lunn Cake (1)")
