-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Elections for the president of the United States have always been long and kind of messy . Even in the first election, when George Washington ran unopposed, it took Congress more than two months to count the votes and certify the Election Day results. The bakers at Hewn Bakery in Evanston, Illinois, are working to educate people about the length of the electoral process through what they know best — baked goods.
Specifically, through a little bundt cake dubbed “Election” or “Hartford” cake. One bite into the dense dough, laced with allspice and cinnamon , dotted with red cherries, blueberries and dried ginger, and topped with a white sugar glaze , and it becomes more than a tasty snack — it’s a 200-year-old piece of history. Related From suffrage to abortion access: A brief, subversive history of women baking for liberation “I'm a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a Mayflower daughter,” says Ellen King, co-owner and Director of Baking Operations at Hewn Bread.
“I was cleaning out family stuff that got dumped on me. In one book belonging to my grandmother’s grandmother I found a reference to this cake that they made for elections and I was like ‘Oh, alright, because, you know, they would feed the poll workers through the long process of counting votes.’” Back then, electors were first voted for and then sent to cast their votes as representatives of their state (how electors were chosen wa.