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The Self-Sufficient Lifestyle

civil war fire cake

Civil War Fire Cake: Ash Cake Recipe

Updated By Stephanie Thomas

What do you get when you join fire and cake? In this guide, we’re discussing a standout amongst other endurance nourishments called fire cakes.

They make for incredible dinners and snacks in endurance circumstances. Which just bodes well since they started from the most terrible of all endurance circumstances – War. Yet, we’ll get to that.

How about we consume this theme in your mind with the diagram of the flame cake.

Valley Forge Civil War Fire Cake

civil war soldier food

Before we begin to get into the getting into the step-by-step, let’s first go over what it is and where it originated from.

What is Fire Cake?

Fire cake is the name of the bread that the officers and soldiers of the civil war prepared and ate as a staple of their diet during the war. Also known as ash cake, fire cake is a blend of flour and water like nearly every cake recipe… nothing unexpected. The officers through salt in the blend as well in the event that they were lucky enough to have some for that day. In short, fire cake is bread that kept the revolutionary soldiers going.

The soldiers made it by heating it on a stone in or over a flame. It was regularly cooked until it was dark from cooking on the flame powder.

This pioneer bread recipe originates from the Civil War. The valley manufacture fighters made this formula Common war. Normally called common war fire cakes or Revolutionary War Fire Cakes.

Endurance Food Attributes

What makes these cakes useful for endurance circumstances?

At the point when it’s an ideal opportunity to bug out, your assets are constrained. You just have what is pressed in your bug-out-sack and bug-out vehicle.

What makes fire cake so great is this…

Effortlessness.

It’s easy to such an extent that you needn’t bother with a lot to make it. You’ll see the fixings and directions beneath.

This is the thing that makes it outstanding amongst other endurance nourishments out there in view of its straightforwardness.

To the extent the endurance nourishments go. It functions admirably.

Endurance Food Guide: How to Make Civil War Fire Cakes

There are various techniques and plans for how to make fire cakes.

Pioneer Bread Recipes

As far as pioneer recipes go, this bread is one of the most popular ones since the revolutionary war. You can prepare the cake with a stove, or you could be a conventionalist and make the cake a similar way the fighters backed in the common war, prepare it on a stone over a flame or straightforwardly in the flame fiery remains. Just luckily (and hopefully) under better conditions.

A bannock stone or bannock board was utilized to heat it also. The term Bannock was what was utilized before metal supports existed in kitchens. You cooked on a bannock-stone or a bannock-stane, which is how the warriors made it. On a simple stone or rock like a blacksmith making armor with a Warfire Forge.

warfire forge

How To Make

Here’s the instructions on how the soldiers made it, it’s very simple as you would imagine. They simply took the flour and threw it on a rock over a fire. You don’t have to make it like that, but it’s just as simple. You just take bread and warmth it with a flame and you got fire cake. Making this recipe causes you to welcome the easily overlooked details somewhat more. A great many people are feeling salty throughout the day…

Ingredients

fire cake recipe

  • 1 Cup of flour. Any kind will do
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • 2 Teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 cup water

You can also add salt to the mix. The soldiers would add salt if they were fortunate enough that day to have any.

Instructions

how to make fire cake

Step 1) Build Your Fire

 

Step 2) Add Water

 

Step 3) Make Tennis-Sized Balls of Dough

 

Step 4) Flatten

 

Step 5) Put The Ash in “Ash Cake”

 

Step 6) Remove and Serve

After they’re cooked, take your tongs and remove them. They’re best served right after coming off of the heat.

Video

The video below by the Townsends is one of the best resources on ash cakes. It’s worth the watch.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you can appreciate what this survival food recipe represents and it’s history. It kept the soldiers alive during the toughest of times.

If you like this recipe, you may be interested in learning some more homesteading recipes like these. Or if you wanted to see more recipes from the civil war, you can learn how to make hardtack.

For more information on the valley forge and this recipe, visit the ushistory page here.

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About Stephanie Thomas

I'm a homesteader that loves learning how to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. I share what I learn here on Homesteading World.

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