Chess cakes are a culinary checkmate

A little piece of Maine’s political history floated up with this week’s recipe. Marion Wright in Bangor had written asking about chess cakes, which she remembered her mother making. Marion had the basic process down: line cupcake tins with pie pastry, put in a dollop of jam or jelly and top it with cake batter. She needed the recipe for the cake batter.

I didn’t make the connection right away, but sharp-eyed Diane Clough of Bridgewater poked around in her mother’s 1952 Rebekahs cookbook and found a recipe titled “Maids of Honor” submitted by Helen E. Brown of the Emerald No. 65 lodge in North Anson. Sure enough – pastry, jam and cake batter.

Maids of Honor were a moderately popular little tart in the 1800s, but the filling in those days was lemon flavored and sugary and would remind a Southerner of chess pies. (How they came to be called “chess” is a long story but involves a shift in the pronunciation of “cheese” further confused by the fact that there was no actual cheese in it, but rather the filling curdled like cheese.)

But then Ruth Thurston of Machias, bless her, sent along a copy of an old newspaper clipping that she reported had turned all yellow, titled “Mrs. Longley’s Chess Cakes.” Ruth said she must have cut it out of the paper during Gov. James B. Longley’s administration. He was Maine’s first independent governor, in office from 1975 to 1979. As we were sampling the chess cakes, my husband, Jamie, said, “I wonder if Susan Longley remembers these.”

The Longleys’ daughter Susan of Liberty was Islesboro’s representative to the Legislature, and a good one, too. I called her up and asked her if she remembered chess cakes. She exclaimed, “I haven’t thought about them for years. They were delicious.” I asked her what jam or jelly her mother used, and she said she thought it must have been apple or peach, or “some light colored one.” As it happens, Susan said, Mrs. Longley died only a few months ago. So we will remember her with this week’s recipe.

This is classic tea party fare. I made mine in cupcake tins, but when I saw the size of them when baked, I thought they would be nicer made in minimuffin tins. The batter is sweet and acquires a nice golden top, and while some of the recipes say to frost them when they are done, you could get away with dusting them with confectioner’s sugar. But if you take them to a party, garnish them. I was reminded of jelly-filled doughnuts when I bit into one.

The original instructions said, “Mrs. Longley says the crust should extend halfway up the sides of the pans. She uses her hamburger mold to cut dough for the proper size.” You’ll have to experiment to find the right diameter for your pans. I ended up inverting a small bowl and running a knife around the perimeter. The following cake batter is half of Mrs. Longley’s recipe, easily doubled. I simplified the procedure somewhat.

Chess Cakes

Makes 12 cakes

Pie crust sufficient for a two-crust pie

Jam or jelly

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 scant cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Roll out the pie dough, and cut it in rounds to line your cupcake tins. Sift together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Use an electric mixer to mix (or your fingers to rub) the butter into the dry ingredients until it is thoroughly incorporated. Mix together the egg, vanilla and milk, and add gradually to the flour and butter mixture, beating well between additions until you have a smooth batter. Drop heaping teaspoons of jam or jelly into the lined cupcake tins. Drop heaping tablespoons of batter on the jelly, covering it entirely, and filling the cups as you would for cupcakes.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool for a while, then lift from the tins and finish cooling on a cake rack. Frost as you wish.

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Road, Islesboro 04848. E-mail: tastebuds@prexar.com. For recipes, tell us where they came from. List ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number.