The sponge cake, the marzipan and the templates were among the first desserts to which cooks of the time added this "food of the gods" to make them more succulent.
For almost two centuries, chocolate was consumed in Europe almost exclusively as a hot drink. Chocolate desserts were unknown and their preparation began very limited in variety and quantity. Only the wealthy classes of European society could indulge themselves.
The cooks of the royal family began to include chocolate in dessert recipes that were already being prepared; and the sponge cake, the marzipan and the templates were the first experiments that were a complete success.
In the 191 pages of pure recipes in the book pastry art by Juan de la Mata, published in 1747, only three desserts (which were well known with other flavors) with chocolate appear: the chocolate marzipan, the chocolate sponge cake and the chocolate stencils.
This cookbook also includes the recipes for these three desserts with the versions that were best known at the time.
The marzipan was made from lemon, orange, raspberry, alfonsigos, among others; the sponge cake was prepared with almonds, savoy, among others; and the templates were made of cinnamon, orange, among others.
Also, despite its little presence in the confectionery of the time, this cookbook dedicated a section to chocolate, defining it as a solid paste of cocoa, sugar and cinnamon.
And highlights the chocolate Caracas, the one that was cultivated in the Province of Caracas, as the most prominent.
They added chocolate to more desserts
In the mid-nineteenth century, more than a hundred years after the book Arte de conpostería was published, other cooks added chocolate to more desserts, as evidenced in the Manual del repostería Nacional.
In the 365 dessert recipes in this book, published in 1866, there are three new desserts to which they added chocolate, almond cake, cream and flan.
But it is at the XNUMXth century, when chocolate, after going through processes that began to make it more attractive, becomes an important ingredient in confectionery.
Adding milk to chocolate markedly improved its flavor, making it smoother and less astringent; and the creation of the "shell", a machine that ground cocoa beans, sugar and milk, made it obtain a finer consistency.
When do they add chocolate to desserts in Venezuela?
In Venezuela, the desserts with chocolate begin to be made from the middle of the twentieth century.
A record of this is that of the 234 dessert recipes in the book La Cocina de Casilda, sweets and sandwiches from the Venezuela of yesterday, by Graciela Schael Martínez, published in 1953, only two contain chocolate: a basic chocolate cake and a chocolate cheesecake. .
