Washington pie

{{short description|Jam-filled sandwich cake}}

{{Infobox food

| name = Washington pie

| image =

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| alternate_name =

| type = Sponge cake

| course = Dessert

| country = United States

| region =

| year = 1850s

| mintime =

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| served =

| main_ingredient = Sponge cake, red jelly

| minor_ingredient =

| variations =

| similar_dish = Boston cream pie

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Washington pie is a sandwich cake found in American cuisine. The earliest known recipes date back to the 1850s. It may be an antecedent of Boston cream pie. The earlier Washington pie was made of two yellow sponge cake layers filled with jam and dusted with powdered sugar, later evolving into the better-known chocolate-covered pastry with cream filled version.{{cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets |pages=69–70}}[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60064981/what-is-washington-pie/ What Constitutes Mysterious Washington Pie?] The Washington Post, Washington, District of Columbia, 12 Apr 1908 Raspberry jam was a common choice. Additional flavorings like kirsch or rosewater could be added. Some modern variations use a vanilla cream filling topped with cherry pie filling and whipped cream.{{cite web |title=Washington Cream Pie |website=Taste of Home |url=https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/washington-cream-pie/}} The sugar can be sprinkled using a doily to create a decorative pattern.{{cite web |title=Washington Pie |website=Farm and Dairy |date=2 March 2006 |url=https://www.farmanddairy.com/recipes/washington-pie}}

Slices of Washington pie were sold at stalls at the Northern Liberty Market on Mount Vernon Square until the market was demolished on the orders of Alexander Robey Shepherd in 1872.{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=Tom |title=Washington: A History of Our National City |publisher=Basic books |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-465-06158-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KvcqCgAAQBAJ}}

Another version, closer to a true pie, was made by soaking pieces of stale and leftover cake with cream and adding raisins and spices and then baking it in pastry crust, always in square pans.{{cite news |title=On Presidents' Day, why not make a George Washington pie? |newspaper=The Washington post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/on-presidents-day-why-not-make-a-george-washington-pie/2017/02/19/dd4ae13c-f57c-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html}}[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60064673/washington-pie/ History of Washington Pie], The Morning Journal-Courier, New Haven, Connecticut, 19 Nov 1898 It's been described as a "nefarious fraud", but was served at elegant hotels and boarding houses in the Northeastern United States, more commonly than other pies, and it was also sold in quantity by bakers. This version eventually developed a poor reputation during the American Civil War when it started to be sold at coffee stands and other establishments around docks and railroad depots, because "certain bakers, in their efforts to produce great quantities of it, were not so very careful as to what it was composed of. Some bakers got to making it out of stale bread and the like".{{cite web |title=Celebrate Presidents' Day with Washington Cake or Washington Pie |website=Hudson Valley One |date=16 February 2017 |url=https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2017/02/16/celebrate-presidents-day-with-washington-cake-or-washington-pie/}}

Washington pie was served at a Fourth of July celebration in Decatur, Nebraska in 1856.{{cite book |title= Nebraska State Historical Society Publications |publisher=Nebraska State Historical Society |date=1907 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=03JNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA82}} Washington pie was recommended as part of a menu for a Fourth of July party for young ladies in 1901, along with other desserts.[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y_MmAQAAIAAJ Good Housekeeping], July 1901{{Better source needed|date=September 2020|comment=We need secondary sources which associate Washington pie with the 4th of July; concluding that from two isolated primary sources is WP:SYNTH}}

According to a 1934 article published in the Detroit Free Press, the cake layers could be made with cottage pudding instead of traditional sponge cake.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60062017/cottage-pudding/ Cottage Pudding Proves Equally at Home in an Apartment or Fine Mansion], Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan. 13 Feb 1934, Page 10,