We were visiting George Washington’s Mount Vernon home last week. One of the exhibits focused on the food that would have been prepared and eaten on the estate in the late 1700’s. Martha Washington’s “Great Cake” would have been baked by one of the family’s enslaved cooks (I will write a post soon about Hercules) and then served to the delighted family and guests on very special occasions (such as part of a grand Christmas dinner). The cake was so well liked that granddaughter Patsy wrote the recipe down to share. I marveled at the amount of each ingredient in the recipe — eggs (40), sugar (4 pounds*), flour (5…