To win a ＄50 bet, Melanie Bouchelle McCarthy, an Evanston, Illinois house-wife, baked an old-fashioned English fruitcake and, using it as a sample, sold an 1800-pound order to a Chicago department store grocery. That was in 1935; since the Mrs. McCarthy has never stopped baking. Today, thirty-five local housewives assist her filling orders for cakes, puddings, and the numerous delicacies of her “Charlotte Charles” line which sell coast to coast.
The neighborhood card club was in session when the telephone interrupted. It was a needy friend with a fruitcake to offer. Talk turned to what home women were doing to help their husbands financially through the depression.
“I would never ask a friend,” said the outspoken Mrs. McCarthy, “I'd sell commercially.” “Well, you couldn't sell anything these times, except to your friends,” one woman retorted. “One can sell any product, any time, if it's the best of its kind,” Mrs. McCarthy insisted. The acquaintance bet her ＄50 that she couldn't do it. Mrs. McCarthy took the bet seriously.
Collecting old recipes had long been the hobby of Melanie McCarthy; among her treasures was a hand-written cookbook over three hundred years old, a heritage of the house of Charlotte Charles a cook who had been famous in the time of Napoleon. This treasure book supplied the recipe for the old English fruitcake Mrs. McCarthy had been baking at Christmas for twenty-five years. She baked the cake now to carry into Chicago to try selling to food stores.
The first buyer approached flatly said “No,” explaining that the store's 1800. pound annual holiday order would go to the firm they had dealt with for a decade. “But taste, anyway,” the baker had urged. The buyer tasted, and her eyes bugged out. She said, “That's the best fruitcake I ever are. But home cakes,” she added, “seldom turn out as a uniform product.” Mrs. McCarthy guaranteed every cake she baked would be the same quality. The buyer carried a sample to the president of the store, a connoisseur of fine foods. Mrs. McCarthy got that 1800-pound order.
The tough job now was a produce cake in such quantity. Mr. McCarthy begged his wife to cancel the deal, he would pay off the bet. Mrs. McCarthy was scared but undaunted. First she figured the amount of each ingredient needed for a 20-pound baking. This figure she multiplied by 90 and bought supplies wholesale. She made the basement playroom a kitchen, installed fluorescent light and five secondhand gas bake ovens purchased from the Salvation Army. She bought baking tins, and the work began. To get out the order in the specified time meant baking 130 pounds daily. Her maid helped, and her two sons.
Mixing, that was the backache. Mrs. McCarthy's brother came calling. “What you need,” he said, “is a mechanical mixer.” His sister snorted—her cake would be ruined if it wasn't hand-blended. Her brother sent the mixer regardless, and it worked like a charm. The cake order was delivered two weeks ahead of time. The ＄50 bet was collected, but the cake-baking continued. Other products were added, all from the Charlotte Charles cookbook. Came a plum pudding, its fruits mellowed in brandy, the least bit of flour, whole milk, country-fresh eggs, all delicately accented with freshly ground spices. Each pudding is aged in old brandy for six months or longer.
Followed a de luxe line of sauces, the brandy cherry sauce suggested as a substitute for hard sauce for the rich pudding. The sherry pralines were originally a favorite tidbit in the court of Empress Eugenie, but it was the debut of the Napoleon rum cakes which brought the kitchen to fame. These honeyed sweets, scented of spices, tipsy of rum, are said to have been heartscase to Napoleon during his stay on the island of Elba. Charlotte Charles, then cook to the household of Count Antoine Drouot, governor of the island, made the cakes frequently for the “Little General.” A glamorized version of the Charlotte Charles story was printed in folder form to accompany the cakes. Here was more than mere cake, here was romance unlimited, and the public adored it.
Today the business is a mother-and-sons partnership. The home kitchen has given way to one of almost factory size, located in a remodeled supermarket. The secondhand gas stoves are gone; in their stead are modern revolving bakery-sized ovens. Outside warehouses are rented to store the kitchen supplies. The selling is handled by selected representatives for Charlotte Charles. The line is stocked in the better department and food stores in all the states and Hawaii.
Pinterest
