Professor Butter Beard and Nicholas Hilliard’s “Portrait of a Young Man”
“An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread.” – William Shakespeare, “Love’s Labor’s Lost”
I wait all year to bake gingerbread. Yes, I love other seasonal bakes – the darkest chocolate mousse on New Year’s Eve, the coconut cakes at Easter, the first strawberry pie of spring, and pumpkin brioche as autumn blows in. But it is that one especially delicious moment I crave - when you suddenly realize your whole home smells of ginger, cinnamon, clove, molasses and baked pears. There is a warmth and comfort and golden glow in the air and even Nellie stirs from a nap and dances into the kitchen knowing she will soon be granted a nibble of her favorite: freshly baked pears.
I visited with my beloved Tudors over the Thanksgiving weekend and my fourth book magically fell open to this amazing miniature of Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1588. His mass of chestnut curls and slip of a ginger mustache morphed into thoughts of a chestnut-colored gingerbread, but I get ahead of myself……
Nicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and painter best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about 10” tall, and at least two famous half-length panel portraits of Elizabeth herself.
Hilliard emerged from his teenage apprenticeship with the Queen's jeweler Robert Brandon at a opportune moment just when Elizabeth was desperately searching for a new royal portrait painter. Hilliard was appointed limner (miniaturist) and goldsmith to Elizabeth at an unknown date (probably around 1571 since his first known miniature of the Queen is dated 1572). Two oil panel portraits of the Queen are also attributed to him, the “Phoenix” and “Pelican” portraits.
In 1571, he painted “a booke of portraitures” for Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and the Queen’s favorite, which is likely to be how he became known to the Court. But of all his known works, I am always most drawn into the miniature portraits he painted of Robert Dudley’s stepson, Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, Elizabeth’s late favorite and the protagonist of one of the most tragic episodes of her reign.
Elizabeth Cleland, in her catalogue entry for “The Tudors,” writes: “With his dark chestnut curls, smoldering eyes, and jawline haloed with stubble, the young sitter of this miniature embodies the ideal of male beauty at the Elizabethan court.” Devereux first came to court in 1584, and by 1587 had become the new favorite of the court and Queen, who reportedly relished his lively mind and eloquence, as well as his skills as a showman and in courtly love. By June of 1587, he had replaced his stepfather, the Earl of Leicester, as “Master of the Horse” and guardian of the Queen’s heart.
Devereux exploited his high court status to the utmost for the better part of decade, but then eventually grew frustrated at a decline in his political power and the queen’s esteem. His abortive rebellion against her led to his beheading for treason in 1601 - an emotional blow to Elizabeth from which she never fully recovered.
The Earl of Essex has also been identified as the sitter for another of Hilliard’s miniatures: “Young Man Among Roses,” painted in 1587, one year earlier than “Portrait of a Young Man.” The English art historian Roy C. Strong based his identification of Devereux as the “Young Man Among Roses” on the abundant facial similarities between the two sitters, the completion years, and in his words, the “equal portrayals of the Earl as a wounded and melancholy lover, embodying in one image all the splendor, romance, poetry and wistful sadness of England’s greatest age.”
High praise indeed. But the Earl’s splendor, romance and poetry (and chestnut curls) still lead me to think of aromatic gingerbread still steaming from the oven. I can’t help it – I was born with a baker’s soul. For this version, I bathe the pears from the season’s last farmer’s market in a pool of melted butter and dark brown sugar, top them with a cake batter dancing with autumn spices and garnish the finished cake with fresh crimson cranberries. The resulting smell is intoxicating. And I’m right there with my Tudor buddy Will Shakespeare – if I also had but one penny, please let it be enough to buy a still-warm slice of scrumptious gingerbread.
Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread
One 10” Cake
Topping:
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
Dash fine sea salt
6-8 small ripe pears
Optional – a few fresh cranberries as garnish
Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp fine sea salt
4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
8 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
½ cup molasses
1 tsp vanilla paste
Zest of one lemon
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) Prep a 10” cake pan (I use a springform pan) by greasing the pan and then lining the bottom and sides with a circle of parchment paper.
3) In a medium sauté pan, melt the 6 Tbsp of butter and 2/3 cup dark brown sugar until the sugar has melted and incorporated with the butter. Whisk in a dash of fine sea salt and pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Tilt the pan until the entire bottom is evenly coated.
4) Cut the pears in half, trim off the stem, scoop out the core and place the halves decoratively face-down into the pan. Try to fill the entire pan with pears, leaving a small gap between each half.
5) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, fine sea salt and spices.
6) In a standing mixer, cream together the butter and dark brown sugar. Add in the lemon zest, molasses and vanilla and mix to combine (scraping the bowl as often as necessary). Add the eggs, one at a time. Alternately, add the dry mix and the buttermilk. Remove the bowl from the stand, give a final fold with a spatula, and evenly pour the batter over the pears.
7) Bake the cake on the middle rack for 45-50 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Let the cake cool for five minutes and then invert onto your serving plate and remove the pan and parchment paper. If desired, decorate with the few fresh cranberries.
