Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake)

DESCRIPTION: "As I leaned o'er the rail of the Eagle The letter boy brought unto me A little gilt edged invitation Saying the girls want you over to tea" for "a slice of the Trinity Cake." Everyone tries the inedible cake and "all of them swore they were poisoned"
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); a probable version is from the Golden Gate Songster of 1888, and a song with the same plot came out in 1885 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: party food humorous moniker nonballad talltale
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(MW,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Trinity Cake" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 62 in the 3rd edition, p. 59 in the 4th; p. 51 in the 5th
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 43-44, "Mrs. Fogarty's Cake" (1 text)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 18-19, "Trinity Cake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 74, "Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #233, "Miss Foggarty's Christmas Cake" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 39, "There was plums, prunes, cherries" (1 fragment)
Behan-IrelandSings, #57, "Mrs. Hooligan's Christmas Cake" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [3], "Trinity Cake" (1 text)
Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number], "Trinity Cake" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 38, "The Trinity Cake" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #24, pp. 41-42, "The Trinity Cake" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 54, "(Traditional song from Trinity Bay)" (1 text, of the "Trinity Cake" type)
Roud #5000
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Trinity Cake" (on NFOBlondahl05)
The McNulty Family, "Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mrs. Fogarty's Cake
Miss Fogarty's Cake
NOTES [306 words]: According to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site the author died in 1930. - BS
The above presumably refers to Johnny Burke. Given the likely songster version, I doubt Burke wrote the original, though he surely created the Newfoundland ("Trinity Cake") version. The Newfoundland version is clearly localized; it has the singer be a sailor who receved word on his boat rather than from the postman at home.
I would assume the Eagle of the Burke version is the sealing steamer of that name; for more about that ship, see "The Ice-Floes."
Johnny Burke wrote another piece, "The Wedding Cake at Betsy's Marriage in Fogo," that seems like a combination of, or practice for, "Trinity Cake" and "The Kelligrew's Soiree"; it's about a wedding cake, but the list of improbable ingredients is very like "Kelligrew's Soiree." For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
Whatever the original of this song, the idea is found in 1885 in a song named "Miss Mulligan's Home Made Pie," by C. F. Horn. William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 143, quotes two stanzas, beginning
As I sat t my rosewood peanny [piano] one day,
Making chords that were solemn and grand,
Mr. Mulligan's footman came over the way,
With a big billy doo [billet doux] in his hand.
As a neighbor and friend I was asked to attend,
A party at Mulligan's social and high,
And I found by the way 'twas the very first day,
That Miss Mulligan tried to bake homemade pie.
Helen Flanders may have found a traditional version of this, although I have not seen the text to be able to verify it. But what are the odds of another song labelled "Mrs. Mulligan's Homemade Pie"? The song also features a character named "Fogarty," although obviously not the baker of the offending pastry. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doyl3062

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