Brown Part
Yolks of four eggs, one cupful of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of butter, half a cupful of milk, one and one-half cupfuls of flour, and one teaspoonful of baking powder; one cake of sweet chocolate grated, and one teaspoonful of vanilla.
This is not a standalone cake but the dark half of a two-part marble or ribbon cake — the companion "white part" uses the four leftover whites. The book gives quantities only, so the method has to be reconstructed.
- Method, since none is givenCream the butter and sugar, beat in the yolks, then add the milk alternately with the flour and baking powder sifted together, and stir in the grated chocolate and vanilla last. The batter is fairly stiff for its liquid, which suits a batter meant to be marbled.
- "One cake of sweet chocolate"Sweet chocolate of the period was sold in pressed cakes, already sugared, but cake sizes were not standardised, so 'one cake' cannot be pinned down exactly; one to two ounces is a common modern reading. Two ounces of semisweet chocolate, grated or very finely chopped, is a reasonable stand-in. Baking chocolate or cocoa will not work here without adding sugar.
- Grated, not meltedThe recipe specifies grating. Fine dry shreds disperse through a stiff batter and melt during baking; the recipe gives no reason for the instruction.
- OvenThe recipe gives no oven direction; a moderate oven, about 350F, is a reasonable modern default. Two 8-inch layers of alternating batter take roughly 25 to 30 minutes; a loaf pan nearer 45 to 55.
- The four whitesPresumably they go to the white part printed alongside, though this recipe does not say so. If you are making this half alone, either freeze them or make a small meringue; four yolks with only two tablespoons of butter should give a rich, close-grained crumb.
- Baking powderOne teaspoon to a cup and a half of flour is on the low side by current practice, but modern double-acting powder is more reliable in the pan than older single-acting types, so leave it as written.
- YieldEnough for one 8-inch layer, or half of a two-layer marble cake when paired with its white counterpart.
Marble cake — often printed as two separate recipes, a light part and a dark part, to be spooned into the pan in alternating blobs and cut through once with a knife — was a fixture of American home baking from the middle of the nineteenth century. Early versions got their dark half from molasses and spices rather than chocolate, and grated sweet chocolate appears more commonly later in the century. The split of yolks into one batter and whites into the other means the whole egg is used, which fits a kitchen in which little was wasted.