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Cream for This Cake (Whip one cup of sweet cream)
Whip one cup of sweet cream to a froth; stir gradually into it one-half cup pulverized sugar, a few drops of vanilla, and one pound of almonds blanched and chopped; spread quite thickly between the layers of cake, and frost the top and sides.
A whipped-cream and almond filling for a layer cake, written when "cream" needed qualifying and almonds came whole in the shell. Two things need attention before you start: the almond quantity and the fact that whipped cream will not behave like buttercream.
- The almond quantity is out of proportionA full pound of chopped almonds stirred into one cup of cream gives a stiff paste, not a spreadable filling. Treat the pound as suspect and add nuts by eye until the mixture is thick but still soft.
- Sweet creamThis means fresh, unsoured cream, as distinct from cream that had been allowed to sour. Use heavy cream (around 36 percent fat), well chilled, or it will not hold a froth.
- Pulverized sugarConfectioners' sugar. Nineteenth-century pulverized sugar was ground loaf sugar without cornstarch; modern powdered sugar contains a little starch, which actually helps stabilise the cream.
- Blanching almondsPour boiling water over shelled almonds, let stand a minute, drain, and the skins slip off between finger and thumb. Dry them thoroughly before chopping or they will weep into the cream.
- Frosting the sidesWhipped cream on the outside of a cake slumps within an hour or two at room temperature. Either serve it immediately from the refrigerator or use whipped cream only between the layers and a buttercream or boiled icing outside.
- KeepingAn assembled cake of this kind is a same-day proposition. Refrigerate it and eat it within a day; the cream softens the crumb steadily and the almonds go limp.
- YieldOne cup of cream doubles to about two cups whipped; with the nuts added the finished filling is bulkier, and the whole is aimed at a two-layer eight- or nine-inch cake.
Whipped cream fillings appear all through late nineteenth-century American supper and dessert chapters, and they mark a household with reliable access to fresh cream and something cold to keep it in. The insistence on "sweet cream" is the tell: in a kitchen where milk was set to rise in pans, cream that had stood a day or two soured on its own, so the sweet kind had to be specified. Almonds were a common festive nut of the period, bought shelled or in the shell and blanched at home, and a layer cake filled with cream and almonds would likely have been company food rather than everyday supper.