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Molasses Cup Cake
Half a cup of sugar, two-thirds of a cup of molasses, two-thirds of a cup of water, two-thirds of a cup of shortening, two and three-quarters of a cup of sifted flour, one teaspoonful soda, dissolved in a tablespoonful of hot water, one teaspoon, heaped, of ginger, half a grated nutmeg, a little salt, two eggs; bake in a moderate oven.
A plain gingerbread-style cake measured entirely in cupfuls, which is what "cup cake" means here — nothing to do with the individual paper-cased cake. The method is left out entirely, so the order of work is up to the cook.
- Oven temperatureA moderate oven is 350°F (175°C). In a greased 9-inch square or 9x5-inch loaf pan, expect 35–45 minutes; a skewer should come out clean and the top spring back.
- ShorteningIn this period this means lard, or a lard-and-butter mixture, rather than modern hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Two-thirds of a cup of softened butter is a workable substitute, though butter carries water and will not behave exactly like lard in the batter.
- MolassesUse unsulphured dark molasses or light treacle. Blackstrap is far more bitter than the molasses a household kitchen of this period would have used for cake and will overwhelm the spice.
- Mixing orderCream the shortening with the sugar, beat in the eggs, then add the molasses and water alternately with the sifted flour, salt and spices. Stir in the soda dissolved in hot water last and get the batter into the pan promptly — the soda begins reacting with the molasses at once.
- The sodaOne teaspoon of soda is doing all the lifting, neutralising the acid in the molasses. There is no baking powder here, so do not substitute one for the other; the amounts are not interchangeable.
- Half a grated nutmegRoughly a rounded teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg. That is assertive by current taste — half that quantity suits most palates, and pre-ground nutmeg is milder still.
- FlourSifted before measuring, as written, which gives a lighter cup than scooping. Two and three-quarter cups sifted is roughly 310-330 g depending on how lightly it is handled; weigh it if you can, since the batter is fairly slack and extra flour makes the cake tough.
- YieldOne 9-inch square cake, twelve to sixteen squares. It keeps well wrapped for several days and improves on the second day as the spice settles.
"Cup cake" in nineteenth-century American cookbooks describes a cake measured by the cupful rather than weighed, in contrast to pound cake, whose name records a pound each of butter, sugar, flour and eggs. Molasses versions like this one were the cheap everyday form: molasses was substantially less expensive than refined sugar through much of the century, and it brought its own acidity, which paired with saleratus or soda to raise the cake before chemical baking powders were common.