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Strawberry Short Cake
Make soda biscuit, as the oyster short cake is made; then roll out about half an inch thick, and bake on jelly tins, then spread a little melted butter on the top of this; after this is done, place another cake on and bake; when done, the top one can be easily removed, and spread butter on, then a layer of mashed sweetened berries, then the other cake, and another layer of berries. Have a pint or more of berries sweetened and partly mashed to replenish when needed. A thick covering of whipped cream is a great improvement
A biscuit shortcake, not a sponge one, and the whole method turns on a trick worth understanding before you start.
- The hinge: two cakes baked as oneThe hinge: butter between the layers — You roll two half-inch rounds; melted butter goes on the first before the second is laid over it, and the butter keeps them from fusing, so after baking the top layer lifts cleanly away and you have two tender faces rather than two separately baked, dried-out crusts. The wording is ambiguous as to whether the first round is baked before the second is placed on it ("bake on jelly tins, then spread a little melted butter on the top of this; after this is done, place another cake on and bake"), but the buttering does the same work either way.
- Jelly tinsJelly-cake tins are shallow straight-sided round pans, roughly 8 to 9 inches across — modern layer-cake pans are the direct equivalent. Round cake pans or a heavy sheet pan both work; the dough should reach the edges.
- Soda biscuitSoda biscuit of this period generally depends on saleratus or soda activated by sour milk or buttermilk; the referenced oyster short cake dough is not reproduced here. With sweet (fresh) milk, soda alone will leave a soapy tang, so use baking powder instead — about 2 teaspoons per 2 cups flour — or acidify the milk.
- Oven heatNo temperature or oven term is given at all. As modern practice, biscuit dough wants a hot oven, roughly 425 to 450F, and about 15 to 20 minutes for a stacked half-inch double round. It is done when the sides are dry and firm and the top is browned.
- Butter twiceThere are two butterings and they do different jobs: melted butter between the rounds, so they separate, and butter spread on the split face after baking, which melts in and keeps the fruit juice from turning the crumb to paste.
- The berriesThe recipe fixes no quantity for the layers; it asks only for "a pint or more" sweetened and partly mashed to be kept back for replenishing, so scale the layered fruit to your tin. Let the sugared fruit stand 20 to 30 minutes so it gives up juice; a tablespoon of sugar per cup of berries is a reasonable starting point.
- Whipped creamAn improvement, as stated, but nineteenth-century cream was unhomogenised and whipped readily. Use heavy or whipping cream, cold, lightly sweetened, and stop while it still slumps — stiff cream sits on the cake instead of settling into it.
- ServingOne 9-inch cake serves six to eight. Assemble and eat it warm; a biscuit shortcake held for an hour goes heavy and the base sogs.
Shortcake in the American sense means a rich biscuit dough — "short" for the fat cut into the flour — and it is a distinct lineage from the British sponge-and-cream construction that now often carries the same name. Recipes of this kind spread through American cookbooks from the mid-nineteenth century onward. The author simply tells you to make the same soda biscuit used for the oyster short cake earlier in the book, which is a reminder that shortcake was a general form for holding a filling, savoury or sweet, rather than a dessert formula of its own. The instruction to keep a pint of sweetened berries in reserve "to replenish when needed" suggests the cake was brought to the table whole and served in portions, with more fruit spooned over.