Yellow Part
Yolks of four eggs, one cupful sugar, two tablespoonfuls butter, half a cupful of milk, one and one-half cupfuls of flour, and one teaspoonful baking powder. Flavor with orange.
This is half of a two-batter cake — the gold half of a gold-and-white or marbled loaf — so it is written as an ingredient list with the method assumed. Anyone who baked in 1900 knew what to do with it; here is the rest.
- Method, since none is givenCream the butter with the sugar, beat in the yolks until pale and thick, then add the milk and the flour sifted with the baking powder alternately, in two or three additions. Stir only until the flour disappears.
- Two tablespoons of butter is not a typoThis is a lean batter by modern standards, closer to a hot-milk sponge than a butter cake. It relies on the four yolks for richness, so soften the butter fully rather than melting it, and do not be tempted to increase it or the crumb changes character.
- Oven350F. A single layer in an 8-inch round pan takes about 25 minutes; baked as a loaf, 40 to 45. The original gives no oven instruction whatever.
- Baking powderBaking powder of this period was single-acting rather than double-acting. Modern double-acting powder at the same measure works, but get the batter into the oven promptly rather than letting it stand.
- "Flavor with orange"Either half a teaspoon of orange extract or the grated zest of one orange, rubbed into the sugar first so the oils are released. Orange juice would thin the batter and dull the flavor once baked.
- Pairing with the white partThe companion "White Part" batter would have taken the whites these yolks leave over, which appears to be the point of the arrangement. If you make only this half, save the whites for meringue or a frosting.
- YieldAbout one 8-inch layer, or a small loaf; roughly eight modest servings. Doubling is straightforward.
Paired "gold" and "silver" cakes were a fixture of late nineteenth-century American baking, born of a practical problem: recipes calling for whites alone, such as white mountain cake or angel food, left a bowl of yolks behind, and a thrifty kitchen answered with a yolk cake baked alongside. Batters printed as "Yellow Part" and "White Part" were baked in separate layers, or dropped by spoonfuls into one pan and cut through with a knife to make marble cake.