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Peach Cake
Bake three sheets of sponge-cake as for jelly cake; cut peaches in thin slices, prepare cream by whipping, sweetening and adding flavor of vanilla if desired, put layers of peaches between the sheets of cake, pour cream over each layer and over the top. This may also be made with ripe strawberries. - Mrs. Woodworth, Springfield, Mass.
A summer assembly rather than a baked cake: three thin sponge layers, fresh fruit, whipped cream. The whole thing hinges on when you put it together.
- Assemble at the last minuteSliced peaches release a great deal of juice and unstabilized whipped cream begins to weep within an hour or two. Build it no more than thirty minutes before it goes to the table, and keep it cold until then.
- "Sheets" for jelly cakeThese are thin sponge layers baked in shallow round tins, not sheet pans. Divide a standard sponge batter among three 8- or 9-inch pans; the original gives no oven setting, but in a modern oven about 350F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops spring back, will do.
- The cream"Prepare cream by whipping" means heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks. For three layers plus the top, figure about 2 cups cream with 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla; that yields roughly 4 cups whipped.
- Poured, not spreadThe original says pour, which suggests the cream was whipped only lightly. Soft peaks slump into the fruit and hold the layers together; stiff cream sits on top and slides.
- Preparing the peachesBlanch 30 seconds and slip the skins, then slice thin. Toss with a spoonful of sugar and a squeeze of lemon, let stand ten minutes, and drain off the syrup before layering or the bottom sponge turns to paste.
- Sweetening is unmeasuredNo quantity of sugar is given for either fruit or cream, which leaves it to the ripeness of the peaches. Sweeten the cream lightly and let the fruit carry the dish.
- Yield and keepingServes 8 to 10, cut in wedges with a serrated knife. There are no leftovers worth having; refrigerate any remainder and eat it the same day.
Buckeye Cookery (published 1877, growing out of the 1876 Centennial Buckeye Cook Book, and repeatedly enlarged) was assembled from recipes contributed by housekeepers across the Midwest and East, which is why so many entries carry a name and a town the way this one does. The American "jelly cake" format — two or three thin sponge rounds with something soft spread between them — was a common template of the period, and cooks swapped the filling with whatever the season offered: jelly and preserves in winter, fresh fruit and cream in July and August. The recipe's own note that it "may also be made with ripe strawberries" extends it to another summer fruit.