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Rolled Jelly Cake
Beat twelve eggs and one pound pulverized sugar together very lightly, then stir in three-fourths pound of flour, making batter as light as for sponge-cake, and thin enough to spread nicely when poured; make up as quickly as possible. Have shallow tin-pans prepared (about twelve by eighteen inches and an inch deep) by lining with thin brown paper, using no grease on pan or paper; pour in batter, spread out with a knife as thin as possible (about half an inch thick), and bake in solid oven. When done, remove from oven, let cool a few minutes, and while still warm, but not hot, turn out of pan upside down. With a brush or soft cloth wet in cold water, brush over the paper and pull it off; spread cake thin with jelly and roll it up, being careful to place the outer edge of roll against something so that it will not unroll until cold. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve. If baked in pans such as are described above, the recipe will make two rolls, each twelve inches long, which should be cut in two, making four rolls. Use no baking-powder, as it makes the cake too brittle. Many use none in sponge-cake. The paper lining should be larger than pan, to lift out the cake by taking hold of the projecting edges. This never fails.-C. W. Cyphers, Minneapolis.
A very large sponge sheet, leavened entirely by egg foam. The whole recipe hangs on speed: the batter must be spread and into the oven before the foam slackens, and the cake must be rolled while still warm.
- Scaling downTwelve eggs, 1 lb sugar and 3/4 lb flour fill two 12x18-inch sheets and yield four rolls. Quartering it (3 eggs, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, about 3/4 cup flour) gives roughly enough batter for a 9x13-inch quarter-sheet pan and one roll.
- Weights to volumeOne pound of pulverized sugar is about 2 1/4 cups; 3/4 pound of flour is roughly 3 cups, though weighing is more reliable here since the batter must stay pourable.
- Pulverized sugarIn 1877 this meant sugar ground fine, closer to today's caster or superfine sugar. Modern confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch and behaves differently in a foam; use superfine granulated.
- Solid ovenThe book does not define the term, but it appears to mean a steady, evenly heated oven that will not drop when the door opens. A moderately hot oven suits a thin sheet, which will bake quickly; pull it the moment the surface springs back, since a dry sheet cracks when rolled.
- Brown paperSubstitute parchment, cut larger than the pan as the recipe directs so the overhang lifts the cake out. The recipe specifies no grease on pan or paper but does not say why; the lining alone is enough to release the cake.
- Wetting the paperBrushing the paper with cold water before peeling is the old trick for releasing an ungreased liner without tearing the crumb. Parchment usually comes away dry, but the water does no harm.
- The jellyWarm and stir the jelly so it spreads in a thin film. A cold, stiff preserve tears the surface, and too much filling squeezes out and glues the roll shut.
- Rolling and holdingRoll while the sheet is warm but not hot, and brace the seam as instructed — or roll it in a clean towel and let it cool seam-side down, which does the same job.
- No baking powderFollow this. Chemical leavening coarsens the crumb and makes the sheet brittle, which is exactly what you cannot afford in a cake that has to bend.
The jelly roll was a fixture of American layer-cake chapters by the 1870s, a close cousin of the European rolled sponge sold as Swiss roll in Britain and biscuit roul raally traced to continental confectioners' sponge, which spread with the fashion for thin, foam-leavened batters. Its appearance in Buckeye Cookery ecipes carry contributor names, here from Minneapolis ecgathering household recipes rather than writing them, and C. W. Cyphers's closing "This never fails" is the standard warranty of that genre. The insistence on omitting baking powder is worth noting: commercial baking powders were still relatively new and much argued over in the 1870s, and the recipe itself remarks that many use none in sponge-cake.