Home › The Principles of Cookery › Aurelian Cake
Aurelian Cake
Mix half a pound of ground rice and half a pound of loaf sugar well together. Add to them the well-whisked yolks of twelve and the whites of seven eggs, with a little brandy and a few drops of essence of almonds. Stir the whole well together for quite twenty minutes. Pour the mixture into a well-oiled mould, and bake in a quick oven. Time to bake, half an hour. Probable cost, 1s. 8d. Sufficient for a medium-sized mould.
A flourless sponge that leans entirely on beaten egg and ground rice, so the mixing is the whole recipe. Everything else is straightforward once the units are translated.
- Ground riceEssentially rice flour, generally a slightly coarser grind than the flour sold today. Half a pound is 8 oz, about 1 1/2 cups; a finer grind gives a smoother, slightly denser crumb.
- Loaf sugarSugar broken from a hard cone and crushed at home. Use 8 oz (about 1 1/4 cups) caster or superfine sugar, which dissolves in the eggs as loaf sugar rubbings did.
- The twenty minutesThis is the hinge. With no flour and no leavening, the lift comes from air worked into the eggs and sugar, so the long beating is not optional. A stand mixer will get there faster -- work on high until the batter falls in thick ribbons and holds a trail.
- Twelve yolks, seven whitesThe imbalance gives richness and colour from the yolks with proportionally fewer whites, though the recipe gives no reason for it. Whisk the yolks with the sugar first, then fold in separately whipped whites if you want a lighter result, though the original treats them as one mass.
- A quick ovenRoughly 400-425F on the usual readings of the term, which is hot for an eggy batter. In a modern oven, 375-400F for the stated half hour suits a medium mould better; test with a skewer at the centre.
- Essence of almondsVictorian almond essence was often distilled from bitter almonds and carried traces of hydrogen cyanide. Modern almond extract is benzaldehyde-based and safe; a few drops is genuinely all this quantity wants, or it turns medicinal.
- Well-oiled mouldThe recipe specifies only a medium-sized mould. Oil rather than butter, as the original says, and dust with a little rice flour or sugar; a flourless batter grips metal hard.
- Yield and servingPerhaps eight servings, though the recipe says only that it fills a medium mould. Turn out while just warm, cool completely, and serve plain with fruit or cream; the crumb is close and slightly sandy.
The name may point to gold, from Latin aurum, and to what twelve yolks with almost no whites do to a batter, though the text itself offers no explanation. The recipe's form -- "Probable cost", "Sufficient for" -- matches Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, which carried a number of ground-rice cakes; rice flour was a common resort for invalid cookery, being thought easier to digest. At 1s 8d, with a dozen eggs and refined loaf sugar, this was not a plain cake. Nothing in the printed record ties the recipe to a particular Aurelian.