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Cinnamon Cake
Mix thoroughly half a pound of powdered sugar, half a pound of fine flour, half a pound of fresh butter, a quarter of an ounce of powdered cinnamon, the grated peel of a quarter of a small lemon, and the whites of eight eggs beaten to a solid froth. If preferred, a glass of brandy or rum may be added. Pour the mixture into a buttered mould, and bake it in a good oven. Two eggs and a cupful of sour cream may be used instead of eight eggs, and the mixture may be spread on a flat, well-buttered tin, instead of being put into a mould. Time, half an hour. Probable cost, 1s. 10d. Sufficient for a quart mould.
A rich white butter cake leavened entirely by beaten egg whites, so the folding is what makes or breaks it. The quantities are the old avoirdupois half-pound scheme and translate cleanly.
- The hinge: fold, do not beatCream the butter and sugar, then fold the flour and the stiff whites in alternately and gently. There is no baking powder here; the only lift is the air in the whites, and stirring it out leaves a dense, greasy slab.
- Weights in cupsHalf a pound each is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of caster sugar, 1¾ cups of flour, and 2 sticks (225 g) of butter. Weighing is better than measuring given how much flour packs down.
- A quarter ounce of cinnamonThat is about 7 g, a scant tablespoon of ground cinnamon: assertive by modern taste but not extravagant. Ground spice loses volatile oil within months, so use the freshest you have and judge the batter.
- "A good oven"An unquantified direction; a steady moderate heat, somewhere around 350F (175C), is a reasonable modern reading. A rich white cake browns fast, so tent the top with foil if it colours before the half hour is up.
- Eight whites, and the yolksEight whites is about 250 ml, or a scant cup. The recipe leaves you with eight yolks; custard, mayonnaise or curd is the obvious destination.
- The sour cream variationTwo whole eggs plus a cup of sour cream in place of eight whites removes most of the aeration, and the original supplies no soda to react with the acid. Expect a closer, flatter texture. The flat, well-buttered tin is offered separately in the original, not specifically for this version.
- A quart mouldAbout a litre in capacity: a 1 lb loaf tin, or a 7-inch round. Butter and flour it, or line it, since a high-sugar batter sticks hard.
- Time and donenessHalf an hour is the time given, for the quart mould; a thin sheet on a flat tin will be done appreciably sooner. Test with a skewer rather than trusting the clock.
- "A glass of brandy"The original says only 'a glass'; if a wineglass is meant, that is about 2 fl oz (60 ml) in nineteenth-century usage. Added to a batter this stiff it will slacken it noticeably, so add it with the last of the flour.
Cassell's belonged to the great age of the household compendium, when a single volume was expected to cover every cake a mistress or cook might be asked for, and cinnamon cake sits in a long European line of spiced butter cakes: the German Zimtkuchen and its Dutch and Scandinavian relatives, often baked flat and cut in squares rather than turned out of a mould. The eight-white method relies on air beaten into egg as the sole raising agent. The sour cream alternative supplies acid but no soda to react with it, so it is not chemical leavening, and reading the two versions as marking a transition in British baking goes beyond what the page shows. The costing in shillings and pence is a reminder of the book's purpose: recipes were priced so a household could budget, and 1s. 10d. for a cake built on a half pound of butter and eight eggs was no small outlay.