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Cocoa-Nut Cakes
Mix one pound of sifted loaf-sugar with three-quarters of a pound of the white part of cocoa-nut grated. Beat the whites of six eggs to a firm froth, and mix all well together. Drop the mixture on paper in rough knobs about the size of a walnut, and bake them in a slow oven. Time to bake, a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 1s. 4d. per pound. Sufficient, one dozen and a half for a dessert-dish.
A three-ingredient coconut macaroon, and the only real variables are the sugar, the coconut and the oven.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar came as a hard cone that was broken up and pounded, then sifted — hence "sifted loaf-sugar." Caster sugar is the closest match; granulated works but dissolves less readily in the whites.
- A slow ovenA slow oven is usually reckoned at about 275-300F (140-150C). The point is to dry the meringue through without colouring it much beyond pale gold.
- Fifteen minutes is optimisticAt 300F, walnut-sized knobs of this mixture generally want 25-35 minutes. Judge by feel: the outside should be crisp and lift cleanly from the paper. Victorian ovens held heat unevenly, so the book's quarter of an hour is best treated as a minimum.
- "The white part" of the coconutFresh coconut, with the brown skin pared off before grating, so the cakes stay white. The three-quarters of a pound of pared white meat called for here is roughly one large nut.
- If you use packaged coconutDesiccated coconut is far drier than fresh and will drink up the whites, giving a stiff, dense paste. Unsweetened desiccated is the substitute to reach for, and even then reduce it to about 10 oz, or use sweetened flake and cut the sugar back sharply — a pound of sugar to sweetened coconut is cloying.
- Six whites is a lotSix large whites weigh about 7 oz. The mixture should hold a shape when dropped, not spread; if it slackens, fold in more coconut rather than adding flour.
- "Drop on paper"Baking parchment, and leave the cakes on it to cool completely before lifting. Warm meringue tears.
- YieldAbout 40-45 knobs from the full quantity. The book's "one dozen and a half" is what goes on a single dessert dish, not the total the recipe makes.
Coconut reached British kitchens in growing quantity through the second half of the nineteenth century, and the spelling "cocoa-nut" is the older form, generally taken to reflect period conflation between the nut and the cacao bean rather than a printer's error. Cakes like this are the coconut branch of the macaroon family: a stiff meringue bound with a ground or grated nut, dropped rather than piped, and dried in a slow oven. The costing in shillings and pence per pound, standard throughout the book, was aimed at the mistress budgeting for a cook's weekly order.