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Cream Cake
Beat three ounces of butter to a cream, and mix with it, very smoothly, half a pound of fine flour, a small tea-spoonful of baking-powder, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt, the rind of a fresh lemon sliced as thinly as possible, and a cupful of thick cream beaten up with an egg. If the cream is a little turned it will not signify; indeed, it is rather an advantage than otherwise. It should make a light batter. Put it in a well-oiled dish, and bake in a moderate oven for rather more than half an hour. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for a small cake.
A plain cream cake of the type baked in a dish rather than a tin — closer to a rich soda-raised tea cake than a modern layer cake. Two things need attention: the lemon and the cream.
- Zest, not slices"The rind of a fresh lemon sliced as thinly as possible" means the coloured outer peel only, pared with a knife and shredded fine — the pith is bitter. A microplane zester does the job faster and gives better distribution through the batter.
- "A little turned" creamThe recipe is describing slightly soured, unrefrigerated cream. The book does not say why it prefers it; the acidity would have added flavour and tenderness, and any residual reaction with the raising agent a little lift, though baking powder already carries its own acid. Modern pasteurised cream does not sour cleanly; it tends to spoil. Use crème fraîche, sour cream or cream soured with a teaspoon of lemon juice, and discard anything that smells or tastes off.
- MeasuresHalf a pound of fine flour is about 2 cups (225 g); 3 oz butter is 6 tablespoons (85 g); a cupful of cream is roughly 240 ml, though period "cupfuls" were not standardised and could run either side of that. The "small teaspoonful" of baking powder is modest for this much flour — expect a dense, close crumb, and a rounded teaspoon and a half will give a lighter one.
- OvenA moderate oven is 350F (175C). Bake 35-40 minutes and test with a skewer at the centre.
- The dish"Well-oiled dish" means a shallow ovenproof baking dish or pie plate, greased with oil or butter; no size is given, but something in the region of 8 inches across suits this quantity. Grease it generously and, if you wish, line the base with parchment.
- Batter consistencyIt should pour thickly rather than be rolled. If mixing the flour into the creamed butter leaves it crumbly, add the cream-and-egg mixture in stages until it drops heavily from the spoon.
- Yield and servingThe recipe says only "sufficient for a small cake". With just two tablespoons of sugar it is barely sweet by current standards, and takes well to being split and buttered, or eaten with jam.
Cassell's placed short entries like this among hundreds of others in a dictionary arranged for a household cook who needed to use up what was in the larder, and this cake is at least tolerant of cream on the turn. Before refrigeration, cream souring was a daily fact of kitchen life, and the acid in it had a use: it gave lift when paired with a chemical raising agent, which is why the book can cheerfully say a little turning "is rather an advantage than otherwise." The baking powder is consistent with a later Victorian date, though it is not decisive on its own; commercial powders came into general British domestic use from the middle of the nineteenth century, gradually displacing the older combination of bicarbonate with sour milk. The costing of 1s. 2d. was a standard Cassell's feature, letting a cook or a mistress of the house judge a dish against the week's budget rather than by taste alone.