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Rice Cakes, Rich
No. 1.--Beat half a pound of fresh butter to a cream. Break ten eggs into a separate bowl, and whisk them thoroughly. Mix with them half a pound of powdered sugar flavoured with the rind of two lemons, half a pound of rice-flour, and the creamed butter. Turn the mixture into a buttered tin, and bake in a well-heated oven. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. No. 2.--Beat first separately, and afterwards together, the yolks and whites of twelve eggs. Add twelve ounces of ground rice, four ounces of flour, one pound of powdered sugar, and any flavouring that may be preferred. Beat the mixture thoroughly, and bake as above. Probable cost, 2s. No. 3.--Beat four ounces of fresh butter to a cream. Add four ounces of powdered sugar, the yolks of four well-beaten eggs, and gradually, four ounces of ground rice and the grated rind of half a lemon. Whisk the whites of two eggs to a firm froth. Add them to the other ingredients, beat the mixture rapidly for twenty minutes, and bake in a quick oven. If liked, the butter may be omitted, and the cake will then be particularly suitable for an invalid. These ingredients will make a small cake. Probable cost, 1s. 1d. No. 4.--Beat the yolks of eight eggs thoroughly, and mix with them one pound and a quarter of powdered sugar. Mix nine ounces of ground rice with nine ounces of dried flour, add this in small quantities at a time to the sugar and eggs, and beat the mixture between every addition. At least half an hour should be occupied with putting in the flour and beating the cake. Add the whites of the eggs beaten to snow, the peel of a lemon finely shredded, and a dessert-spoonful of lemon-juice. Beat the cake a quarter of an hour longer, and bake in a well-heated oven. Probable cost, 1s. 8d. No. 5.--Beat the yolks of twelve eggs and the whites of eight. Add a few drops of almond flavouring, and beat in three-quarters of a pound of powdered sugar and one pound of ground rice. Beat the mixture till it is smooth and light, put it into a buttered tin, and bake in a quick oven. Probable cost, 1s. 8d. Time, according to size. When a skewer can be pushed to the bottom of the cake in the centre and be brought out clean and dry, the cake is done enough.
Five variations on the same idea: an egg-foam sponge made with ground rice instead of, or alongside, wheat flour. Nothing here contains a raising agent, so the beating is the recipe.
- Air is the only leaveningThere is no baking powder or soda in any of the five. All lift comes from air beaten into the eggs and the creamed butter, which is why No. 4 asks for half an hour of beating in the flour and another quarter hour after. With a stand mixer on medium the same volume is reached in a fraction of that time; stop when the batter falls in a thick ribbon, not when the clock says so.
- Oven temperaturesA "well-heated oven" in a book of this period is usually read as something in the region of 350-375F, and a "quick oven" hotter again; but high heat will set the crust of a large egg cake before the centre rises, so Nos. 3 and 5 are safer treated as about 375F and watched. Bake on a lower shelf.
- Ground rice and rice-flourGround rice is coarser than rice flour, closer to a fine semolina, and gives a slightly gritty, short crumb. Modern rice flour will work in all five but produces a tighter, sandier cake; the coarser grind is worth seeking out for Nos. 2, 4 and 5, where it is doing all the structural work.
- Powdered sugarThis means sugar ground fine at home, the equivalent of caster sugar. It is not modern confectioners' sugar, which carries cornstarch and an anti-caking agent and will make the batter pasty.
- Dried flourIn No. 4, flour was spread in a tin and warmed by the fire to drive off damp before sieving. Ordinary flour straight from the bag is dry enough now; just sift it.
- Egg sizeEggs of this period are generally reckoned to have run somewhat smaller than a modern large egg. For the egg-heavy versions use medium eggs, or better, weigh them and work by weight.
- Almond flavouringThe "almond flavouring" of No. 5 would most likely have been a bitter almond essence. Use a commercial almond extract; do not substitute anything derived from bitter almonds or apricot kernels directly.
- Tin and yieldNo. 3 is explicitly a small cake, roughly a 6-inch round serving six. Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5 are large, wanting an 8- or 9-inch deep tin, buttered and lined, and give twelve to sixteen slices. Expect 45 minutes to an hour and a quarter depending on depth, judged by the skewer test given at the end.
- The butterless versionOmitting the butter from No. 3, as suggested, leaves a plain rice sponge. It bakes drier and stales within a day, so it is best eaten the same afternoon.
Cassell's gives five recipes under one heading, rice cakes being a standing fixture of the Victorian tea table rather than a single fixed formula. Ground rice was cheap and widely available in nineteenth-century Britain and kept well; it also produced a cake with no gluten and therefore a crumb that was thought light and easy on the stomach, which is why the butterless variant is recommended for an invalid. Invalid cookery was a serious category in books of this period, and rice in all its forms, from ground rice puddings to rice water, was among its staples. The "probable cost" figures run from one shilling a penny to half a crown, and they track the eggs and sugar more than anything else.