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Walnut Cakes
Sift well together one pound of flour and a tea-spoonful and a half of baking-powder. Beat half a pound of butter to a cream, and add to it three-quarters of a pound of castor sugar. Add the well-beaten yolks of six eggs. Take half a pound of shelled walnuts and break them into small pieces, stir these into the butter, etc., add the grated rind of a lemon, a few drops of vanilla essence, beat well together, and then sift in the flour, adding a little milk at times to prevent its becoming too stiff. Last of all, stir in quickly and lightly the whites of the eggs beaten to a very stiff froth. Have ready a cake-tin lined with greased paper; half fill it with the mixture, and bake it in a steady oven one and a half to two hours. Turn it out on a sieve to cool, then spread soft icing over; halve or quarter a few walnuts, scatter them over the top while the icing is soft, and let it set before using.
This is a rich pound-cake batter carrying half a pound of nuts, leavened mostly by stiffly beaten whites. The Victorian instructions assume a deep cake tin and a slow, steady heat; both matter more than the ingredient list.
- Weights firstWork by weight if you can: 1 lb flour is about 450 g (roughly 3 1/2 cups scooped and levelled), 1/2 lb butter is 225 g or two US sticks, 3/4 lb castor sugar is 340 g, and 1/2 lb shelled walnuts is 225 g, about 2 cups of pieces. Cup measures for a pound of flour vary by a good half-cup depending on how it is packed, which will make the batter stiff or slack.
- "Steady oven"A moderate, unwavering heat. The book gives no temperature; roughly 325F (165C) is a reasonable modern equivalent. A cake this large and this heavily loaded with butter and nuts will colour and crack on top before the middle sets if you push it to 350F or above.
- Castor sugarSuperfine or caster sugar, finer than granulated but not powdered. Ordinary granulated works, though it needs a longer creaming to dissolve into the butter.
- The hinge: the whitesAll the lift beyond the small dose of baking powder comes from the six whites folded in last. Beat them to firm, glossy peaks, and fold in thirds with a large spoon or spatula rather than stirring; the batter is heavy and will knock the air straight out if you work it hard.
- Tin and depth"Half fill it" implies a deep tin, not a shallow layer pan. A 9-inch round cake tin at least 3 inches deep, or an 8-inch square, lined on base and sides with greased parchment, suits this quantity.
- Timing and donenessAn hour and a half to two hours is realistic at 325F for a cake this size, but go by a skewer coming out clean from the centre and the cake pulling slightly from the sides. Tent the top loosely with foil if it darkens before the middle is done.
- Soft icingMost likely a glace icing: sifted icing sugar slaked with a little water or lemon juice to a thick pouring consistency. It must go on while spreadable so the walnut halves set into it.
- NutsWalnuts turn rancid quickly and half a pound of stale ones will taint the whole cake. Taste one before you start, and buy from a shop with turnover or keep them in the freezer.
- YieldOne large deep cake, 12 to 16 slices. It keeps well wrapped for several days and, like most pound cakes, improves on the second day.
This is a rich butter cake in the English pound-cake tradition, though not in pound-cake proportions: half a pound of butter and three-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of flour, six eggs for structure, and only a spoonful and a half of baking powder as insurance. Commercial baking powder had been on British grocers' shelves since the mid-nineteenth century, but in books of this period it often appears alongside hand-beaten eggs rather than in place of them, which may be why the whites are whipped separately and folded in last. Walnuts were grown in Britain as well as imported, and lemon rind with a few drops of vanilla essence is a common Victorian flavouring pair for a rich butter cake. The plural title, against a method that plainly makes one large cake, is not unusual in dictionaries of this kind, where headings were often set as a class of cake rather than as a count of what came out of the tin.