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Sponge Cream Cake
Three eggs, one cup sugar, one heaping cup of flour, one teaspoon of baking powder, four tablespoons cold water. Beat well and flavor to taste.
— Mrs. George L. Cowles
A terse village contribution that assumes the cook already knows how a sponge layer behaves. Everything about pan, oven and filling has to be supplied.
- The hinge is the eggsWith no butter and only four tablespoons of water, the eggs carry most of the structure alongside the teaspoon of baking powder. Beat the whole eggs with the sugar until pale, thick and ribboning off the beater — five to eight minutes with a mixer — then fold in the flour by hand. "Beat well" applied to the finished batter would knock the air out.
- A heaping cup of flourCup measures of the period were often scooped rather than levelled, so a heaping cup might run to something on the order of 5 to 5 1/2 oz (about 150 g), though a heaping measure is inherently imprecise. Weigh rather than guess; a sponge this lean is unforgiving of excess flour.
- Baking powder of the periodBaking powder of this era was single-acting rather than double-acting, and its strength varied from brand to brand. One level teaspoon of modern powder is ample for this quantity, and the batter should go into the oven promptly.
- OvenNo temperature is given. A sponge of this type wants a moderate oven, 350F, for 18 to 22 minutes in two 8-inch layers, or 25 to 30 minutes in a single 8-inch pan. It is done when the top springs back and the edges just begin to pull from the pan.
- PansGrease and flour, or line with parchment. Do not use a tube pan and do not invert to cool as you would an angel food cake — this batter contains baking powder and yolks, and is not structured for hanging.
- Flavor to tasteUsually a teaspoon of vanilla, or lemon extract with a little grated rind. Add it with the water, not after the flour is in.
- The missing creamThe name refers to the assembly, not the batter: the layers are split or stacked and filled with a cooked cream filling — a vanilla pastry cream — or with sweetened whipped cream. No filling is specified here. Fill only after the layers are completely cool, and refrigerate a whipped-cream or custard-filled cake.
- YieldTwo thin 8-inch layers, serving eight to ten once filled. The cake is dry by the second day; it is meant to be eaten the day it is made.
Community cookbooks like this one ran on shorthand: a contributor gave the proportions and trusted her neighbors to know the rest. "Sponge cream cake" is a name for the assembly rather than the batter — a plain butterless sponge, baked in layers and filled with cooked cream or whipped cream, a format sometimes called Boston cream cake and often said to be related to what is now sold as Boston cream pie. That Mrs. Cowles felt no need to specify oven, pan, time or filling is itself the historical detail: her readers were expected to know, and the fussy part of a cake like this was never the batter.