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Variety Cake
Two cups of flour, one and one-half cups sugar, one-half cup of butter, one-half cup of milk, three eggs, two teaspoons baking powder. To one-third of this mixture add one teaspoon of cloves, one teaspoon of cinnamon, one-half teaspoon of nutmeg, one-half cup chopped raisins. Bake in three tins, putting together with vanilla frosting, dark layer in center.
— Mrs. J. I. Woodruff
A standard turn-of-the-century butter cake split into light and dark layers — what many books call a marble or "ribbon" cake. The method is assumed rather than stated, so the gaps are worth filling before you start.
- The method is impliedNothing in the receipt tells you to cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, then add the flour and milk alternately — but that is what a cake of this proportion expects. Sift the baking powder with the flour.
- Divide before spicingThe hinge of the recipe: mix the plain batter completely, then weigh or scoop out one-third and stir the cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins into that portion only. Spicing the whole bowl by accident cannot be undone.
- OvenNo temperature or time is given, and the receipt does not use the term 'moderate oven'. For thin layers of this kind a moderate oven, in the region of 350F, is a reasonable modern choice; check them early, as shallow layers can be done well before 25 minutes.
- Three tinsProbably eight- or nine-inch rounds, though no size is given. Two cups of flour spread over three pans gives quite shallow layers, with the dark spice layer set in the middle as the recipe directs.
- Butter and measuringHalf a cup of butter is 4 oz, one modern stick. Cup measures of the period were not fully standardised and may not match the modern 8 fl oz cup exactly, but in a cake raised with baking powder small variation is not critical.
- Chopped raisinsChopping matters more than it sounds: whole raisins sink through a thin layer and stick to the pan. Toss them in a spoonful of the measured flour first.
- The frostingVanilla frosting here would mean a simple boiled or confectioners'-sugar icing. The receipt specifies it only for putting the layers together and gives no quantity; if you also want to cover the top, figure on about 3 cups of powdered sugar with butter, milk and vanilla.
- YieldOne three-layer cake, 10 to 12 slices.
Layer cakes built from a single batter, part of it darkened with spice and fruit, appear in American community cookbooks of the later nineteenth century under names such as ribbon cake, marble cake or, as here, variety cake. They depended on reliable chemical baking powder, sold commercially from the mid-nineteenth century, and on shallow tin layer pans. The appeal was economy of effort: one bowl of batter and a cake that looked like it had taken far more trouble when cut. The attribution to Mrs. J. I. Woodruff is typical of compiled cookbooks of the kind, which were assembled from contributed receipts credited to their donors.