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Devil's Cake
1 cupful dark-brown sugar, 1/2 cupful butter, 1/2 cupful sweet milk, 1 teaspoonful soda, 2 cupfuls flour, 2 eggs. Mix well. 1 cupful chocolate, 1/2 cupful milk, 2/3 cupful dark-brown sugar, yolk of 1 egg. Put in pan and boil slightly, then mix all together. Bake in layers and put together with white icing.
A late-Victorian devil's cake in shorthand: a brown-sugar butter batter, plus a cooked chocolate paste stirred in at the end. The order matters more than the wording suggests.
- Make the chocolate paste firstThe chocolate, half cupful of milk, two-thirds cupful of brown sugar and egg yolk are cooked together into a thick, smooth paste and then mixed into the batter -- the recipe gives the batter first, then the cooked mixture. Let the paste cool to lukewarm before combining, or the eggs in the batter will begin to set.
- "1 cupful chocolate" is ambiguousIn a book of this period this most likely means unsweetened block chocolate, grated or chopped, rather than cocoa powder or chips. A cupful of grated chocolate is roughly 4 to 6 oz; the quantity is not stated precisely enough to be certain, so start at the lower end.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh, unsoured whole milk, named to distinguish it from the buttermilk or sour milk that many recipes of the era called for.
- Soda without added acidOne teaspoonful of baking soda for 2 cupfuls of flour has no added acid ingredient, and relies on whatever acidity the dark brown sugar and unsweetened chocolate supply. Dutch-process (alkalized) chocolate is less acidic, so natural, non-alkalized chocolate is the closer match to what the recipe assumes.
- "Boil slightly"Bring the chocolate mixture just to a bubble over low heat, stirring constantly, and take it off as soon as it thickens. Held at a real boil with an egg yolk in it, it will curdle.
- Oven and tinsThe recipe gives no oven heat; a moderate oven, about 350F, suits it. The batter fills two 8-inch or 9-inch round tins; allow 25 to 30 minutes for 8-inch layers, 20 to 25 for 9-inch, until a skewer comes out clean.
- White icingA boiled icing, sugar syrup cooked to about 240F beaten into stiff egg whites, was one common period choice, though uncooked egg-white and sugar icings were also used. A plain confectioners' sugar and butter icing works if you prefer not to whip hot syrup.
- YieldOne two-layer cake, 10 to 12 slices.