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Jelly Cake
Beat 3 eggs well, whites and yolks separately; take a cupful of fine white sugar and beat in well with yolks, and 1 cupful sifted flour, stirred in gently; then stir in the whites, a little at a time, 1 teaspoonful baking-powder, and 1 tablespoonful milk; pour into three jelly-cake plates and bake from five to ten minutes in a well-heated oven; when cold spread with currant jelly, place one layer on top of the other, and sift powdered sugar on top.
A fatless sponge baked in three thin layers and stacked with jelly — quick to mix, quick to bake, and easily ruined by overbaking. Have the pans greased and lined and the jelly stirred smooth before the whites go in.
- The hinge: do not overbakeThese layers are only a shallow film of batter, with no butter or oil to keep them moist. In a hot modern oven they will be done within the five to ten minutes the recipe allows, as soon as the surface springs back and the edges pull from the pan. A minute past that and they turn dry and leathery.
- "A well-heated oven"No temperature is given; a brisk modern oven, somewhere in the region of 375-400F, is the usual modern equivalent. The layers are thin enough to need brisk heat so they set before the foam collapses.
- Jelly-cake platesShallow round tins with a low rim, commonly somewhere around 8 to 9 inches across. Three 8-inch cake pans work; grease and line the bottoms with parchment, as a fatless sponge sticks readily.
- Cupful and tablespoonfulTake the cup as 8 fl oz: about 7 oz (200 g) sugar and about 4 oz (110-115 g) sifted flour. The single tablespoon of milk looks like too little, but it is what the recipe says.
- Order of mixingSift the baking powder into the flour rather than adding it separately at the end; scattering it over beaten whites gives streaks. Fold the whites in with a spatula in three additions and stop while a few streaks remain.
- Baking powder in 1900Baking powder -- Period powders may not have matched modern ones in strength or consistency, though this varied by brand. One level teaspoon of modern double-acting powder is plenty for a cup of flour in a batter already leavened by three beaten eggs.
- AssemblingLayers must be completely cool or the jelly will melt and run. Warm the currant jelly briefly and beat it smooth so it spreads without tearing the delicate crumb; a scant half cup per layer is enough.
- YieldThree thin 8-inch layers, giving a cake of about 8 to 10 modest slices. Best eaten the day it is made — with no fat in the crumb it stales fast.