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Marshmallow Cake
1 egg, 1 1/2 cupfuls sugar, 1 tablespoonful butter, 1 cupful milk, 2 cupfuls flour, 1/4 teaspoonful salt, 2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder. Mix flour, salt, and baking-powder. Cream butter, add a quarter of the sugar, and beat. Add beaten egg and remainder of sugar, and beat four minutes. Add alternately flour and milk, beating well. Add vanilla, and bake in layer-cake pans in quick oven. Cut fine 1/2 pound marshmallows. Spread them between cake layers, and stand in open oven till they melt.
A plain one-egg layer cake with a filling of nothing but melted marshmallow. The batter is sugar-heavy and lean on fat, so it wants a short bake and a light hand.
- Quick ovenA quick oven is generally reckoned around 400-425F, which is at the top of what thin layers can take. Bake at 400F and check at 18 minutes; two 8-inch layers from this quantity should be done in 18-22.
- Open oven"stand in open oven till they melt" most likely means residual heat with the door open rather than direct heat. Turn the oven off, set the filled cake in for 3-5 minutes, and watch it -- once the marshmallow slumps and goes glossy it is done, and past that it runs out the sides.
- The vanillaVanilla is called for in the method but never listed. One teaspoon, added with the milk, is the usual proportion for a cake of this size.
- MarshmallowsHalf a pound is 8 oz. Modern marshmallows are likely firmer than the confectioner's marshmallow of the period; miniature ones melt more evenly than cut-up large ones, and about 4 cups loosely packed makes 8 oz.
- Butter quantityOne tablespoon of butter to two cups of flour is very little, even for a period layer cake. Expect a firm, close, almost sponge-like crumb rather than a tender one, and do not over-beat once the flour is in.
- Creaming a single tablespoonCreaming one tablespoon of butter with a quarter of the sugar is awkward by hand. Warm the butter to room temperature first, or start the egg and sugar together and beat the softened butter in afterwards; the four minutes of beating is doing most of the aerating here.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons for two cups of flour is in line with current practice, so no adjustment is needed. Mix it through the flour thoroughly before it meets the milk.
- YieldTwo 8-inch layers, serving 8 to 10. The recipe specifies no frosting, so the top is presumably left plain, though a dusting of powdered sugar suits it.