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Sponge Cake
Take half a pound of loaf sugar, rub the rind of a lemon on 2 or 3 of the lumps, and crush the whole to powder. Then take 5 eggs, separate the whites from the yolks, and beat the latter for twenty minutes; then shake in the sugar gradually, and beat together. Stir in 6 ounces of flour, with about 20 drops of the essence of almonds, vanilla, and lemon. Beat the whites to a solid froth, and add them to the rest. Fill a well-oiled tin about half-full, and bake in a quick oven. Time to bake, about an hour. Sufficient for a moderate-sized mould.
A leavening-free sponge that rises on beaten egg alone, so the aeration of the yolks and the folding of the whites are the whole recipe. The instruction that matters most is the beating: twenty minutes of yolks and sugar by hand is not padding, it is the structure.
- Loaf sugar and the lemonLoaf sugar was hard refined sugar sold in cones or cut lumps; rubbing the lemon rind against a lump abrades out the peel oil and colours the sugar yellow. Use 8 oz (about 1 1/8 cups) granulated sugar, and rub the zest into a few tablespoons of it with your fingers before combining.
- Weights to volumeHalf a pound of sugar is 8 oz; 6 oz of flour is roughly 1 1/3 cups of plain flour, spooned and levelled. Weighing is worth it here, since a heavy flour hand collapses an unleavened sponge.
- The essences"About 20 drops of the essence of almonds, vanilla, and lemon" is genuinely ambiguous — it may mean 20 drops in total or 20 of each. Twenty drops is roughly 1/4 teaspoon; a total of 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon split among the three is in keeping with the period, and 20 drops of each would be assertive but not ruinous.
- Almond essenceNineteenth-century almond essence was commonly made from bitter almonds or other stone kernels, and in that form could carry real risk in quantity. Modern almond extract is made from benzaldehyde, synthetic or with the prussic acid removed, and is safe; use it and do not attempt the older article.
- Oven, and the contradiction in itA "quick oven" is roughly 400-425F, which will not hold a deep sponge for an hour without burning it. A cake of this size wants 325-350F for 45-60 minutes; the high heat suits only a shallow tin baked briefly.
- The tin"Well-oiled" is the period practice but works against a sponge, which needs to climb the sides. Grease the base only, or line it, and leave the walls bare. Half-full is right — the batter roughly doubles.
- FoldingAdd the whites in three additions, cutting through and lifting rather than stirring. Everything the cake will rise by is already in the bowl at this point.
- Doneness and yieldA "moderate-sized mould" is about a 7-8 inch round or a 2-quart tube tin. It is done when the top springs back and a skewer comes out clean; cool it in the tin, inverted if the tin allows. Serves 8 to 10.
Sponge cake is among the older egg-raised English cakes, predating chemical leavening entirely — the whole lift comes from air whipped into eggs and held by the flour, which is why the recipe insists on twenty minutes of beating rather than a spoonful of anything. The lemon here is handled the old way, by rubbing rind against sugar lumps: before bottled extracts were reliable and cheap, that abrasion was a common household method of capturing citrus oil, and it survives in modern kitchens as rubbing zest into granulated sugar.