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Flour Mixtures Continued: Cake: Yolks
MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE 1/3 cup of butter 1 3/4 teaspoonfuls of baking 1/2 cup of sugar powder Yolks of 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoonful cinnamon 1/2 cup of sugar 1/2 teaspoonful mace or nutmeg 1/2 cup of hot mashed potato 1/4 teaspoonful clove 1 ounce of chocolate, melted 1/2 cup of walnut meats, 1/4 cup sweet milk chopped fine 1 cup of sifted flour Whites of 2 eggs, beaten dry Cream the butter and beat in first half cup of sugar; beat the yolks of eggs, beat in the second half cup of sugar and beat the two mixtures together; add the potato and chocolate and finish in the usual manner. Bake in a sheet or in layers. Finish with any frosting desired.
The ingredient list was set in two columns and has run together in transcription; read it as butter, sugar, egg yolks, a second sugar, mashed potato, chocolate, milk, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, mace or nutmeg, clove, walnuts, and egg whites. The instructions assume a cook who already knows the standard butter-cake method.
- "Finish in the usual manner"In the standard butter-cake method this would mean sifting the flour with the baking powder and spices and adding it to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk, then stirring in the walnuts and folding in the beaten whites in last.
- The mashed potatoPresumably plain potato, boiled and riced or mashed while hot; the recipe does not say whether it is seasoned. It is there for moisture and a fine, close crumb, and the starch would be expected to help the cake keep. Half a cup is roughly one medium potato.
- Add the potato hotHot potato blends more smoothly into the creamed butter and works into the batter; cold mashed potato is apt to set into lumps that will not beat out.
- The chocolateOne ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and slightly cooled. Baking chocolate of the period was generally unsweetened; modern semi-sweet or chips will throw the sugar balance and mute the spice.
- "Sweet milk" and "beaten dry"Sweet milk simply means fresh whole milk as opposed to soured or buttermilk. Whites "beaten dry" means stiff, just to the point where they hold a firm peak and no longer slide in the bowl, not beaten past that into a grainy, curdled mass.
- Oven and panThe recipe specifies no temperature; a moderate oven, about 350F, suits a cake of this size. In an 8-inch square or round sheet allow roughly 30 to 35 minutes; in two thin 8-inch layers roughly 18 to 22 minutes. Test with a skewer in the centre.
- YieldThis is a small-household cake: an 8-inch sheet giving six to eight modest squares, or two thin layers. A light boiled frosting or a plain confectioners' sugar and butter frosting suits it; the spicing already carries the cake.
Potato in cake sounds like wartime economy, but chocolate potato cake appears in American cookbooks before the first world war and survives in community cookbooks to this day. The starch holds water in the crumb, which would help the cake keep in a kitchen with no refrigeration. The generous cinnamon, mace and clove are in keeping with other American chocolate cakes of the period.