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Mary Ann Sponge Cake
Beat 2 egg whites until stiff and dry, and add 1/4 cup sugar slowly while beating. Beat 2 egg yolks, add 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vinegar and 2 teaspoons water and beat until light. Combine mixtures, and fold in gently 1/2 cup pastry flour sifted with 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. Cream 1 tablespoon lard with 1 tablespoon flour and spread inside of rim of Mary Ann cake pan. Cover center with greased paper. Put in cake mixture. Bake at 345 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove carefully from pan, remove paper and fill with maple charlotte or whipped cream. If a Mary Ann cake pan is not available, bake twice this mixture in a bread pan or deep round cake pan. Cool and remove center leaving a box.
A two-egg sponge shell meant to be filled at the table. The recipe is tiny by modern standards and the pan it calls for is the one thing you almost certainly do not own.
- The Mary Ann panA shallow round pan with a domed or raised center, so the baked cake comes out as a ring with a broad well for filling. A shortcake or flan pan with a raised bottom does the same job; failing that, follow the recipe's own fallback and hollow out a deeper cake.
- Oven temperature345F is an oddly precise figure. Set 350F and check at 22 to 25 minutes; a thin sponge in a wide pan colors fast.
- Vinegar and baking powderThe teaspoon of vinegar is there for acidity and tenderness, not leavening in any real sense, and it will not be tasted. Do not leave out the quarter teaspoon of baking powder either; with only two eggs there is little structural help elsewhere.
- Pastry flourPastry flour is roughly 8 to 9 percent protein. Cake flour is a close substitute; for all-purpose, measure a scant half cup and replace one tablespoon of it with cornstarch.
- Lard for the panThe lard-and-flour paste is a period pan release. Softened butter or shortening worked with flour behaves the same way, and the greased paper over the raised center is what actually lets the cake lift free.
- FoldingThe hinge of the recipe. Both egg mixtures are beaten to hold air, and the flour goes in with a spatula in as few strokes as will incorporate it. Overworking at this stage gives a flat, tough shell that will not hold a filling.
- YieldAs written this makes one small shell serving four at most. The doubled version baked in a bread pan or deep round pan is the more practical amount for a luncheon table.
- FillingMaple charlotte would have been a maple-flavored cream dessert of the period, typically set with gelatin. Whipped cream is the simpler option, and either should go in shortly before serving or the sponge softens.
The Mary Ann pan was one of a family of specialty tins sold for cakes designed around a filling: a raised center produced a ring with a shallow basin, ready for cream, custard or fruit. The attraction of such shapes for luncheon and supper entertaining is plain enough -- the shell could be baked ahead and filled at the last minute. Where the name came from is not known.