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Chocolate Cake II
1/2 cup butter 1/4 teaspoon soda 1 1/2 cups sugar 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1/2 cup milk Whites 5 eggs 2 1/4 cups flour 2 squares unsweetened chocolate, grated Cream the butter; add sugar gradually, milk, and flour mixed and sifted with soda and cream of tartar. Beat whites of eggs, and add to first mixture; then add chocolate, and beat thoroughly. Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven.
A late-nineteenth-century white-batter chocolate cake, leavened with soda and cream of tartar rather than commercial baking powder. The method is terse but complete; the main decisions left to you are pan size and how gently to handle the egg whites.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375F. Forty-five minutes suits two 8-inch layers or a single 9-inch square; in a deeper loaf pan this batter will want longer. Test with a skewer at the centre.
- Squares of chocolateA square is one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, so two squares is 2 oz. Grated cold chocolate stays in fine flecks; melting and cooling it first gives an even brown crumb, which is what most modern eaters expect.
- Soda and cream of tartarTogether these are homemade baking powder. If you would rather use a tin, substitute about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of double-acting baking powder and omit both. The original pair reacts on contact with the milk, so get the cake into the oven promptly.
- Butter measureHalf a cup is 4 oz or one American stick. Have it soft enough to cream but not oily, or the batter will not hold air.
- Egg whitesWhites of five large eggs run roughly 2/3 cup. Beat them only to soft, glossy peaks. The instruction to "beat thoroughly" after adding the chocolate is best read as folding in this case, or you will lose the lift the whites provide.
- Order of mixingAdd the milk and the sifted dry ingredients alternately in two or three additions rather than all at once; the batter is stiff and will curdle or lump if the liquid goes in as a single pour.
- YieldAbout 10 to 12 slices. The crumb is firm and dry-ish by modern standards and benefits from a filling or a boiled icing.