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Fig Eclair
1/2 cup butter (scant) 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup milk 1 7/8 cups flour 3 teaspoons baking powder Whites 4 eggs 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Follow recipe for mixing butter cakes. Bake in shallow pans, put between layers Fig Filling, and sprinkle top with powdered sugar.
A plain white layer cake, split and filled with fig paste. The original assumes you know the standard butter-cake method and that a fig filling recipe sits nearby.
- The hinge: whites onlyThe four whites add lift and lightness alongside the baking powder, so beat them to soft, glossy peaks and fold them in last, after the flour. Stirred in they will deflate and the layers bake denser.
- Butter cake methodCream the butter and sugar until pale, then add the milk and the sifted flour and baking powder alternately in three or four additions, ending with flour. Fold in the whites and vanilla.
- 1 7/8 cups flourThat is 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons, roughly 225-235 g of all-purpose flour depending on how it is measured. Spoon it into the cup and level it rather than packing it.
- "Scant" butterA scant half cup means just under 8 tablespoons, around 105 g.
- Shallow pans and ovenThe original specifies only "shallow pans" and no temperature. Two 8-inch round or square pans, greased and floured, work; in a modern oven around 350F for 20 to 25 minutes, until the centre springs back and a tester comes out clean.
- Baking powder strengthThree teaspoons to under two cups of flour is generous by current standards, and period powders were single-acting rather than double-acting. Two teaspoons may give a better crumb and less chance of a metallic aftertaste.
- Fig fillingChopped dried figs simmered with sugar, water and lemon juice until thick and spreadable is the standard version of the era. Let it cool completely or it will soak the layers.
- Assembly and yieldFill while the layers are cold, then dust the top through a sieve with powdered sugar; the recipe calls for no icing. Two layers serve eight to ten.