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Lily Cake
1/3 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup milk 1 3/4 cups flour 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder Whites 3 eggs 1/3 teaspoon lemon extract 2/3 teaspoon vanilla Follow recipe for mixing butter cakes.
A plain white butter cake, given in shorthand because the book expects you to already know the creaming method it calls "mixing butter cakes." The whole point of the recipe is whiteness, which comes from using only the egg whites and keeping the batter light.
- The method it assumesA standard creaming procedure: cream the butter with the sugar until pale, add the flour sifted with the baking powder alternately with the milk, stir in the extracts, then fold in the whites beaten to soft peaks last. Folding rather than beating at that stage is what keeps the crumb tender. The book's own general directions for butter cakes should be consulted for the exact order.
- Egg whitesThree whites from modern large eggs is about 3 fluid ounces (90 ml). Beat them until they hold a soft peak that just bends over; stiff, dry whites will streak the batter and leave tunnels.
- Baking powderTwo and a half teaspoons to 1 3/4 cups flour is generous by current standards. Two teaspoons of modern double-acting powder gives ample lift and less risk of a faintly metallic aftertaste.
- ButterOne-third cup is about 5 1/3 tablespoons, or 75 g. Have it at cool room temperature, around 65F, or it will not hold air when creamed.
- OvenThe book gives none. Bake at 350F. Two 8-inch layers take 20 to 25 minutes; a single loaf or 8-inch square wants 35 to 40.
- FlourThe recipe specifies only "flour." Cake flour gives a finer, whiter crumb here; if using all-purpose, remove two tablespoons per cup and replace with cornstarch.
- YieldEnough for two thin 8-inch layers or one 8-inch square, serving eight to ten. It is a modest cake; the recipe itself gives no icing.
White cakes carried names like "Lily," "Snow," "Bride's" and "Silver" cake through the late nineteenth century, all trading on the same selling point: a crumb pale enough to be worth remarking on. That pallor depended on chemical baking powder, refined white sugar and finely bolted white flour, all comparatively recent in ordinary kitchens, and on finding a use for the leftover yolks, often a companion "gold cake." These manuals expected the reader to learn one master method for butter cakes and then vary the flavouring, which is exactly what this terse entry does with its lemon and vanilla.