Marshmallow Cake

A plain white layer cake built on the standard butter-cake method, with the whipped whites of five eggs doing the lifting alongside the baking powder. The recipe assumes you already know that method and that you have the book's Marshmallow Cream to hand.

• The hinge: fold, don't stir"Follow recipe for mixing butter cakes" means cream the butter and sugar, add the milk alternately with the sifted dry ingredients, then fold in the stiffly beaten whites last. Folding rather than beating the whites in preserves the lift they contribute, which works alongside the baking powder to keep the crumb light.
• OvenThe recipe gives no temperature or time. A moderate oven, about 350F for 20 to 25 minutes, suits shallow layers of this kind. They are done when the centre springs back and the edges have just begun to pull from the pan.
• Pans"Shallow pans" means two or three round layer tins about 8 inches across and 1 1/2 inches deep. Butter and flour them, or line the bottoms with parchment; the batter is lean in fat for its size and sticks readily.
• Cream of tartar with baking powderThe quarter teaspoon of cream of tartar adds a little acid alongside the baking powder, and acid is often credited with keeping a white crumb white. Three teaspoons of baking powder to two cups of flour is generous by modern practice, and a baker who finds the crumb too open could use less.
• SaltNo salt is listed; salted butter would have supplied some. With unsalted butter add 1/4 teaspoon to the flour.
• The frosting is a separate recipeMarshmallow Cream is given elsewhere in the book and is not reproduced here, so its exact composition cannot be described from this page. Any seven-minute or marshmallow-style frosting fills the same role, and it must go on while the layers are fully cool or it will slide.
• YieldTwo 8-inch layers, 10 to 12 servings. The five spare yolks will keep a day or two covered and are best spent on custard or mayonnaise.