Molasses Cake
3 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup sugar 3/4 cup molasses 1 1/2 cups sifted pastry flour 2 tablespoons browned flour 1/4 cup oil Break the eggs into a mixing bowl, add the salt, and set the bowl in a pan of hot water. Beat the eggs till they are light and stiff. Gradually beat in the sugar and beat till the batter is very stiff. Have the molasses heating while the eggs are being beaten. When the egg and sugar mixture is beaten very stiff, pour the boiling molasses in a fine stream into the eggs, and fold it in with a wire folder. As the hot, frothy molasses is folded in, the batter rises considerably. Then beat in the oil. Next fold the white and browned flour into this batter according to the directions for folding in the flour in the preceding recipe. Pour the mixture into two small bread tins, into the bottom of which oiled paper has been fitted. Bake in a very moderate oven. Anything made with molasses scorches very easily. The cake will be nicer if baked as a thin cake than if baked as a deep loaf.
This is a hot-syrup sponge cake, closer to a genoise than to a soft molasses loaf: there is no baking soda or powder in it, so all of the lift comes from the eggs and from the foaming action of boiling molasses poured into them.
- The hinge: keep the eggs hot and the molasses boilingThe eggs are beaten over hot water so the foam stays warm and elastic, and the molasses must be at a full boil when it goes in, added in a thin stream while you fold. Cool molasses will deflate the foam and the cake will bake dense and gummy, since nothing else is leavening it.
- "Very moderate oven"Probably somewhere in the region of 300 to 325F; the book gives no figures, so this is an estimate. The warning about scorching is real -- the sugars in molasses darken well before the crumb is set, so keep the pans on a middle rack and check the bottoms.
- Browned flourPlain flour toasted in a dry heavy pan or a shallow tin in the oven, stirred until it is the color of a hazelnut shell, then cooled and sifted. It contributes a faintly roasted flavor and has weakened gluten; make it ahead so it is cool going into the batter.
- Pastry flourA soft low-protein flour. If you have none, use 1 1/4 cups all-purpose plus 1/4 cup cornstarch, sifted together twice, for the 1 1/2 cups called for.
- OilUse a neutral oil. Using oil in place of butter here is consistent with health-reform baking, and the oil also keeps the crumb tender in a batter with no chemical leavening.
- Pans and paper"Two small bread tins" would have been modest loaf pans; sizes varied. Use parchment in place of the oiled paper, cut to the pan bottoms rather than lining the sides. Follow the author's own advice and use shallow pans -- an 8-inch square or two 8-inch rounds bake more evenly than a deep loaf.
- Timing and yieldThin layers will likely need roughly 20 to 25 minutes; a filled bread tin will want considerably longer and risks a scorched crust. Go by the cake rather than the clock: it is done when the top springs back and a tester comes out clean. The batter makes about eight to ten servings.
- FoldingUse a wire whisk or a large flexible spatula and fold in thirds, cutting down through the center and lifting. Sift the white and browned flour together over the surface so it does not fall in clumps that must be beaten out.