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Inexpensive Sponge Cake
One cup of granulated sugar, one and one-half cups of flour with one scant teaspoon of baking powder sifted together three times. Three eggs beaten separately, one-half cup of cold water.
Pour about half the water on the sugar and then add yolks of eggs well beaten; add the remainder of the water and flour alternately, then add whites of eggs, stir lightly, put in pan and bake forty minutes. Mrs J. H. Avery.
A plain hot-water sponge of the sort that filled the cake chapter of every community cookbook. The original gives no oven temperature and no pan size, so both need supplying.
- Oven temperatureBake at 350F. Forty minutes at that heat suits the batter in a tube pan; a shallower pan will be done in 25 to 30 minutes.
- PanThe recipe names no pan. An ungreased tube pan suits this batter, and ungreased sides help an eggy batter climb. A single round layer pan also works but gives a flatter cake.
- Sifting three timesNot fussiness. Pre-1920s flour was coarser and less uniform, and three siftings both aerated it and distributed the small quantity of baking powder evenly. With modern all-purpose flour, one thorough sift with the baking powder is enough, though a second does no harm.
- "Beaten separately"Yolks beaten thick and pale, whites beaten to soft peaks that just hold their shape. Stiff, dry whites will break into lumps you cannot fold out.
- "Stir lightly"This is the hinge. The whites are the only real leavening here beyond a scant teaspoon of baking powder, so fold them in with a spatula in a few broad strokes and stop while a little white still shows. Beating them in flattens the cake.
- The waterCold water, as specified, dissolves the sugar into the yolks and thins the batter so it folds easily. Do not substitute milk; the lean batter is the point of an "inexpensive" cake made without butter.
- FlavoringNone is given. A teaspoon of vanilla or the grated zest of a lemon added with the yolks is in keeping, and such a cake takes well to fruit or a sauce.
- Doneness and coolingThe top should spring back and a skewer come out clean. Invert the pan and let the cake hang until completely cold before loosening it, or it will compress under its own weight.
- YieldOne tube cake, about 10 to 12 modest slices.
Sponge cakes built on beaten eggs rather than butter were a thrift baker's standby: eggs from the yard cost little in cash, while butter was a thing you could sell. Recipes of this type circulated under a variety of names, and the label "inexpensive" is doing real work, distinguishing this from richer pound and layer cakes. The attribution to Mrs J. H. Avery is characteristic of collections built from recipes sent in by contributors, which is why the instructions read like something dictated by a woman who has made the cake many times and sees no need to mention the oven.