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Sponge Cake
Two cups of sifted flour, one and a half cups of pulverized sugar, a half cup of cold water, two tablespoons of lemon juice, two teaspoons of baking powder, four eggs. Beat the yolks, add sugar, half to yolks and half to whites; when both have been well beaten, stir gently together and then add water and flour.
Do not beat, and bake till the cake leaves the side of the pan. This is the "invalid's own," and is very good, no matter how dry it becomes.
A fatless sponge, leavened by beaten eggs with a little baking powder as insurance. The original gives no oven temperature and no pan, so both need supplying.
- The hinge: fold, never beatOnce the sugared yolks and sugared whites are combined, everything after that is folding with a spatula or large spoon. The instruction "do not beat" is the whole method — the air whipped into the eggs is the only real lift, and stirring the flour in vigorously will knock it out.
- Pulverized sugarIn American books of this period the word means sugar ground finer than granulated; the nearest modern equivalent is superfine or caster sugar, though period usage was not consistent. It is not modern confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch and would change the crumb.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, and no pan or time either. A sponge of this kind wants 325-350F; hotter and the crust sets before the centre rises. If baking it in a 9-inch tube pan allow roughly 35-45 minutes, or about 30 for two 8-inch layers, but both pan and timing are supplied here, not in the original.
- Pan preparationDo not grease the sides. A fatless sponge climbs by gripping the pan. Cool it upside down in the pan so it does not collapse under its own weight.
- FlourHousehold flour of this period varied, and some was softer than modern all-purpose. Cake flour is the safer choice here; if using all-purpose, replace two tablespoons per cup with cornstarch, and sift more than once as directed.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons is generous for a cake leavened chiefly by beaten eggs, and reflects the variable single-acting powders of the day. Modern powder is more reliable, so one and a half teaspoons is ample and leaves less aftertaste.
- YieldEnough for a 9-inch tube cake, ten to twelve slices, if that is the pan chosen. With no butter or oil it stales quickly but keeps reasonably well without turning rancid -- hence the remark that it is good however dry it becomes.
Many American cookbooks of the late nineteenth century carried a chapter on invalid cookery, written for a period when the sick were nursed at home for weeks and diet was one of the few treatments a household could actually administer. The foods in those chapters share a logic: bland, low in fat, easy to swallow, and thought to be easily digested -- beef tea, gruels, milk toast, wine jellies, and sponge cake. A sponge contains no butter, which was part of what recommended it, since rich food was generally held to burden a weakened stomach. The practical virtue noted at the end is just as much to the point: a cake with no butter in it keeps for days, so a single baking could supply a sickroom through a long convalescence.