Cinnamon Cake
Two cups of brown sugar One-half cup of butter Three eggs-reserve one white for icing One cup of water One-half teaspoon of Larkin Ginger Two teaspoons of Larkin Cinnamon Three cups of flour Two teaspoons of Larkin Baking Powder Icing. Make a syrup of one cup of brown sugar and onefourth cup of water. Add two teaspoons of Larkin Cinnamon. When the syrup strings, pour it over the beaten white of one egg and beat until thoroughly blended.
A brown-sugar spice cake from a manufacturer's booklet, which means the ingredient list is complete but the method is almost entirely assumed. Here is what the original leaves out.
- Larkin productsLarkin was a Buffalo mail-order house that sold its own spices and baking powder alongside soap. Any ordinary ground cinnamon, ground ginger and double-acting baking powder will do; the quantities are standard.
- Mixing methodNone is given because it was assumed: cream the butter with the brown sugar, beat in two whole eggs and one yolk, then add the flour sifted with the baking powder and spices alternately with the water. Brown sugar should be firmly packed.
- Pan and ovenThree cups of flour makes two 8-inch layers or one 9x13 pan. Bake at 350F, roughly 30 minutes for layers and 35-40 for the sheet, until a skewer comes out clean.
- "When the syrup strings"This is the thread stage, 230-235F on a candy thermometer, when a drizzle from the spoon trails a thin thread. Below it the icing stays soupy; much above it turns grainy and sets before it is spread.
- Beating the icingHave the single white beaten to soft peaks before the syrup is ready, and pour the syrup in a thin steady stream at the side of the bowl while beating. A hand mixer takes five to seven minutes to reach a glossy icing stiff enough to hold a swirl.
- The egg whiteThread-stage syrup heats the white but does not reliably pasteurize it. Anyone cooking for the very young, the elderly or the immune-compromised should use pasteurized whites.
- YieldA two-layer cake serving 10 to 12. The cinnamon syrup icing is enough for the top and sides of one layer cake, not for a generous filling as well.
The Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo built its business on the premium system: buy a box of soap by mail, receive a household article free, and eventually a whole catalogue of Larkin groceries, spices and extracts followed the soap into American kitchens. Recipe booklets like this one existed to keep those tins moving, which is why the brand name is attached to the cinnamon, the ginger and the baking powder but not to the flour or the eggs. The cake itself is a plain nineteenth-century spice cake of the sort made without milk, using water as the liquid and brown sugar for both moisture and flavor — cheap, keeping well, and forgiving of a wood-fired oven. The boiled cinnamon icing is a frugal touch: the white reserved from the third egg is not wasted, and the same spice does duty twice.