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Sour Cream Cake
Two cups of brown sugar One-half cup of butter One cup of sour milk One cup of sour cream Four cups of flour Three teaspoons of Larkin Soda One teaspoon of Larkin Cloves Three teaspoons of Larkin Cinnamon One-half teaspoon of Larkin Almond Flavoring Extract One-half teaspoon of Larkin Orange Flavoring Extract Two cups of raisins One-half pound of citron One-fourth pound of orange peel One-fourth pound of lemon peel
This is an ingredient list rather than a method, which was normal in branded premium booklets where the reader was assumed to know how a fruit cake batter goes together. The proportions tell you most of what you need.
- No method is givenTreat it as a standard creamed batter: butter and brown sugar beaten together, sour milk and sour cream added, spices and soda sifted with the flour, extracts stirred in, fruit floured and folded last. The fruit should be tossed in a little of the measured flour so it does not sink.
- The soda is the hingeThree teaspoons of soda for four cups of flour is a great deal even with two cups of acid dairy; roughly a teaspoon is enough to neutralise that much soured dairy. Measured level with a modern boxed bicarbonate, the full three teaspoons risks a soapy taste and a darkened crumb, and 1 to 1.5 teaspoons is nearer the mark for this much flour.
- Sour milk and sour creamBoth meant naturally clabbered raw dairy, tangy and thinner than what those names cover now. Buttermilk stands in for the sour milk; for the cream, use full-fat sour cream or creme fraiche, loosened with a spoonful of buttermilk if it is very stiff.
- Larkin productsLarkin Soda is plain bicarbonate of soda, and Larkin Cloves, Cinnamon and the almond and orange extracts are simply ground spices and flavouring extracts. No substitution issue beyond the soda quantity above.
- No eggsThe recipe genuinely contains none; the lift comes entirely from soda reacting with the sour dairy. Expect a dense, close, gingerbread-like crumb rather than a light cake, and mix quickly once the soda is wet.
- Candied fruit weightsHalf a pound of citron plus a quarter pound each of orange and lemon peel is a full pound of candied peel, sold then in solid slabs to be sliced thin. Buy whole peel and cut it yourself if you can; the pre-diced kind is drier and more sugary.
- Pan and ovenThis makes a large batter, roughly a 10-inch tube pan or two to three loaf tins. The recipe gives no oven direction; a slow to moderate oven of about 325F, for well over an hour for a tube pan and tested from about 70 minutes, suits it, since a hot oven will set the outside long before the fruited centre is done.
- Yield and keepingAbout 20 to 24 slices. Like most heavily fruited, acid-dairy cakes it improves after a day or two wrapped closely, and the brown sugar keeps it moist for a week.
The repeated brand names mark this as a page from a promotional recipe booklet rather than a general cookbook: the ingredient list doubles as a shopping list, and every spice, extract and even the bicarbonate of soda is specified by maker. Larkin, of Buffalo, built its business selling soap and household goods by mail with premiums attached, and cookery pamphlets were a standard way of putting a whole pantry of its groceries into a housewife's hands at once. The cake itself belongs to an older thrift tradition: before mechanical refrigeration, milk and cream soured as a matter of course, and bakers used the acid deliberately to raise a batter with soda instead of eggs or yeast. Loading it with citron and candied peel turns an everyday sour-cream cake into something fit for company or a holiday table, which is generally where cakes of this size and spicing were served.