Spice Cake
Blend two cups of sugar with one cup of butter. Add the yolks of three eggs, and one cup of sour milk, in which one teaspoon of Larkin Soda has been dissolved. Add three cups of flour, two and one-half teaspoons of Larkin Cinnamon, one-half teaspoon of Larkin Cloves, and the beaten whites of the eggs. Raisins, currants, citron, orange or lemon peel, or Larkin Shredded Cocoanut may be added to this formula in any desired proportion, with pleasing results.
A plain creamed butter cake leavened entirely by soda and sour milk, with no pan size, temperature or baking time given — all assumed knowledge in 1900. The proportions are sound; everything else you supply.
- Sour milkThis means naturally soured raw milk, thick and acidic. Pasteurised milk spoils rather than sours, so substitute a cup of buttermilk, or a cup of whole milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar stirred in and left ten minutes.
- Larkin SodaSimply baking soda, sold under the Larkin house brand. One teaspoon to a cup of sour milk is on the generous side; level it carefully, as excess soda leaves a soapy, faintly metallic taste and darkens the crumb.
- Oven and timeNothing is stated. A cake of this size wants a moderate oven, 350F, for 35 to 45 minutes in two 9-inch layers or 55 to 65 minutes in a tube pan, until a skewer comes out clean.
- PanThree cups of flour with two cups of sugar makes a large batter — roughly a 10-inch tube pan, a 9x13, or two to three round layers. Grease and flour, or line with parchment.
- Separated eggsThe whites are beaten and folded in last for lift. Fold them in gently after the flour, in two additions, and do not stir the batter down afterwards.
- Mixing orderAdd the soured milk and the flour alternately rather than all at once, beginning and ending with flour. Dumping a full cup of acidic liquid into creamed butter will curdle it, and the soda starts reacting the moment it meets the batter, so get it into the oven promptly.
- Fruit and peel"Any desired proportion" is optimistic. A cup to a cup and a half of mixed dried fruit is the practical ceiling before the cake sinks; toss it in a spoonful of the measured flour first so it stays suspended.
- SpiceTwo and a half teaspoons of cinnamon to half a teaspoon of cloves makes a distinctly cinnamon-forward cake, with the cloves in a supporting role. Ground spice loses potency within a year, so old jars will need a heavier hand.
- YieldAbout 16 to 20 servings from a single large cake.
Good Things to Eat came from the Larkin Company of Buffalo, New York, a soap manufacturer that grew into one of the great mail-order houses by selling household goods direct and giving premiums — furniture, china, whole rooms of it — to customers who bought in bulk through neighbourhood "Larkin Clubs." That explains the branded ingredients written into the recipe itself: the soda, the cinnamon, the cloves and the shredded cocoanut are all Larkin products, and the cookbook was as much a catalogue as a kitchen manual. The cake behind the advertising is older and thoroughly American: a sour-milk-and-soda spice cake of the sort that filled home cookbooks through the nineteenth century, when sour milk was an inevitable by-product of keeping milk without refrigeration and soda was the cheap, fast way to raise a batter. The optional raisins, currants, citron and candied peel push it toward the lighter end of the fruitcake family, a compromise between everyday cake and something fit for company.