Cake: Yolks
3/4 cupful flour, 1/2 cupful butter, 2/3 cupful milk, Yolks 5 eggs, 1 cupful sugar, Dash salt, cupful flour, teaspoonful cream of tartar, Whites 7 eggs, 1 lump sugar, 1 teaspoonful lemon juice, 1 tablespoonful orange juice.
Beat the yolks of eggs till thick and lemon-colored, and add the sugar and flour, sifted with the cream of tartar and salt. Rub the lump of sugar over the rind of lemon, then dissolve it in the fruit juice; this constitutes the flavoring which may be stirred in and followed by the whites of eggs whipped to a dry froth. Bake the cake in a deep pan.
New England Raspberry Cake. cupful butter, 1 cupful sugar, Yolks 2 eggs, cupful milk, 2 cupfuls flour, 1 teaspoonful Calumet baking powder.
This old-fashioned, delicious cake is baked in layers. Mix the butter and sugar to a cream, add the yolks of eggs well beaten and the milk; then stir in the flour, in which has been sifted the baking powder. Bake in jelly-cake pans. For the filling, crush slightly 1 quart raspberries, add whites 2 eggs, 1 cupful powdered sugar, and a few drops lemon juice. Whip until thick; spread between layers and over the top. To be eaten with cream.
The first recipe is a lemon-and-orange sponge leavened entirely by beaten egg white; the second is a butter layer cake with an uncooked raspberry cream. Several of the quantities in the ingredient lists have lost their fractions, so read the method for guidance and use the notes below.
- Missing fractionsThe sponge calls for "cupful flour" and the layer cake for "cupful butter" and "cupful milk" with no fraction given. A sponge of this type conventionally takes about 1 cup flour to 5 yolks and 7 whites; a butter layer cake of 2 cups flour and 1 cup sugar conventionally takes 1/2 cup butter and about 1/2 cup milk. Treat these as reconstructions, not as the book's figures.
- The hinge: fold, do not stirOnce the whites are whipped "to a dry froth" they are the only lift the sponge has, as there is no soda in the list. The recipe has the flavouring "stirred in and followed by" the whites, so the whites go in last; fold them in rather than beating them.
- Oven and pan for the spongeThe book says only "a deep pan", with no oven temperature or time. A deep round or tube pan will both serve. If baking today, around 325F for 45 to 55 minutes, until the top springs back, is a reasonable starting point.
- Cream of tartarWith no soda in the list, this is not acting as a leavener. It is an acid, and note that it is sifted in with the flour and salt rather than beaten into the whites, so it works on the batter, helping keep the crumb tender and pale. It is still sold under the same name.
- Rubbing sugar on the rindA lump of sugar dragged over a lemon picks up the oil from the skin, which carries more flavour than juice does. A tablespoon of granulated sugar rubbed with finely grated zest does the same job.
- Calumet baking powderA baking powder brand of the period, marketed as double-acting; the brand is still sold, though not necessarily in the same formulation. Any modern double-acting baking powder substitutes measure for measure.
- Jelly-cake pansShallow round tins, roughly 8 to 9 inches across and an inch deep. Two 8-inch cake pans work; bake at 350F for 18 to 22 minutes and expect thin layers.
- The raspberry filling contains raw egg whiteTwo unbeaten whites whipped with sugar and fruit are never heated at any point. Use pasteurised whites, or follow a current cooked-meringue or Swiss-meringue method, if the cake is for children, older eaters or anyone pregnant.
- YieldThe sponge serves 10 to 12. The layer cake gives two thin layers, about 8 servings, and the filling is generous enough to spread between and over the top as directed.
The raspberry layer cake belongs to a familiar tradition: butter, sugar, chemical leavening and a filling of crushed summer fruit, of a kind that spread once commercial baking powders reached grocers. That the book names Calumet by brand is telling. Household compendiums of this period were often built partly from manufacturers' pamphlet recipes, and a specific tin's name in the ingredient list may be a sign of where the text came from.