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A Delicate Cake for Tea
Beat the yolks and whites of two eggs separately; to the yolks add two coffee-cups of sugar, and two cupfuls of sweet milk; then four tablespoonfuls butter creamed; next the white of the eggs, lastly, four cupfuls of flour with one teaspoonful soda, two teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, sifted in the flour. Bake in shallow pans.--Mrs. C. V. Mc G.
A plain, lean tea cake in the American 19th-century style: little butter, a lot of flour, and homemade baking powder mixed in the dry ingredients. Baked in shallow pans it comes out closer to a sheet cake than a layer cake.
- Coffee-cup vs. cupThe recipe uses both measures, which may mean they were not identical in Mrs. Mc G.'s kitchen. Nineteenth-century cup measures were not standardised, and sources disagree about how a coffee-cup compared with a teacup or with a modern 8 oz cup, so the sugar quantity is uncertain. Weigh it if you want repeatability.
- Sweet milkWhole milk, not soured or buttermilk. The distinction mattered because soured milk called for soda alone; here the leavening is supplied separately.
- The leaveningOne teaspoon soda with two teaspoons cream of tartar is essentially homemade baking powder. If substituting, the equivalent depends on the conversion used -- somewhere around 3 to 4 teaspoons of double-acting baking powder. Sift it thoroughly through the flour as directed, since undispersed soda can leave bitter spots.
- ButterFour tablespoons for four cups of flour is very little by modern standards. "Creamed" means beaten soft and smooth before it goes in; softened, not melted, or the batter will not hold air.
- Order of mixingThe batter is built in an unusual order, with the sugar and milk on the yolks before the butter. Follow it as written, then fold the beaten whites in gently and add the flour last with as little stirring as will combine it.
- FlavouringNone is given, which was normal for a plain tea cake meant to be eaten with preserves. A teaspoon of vanilla, a little grated lemon rind, or a scrape of nutmeg is in keeping.
- Oven and pansShallow pans means jelly-roll or square cake pans about an inch deep. Bake at 350-375F for roughly 20-25 minutes, until the top springs back and a straw comes out clean.
- YieldThe quantities make a large cake: enough for two 9-inch square pans or one half-sheet, serving 16 or more. It is best the day it is baked, as low-fat batters stale quickly.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1877), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, is full of these signed, telegraphic cake recipes, and this one is typical: measured in cups rather than weights, leavened with soda and cream of tartar bought separately, and named for the occasion rather than the ingredients. Commercial baking powder existed by the 1870s, though soda and cream of tartar kept separately remained common in home recipes of the period; concerns about adulterated baking powder were voiced at the time, but how far that shaped any individual household's practice is not something the recipe can tell us. A "cake for tea" belonged to the afternoon or evening tea table, where plainness was the point: something to slice and eat with butter, jelly or fruit rather than a rich frosted cake for company.