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Spice Cake
4 ozs. (1½ cup) butter 4 ozs. (1/2 cup) sugar 1/2 lb. (2 cups) flour 1/2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 1 egg 1/2 teaspoonful powdered ginger 1/2 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon Some lemon marmalade
This entry is an ingredient list with the method left out, which was common in books that assumed the reader already knew how to make a plain cake. The proportions themselves are sound and read as a rubbed-in or creamed spice cake baked in an earthenware casserole.
- The casserole is the baking vesselNo vessel is named -- The entry gives ingredients only and specifies no dish. A buttered 1 to 1.5 quart round baking dish, or an 8-inch cake pan, will do the job; bake uncovered so the top can brown.
- Oven temperatureThe entry gives none. A small butter cake of this size will take a moderate oven, around 350F, for roughly 35 to 45 minutes; test with a skewer at the centre. If you use an earthenware dish rather than metal, expect the longer end of that range.
- The flour figureThe book equates 1/2 lb flour with 2 cups. By modern measure 8 oz of all-purpose flour is closer to 1 3/4 cups, and 2 loosely dipped cups can run over 9 oz. Weigh it at 8 oz if you can; the difference decides whether this is a cake or a biscuit.
- Ambiguous baking powder"1/2 teaspoonfuls baking powder" reads as a misprint, the plural suggesting a dropped numeral, so it may be half a teaspoon or one and a half. For 8 oz of flour with one egg and no other leavening, 1.5 teaspoons is the proportion likelier to behave; half a teaspoon would give a dense, close crumb.
- There is no liquidHalf a cup each of butter and sugar with a single egg will not carry 8 oz of flour into a pourable batter. Some cakes of this shape were brought to a dropping consistency with a few tablespoons of milk; you may need to do the same.
- The marmalade"Some lemon marmalade" is unquantified and unplaced, the entry giving no method. It could be spread between two layers of the mixture in the dish or warmed and brushed over the top after baking. Roughly 3 to 4 tablespoons would be enough; more risks sinking and staying wet.
- SpicesHalf a teaspoon each of ginger and cinnamon is mild by current taste. Freshly opened jars at these quantities give a clearly spiced but restrained cake.
- YieldAbout eight small servings. It keeps better than a plain sponge, the sugar and marmalade holding moisture for two or three days in a tin.
The cake itself is an ordinary English spice cake, lightened with baking powder rather than long beating, and the lemon marmalade belongs to a period when a jar of marmalade was the most reliable sweet preserve in a household store cupboard and was used far beyond the breakfast table.