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Orange Cakes
1 C sugar 3 level T butter 2 eggs 1½ C flour beating after each egg. muffin pans in hot oven. 1/2 C orange juice 1½ t baking powder Rind of 1 orange Cream sugar and butter and drop eggs in whole, one at a time, Then add other ingredients. Bake in smallest When baked sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Mrs. N. M. Simen.
Quality Lookfor the brand "Swift's Premium"
The page has been set in two columns and read straight across, so the ingredients and method are interleaved. Untangled, it is a small butter cake batter flavoured with orange, baked in miniature muffin tins.
- The list, sorted out1 cup sugar, 3 level tablespoons butter, 2 eggs, 1½ cups flour, ½ cup orange juice, 1½ teaspoons baking powder, and the grated rind of 1 orange. The stray phrases "beating after each egg" and "muffin pans in hot oven" belong to the method, not the ingredients.
- The method in orderCream sugar and butter, drop in the eggs whole one at a time and beat after each, then add the remaining ingredients. Bake in the smallest muffin pans in a hot oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar when baked.
- "Hot oven"In a book of this vintage that means roughly 400-425F. Small cakes this size need 12-15 minutes; test at 12, since the sugar-heavy batter browns quickly at the edges.
- Smallest muffin pansPeriod gem pans varied in size, but the smaller ones are roughly comparable to a modern mini-muffin tin. Expect 24 or so small cakes, or about 12 in a standard tin with the time pushed to 18-20 minutes.
- Butter quantity is low by modern habitThree tablespoons to a cup of sugar and 1½ cups flour gives a lean, almost sponge-like crumb rather than a rich cupcake.
- No salt is listedHousehold baking of the period often relied on salted butter to supply it. If using unsalted butter, add a scant ¼ teaspoon.
- Rind before juiceGrate the zest from the orange before cutting it. One large orange yields the rind called for but may fall short of ½ cup of juice; make up the difference with a second orange rather than water.
- The finishPowdered sugar sprinkled on warm cakes sinks in and sets; on cool cakes it stays powdery. The original says only "when baked," which may point to the former.
- The last line is an advertisement"Quality — Look for the brand Swift's Premium" is printer's filler sold to a meat packer, not part of Mrs. Simen's recipe.
Community and charity cookbooks of this kind were commonly compiled from recipes contributed by members, then set in narrow double columns to save space — which is how ingredient lists and instructions end up braided together in scans. Orange cakes appear often in American community books of the early twentieth century, a period in which Florida and California citrus was becoming a more dependable winter grocery inland. The advertising line at the foot of the page is the other half of how these books worked — local and national firms bought space, and the proceeds funded whatever the compilers were raising money for.