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Castle Puddings
2 ounces of butter 2 ounces flour 1 1/2 ounces sugar 1/2 lemon rind 1 teaspoon baking powder Beat the butter and sugar until it is like cream, then add the grated lemon rind. Put in the flour, to which has been added the baking powder, a little at a time, beating it well as the flour is added. Butter some small molds, and bake fifteen minutes. Serve with sweet or lemon sauce. Angelica handles and crystallized cherries may be added if desired, to form into little baskets.
A small-batch sponge baked in dariole molds, but the ingredient list as printed is incomplete — read the note on eggs before you start.
- The missing eggsCastle puddings are a creamed sponge, and comparable versions generally run about one egg per two ounces of butter. With no liquid at all, this batter would be a stiff paste that cannot rise; eggs have almost certainly dropped out of the printed list. Two, beaten in after the butter and sugar are creamed, gives roughly the consistency the method assumes.
- Weights, not cupsTwo ounces of butter is half a stick, 2 ounces of flour is a scant half cup, and 1 1/2 ounces of sugar is about 3 tablespoons. These small quantities are much more reliable weighed than measured by volume.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A moderate oven, around 350F, is a reasonable modern reading; fifteen minutes at that heat suits molds of about 1/3 cup capacity, and larger ones need 20 to 25 minutes.
- The molds"Small molds" here are most likely dariole molds: small metal cups, slightly tapered, that turn out the tall shape the name is usually said to refer to. Buttered muffin tins or ramekins work, though the sides will be less steep. Butter them thoroughly and dust with flour or sugar so the puddings turn out clean.
- Lemon rindHalf a lemon's zest, grated fine and kept clear of the white pith. Rub it into the sugar rather than adding it at the end if you want a stronger perfume; the sugar crystals break the oil out of the peel.
- Baking powderA full teaspoon in 2 ounces of flour is a heavy dose by modern standards; period powders were single-acting, and the generous quantity may reflect that. Half a teaspoon is enough with today's double-acting powder.
- Angelica and cherriesCandied angelica stems, cut into strips and arched over the pudding, form the basket handle; glacé cherries fill it. Angelica is now a specialty item — thin strips of candied citron or citrus peel do the same job visually.
- Yield and servingExpect three or four small puddings. The sponge is best barely warm, with the sauce poured around rather than over so the shape stays visible.
Castle puddings are a Victorian and Edwardian British nursery-and-dinner-party staple: an ordinary creamed sponge batter baked or steamed in dariole molds, so called because the tall, tapered, turned-out shape was thought to resemble a castle turret. They belong to the same family as the individual steamed puddings that filled the back pages of nineteenth-century English cookery books, where a single sponge mixture was rung through endless variations by changing the flavoring and the sauce — lemon here, elsewhere jam, ginger or almond. Unlike the classic English steamed pudding bound with suet, puddings of this kind rest on butter and eggs alone.