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Chocolate Topsy-Turvy Cake
2 egg yolks 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup water 1/2 teaspoon orange extract 1 cup pastry flour 2 squares chocolate, melted 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 egg whites Beat egg yolks till thick, continue beating while adding sugar, orange extract and water alternately. Sift dry ingredients twice and stir into mixture. Add melted chocolate, then fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Let stand minute. Melt 1/4 cup shortening in heavy frying pan, spread 1 cup brown sugar over bottom, then 1 cup orange sections in any design. Pour batter over the orange sections. Bake in slow oven (325 degrees) 30 or 40 minutes. Turn out on large cake plate, bottom side up. Cut out, when cold, in rounds with empty baking powder box. Place thin round of vanilla ice cream on top of each round section and decorate with chopped salted pecans, chopped candied cherries and whipped cream.
An upside-down sponge cake baked in a skillet over caramelized brown sugar and orange sections, then cut into rounds and served as an individual iced dessert. The batter is a hot-milk-style sponge without the milk, so it depends entirely on the beaten eggs for lift.
- Chocolate squaresA square is one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, so this is 2 oz total. Melt it and let it cool to barely warm before adding; chocolate stirred in hot can stiffen the batter and knock air out of the yolk foam.
- Pastry flourRoughly 8-9 percent protein. If you have none, measure 1 cup all-purpose, remove 2 tablespoons and replace them with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, then sift as directed.
- The pan"Heavy frying pan" most likely means a cast-iron skillet, 9 or 10 inches, and it must be ovenproof with no plastic or wooden handle. A 9-inch round cake pan works if you melt the shortening in it first.
- Orange sectionsUse supremed fresh segments with the membrane removed, and blot them dry. Canned mandarin segments carry more syrup and may make the brown sugar layer soupy unless thoroughly drained.
- Oven325F is as printed. Start checking at 30 minutes; the center should spring back.
- Turning outInvert onto the plate while the cake is still hot, as the recipe directs; if the caramel is allowed to set in the pan the orange sections will stick.
- Cutting the roundsBaking powder tins of the period ran roughly 2 1/2 to 3 inches across; a plain round cutter or a wide-mouth glass of similar size does the same job. Cut only when the cake is completely cold, or the rounds tear.
- YieldA 10-inch skillet gives roughly six to eight rounds, with trimmings left over. Assemble with the ice cream and cream just before serving, since the rounds soften quickly.