Home › Extra-Special Company Cakes and Cookies › (Dark Part)
(Dark Part)
1/2 cup shortening 1 1/4 cups sugar 3/4 cup ilk 4 egg yolks, beaten well 1/2 cup cocoa 1 1/2 cups flour 3 teaspoons baking powder Few grains salt Cream shortening and sugar until light; add milk slowly; add the beaten egg yolks, stirring all the time; sift cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt together, fold in lightly. Line three of the same size pans as for the light cake; bake 20 minutes in moderate oven; put together alternately with boiled icing; cover top with icing, decorate with blanched almonds.
This is the dark half of a two-batter layer cake: three cocoa layers baked to match three light ones, then stacked alternately. Read it alongside the light cake recipe before starting, since the pans and the icing are shared.
- Oven"Moderate" in period usage means roughly 350-375F. Twenty minutes suits thin layers in pans of the size used for the light cake; test at 18 minutes, as these layers are shallow and dry out quickly.
- Pans"Line three of the same size pans" means greased pans with a round of parchment or waxed paper in the bottom. Three thin layers from 1 1/2 cups of flour will each be under an inch tall, which is the intent.
- CocoaUse unsweetened natural cocoa, not Dutch-process and not a drinking-chocolate mix. The baking powder here is the sole leavening, so the acidity of natural cocoa is not required, but Dutch cocoa will read flatter in flavor against the boiled icing.
- ShorteningPeriod shortening meant lard or a hydrogenated vegetable fat. Modern all-vegetable shortening works directly; butter gives better flavor but a slightly firmer crumb.
- Mixing orderAdding the milk to the creamed fat and sugar before the flour will look curdled and separated. That is expected at this stage; the sifted dry ingredients bring it together. Fold them in only until no dry streaks remain.
- Baking powderThree teaspoons to 1 1/2 cups flour is generous by current practice, where about two teaspoons would be the usual amount for this much flour; reduce to 2 teaspoons if you find the crumb coarse or metallic-tasting.
- Boiled icingThis is a meringue icing made by beating a hot sugar syrup, cooked to the soft-ball stage of about 240F, into stiffly beaten egg whites. It sets to a crust within a couple of hours, so fill and frost promptly.
- AlmondsBlanched almonds are skinned by a brief soak in boiling water; slip the skins off and dry them well. Toasting them lightly first improves the flavor and keeps them from softening in the icing.
- YieldThree thin layers, or half of the finished six-layer cake. Assembled with the light layers it serves 12 to 16.