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Fairy Cakes
1 cup shortening 2 cups sugar 1 cup milk 2 1/2 cups flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla 5 egg whites, beaten stiff 1 cup cream, whipped Cream the shortening, add sugar gradually. Sift flour and baking powder together and add alternately with milk to creamed mixture. Add vanilla and fold in egg whites beaten stiff. Bake in layer cake pan in moderate oven (375 degrees F.), 40 minutes. When cold, cut in small squares, remove top with sharp knife and scoop out center. Fill this space with sweetened, flavored whipped cream, recover and ice with boiled frosting. The frosting may be varied by dividing into portions and coloring with pure fruit colorings. The frosting may be garnished with nuts, glaced fruits or candied petals.
This is a white butter-cake batter baked as a slab, then hollowed and filled — closer to a petit four than to what British bakers call a fairy cake. Two details in the original need attention before you start.
- Use a deep pan, not a layer panForty minutes at 375F will scorch a thin layer. This quantity of batter wants a single 9x13-inch pan or a deep 9-inch square, baked until a tester comes out clean; check at 30 minutes and expect somewhere between 30 and 45 depending on depth.
- 375F is the book's "moderate"Older books put moderate anywhere from 350F to 375F. For a white cake carrying five folded-in whites, 350F is the safer choice — it gives a flatter top, which matters when you are cutting squares.
- ShorteningProbably hydrogenated vegetable shortening, though 'shortening' in books of this date can also mean butter or lard; a white fat is what keeps the crumb pale. Butter works and tastes better, but the cake will bake a shade darker.
- The whites are the structureThe whites do much of the work -- the baking powder is the only chemical leavening in a sugar-rich batter. Beat the whites to stiff but still glossy peaks and fold in three additions; overbeaten, dry whites will leave streaks and the squares will crumble when you hollow them.
- Cut and hollow coldChill the slab thoroughly, trim the crusts, then cut squares of about 1 1/2 inches. Slice the top off each one and scoop the center with a small spoon or melon baller. Warm cake tears.
- Boiled frostingThe recipe assumes you know it: a sugar syrup boiled to the soft-ball stage, 238-240F on a thermometer, beaten in a thin stream into stiff egg whites until it holds a peak. It sets to a dry shell, which is why it can be poured over the squares and then garnished.
- "Pure fruit colorings"A period phrase for bottled colorings advertised as fruit- or plant-derived; what was actually in the bottle varied. Modern gel colors are stronger; add them with a toothpick or you will thin the frosting.
- Cream filling means refrigerationOnce filled with whipped cream these are perishable. Keep them cold and serve the same day; the boiled frosting will begin to weep after a day in the refrigerator.
- Yield and leftoversThe number of squares depends on the pan and how large you cut them; a 9x13 slab cut at 1 1/2 inches gives well over two dozen. Five yolks are left over — enough for a custard sauce or lemon curd.