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Graham Cracker Cake
1 cup sugar 2/3 cup shortening 3 egg yolks, beaten 1 1/4 cups milk 1 cup flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup nuts, chopped 30 graham crackers (rolled fine) 3 egg whites, beaten stiff Cream sugar and shortening. Add egg yolks and beat; add milk, flour, baking powder, salt and nuts. Add graham crumbs and fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake in two layers in nine inch pans in moderately hot oven at 375 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Serves 8.
A crumb cake from the era when graham crackers were treated as a flour substitute rather than a crust. The batter is loose and heavy, so the two layers bake thin and stay moist.
- How many crumbs, really"30 graham crackers" is ambiguous: it may mean 30 small squares, 30 rectangles (half-sheets), or 30 full double sheets. Thirty rectangles works out at roughly 2 to 2 1/2 cups of fine crumbs; thirty small squares would give little more than a cup. Go by volume rather than by count.
- Grind them fineThe crumbs must be rolled or processed to something close to the texture of cornmeal. Coarse pieces absorb milk unevenly and leave gritty streaks through the crumb.
- Baking powderFour teaspoons reads as an error but is not one. Graham crumbs contribute no gluten and very little structure, so the batter needs far more lift than a plain butter cake. Use fresh double-acting powder and get the pans into the oven promptly.
- ShorteningOriginally vegetable shortening or lard. Butter works and tastes better, though the cake will be slightly denser and browner at the edges.
- Oven375F is given in the recipe itself and suits a shallow layer; "moderately hot" in books of this period covers roughly 375 to 400F. Test at 22 minutes, since thin crumb layers dry quickly once past done.
- PansTwo 9-inch round pans, greased and floured or lined with parchment. The layers come out about an inch tall each; a springy top and a clean tester are the signals, not colour, as the crumbs are already tan.
- FinishingNo frosting is specified. Whipped cream between the layers and on top is one plausible period treatment and arguably suits the cake better than buttercream, which can overwhelm the graham flavour. The recipe says it serves 8.