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Pecan and Cherry Torte
6 tablespoons sugar 4 eggs, beaten well 3/4 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder 6 tablespoons melted shortening 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup cream, whipped 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1/2 cup Maraschino cherries, cut up Beat the eggs thoroughly with the sugar, mixing over pan of boiling water. Remove from heat and beat until cold. Sift in dry ingredients and mix well, then add melted shortening and flavoring. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) in greased muffin pans. This should be baked the day before it is needed. When ready to serve, cut off the top, hollow out the center and fill with the cream, pecans and cherries. Replace top and garnish. Serves 6.
This is a warm-egg sponge (the genoise method) baked in muffin cups rather than a single layer, then hollowed and filled the next day. The success of the whole thing rests on the egg foam, since 3/4 cup of flour and four eggs give you very little else to hold the crumb up.
- The hinge: beat the eggs to full volumeWhisk eggs and sugar in a bowl set over — not in — boiling water only until warm to the touch, then off the heat until the mixture is cold, pale and holds a thick ribbon from the whisk. This takes several minutes with an electric mixer. The egg foam does much of the lifting here, though the 2 teaspoons of baking powder is a generous amount and will contribute as well.
- Fold, do not "mix well"The period instruction to sift in the dry ingredients and mix well will deflate the foam if taken literally. Sift over the surface and fold in with a spatula, then fold in the melted shortening and vanilla last, when it is barely warm.
- Measurements6 tablespoons sugar is about 75 g (three-quarters of a half-cup measure); 3/4 cup flour is about 90 g of all-purpose. "Cream" here must mean a cream rich enough to whip, i.e. heavy whipping cream, and 1 cup whips to roughly 2 cups.
- Shortening6 tablespoons melted shortening most likely means vegetable shortening. Melted unsalted butter works in the same quantity and tastes better in a sponge.
- Oven and time350F is correct as printed. No baking time is given: standard muffin-size cups take about 15 to 20 minutes, and they are done when the tops spring back and a skewer comes out clean. They should be pale gold, not browned, or the shells will crack when hollowed.
- YieldThe recipe says it serves 6, but a batter of four eggs and 3/4 cup flour will fill well more than six standard muffin cups; either use larger cups or expect extras. Bake straight away once the batter is mixed.
- Why the day beforeA fresh sponge tears when you cut the lid off and scoop the middle out. A night in a covered tin firms the crumb enough to hollow cleanly with a small knife and a teaspoon.
- Cherries and fillingDrain the maraschino cherries thoroughly and blot them, or the syrup will streak and thin the whipped cream. Sweeten the cream lightly if you like, fold in nuts and cherries, and fill no more than an hour before serving so the shells stay dry.
The torte here is a sponge cake in the continental manner — eggs and sugar warmed and beaten to a foam, with very little flour — scaled down into individual cakes. The trick of baking the day before, cutting a lid and hollowing the centre suits a dessert assembled at the last minute from things prepared in advance. The maraschino cherries also point to a twentieth-century American kitchen: bright, jarred and shelf-stable, they were a common garnish for anything meant to look festive on a home table.