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Propheten Kuchen
1 cup sugar 1/2 cup shortening 3 egg yolks, beaten 1/4 cup milk 2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 3 egg whites, beaten stiff 1/4 cup butter 1 teaspoon cinnamon 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup flour Cream the shortening and sugar together. Add the yolks of the eggs, milk, then flour, sifted with baking powder, and fold in egg whites. Spread in a greased baking pan and cover the top with a mixture of the other ingredients rubbed well together with fingers until crumbs are formed. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 25 minutes. Recipe makes 16 servings.
A butter-cake batter lightened with beaten whites and finished with a rubbed-in cinnamon crumb — essentially a streusel kuchen. The original gives the oven temperature but not the pan, which is the one thing you need to settle before starting.
- Pan sizeThe recipe gives no pan. Sixteen servings from two cups of flour suggests something in the 9x13-inch range, which would keep the layer shallow enough to bake through in the stated 25 minutes; in a smaller 9-inch square pan the batter will be deeper and is likely to need longer, so judge by the centre rather than the clock.
- Divide the ingredients firstThe list runs together: the cake takes 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup shortening, 3 yolks, 1/4 cup milk, 2 cups flour, the baking powder and the 3 whites. The crumb topping is the 1/4 cup butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup flour.
- Baking powderFour teaspoons to two cups of flour is heavy by current practice, which runs about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons per cup. With fresh modern powder at this dose the cake tends to rise fast and then settle, and some tasters pick up a faint metallic edge; 2 to 3 teaspoons is usually enough.
- ShorteningThe recipe lists butter separately for the topping, so the shortening is meant as something other than butter, most likely a vegetable shortening or lard. Either works; butter gives more flavour and a slightly firmer crumb.
- Folding the whitesThe batter is stiff before the whites go in, so lighten it with a spoonful of the whites first, then fold the rest in two additions. Stirring them in flat costs you most of the lift the recipe is counting on.
- The crumb toppingRub the butter in cold or barely cool. Softened butter turns the mixture to paste and it melts into a solid sugar sheet rather than sitting on top as crumbs. Scatter it loosely over the batter without pressing.
- Oven350F as written, on a rack in the middle third. Test with a skewer at the centre at 25 minutes — the crumb topping stays soft-looking even when the cake beneath is done, so judge by the skewer and not the top.
- Serving and keepingCut in squares and serve warm or at room temperature, as a coffee cake rather than a dessert with sauce. It keeps two days covered at room temperature; the topping softens after that.