Tea-Cakes, Small
INGREDIENTS for 12 cakes.-2 teacupfuls of flour, one of ground rice, one of moist sugar, 2 oz. of lard, 2 oz. of butter, 2 eggs, lemon flavouring.
AVERAGE COST, 8d.
Melt the lard and butter, beat them well, and add to the flour and rice; next add the eggs and sugar, beating all well together, with a flavouring of essence of lemon, and bake in cakes on a tin in a quick oven.
TIME.-15 minutes.
SEASONABLE at any time.
TENCH, MATELOTE OF. tea-cake into three or four slices, according
A plain Victorian drop cake, closer to a rich rock cake than to a modern sponge. The measurements are by teacup rather than weight, so a little judgement is needed.
- The teacupfulVictorian teacups were not standardised; many fall between 6 and 8 fl oz, and a breakfast cup is larger still. Note that the recipe uses twice as much flour as ground rice or sugar, and that 4 oz of fat and 2 eggs must carry the whole. Treat it as a ratio rather than a fixed conversion.
- Ground riceA milled rice product, generally a little coarser than modern rice flour, which is the usual substitute. It has no gluten, so it keeps the cakes short and slightly sandy; substituting more wheat flour will make them tougher and breadier.
- Moist sugarAn unrefined soft sugar, damp and pale brown. Light muscovado or soft light brown sugar is the closest modern match; caster sugar will work but loses the faint molasses note.
- No raising agentThere is no baking powder or soda here, and the eggs are beaten in with everything else rather than whipped. Expect dense, close-textured little cakes about an inch high. If you want lift, that is a change to the recipe, not a correction of it.
- Quick ovenRoughly 400-425F (200-220C); the term is approximate. At that heat, fifteen minutes suits spoonfuls the size of a walnut; check at twelve. Anything much larger will colour before the centre sets.
- Melted fatMelting the lard and butter and beating them means this is a batter-style mix, not a creamed one. Let the fat cool to just warm before adding the eggs, or they will begin to set.
- Essence of lemonVictorian lemon essence was oil of lemon in spirit, and strengths varied. Modern lemon extract is not necessarily equivalent, so add it cautiously, a few drops at a time. The finely grated zest of one lemon is a better-tasting alternative.
- Yield and keepingTwelve cakes, spooned well apart on a greased or lined tin. They are best the day they are made and go dry quickly; the rice flour does not hold moisture.
Small tea-cakes of this kind are often associated with the mid-Victorian tea table, at a period when the practice of afternoon tea was still spreading and a household might be expected to produce something baked at short notice for callers. The stated cost of eightpence for a dozen places them among the everyday recipes in Beeton's repertoire, well below the enriched fruit cakes kept for occasions. Ground rice was a common household economy and stiffener: cheaper than fine wheat flour, it was used in puddings, biscuits and cakes to give a short, crumbly bite, and it appears throughout nineteenth-century English baking for exactly that reason. The mixture of lard with butter is another sign of thrift, lard being the cheaper fat and butter carrying the flavour, a pairing that persisted in plain English baking well into the twentieth century.