Devils' Food
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate Yolks of 4 eggs 3/4 cup milk Whites of 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 1½ cups sugar 1/2 cup butter 1 teaspoon baking powder 1¾ cups flour Melt the chocolate with half the milk and the yolks of two eggs over hot water and cook until a thick custard is formed. Cream the butter and sugar; add the remaining eggs, the flour and baking powder, sifted, the milk, vanilla and chocolate custard after it has cooled. Bake in layers and cover with boiled white frosting. Or cut out the centers of the two upper layers and fill with whipped cream to which sugar, cherries and nuts have been added. Put the cream between the layers, also, and ice the top. SPANISH BUN No. 1 3 ounces butter 1/2 pound sugar 2 eggs 1/2 cup currants 6 ounces flour 1/2 cup cream 2 teaspoons baking powder Beat the butter and sugar to a cream; add the yolks of the eggs, then the cream alternately with the sifted flour, mixing the baking powder with the last of the flour. Then add the whites of the eggs, beaten very stiff, and last of all the currants, thoroughly washed and dried. Bake in shallow tins and ice with boiled icing. 4 SPANISH BUN No. 2 1/4 pound butter 3/4 pound sugar 2 eggs Dash of nutmeg 3/4 pound flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 cup milk 6 ounces currants Beat the butter and sugar to a cream; add the eggs and grated nutmeg, then alternately the milk and sifted flour and baking powder. Last of all add the currants, well washed and drained and dusted with flour.
A layer cake built on a cooked chocolate custard rather than melted chocolate stirred in cold, which is what gives it its dense, dark crumb. The page also runs on into two Spanish Bun recipes measured by the pound, so the notes below cover those units too.
- Egg accountingThe list calls for 4 yolks and 2 whites. Two of the yolks go into the chocolate custard; "the remaining eggs" means the other two yolks plus the two whites, added whole into the creamed butter and sugar. The whites are not beaten separately here.
- The custard is the hingeMelt the chocolate with half the milk (6 tablespoons) and two yolks in a double boiler and stir until it thickens to a pudding. Rush it over direct heat and the yolks scramble; add it to the batter while still warm and the butter breaks. Cool it to room temperature first, as the recipe directs.
- Oven and pansNo temperature is given, as is usual in books of this kind. Bake in three 8-inch or two 9-inch greased and floured pans at 350F, 20-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Makes one cake serving 10-12.
- ChocolateTwo ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate is the same product sold today, so use it as written. Cocoa powder is not a substitute in a recipe this small on fat and liquid.
- Baking powderOne teaspoon for 1 3/4 cups flour is on the light side by current practice, and there is no soda at all, so expect a close, fudgy crumb rather than a high fluffy one. The familiar reddish tint of later devil's food comes from soda reacting with natural cocoa; this version stays plain brown.
- Boiled white frostingA sugar syrup cooked to the soft-ball stage, about 238-240F, beaten into stiff egg whites. Use a thermometer rather than the old thread test, and beat until the bowl is barely warm before spreading or it will slump off the sides.
- The whipped cream variationCutting the centers out of the upper layers and filling them with sweetened cream, cherries and nuts makes a perishable cake. Assemble it the day it is served and keep it refrigerated.
- Spanish Bun weightsThese two are given by the pound: 1/2 lb sugar is about 1 1/8 cups, 3/4 lb sugar about 1 2/3 cups, 6 oz flour about 1 1/3 cups, and 3/4 lb flour about 2 3/4 cups. "Shallow tins" means a sheet or jelly-roll pan; bake at 350F and check at 20 minutes.
Devil's food appears in American cookbooks from around the turn of the twentieth century, and the name is usually explained as a foil to angel food cake -- dark, rich and heavy against white, sweet and airy. Early versions like this one differ widely from each other, some using melted chocolate, some cocoa, some a cooked custard base as here; the deep red-brown color and the name's association with a specific formula only settled later, once baking soda and natural cocoa became the standard combination.