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Plain Short Cake
2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons baking powder 3 tablespoons butter About 2/3 cup milk Sift the dry ingredients; rub in the butter; add milk to make a soft dough. Roll out a half inch thick and bake in a hot oven. When cold, cut open, butter and spread with fruit and meringue as directed under Fancy Short Cake.
Strawberries make the best short cake; but other berries and sliced peaches are also good. For recipe, see page 200. baste fol bag. 19 san bus tasq- TO sablo nomel to bait gemtun betaT banog art bbs teal times Vredestaltiw lla aroyal owtimel bas gamtin rabis -sb TOT 16308 the bas doni ПB Had mai •
This is a biscuit-style shortcake — no eggs, no sugar in the dough — meant as a plain base for sweetened fruit. The whole thing hangs on handling the dough as little as possible.
- Oven temperatureA "hot oven" in books of this period is generally read as somewhere around 400-450F. A half-inch round of baking-powder dough wants high heat and something on the order of 12-15 minutes; lower and slower gives a pale, dry cake.
- Rubbing in the butterUse cold butter and work it into the flour until the largest pieces are pea-sized. Warm, fully blended butter produces a dense cake rather than a flaky one.
- The milk is approximate on purposeTwo-thirds cup is a starting point. Flour absorbency varies, so add enough to bring the dough together into a soft, slightly sticky mass and stop mixing the moment it coheres.
- Rolling and shapingHalf an inch thick is thinner than modern shortcake biscuits; the cake is meant to be split in two thin layers. Bake it as one large round in a cake pan, or cut into individual rounds, and refrain from twisting the cutter.
- "When cold"The recipe waits for the cake to cool before splitting, which makes for a cleaner split and less soaking into the fruit. Split it warm if you prefer, but use a fork to pull the halves apart rather than a knife.
- Fruit and meringueThe cross-reference to Fancy Short Cake supplies the sweetened crushed berries and the meringue topping. Without it, crush and sugar the fruit an hour ahead so it gives up juice, and treat any meringue as needing a brief bake to set.
- YieldThe recipe gives none. Two cups of flour would make roughly one 8- or 9-inch round, or about six small cakes.
American shortcake of this type is a biscuit rather than a sponge: "short" refers to the fat rubbed into the flour, which shortens the gluten and gives a tender crumb. Strawberry shortcake was a well-established early-summer American dish through the nineteenth century, tied to the short local berry season. The author's note that strawberries make the best shortcake "but other berries and sliced peaches are also good" reflects a kitchen working through whatever the season offered.