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Directions for Making White Cake
First get pans ready. Cut white or light brown paper to fit bottom of pan to be used, brush with melted butter on bottom and sides; keep brush for this purpose. Sift flour, measure and sift four or five times with baking powder. Beat eggs stiff; cream butter; add sugar, and work very light; add alternately the milk, little at a time; the flour and whites; then the flavoring. Bake in layers or loaves, or large sheets. Turn out on linen cloth on firm foundation, remove pan and paper, leave to cool.
These are Mrs. Wilson's general working directions rather than a formula: the technique for a creamed white cake, with the proportions assumed to come from the accompanying recipe. Read it as a method sheet and supply quantities from a standard white cake formula.
- No quantities are givenFlour, butter, sugar, milk and egg whites all appear without measures. A conventional white layer cake of this era runs roughly 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 2 1/2 cups sifted flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup milk and the whites of 4 to 6 eggs; use a tested modern formula rather than guessing at hers.
- "Beat eggs stiff" means the whitesA white cake uses whites only, which is why they are added alternately with the flour and milk at the end. Beat them to soft-firm peaks, not dry, and fold rather than stir or the cake will bake tough and low.
- Paper and butter, not sprayCut parchment to the pan bottom in place of the brown paper, and brush the paper and the sides with melted butter. Keeping a dedicated pastry brush for greasing, as she says, is still sound: a brush used for savory glazes will carry flavor into the crumb.
- Sifting four or five timesRepeated sifting both aerated the flour and distributed the baking powder evenly. With modern all-purpose or cake flour, two siftings with the baking powder is sufficient.
- Oven temperatureShe gives none. Bake layers at 350F for 22 to 28 minutes, a loaf at 325 to 350F for 45 to 55 minutes, and a thin sheet at 350F for 15 to 20 minutes, testing the center for spring rather than watching the clock.
- Turning out on linenA damp-free linen cloth over a firm surface keeps the hot layer from tearing and lets steam escape. Modern practice is a wire rack, but for delicate white layers the cloth still works well; peel the paper off while the cake is warm or it will lift crumb with it.
- YieldThe recipe implies no quantity. The standard formula suggested above would fill two 8-inch layers, one loaf pan, or a single quarter-sheet, serving eight to ten.
White cake owed much to chemical leavening and to cheap refined sugar. Once baking powder became reliable in the later nineteenth century, cooks could build a fine-grained cake on creamed butter and beaten egg whites, and the pale crumb was taken as a mark of skill and of good white flour. Leftover yolks went into custards, gold cake, or mayonnaise, and household books of the period often printed the two cakes together for that reason. This page gives technique without proportions, so the quantities must have come from an accompanying recipe.