Orange Cake
3 egg yolks. 2 whites eggs. 2 cups sugar. 3/4 cup cold water. 3 cups flour. 4 level teaspoons baking powder. 1 orange juice and grated rind.
This is a formula rather than a set of instructions: Mrs. Wilson gives the proportions and leaves the method to the cook. A few things need filling in before it will work.
- No fat in the listThere is no butter, lard or shortening here, and no evidence one was dropped. Treat it as a lean water-sponge: the crumb will be light and slightly chewy, and it stales within a day, so serve it the day it is baked.
- The missing methodBeat the yolks with the sugar until pale, add the water and the orange juice and rind, then fold in the flour sifted with the baking powder. Beat the two whites to soft peaks last and fold them in; they are the only thing besides the baking powder giving lift.
- Liquid to flourThree-quarters cup of water plus the juice of one orange comes to roughly a cup of liquid against three cups of flour. If the batter is soupy, hold back part of the juice rather than adding flour.
- Baking powderFour level teaspoons to three cups of flour is on the generous side by current practice but correct for a fatless cake with only two whites. Use double-acting powder and get the batter into the oven promptly.
- OvenNo temperature is given. A moderate oven, around 350F, suits this batter. Two 9-inch layers take about 25 minutes; a single tube or loaf pan 40 to 45.
- PansGrease and flour, or line with paper. A fatless batter sticks harder than a buttered one.
- The spare yolkThe spare white -- Three yolks to two whites leaves you a white over. It will keep several days covered in the refrigerator, or go straight into a boiled icing for this cake.
- YieldTwo 9-inch layers, or one 10-inch tube cake; about twelve servings.
Mary A. Wilson wrote for the Ladies' Home Journal and built her reputation during the First World War teaching American households to cook around shortages of butter, sugar, wheat and eggs. Her cakes often show the habits that conservation cookery left behind: water in place of milk, a reduced count of egg whites, and here no fat at all, leaning instead on baking powder and a stiffly beaten white or two for lift.