Sunshine Cake
Whites of 7 large or 8 small eggs, yolks of 5. 1 cup sifted sugar. 1 scant teaspoon cream tartar. 1 teaspoon orange. 1 cup flour, measured after sifting 3 times.
This is a formula rather than a method: Mrs. Wilson gives proportions and expects the cook to know how a sponge cake is assembled. Everything below fills in what the printed lines leave out.
- What is missingNo mixing sequence, pan, temperature or time is given. One common way to assemble a sunshine cake is to beat the whites to a soft peak with the cream of tartar, beat the yolks with the sugar until thick and pale, fold in the sifted flour and flavouring, then fold that into the whites; the order varies from recipe to recipe.
- Egg sizes"7 large or 8 small" reflects an era of ungraded farm eggs. Modern large eggs run about 2 tablespoons of white each, so aim for roughly 7 fl oz (scant cup) of whites and 5 yolks.
- "1 teaspoon orange"This is orange extract or orange flavouring, not juice; a teaspoon of juice would be pointless and a teaspoon of extract is assertive but in keeping with period sponge cakes. Grated zest can stand in.
- Cream of tartarIt is here to acidify and stabilise the whites, not to leaven in the baking-powder sense. Use it, and use a spotlessly clean metal or glass bowl.
- Sifted sugarIn American books of this period "sifted sugar" usually means granulated sugar passed through a sieve to break lumps, not modern confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch; the term was sometimes used more loosely for pulverised sugar. Superfine (caster) sugar dissolves best in the yolks.
- Flour measured after sifting three timesThis matters more than it looks. Sifting three times and then measuring gives a light cup, commonly reckoned at about 4 oz / 115 g (less with very fine flour), and over-measuring the flour is a likely reason a sunshine cake comes out tough.
- Pan and ovenThe recipe gives no pan or oven guidance at all. A workable modern approach: bake in an ungreased 9-inch tube pan so the batter can climb, at around 325F for 45 to 55 minutes; test with a skewer rather than by time alone.
- CoolingInvert the pan and let the cake hang until completely cold before loosening it. Turned out warm, a foam cake of this kind collapses under its own weight.
- YieldOne tube cake, 10 to 12 slices. It is dry by design and expects fruit, a citrus glaze, or whipped cream alongside.
- Filed under VegetablesWhatever section heading this page falls under, the recipe itself is a plain sponge cake.
Sunshine cake belongs to the family of American foam cakes that flourished once reliable eggbeaters and fine white flour became household items in the later nineteenth century: angel food uses whites only, gold cake uses yolks only, and sunshine splits the difference, taking all the whites and some of the yolks, which is where the name and its pale-yellow crumb are traditionally said to come from. Cream of tartar, a by-product of winemaking, is what made these cakes practical at home, since it firms up beaten whites and keeps the crumb white and tender. Mary A. Wilson wrote for Philadelphia newspaper readers and had spent the First World War years urging economy in the kitchen, so a cake that leans on eggs and a single cup each of flour and sugar, with no butter at all, fits her habits; the telegraphic style here, proportions only and no method, is typical of how her columns and cookbook addressed cooks assumed to know the basic motions already.