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Chocolate Nut Cake
2/3 cup butter or shortening 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 1 cup mashed potatoes 2 squares chocolate 2 cups flour 3 1/2 teaspoons baking-powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon mace 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1 cup chopped nut-meats 1/2 cup milk Cream the butter or shortening and one cup of sugar. In another bowl, beat the egg-yolks with the remaining cup of sugar. Combine the two mixtures. Have ready the hot mashed potatoes, which should be without lumps, add to them the melted chocolate and combine with the first mixture. Mix and sift the dry ingredients and add the nut-meats. Add to the cake mixture, alternating with the milk. Fold in the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a loaf pan in a moderate oven (380 degrees F.). When cool, cover with marshmallow frosting or boiled frosting. This is a large moist cake, which will keep well.
A potato cake in the American spice-cake tradition: the mashed potato does the work of extra fat, giving a dense, long-keeping crumb. A few of the quantities and vessels need translating.
- The hinge: hot, unseasoned potatoThe hinge: hot, smooth potato -- The recipe is specific that the potato be hot and free of lumps: hot potato takes up the melted chocolate evenly and disperses into the batter, while cold or lumpy potato leaves streaks and gummy pockets. Plain mashed potato, without added seasoning, is the safest reading, though the recipe does not say so. Roughly 8 oz of raw potato will give about the cup called for.
- Squares of chocolateA "square" is one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, so this is 2 oz total, melted. Semisweet or chips will make the cake noticeably sweeter and softer.
- Oven temperature380F is unusually precise for a period recipe, and suggests a cook working with a thermometer or heat-regulated oven rather than a hand test. In a modern oven, 350F is safer for a cake this deep; expect 60 to 75 minutes, tested with a skewer in the center.
- Baking powder3 1/2 teaspoons is high by modern practice. With modern double-acting powder, 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons is enough for 2 cups of flour; the full amount can leave a bitter, chemical aftertaste and a coarse crumb that rises fast and collapses.
- SaltNone is listed. Add 1/2 teaspoon to the sifted dry ingredients if using unsalted butter or shortening, and if the potato was cooked and mashed without salt.
- Nut-meatsSimply shelled nuts, chopped. Walnuts or pecans are the usual choice here; toast them first for more flavor.
- Pan and yield"A large moist cake" is no exaggeration: the batter runs to something like seven or eight cups, which is more than a single 9x5 loaf pan will comfortably hold. Two loaf pans, or a 10-inch tube pan, filled no more than two-thirds, is the safer course. Serves 12 to 16.
- KeepingThe potato holds moisture, and the recipe's claim that it "will keep well" is credible; many cooks find such cakes better on the second day. Wrapped well, expect several days at room temperature, though boiled frosting will dry and crystallize before the cake itself stales.