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Lemon Cream Cake
3 1/2 cups pastry flour 3 level teaspoons Calumet Baking Powder 1/2 cup butter 1½ cups sifted granulated sugar Juice of 1/2 lemon Rind of 1 whole lemon 1 cup cold water Whites of 4 eggs Sift flour once, then measure, add baking powder and sift three times; cream butter and sifted sugar thoroughly, add grated rind then put lemon juice in cup, add water to make a full cup, now add flour and water alternately, beating thoroughly, last fold in well-beaten whites of the 4 eggs. Bake in moderate oven, 30 to 35 minutes. Lemon Cream Filling Yolks of 4 eggs; juice of 1/2 lemon; about 2 cups confectioner's sugar. Put yolks and lemon juice into a deep bowl, add gradually sugar, beating all the time, keep adding sugar until just right to spread, beat long and hard and spread on cake when cool. The lemon cream and orange cream cakes are very fine and economical, and failure is impossible with these two recipes and Calumet Baking Powder. 4 cups pastry flour
The cake batter itself is a conventional white layer cake and translates directly; the filling does not, because it is raw egg yolk that never sees heat. Read the filling notes before you plan around this recipe.
- The filling is uncooked eggFour raw yolks beaten with lemon juice and confectioner's sugar are spread on a cooled cake and eaten as is. Neither the acid from half a lemon nor the sugar pasteurises anything, and the salmonella risk sits in a filling that will then be held at room temperature between slices. If you want lemon between the layers, use a current cooked lemon curd recipe instead.
- The flour, listed lastThe line "4 cups pastry flour" appears at the foot of the page rather than with the other ingredients, most likely a layout or transcription artifact. Pastry flour runs about 8-9% protein. Modern all-purpose is stronger; replacing a tablespoon or two per cup with cornstarch gets you close, though the full two tablespoons gives something nearer cake flour.
- Sift, measure, sift againThe instruction to sift once, measure, then sift three times with the baking powder is not padding. Scooped unsifted flour can weigh a quarter more per cup, which is the difference between a tender crumb and a tough one in a batter this flour-heavy.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375F in period usage. Thirty to thirty-five minutes suits layers about an inch and a half deep; the original assumes you know what pans you own.
- Calumet baking powderA Chicago phosphate-and-alum powder sold as double-acting; the brand is still on shelves, though the formula has changed over the years, and a modern double-acting powder is a reasonable substitute (aluminum-free versions release on a slightly different schedule). Three level teaspoons for four cups of flour is on the light side by today's convention of roughly a teaspoon per cup, which is why the stiffly beaten whites are doing structural work.
- Sifted granulated sugarPeriod granulated sugar was more prone to lumping than today's, which is the likely reason for the sifting instruction. Modern sugar needs no sifting, but do cream it with the butter for a full four or five minutes.
- The lemon juice and water trickPutting the juice of half a lemon in the measuring cup and topping to one cup keeps the total liquid fixed regardless of how juicy the lemon is. A sensible piece of proportioning worth keeping.
- YieldFour cups of flour makes a substantial cake. No pan size is given; three 8-inch layers, or two 9-inch layers baked longer, are reasonable choices.
"Reliable Recipes" was a promotional booklet issued by the Calumet Baking Powder Company of Chicago, and the closing line about failure being impossible "with these two recipes and Calumet Baking Powder" is the reason the book exists at all. Branded baking-powder pamphlets were widely distributed in America from the 1890s into the interwar years, given away with tins and by grocers, and they helped standardise the American layer cake around chemical leavening, level measuring spoons and the sift-measure-sift routine. Lemon cream cakes of this kind used only the whites in the batter and the leftover yolks in an uncooked lemon-and-sugar filling; the pairing saves waste as much as it flavours, and the booklet itself calls the cake "very fine and economical." Uncooked yolk fillings turn up in other books of the period, which reflects an era of small flocks and same-day eggs rather than any greater safety.