Chocolate Pie
2 tablespoons butter ¾ cup sugar 1 egg 1/2 cup milk 1½ cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder Mix and bake same as Cream Pie. Split layers, and spread between and on top of each a thin layer of Chocolate Frosting.
Despite the name, this is a butter cake baked in shallow pans and split, not a pastry pie. The batter is a small one-egg cake, so it comes together quickly but wants care in the mixing.
- The sugar quantityThe sugar almost certainly reads 3/4 cup; the fraction has been mangled in the printed line. Three-quarters cup is consistent with a one-egg cake of this size.
- PansThe recipe gives no pan; it defers to Cream Pie, which is baked in shallow round layer tins. Two 8-inch layer pans or shallow pie plates would suit.
- OvenNo temperature is given here or in the source. A modern equivalent for a shallow butter cake would be a moderate oven, roughly 350F to 375F, for 20 to 25 minutes; test in the centre.
- Method, following Cream PieThe standard sequence for this kind of batter: cream the butter, add the sugar gradually, then the well-beaten egg, then the milk alternately with the flour and baking powder, beating only until smooth.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons to a cup and a half of flour is a little more than modern recipes usually call for; 1 1/2 teaspoons will also work.
- Splitting the layersLet the cakes cool completely before splitting, or they will tear. A long serrated knife drawn through in a sawing motion works better than a wire.
- FrostingThe chocolate frosting in this book is a cooked or confectioners'-sugar icing, not a modern buttercream; keep it thin as instructed so the four cut surfaces stay distinct.
- YieldIf baked as two layers and split, the cake gives four thin layers; a small cake, best the day it is made.
"Pie" is used loosely here for cakes baked in shallow round tins, and the name is often traced to the practice of baking such cakes in pie plates, which were commoner in kitchens than cake tins. The shallow shape baked quickly, an advantage in a wood range. Building the cake from split layers, each masked with a thin icing, gave four sweet surfaces from a very plain one-egg batter.