Sponge Drops
Drop Lady Finger mixture from tip of spoon on unbuttered paper. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and bake eight minutes in a moderate oven. 4 eggs
A two-line variation that depends entirely on the Lady Finger recipe printed above it in the cake chapter — a stiff-beaten whole-egg sponge of egg whites, powdered sugar, yolks, flour and salt, piped or spooned rather than creamed.
- The batterThis variation gives no ingredients of its own and depends on the Lady Finger recipe above it: whites beaten stiff, powdered sugar added, then flour and salt. The "4 eggs" printed at the end appears to be a fragment of the adjoining recipe rather than a stated quantity for these drops.
- Moderate ovenThe book gives no temperatures; "moderate" is usually read today as somewhere around 350°F. Eight minutes is genuinely all these need — pull them when the surfaces are set and barely coloured at the edges but still pale in the centre.
- Unbuttered paperIn 1896 this meant plain white kitchen paper laid on the tin, so the drops would release without spreading on a greased surface. Parchment does the same job; do not grease it, and do not substitute wax paper.
- Powdered sugarIn this period a sugar finer than granulated but not the same as modern confectioners' sugar, which the book lists separately. Dust it on just before the pan goes in; it gives the characteristic crackled, pearled crust.
- Drop, don't pipeThe whole point of the variation is the shape: teaspoonfuls dropped from the spoon tip give rounds rather than the piped fingers. Leave an inch between them; they spread a little and then set.
- Working fastThis is an unleavened foam batter with no chemical leavening. Fold the flour in with as few strokes as will incorporate it and get the sheet into the oven immediately, or the whipped egg deflates and the drops bake flat and tough.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. They stale quickly — best the day they are made, or store airtight and use them for trifle and charlotte within a couple of days.
Sponge drops are simply lady fingers freed from their shape: the same egg-foam batter that Continental bakers piped into biscuits à la cuillère, traditionally explained as "spoon biscuits" after the spoons used to shape them before pastry bags were common household equipment. Fannie Farmer's cake chapter is full of these one-line variations built on a single base mixture. The dry, twice-sugared sponge existed largely to be used again: lining charlotte moulds, soaking in wine for trifle, or served plain with ice cream and stewed fruit.