Gold Cake
Two cups of sugar; three-fourths cup of butter; one cup of sour milk; four cups flour; one teaspoon of soda; yolks of eight eggs; one tablespoon of cornstarch; lemon or vanilla flavoring. Sweet milk and three teaspoons of baking powder may be used instead of the sour milk and soda.
A plain butter cake built on eight egg yolks, printed without a pan size, temperature or baking time — all of which the 1911 cook was expected to supply. Here is what to fill in.
- Method the text omitsCream the butter and sugar thoroughly, beat in the yolks until pale and thick, then add the sifted flour and the sour milk alternately in three or four additions. The soda should be dissolved in the milk, not dumped into the flour, or you get bitter yellow streaks.
- Oven and timeA cake of this size wants a moderate oven, 350F. Expect 30 to 35 minutes in two 9-inch layers, or 55 to 65 minutes in a tube or loaf pan. It is done when a skewer comes out clean and the top springs back.
- Pan and yieldThis is a large batter — roughly 2 lb of flour and sugar together. It should fill about two 9-inch layers plus a small loaf, or a 10-inch tube pan. Figure somewhere in the region of 16 to 20 servings.
- Sour milkPeriod sour milk was raw milk clabbered at room temperature and mildly acidic. Use cultured buttermilk cup for cup. Milk soured with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar works but is thinner and its acidity less predictable, so the crumb may be slightly coarser.
- The soda balanceOne teaspoon of soda for one cup of buttermilk is on the generous side by current practice; three-quarters of a teaspoon gives a cleaner flavor. If you take the alternative route with sweet milk and baking powder, three teaspoons for four cups of flour is slightly under the modern rule of about a teaspoon per cup, though it will still work in a well-creamed batter.
- FlourHousehold flour of the period was often softer and less thirsty than modern bread flour. Use all-purpose, or cake flour for a finer crumb, and measure by weight if you can: about 17 oz. The tablespoon of cornstarch lowers the effective protein of the flour; you can subtract it from the flour rather than adding it on top, though the recipe itself simply lists it as an addition.
- Eight yolksThat is about 1/2 cup of yolk. Save the whites for a silver cake — the usual companion to a gold cake — or for meringue; they keep three days refrigerated or freeze well.
- FlavoringNo quantity is given. One to two teaspoons of vanilla, or the grated zest of one lemon plus a teaspoon of juice, suits this volume of batter.
Gold cake and silver cake were a matched pair, and the pairing is the whole point: one used the yolks, the other the whites, so a household that broke a dozen eggs wasted nothing. The convention was established in American cookbooks by the late 1870s and stayed in print for decades, which is why the Butterick book can print the formula this bare — readers already knew the shape of it. The alternative line at the end, offering sweet milk and baking powder in place of sour milk and soda, is typical of cookbooks of this period, when commercial baking powder was widely sold but sour milk was still a routine kitchen ingredient.