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Sponge Drops
Form the lady finger batter in a circular shape, and dip the tops of the cakes into boiled icing of any flavor.
This is a variation entry rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you have already made the book's lady finger batter and its boiled icing. Both are straightforward once you know what the period names mean.
- Lady finger batterA basic sponge: egg yolks and sugar beaten thick, whites whipped separately to soft peaks, then flour folded in with as little stirring as possible. Lady finger batters of this type generally carry no butter and no chemical leavening, so the whipped whites are the only lift you get. The batter itself is given elsewhere in the book; this entry assumes it.
- The hingeFold, never beat, once the flour goes in. Overworking the batter deflates the whites and the drops bake flat and tough instead of doming.
- "Circular shape"Pipe rounds about 1 1/2 inches across through a plain 1/2-inch tip, spaced two inches apart, or drop by teaspoonfuls. The batter spreads a little as it sets.
- OvenThe page gives no oven direction; going by the lady finger method, a moderate oven, about 350F on parchment, 8 to 10 minutes, until the tops are set and just faintly colored at the edges. Sponge drops overbake in the space of a minute; pull them while the centers still feel springy.
- Boiled icingSugar syrup cooked to about the soft-ball stage, 238-240F on a thermometer, then beaten in a thin stream into stiffly whipped egg whites until the mixing bowl is no longer warm. Period boiled icings vary in how far the syrup is taken, but the method is essentially the one we now call Italian meringue.
- DippingIce while the frosting is still glossy and pourable; it stiffens fast. Cool the drops completely first or the icing will slump and weep.
- Flavoring"Any flavor" would most often have meant vanilla, lemon or almond extract, stirred into the icing at the very end. A teaspoon per batch is plenty against a plain sponge.
- Yield and keepingYield depends on the batch of lady finger batter you start from. Sponge drops go dry within a day; the icing seals them somewhat but they are best eaten the day they are made.
Sponge drops are the drop-cookie form of the lady finger, and cookbooks of this era routinely listed them as a one-line variation because the batter, oven and handling were identical — only the shape changed. That economy is characteristic of the Butterick book, which was published by a pattern company for a readership of home sewers and homemakers and packed instruction in as tightly as it could. Boiled icing was the standard American frosting of the period, and it is often suggested that it was favored because it set to a firm, dry shell that traveled and kept better than a butter frosting in kitchens without reliable refrigeration.