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Lemon Cake (One pound flour one of sugar)
One pound flour, one of sugar, three-fourths pound butter, seven eggs, juice of one and rind of two lemons. The sugar, butter and yolks of eggs must be beaten a long time, adding, by degrees, the eggs, juice of one and rind of two lemons. The sugar, butter and flour, and the whites of eggs last. A tumbler and a half of sliced citron many be added. This keeps well. - Miss M. B. Fullington.
A pound-cake formula in the old style: no chemical leavening, all the lift coming from long beating and stiff egg whites. Note that the printed text repeats a phrase — the compositor set the lemon clause twice — so the working order is butter, sugar and yolks creamed at length, then lemon, then flour, then whites folded in last.
- The weights in cupsOne pound of flour is about 3 1/2 cups spooned and levelled; one pound of granulated sugar is about 2 1/4 cups; three-fourths pound of butter is 3 sticks. Weighing is far more reliable here, since the whole structure depends on the ratio.
- A tumblerA tumbler is a drinking glass of roughly 8 ounces, so a tumbler and a half of sliced citron is about 1 1/2 cups of candied citron. Toss it in a spoonful of the measured flour so it does not sink.
- The hinge: beat, then fold"Beaten a long time" is the leavening. Cream butter and sugar until visibly pale and light, then add yolks one at a time, and expect 8 to 10 minutes with a stand mixer. Once the flour and the whipped whites go in, work gently and stop as soon as no dry streaks remain.
- Egg sizeEggs of this period ran somewhat smaller on average than modern large eggs, so seven of them may be nearer six large ones today, though that is an estimate rather than a fixed equivalence. If the batter looks stiff after the flour, that is normal; it should be a heavy, dropping batter rather than a pourable one.
- Lemon rindRind means the coloured zest only — grated or finely pared, no white pith. Rub the zest into the sugar before creaming to draw out the oil.
- OvenThe original gives no oven direction. A moderate oven of around 325F suits this kind of unleavened butter cake better than a hot one; in a greased and papered 10-inch tube pan reckon on roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or about an hour in two loaf pans. Test with a skewer at the centre.
- Yield and keepingAbout 3 1/2 pounds of cake, 16 to 20 slices. The recipe's claim that it 'keeps well' is plausible: the high butter and sugar content — and the citron, if it is used — should keep it moist for several days wrapped closely.
Cakes built on a pound of flour to a pound of sugar descend from the English pound cake, which took its name from the equal weights of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Here the butter has been cut back to three-fourths and the eggs separated to lighten the crumb — an approach found in many late-nineteenth-century cakes that take their loft from beaten whites rather than from soda or baking powder. Candied citron, the peel of a thick-rinded citrus preserved in syrup, was widely used in American holiday baking and kept well on the shelf. The recipe is signed with a contributor's name, as many in The Dixie Cook Book are.