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Marble Cake
White Part.-Whites of seven eggs, three cups white sugar, one of butter, one of sour milk, four of flour, sifted and heaping, one tea-spoon soda; flavor to taste.
Dark Part. Yolks of seven eggs, three cups brown sugar, one of butter, one of sour milk, four of flour, sifted and heaping, one table-spoon each of cinnamon, allspice and cloves, one tea-spoon soda; put in pans a spoonful of white part and then a spoonful of dark, and so on. Bake an hour and a quarter. Use coffee-cups to measure. This will make one large and one medium cake. The white and dark parts are alternated, either by putting in a spoonful of white, then of dark, or a layer of white and then of dark part, being careful that the cake may be nicely "marbleized." - Mrs. M. E. Smith, Cleveland.
A very large two-batter cake from the era before standardized cups. Read the yield line before you start: this is enough batter for two cakes, not one.
- The coffee-cup measureMrs. Smith says to measure with coffee cups. Cup sizes were not standardized, and household coffee cups of the period ranged from about 6 fl oz to a half-pint, so the total volume is uncertain; if yours run small, expect somewhat less batter than a modern 8 oz cup would give.
- Total quantityCombined, the two batters use seven eggs separated (whites in the white part, yolks in the dark), 8 cups of flour, 6 cups of sugar and 2 cups of butter. Halving the whole recipe to make one cake is the sensible course for most kitchens, though the seven eggs do not halve evenly.
- Sour milk and sodaSour milk here is naturally soured raw milk, mildly acidic. Cultured buttermilk is the closest substitute; whole milk soured with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar per cup also works. Without an acid the soda has nothing to react with and the cake will taste soapy.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given because the stove had none. Bake at 325F for a cake this size and depth; an hour and a quarter at that heat is about right for a large deep pan, less for the medium one.
- No baking powderSoda plus sour milk is the entire leavening. Mix each batter only until combined and get it into the pan promptly, since the reaction begins as soon as the two meet.
- The marblingAlternate spoonfuls of the two batters, then draw a knife through once or twice at most. More than that and the two blend into a uniform brown; the batters here are similar in thickness, which is what makes the pattern hold.
- SpicingA tablespoon each of cinnamon, allspice and cloves in the dark batter is assertive by current taste. Cloves in particular will dominate; consider a teaspoon of cloves and keep the rest as written.
- FlourMuch nineteenth-century household flour was softer than modern all-purpose, though milling varied by region and date. Cake flour, or all-purpose with two tablespoons per cup replaced by cornstarch, gives a lighter crumb.
- Doneness and pansButter and flour deep pans and line the bottoms with parchment. Test with a skewer at the center rather than trusting the clock, and cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out, as the cake is heavy and fragile while hot.
Marble cake became a fixture of American community cookbooks in the second half of the nineteenth century, and its logic is thrifty as much as decorative: the white batter uses seven whites, the dark batter the seven yolks, so nothing is wasted. The dark half is darkened with brown sugar and spice rather than chocolate, which is the older form; chocolate marble cake spread later, as cocoa became cheap and reliable in the home kitchen. The recipe's provenance is typical of compilations of the period, which gathered contributions by name and city -- here Mrs. M. E. Smith of Cleveland -- though how far such books were shaped to carry the household practice of one region to readers in another is harder to say. The instruction to "use coffee-cups to measure" is a reminder that standardized cup measures were not yet settled; contributors specified their own vessels because they could not assume a reader's kitchen matched theirs.