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Neapolitan Cake
Black Part. One cup brown sugar, two eggs, half cup butter, half cup molasses, half cup strong coffee, two and a half cups flour, one of raisins, one of currants, a tea-spoon each of soda, cinnamon and cloves, and half tea-spoon mace.
White Part.-Two cups sugar, half cup butter, one of milk, two and a quarter of flour, one of corn starch, whites of four eggs, small tea-spoon cream tartar; make frosting of whites of two eggs to put between the layers. -Mrs. Calista Hawks Gortner, Goshen,
Two separate batters baked as separate layers and stacked in alternating colors. The original gives no pan size, oven temperature or baking time, so those are the first things to settle.
- Oven and pansNo temperature, pan size or time is given. A moderate oven, around 350F, in greased and floured 8- or 9-inch round pans, roughly 20-25 minutes for thin layers, is a reasonable starting point. The dark batter is the stiffer of the two and may need spreading and levelling in the pan; the white, with its cup of milk and beaten whites, will pour.
- Leavening in the dark partThe teaspoon of soda is set off by the molasses, and to a lesser degree by the coffee. Dissolving it in the coffee is the safest way to distribute it; sifted dry into the flour it can leave dark specks of undissolved soda if the mixing is careless.
- Leavening in the white partCream of tartar with no soda to react with gives almost no lift. The rise here comes from creamed butter and stiffly beaten whites, so fold the whites in gently and get the layers into the oven promptly. A cook who wants insurance can substitute 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder for the cream of tartar.
- The cup of corn starchCorn starch was a common period means of softening a strong flour. The recipe lists it separately from the 2 1/4 cups of flour, so the white part carries 3 1/4 cups of dry measure in all.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, the small raisin, not fresh red or black currants. Toss them and the raisins in a little of the measured flour so they do not sink.
- Strong coffeeBrewed coffee, made about double strength, and cooled before it goes near the butter.
- The frosting between the layersWhites of two eggs beaten with sifted sugar to a spreadable paste. It is never cooked, so use pasteurized whites, or make a cooked meringue or boiled icing instead; uncooked egg-white frosting is the one part of this cake that has not aged well.
- Assembly and yieldEach batter is a full cake in its own right, so the two together make a tall stack. How many layers each yields depends on pan size and how thinly they are spread; any surplus batter bakes well as cupcakes.
In American cookbooks of the 1870s and 80s, "Neapolitan" attached to almost anything built in contrasting stripes or blocks, a usage often linked to the striped Neapolitan ice creams then fashionable; the name is generally taken to signal the look more than any firm connection to Naples. What is stacked here is a pair of standard nineteenth-century types: a dark, molasses-and-spice fruit layer of the sort usually called black cake, and a pale silver cake leaning on egg whites and corn starch, a mixture that predates commercially milled cake flour and served the same purpose. The Dixie Cook Book, like the other Buckeye-family compilations it grew out of, was assembled from contributed household recipes and printed each donor's name and town, which is why a layer cake from Goshen sits in a book sold as Southern. The credit line is also a reminder of how such recipes traveled: by exchange between households.