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Orange Cake (Two cups sugar four eggs)
Two cups sugar, four eggs, leaving out the whites of two, half cup butter, one of water, two tea-spoons baking-powder, three cups flour, juice, grated rind, and pulp of one orange; use the remaining whites for frosting the top. -Mrs. D. B
A plain butter cake of the contributed-recipe type, written for a cook who already knew the method. Everything unstated — creaming, pan, oven, time — is left to you.
- The measurements as given"One of water" means one cup, following the cups already named. Two cups sugar, half cup butter (that is 4 oz, one stick), one cup water, three cups flour, two teaspoons baking powder, four eggs with two whites reserved.
- Method the recipe assumesCream the butter and sugar, beat in the two whole eggs and two yolks, then add flour sifted with the baking powder alternately with the water and orange juice. The grated rind goes in with the sugar so its oil is released; the pulp, chopped, goes in last.
- OvenThe recipe gives no oven direction. Bake at 350F: layers 22-28 minutes, a single 9-by-13 pan about 35-40.
- PanThe batter fills two 8- or 9-inch round layers, or one 9-by-13 sheet.
- Baking powder of 1883Baking powder -- Period baking powders were single-acting and varied in strength between brands. Two teaspoons in three cups of flour is still a sensible amount today, but get the batter into the oven promptly rather than letting it stand.
- The orangeOranges of the period varied more in size and sweetness than a uniform supermarket navel. Use a juicy medium orange and expect roughly 1/3 cup juice; if yours gives much more, hold some back so the batter is not slack.
- The frostingThe recipe says only to use the remaining whites for frosting the top, and gives no method. If you make an uncooked white-and-sugar icing, note that uncooked whites carry a salmonella risk; use pasteurized whites or meringue powder, or make a boiled icing where the syrup cooks the whites.
- YieldTwelve to sixteen servings depending on how it is cut.
The Dixie Cook-Book, published out of Atlanta in the 1880s, mixes material carried over from earlier compilations by the same editor with recipes contributed by Southern housekeepers, which is why so many entries end in initials rather than names. Orange cake belongs to a family of citrus-flavored butter cakes that became more common in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, as Florida groves and the expanding rail network put fresh oranges within reach of inland kitchens for part of the winter. The instruction to hold back two whites for the frosting is characteristic of the period's thrift: the cake and its icing are designed as a single transaction. The flavoring strategy -- rind, juice and chopped pulp all three -- uses the fruit itself rather than an extract.