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Peach Cake
Bake three sheets of sponge-cake as for jelly cake; cut peaches in thin slices, prepare cream by whipping, sweetening and adding flavor of vanilla if desired, put layers of peaches between the sheets of cake, pour cream over each layer and over the top. This may also be made with ripe strawberries. - Mrs. Woodworth, Springfield,
An assembled cake rather than a baked one: three thin sponge layers, sliced fresh peaches and whipped cream. The instructions assume you already know the sponge, so most of the work is in reading between the lines.
- "Sheets" of spongeJelly cake was generally baked in shallow round tins rather than in sheet pans, so what is meant here is three thin layers. A plain sponge batter divided among three shallow tins and baked in a moderate oven until just set will give the right result; the recipe itself specifies neither tin size nor temperature.
- The cream is unsweetened cream, whippedIn 1880s usage "cream" means heavy cream skimmed from the top of the milk; the recipe tells you to whip and sweeten it yourself because it arrived plain. Use heavy or whipping cream, about 2 cups for three layers plus the top, with 2-3 tablespoons sugar.
- Assemble at the last minuteThis is the hinge. Poured cream and juicy raw peaches soak a thin sponge quickly, and within an hour or two the layers collapse. Build it shortly before serving and keep it cold until then.
- PeachesFreestone peaches at full ripeness, peeled and thinly sliced — roughly 4 to 5 medium fruit. If they are watery, drain the slices on a towel for a few minutes so the cream is not thinned.
- "Pour cream over"The wording implies cream whipped only to soft mounds rather than to stiff peaks, so that it can be poured and will settle around the fruit. Whipped stiff, it would sit on the layers rather than run between them.
- FlavoringVanilla is offered as optional; a teaspoon is plenty. Almond extract was another flavouring in common household use at the time.
- Yield and servingA three-layer 9-inch cake serves 8 to 10. Cut with a long thin knife wiped between slices, and serve on plates rather than a stand — it will not travel.
Layer cakes filled with fruit and cream belong to the second half of the nineteenth century, when chemical leaveners and cheap sheet-iron tins made thin, quick-baking layers practical for ordinary kitchens. Recipes of this type are usually built on the jelly-cake pattern — bake the sponge in three shallow tins, then fill with whatever the season offers — and the closing line, "This may also be made with ripe strawberries," shows exactly how such a recipe was understood: as a method, not a fixed dish. The Dixie Cook-Book, like most community compilations of its era, credits contributors by name and town.