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Rolled Jelly Cake
Beat twelve eggs and one pound pulverized sugar together very lightly, then stir in three-fourths pound of flour, making batter as light as for sponge-cake, and thin enough to spread nicely when poured; make up as quickly as possible. Have shallow tin-pans prepared (about twelve by eighteen inches and an inch deep) by lining with thin brown paper, using no grease on pan or paper; pour in batter, spread out with a knife as thin as possible (about half an inch thick), and bake in solid oven. When done, remove from oven, let cool a few minutes, and while still warm, but not hot, turn out of pan upside down. With a brush or soft cloth wet in cold water, brush over the paper and pull it off; spread cake thin with jelly and roll it up, being careful to place the outer edge of roll against something so that it will not unroll until cold. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve. If baked in pans such as are described above, the recipe will make two rolls, each twelve inches long, which should be cut in two, making four rolls. Use no baking-powder, as it makes the cake too brittle. Many use none in sponge-cake. The paper lining should be larger than pan, to lift out the cake by taking hold of the projecting edges. This never fails.-C. W. Cyphers, Minneapolis.
A foam-leavened sheet cake with no chemical leavening and no fat in the pan — the batter's structure depends entirely on how much air the eggs and sugar hold. Speed matters more than any single measurement here.
- The hinge: roll it warmA sponge this thin sets in minutes and cracks once it cools flat. Peel the paper and roll while the cake is still warm to the hand, then hold the seam against something until cold so it keeps the curve.
- Weights into cupsOne pound of pulverized (superfine) sugar is about 2¼ cups; three-quarters of a pound of flour is roughly 3 cups. Weighing at 450 g sugar and 340 g flour is closer to the intent than scooping.
- Twelve eggsPeriod eggs generally ran smaller than today's large. Ten to eleven large eggs (about 500-550 g out of shell) gives a comparable batter; twelve modern large eggs will run thin.
- "Solid oven"A steady, fairly brisk heat with no fluctuation; in modern terms somewhere in the region of 375-400°F, though the book gives no figure. At half an inch thick the cake bakes quickly, roughly 8 to 12 minutes, and is done when the surface springs back; overbaking is a common cause of splitting.
- Pans and paperTwelve by eighteen inches and an inch deep is close to a modern half-sheet pan. Substitute parchment for the thin brown paper, cut oversized as directed so the projecting edges act as handles, and follow the instruction about using no grease on pan or paper.
- Wetting the paperBrushing the paper with cold water before pulling it away is a genuine trick, not a flourish. It releases brown paper cleanly; with parchment it is usually unnecessary.
- The jellyStir the jelly smooth, or warm it briefly, before spreading. Stiff jelly dragged across a warm sponge tears it. Leave a bare inch at the far edge or the filling squeezes out at the seam.
- No baking powderThe note is correct and worth keeping. Chemical leavening coarsens the crumb and makes a thin sponge brittle at exactly the moment you need it flexible.
- YieldTwo full sheets, each rolled and cut in half, giving four rolls of about six inches — roughly 24 to 32 slices. Half the recipe fills one sheet pan comfortably.
The rolled jelly cake belongs to a family of thin sponge sheets spread with preserves and coiled while warm that spread through American, British and Central European baking in the middle of the nineteenth century — the same idea appears as Swiss roll in Britain and as Roulade or Biskuitrolle on the Continent, though the Swiss connection is traditional rather than documented. The Dixie Cook Book, like the Buckeye compilations it descends from, gathered such recipes from named contributors across the country, and the closing "This never fails" is the signature of that genre — a housekeeper vouching for her own method to strangers who would never meet her.