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Thanksgiving Cake
Make batter as for cocoa-nut cake (Miss Nettie Miller's). Bake five layers in jelly-tins; make frosting of whites of three eggs, three tea-spoons baking powder, and three-fourths pound of pulverized sugar; with frosting for first layer mix rolled hickory-nut meats, with that for second layer mix fine-sliced figs, for third with hickory-nut meats, for fourth with figs, and on the top spread the plain frosting, and grate cocoa-nut over thickly. -Mrs. J. S. Robinson.
A five-layer cake assembled with a raw meringue-style frosting, alternating hickory nuts and figs. The batter is borrowed from another recipe in the book, so you supply your own; the instructions here are really about the filling and the stacking.
- The missing batterThe cocoa-nut cake batter is not reproduced here, so you supply your own. Any reliable white or yellow layer batter of about 5 cups volume will fill five thin layers.
- Jelly-tinsThese are shallow straight-sided pans, 8 or 9 inches across, meant for very thin layers. Divide the batter evenly by weight and expect layers under half an inch; two 8-inch pans baked in rotation will do the job.
- Oven and timeThe recipe gives no oven direction. A moderate oven, around 350F, suits; thin jelly-tin layers set considerably faster than a standard layer, so check them early and expect them to dry out if left.
- Frosting proportions'pulverized' sugar means finely ground sugar; three-fourths of a pound is roughly 2 1/2 to 3 cups of modern confectioners' sugar, beaten into three egg whites. That gives a stiff, spreadable uncooked icing rather than a fluffy one.
- The baking powderBaking powder turns up in some period uncooked frostings, apparently to lighten and whiten them. Cream of tartar, about 1/2 teaspoon, stabilizes beaten whites without the metallic edge; three teaspoons of modern double-acting powder may well taste of it.
- Raw egg whitesThe icing is never cooked. Use pasteurized whites or reconstituted meringue powder if the cake will be served to children, the elderly, or anyone pregnant.
- Hickory nutsShagbark hickory was gathered wild across much of the eastern United States and is barely sold today. Pecans are the same genus and a close match in flavor and oil content; toast and chop them rather than pounding to paste.
- FigsMost likely dried figs, stemmed and sliced thin. If stiff, soften them in warm water for ten minutes so they do not tear the frosting when spread.
- Cocoa-nutFresh coconut grated on a box grater was common, though prepared desiccated coconut was also sold by this date. Unsweetened desiccated or frozen grated coconut substitutes directly; sweetened flake makes the top cloying against this much sugar.
- YieldFive thin layers make a tall cake serving 12 to 16. It slices best after several hours, once the uncooked frosting has firmed at the surface.
The Dixie Cook Book, compiled in the 1880s from contributed household recipes, belongs to the era when Thanksgiving had been established as an annual national holiday. This cake is a showpiece of stored and gathered autumn ingredients: hickory nuts, and dried figs from a fruit long grown in Southern dooryards and put up for winter. Tall layer cakes of four, five and six tiers were made in the period, and the alternating fillings, nut and fig and nut and fig, give a striped cut face when the cake is sliced. The attribution to Mrs. J. S. Robinson is typical of the book, which credits its contributors by name and so preserves a rough census of the women who supplied it.