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California Cake (II)
Mrs. Taylor.
Two cups of sugar, half a cup of butter, one cup of milk, two eggs, three teaspoons Cook's Friend baking powder, three cups of sifted flour, flavour or add fruit.
This makes two cakes. Bake in bread tins.
A plain one-bowl butter cake of the sort every 19th-century household kept in the repertoire. The original assumes you know the creaming method and the state of your own oven, so both need filling in.
- Method, which the recipe omitsCream the butter with the sugar until light, beat in the eggs, then add the sifted flour and baking powder alternately with the milk, finishing with flour. Half a cup of butter to two cups of sugar is a lean, sturdy batter; overbeating after the flour goes in will toughen it.
- Cook's Friend baking powderA Canadian baking-powder brand of the period. Substitute the same volume of modern double-acting baking powder: three teaspoons for three cups of flour is within the normal range.
- Bread tinsUse two loaf pans; a modern 8½ x 4½ inch pan is a reasonable stand-in. Grease and flour them, or line with parchment; divide the batter evenly between the two.
- OvenNo temperature is given. Bake at 350F for 40 to 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the loaves have pulled slightly from the sides.
- "Flavour"Meaning an extract or essence: a teaspoon of vanilla, or grated lemon rind and a little juice, added with the milk. Rosewater and almond essence also appear in books of this period.
- "Or add fruit"A cup of raisins, currants or chopped peel per loaf, tossed in a spoonful of the measured flour so it does not sink. With fruit the loaves need the longer end of the baking time.
- EggsTwo eggs in six cups' worth of batter gives a close, bready crumb rather than a light one. Use large eggs and bring them to room temperature so the creamed butter does not seize.
- YieldTwo loaves, each cutting into about ten slices. Wrapped well, it should keep for several days.
The Home Cook Book (Toronto, 1877) was compiled by ladies of Toronto and other cities and towns and sold to raise money for the Hospital for Sick Children, making it one of the earliest and most successful Canadian charity cookbooks. Its recipes are contributed and signed, which is why this one carries Mrs. Taylor's name and why the book holds two unrelated cakes both called "California" and the editors printed it. The name itself is generally said to be fashion rather than geography: after the Gold Rush, "California" is often held to have attached itself to all manner of goods as a byword for novelty and plenty, though the explanation is traditional rather than documented, and a great many such cakes contain nothing from the state at all. The reference to Cook's Friend baking powder places the page in the period when branded chemical leaveners were displacing saleratus and sour milk in Canadian kitchens, and brand names were quietly entering recipes as though they were ingredients in their own right.