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Gold Cake (II)
Mrs. W. A. Carson.
Three-quarters of a cup of butter beaten to a cream, one cup of sugar ; the yolks of eight eggs, two cups of sifted flour, one teaspoon of cream of tartar, half a teacream of tartar, half a tea spoon of soda dissolved in half a cup of sweet milk.
A plain butter cake built on egg yolks alone, with no baking instructions at all — the book assumes you know what to do with a cake batter. A few notes fill the gaps.
- The garbled lineThe phrase "half a teacream of tartar, half a tea spoon of soda" is a compositor's slip: a line of type was partly repeated. Read it as one teaspoon cream of tartar and half a teaspoon of soda, which is the standard 2:1 ratio for a chemically leavened cake of this period.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh, unsoured milk, as distinct from the buttermilk or sour milk called for in other recipes of the period. Whole milk is the right substitute.
- Eight yolksThat is a great deal of yolk for two cups of flour, and it is the point of the cake: the colour and the close, rich crumb come from the yolks. Large eggs give roughly half a cup of yolk.
- Order of workCream butter and sugar, beat in the yolks, then add the sifted flour and cream of tartar alternately with the milk holding the dissolved soda. Once the soda meets the acid the clock starts, so get it into the pan promptly.
- OvenNo temperature is given. Around 350F suits it; a loaf or tube pan will take about 45 minutes, two 8-inch layers about 25.
- YieldEnough for one 9-inch loaf or two thin layers. No icing or filling is given in the original.
- The leftover whitesEight whites are the basis of a silver cake, which often appears nearby in books of this period.
Gold cake and silver cake are the two halves of one household economy: the yolks go into one, the whites into the other, and nothing is thrown out. The pairing was common in American cookery in the second half of the nineteenth century, when cream of tartar and soda were still sold separately, before combined baking powders were universal. Like other recipes in The Home Cook Book, this one carries a contributor's name rather than an author's, the volume being a compilation of recipes gathered from local women and printed to raise funds.