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Jelly Cake (II)
Mrs. D. McCraney.
One cupful of white sugar, three eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately; one cup of flour, from which a tablespoon of flour is taken and its place supplied by corn starch; half a teaspoonful of soda, and one teaspoonful of cream of tartar. If for sponge cake use four eggs.
A contributor's shorthand for a lean sponge batter, with no fat, no liquid, and no baking directions at all. What is missing tells you what was assumed: everyone knew a jelly cake was baked thin, split or stacked, and spread with jelly.
- The hinge is the egg foamThere is no butter and no milk here, so the only lift comes from air beaten into the whites plus a little chemical leavening. Beat the yolks with the sugar until pale and thick, fold in the sifted dry ingredients, then fold the stiff whites in last and work quickly.
- Soda and cream of tartarHalf a teaspoon of soda with one teaspoon of cream of tartar is a period substitute for baking powder, and it starts reacting as soon as it is wet. If you use modern double-acting baking powder instead, about 2 teaspoons is the rough equivalent; either way, get the pans into the oven immediately.
- The cornstarch swapRemoving one tablespoon of the cup of flour and replacing it with cornstarch lowers the protein slightly and gives a more tender, finer crumb. It is worth doing, and it works with modern all-purpose flour. Sift the flour, cornstarch, soda and cream of tartar together at least twice.
- A cupful, 1876A cupful, 1870s -- Assume a cup of about 8 fl oz. A cup of sugar is roughly 7 oz and a cup of unsifted flour about 4 1/2 oz, which makes this an unusually sugar-heavy, flour-light batter, and thus a thin, flexible cake.
- Pans and ovenThe recipe gives no baking directions. Divide the batter between two 8- or 9-inch layers, or spread it in a rimmed sheet pan for a roll. In a modern oven, 350F for about 12 to 15 minutes for layers and 8 to 10 minutes for a thin sheet; it is done when the top springs back.
- AssemblingThe recipe names no filling because the name supplies it. Warm and stir the jelly so it spreads without tearing the cake, and fill while the layers are barely warm; a stiff currant, quince or raspberry jelly holds better than jam.
- YieldOne batch of this size gives two thin 8-inch layers, enough for eight small servings. It stales fast, having no fat, so serve it the day it is baked.
- The sponge variationThe four-egg version noted at the end is the same batter with more egg and so more structure and moisture. The recipe says nothing about how to bake it; if baked as a single cake rather than thin layers, expect a longer time in the oven.
The Home Cook Book was compiled in Chicago in the 1870s from recipes contributed by named local women and sold for the benefit of the Home for the Friendless, a charitable home, which is why the page reads as one cook's note to another rather than as a finished set of instructions. Jelly cake belongs to the same moment as chemical leavening itself: cream of tartar and saleratus made a quick, fatless sponge practical in a home kitchen, and a thin sponge baked in shallow tins and layered with jelly was faster and cheaper than a butter cake. Recipes of this kind were often stacked three or four layers high and cut in wedges like a pie, and the same batter spread in a sheet and rolled became the jelly roll that appears elsewhere in books of the period. The contributor's habit of substituting a spoonful of cornstarch for flour is often said to have been common in American cake recipes once packaged cornstarch became a grocery staple after the mid-nineteenth century.