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Lemon Cake
Mrs. J. H. Mead. f Half a cup of milk, half a cup of butter, two small cups of sugar, three small cups of flour, whites of four eggs, two teaspoons of cream of tartar, one teasp one teaspo soda ; flavour with lemon; beat the butter to a add eggs well whipped, then sugar; mix cream of in the flour, and soda in milk.
The text has come through with some obvious typesetting damage — "one teasp one teaspo soda" is a single line of leavening, and the method trails off — but the cake underneath is a standard white butter cake and reconstructs cleanly.
- What the damaged line meansRead it as two teaspoons cream of tartar and one teaspoon soda. That is the classic 2:1 ratio used before commercial baking powder, and it works out to roughly a tablespoon or a little more of modern baking powder for three cups of flour.
- "Small cups"A small cup in this period probably means a teacup, often reckoned at about six ounces rather than the eight-ounce measure, though period cup sizes varied. Scaling everything proportionally matters more than the absolute size, so use one cup measure throughout; if you use standard eight-ounce cups for the sugar and flour against the recipe's fixed half-cups of milk and butter, the batter will be slightly drier.
- Cream of tartar and soda must stay apartThis is the hinge. The cream of tartar goes into the dry flour and the soda is dissolved in the milk, exactly as written, so they only meet in the finished batter. Once combined the reaction starts immediately — get the cake into the oven without delay.
- OvenNo temperature or oven term is given at all. 350F works for this batter.
- Method, filled inCream the butter, beat in the well-whipped egg whites, then the sugar, then add the flour and milk. The cake is white because only the whites are used.
- Flavouring"Flavour with lemon" would most likely have meant lemon extract, which was commonly sold by this date. Two teaspoons of finely grated zest gives a better modern result; lemon juice risks curdling the milk and slackening the batter.
- Pans and yieldEnough for two 8-inch layers, about 25 minutes, or one loaf at 45 to 50 minutes. Serves eight to ten. A cake like this could be split and filled with a lemon curd or boiled icing.
Lemon Cake belongs to the large family of nineteenth-century white cakes built on egg whites alone, the yolks often being saved for custards, sauces or a gold cake baked alongside — thrift and colour contrast in one gesture. The cream of tartar and soda pairing is characteristic of the period: baking powder was commercially available by the 1870s, but recipes calling for the two components separately remained common in print. The Home Cook Book, published in Chicago in 1876 and compiled from contributions by named local women, is among the earliest large American community cookbooks, and the attribution to Mrs. J. H. Mead is the whole point of the genre — these were recipes vouched for by a neighbour rather than an author.