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Sea Foam Loaf
One cupful granulated sugar, one cupful flour, one-third teaspoonful of cream tartar, pinch of salt. Add the whites of seven eggs, yolks of five, beaten separately (whites about half beaten). Sift flour and sugar. Flavor to taste, bake in moderate oven fifty minutes. Don't grease tins.
A foam cake in the older style: no butter, no chemical leavening beyond a trace of cream of tartar, all the lift coming from beaten eggs. The instructions are compressed to the point of shorthand, so the order of work needs filling in.
- Oven temperature"Moderate oven" here means 325-350F. Foam cakes with this much sugar brown fast, so stay at the low end and check at 40 minutes; fifty is the outside figure.
- The hinge: half-beaten whites"Whites about half beaten" is the distinctive instruction. Take them only to soft, drooping peaks that still slide in the bowl; whites beaten stiff are harder to fold in without knocking the air out or leaving streaks.
- Order of operationsThe original gives little more than an ingredient list: dry ingredients first, then "add the whites of seven eggs, yolks of five, beaten separately." One workable reading is to beat the five yolks until thick, fold in the soft whites, then sift the flour, sugar, cream of tartar and salt over the surface in several additions and fold each in until just gone.
- Ungreased tins, and whyThe batter has to grip the sides as it climbs. Use an ungreased tube pan or a plain loaf tin with no paper lining, and invert the cake in the pan to cool completely before turning out. Greasing gives a short, dense loaf.
- Sifting the sugarGranulated sugar of the period was generally coarser than today's. Sifting it with the flour, as directed, is still worth doing; superfine or caster sugar dissolves into the foam more readily if you have it.
- Flavoring"Flavor to taste" leaves the choice open; a teaspoon of vanilla, or a half teaspoon of almond or lemon extract, suits a plain foam cake.
- YieldOne cup each of flour and sugar with seven whites gives a modest loaf; a small tube pan or a small loaf tin will suit it. It is best the day it is baked.
The name points to texture rather than the sea: "sea foam" was used in the nineteenth century for pale, airy confections, candies and frostings as well as cakes. This loaf sits in the family of American foam cakes, which became more common in the later nineteenth century as rotary egg beaters and finely milled white flour spread into domestic kitchens. Cream of tartar, a byproduct of winemaking sold in every grocer's, stabilizes the whites and helps keep the crumb white; recipes of the period often specify it even in tiny amounts.