The Challenge: Make a dish referenced in a work of literature. Despite attempts to the contrary, I may have gone with Cranford. Again. Gaskell's just really good at using food to further her characterization of the town's inhabitants...
Mrs Forrester...who now sat in state, pretending not to know what cakes were sent up, though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes.
The Recipe: A Smaller Sponge Cake (very good) from Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery
The Date/Year and Region: 1846, London
How Did You Make It: Separated 5 eggs, beat the yokes thoroughly, and mixed in 8 oz of granulated sugar; beat the whites until stiff, then stirred them into the preceeding, along with 6 oz of flour and the rind of 1 lemon (minced fine). Baked ~40 minutes at 350F in a butter-and-sugar-coated 8" tin cake ring.
The book was somewhat ambiguous about whether sponge cakes should be iced; I decided to try the icing receipt it included (scaled down to two egg whites and 2/3 lb powdered sugar), though I opted to include the 2/3 tsp lemon juice recommended in The Complete Confectioner (1844).
Time to Complete: About an hour, including baking time, plus a few minutes to ice the cake after it cooled.
Total Cost: ~$0.65 worth of eggs, everything else being on hand
How Successful Was It?: Palatable enough. The lemon flavor is quite delicate, such that I sometimes fancied the egg flavor was coming through. The cake might have stood a minute or two longer to bake, but it was starting to brown and was no longer liquid in the center, so I decided to pull it. The icing was less flavorful than I generally like, but good enough in its plain way. I do need to let it dry better, particularly while covering the sides of the cake...
How Accurate Is It?: I used an electric mixer to beat the eggs; more cake research, particularly on presentation (such as icing, mold varieties) is warranted. I did end up with some interesting notes on patty pans while researching this receipt (which will need to be a separate post). Overall, I would say this was fairly accurate, but could improve.
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| Still adding the icing too quickly... |
I love _Cranford_, it's one of my favorite 19th century novels! Sponge cakes can be difficult; I'm glad yours didn't stick to the pan and fall apart when you tried to remove it, like mine did a while ago. I wonder if the icing was supposed to be dried in a cool oven, like on 18th century cakes.
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