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elizabeth_mnMy HB and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this week, so I coordinated this challenge with our day and made a fancy cake!
The Challenge: 10. Let Them Eat Cake! October 5 - October 18
The 16th is the anniversary of the beheading of Marie Antoinette (zut alors!). In honor of Madame Deficit, prepare your best cake from a historic recipe. And then eat it, bien sur.
The Recipe: Florida Orange Cake from National Cookery.
And from the same book,here are some general notes on cake baking.
The Date/Year and Region: 1876, USA
How Did You Make It: As the general notes on cakes suggested, I separated the eggs to beat them. The Girl did the yolks while I whipped the whites into soft peaks. This was just my guess.
I've never done this by hand before and I really didn't think I could do it!
Gratuitous picture of the Helper Girl.
I gently whisked in the flour, sugar, and the rest. If I had been making a modern cake, I would have added the cream of tartar to the eggwhites as I beat them, then folded everything in. But I wanted to follow these directions as they were written.
The springform pan is 1/2" bigger than the other two, but it's the closest I had.
We went for a walk while they cooled and then it was onto the filling.
I used a microplane grater for zest since I like it grated very fine.
Once again I whipped the eggwhite. This time I tried to fold in the sugar, zest, and juice, but the mixture totally collapsed. It became runny and sad. I tried adding more powdered sugar to thicken it up, which didn't help.
I probably should have given up at this point and reached for the cupboard for some lemon curd or jam, but I plowed ahead for some reason and just spread my sad deflated mixture on the cakes.
I definitely had one of those "everything is falling apart" moments when I was doing this; in addition to my failed filling I also discovered I had placed the second layer without peeling off the parchment paper from the bottom. So I had to pick it up (without spilling the stuff off the top of it!) and peel off the paper, which was now covered with filling goo, and of course shredded up terribly as I peeled it, then spread more filling and place it back down without crumbling it up completely. Phew!
Time to Complete: A couple hours.
Total Cost: No idea, but cakes are pretty cheap, being made mostly of pantry stuff. Especially with no butter. $5?
How Successful Was It?: Having no butter, it had a taste and texture that reminded me of angel-food cake, but the HUGE amount of sugar in the recipe gave the edges a pleasant sort of candy-like chewiness. The cake itself was a winner. The filling, however, was a flop. It kind of soaked into the cake layers and disappeared. The orange zest gave it a great flavor! My only problem was I just couldn't stop saying "Raw eggwhite. Raw eggwhite. Raw eggwhite." over and over in my head with every bite.
Altogether it was very different than what I am used to as "cake." My HB swore he liked it, which just proves he is a wonderful husband and worth keeping. And that raw eggs don't squick him out.
How Accurate Is It?: I did everything by hand and followed the directions the best I could! Still, this is a great example of historic recipes assuming you just know how to do stuff, so they don't have to tell you.
The Challenge: 10. Let Them Eat Cake! October 5 - October 18
The 16th is the anniversary of the beheading of Marie Antoinette (zut alors!). In honor of Madame Deficit, prepare your best cake from a historic recipe. And then eat it, bien sur.
The Recipe: Florida Orange Cake from National Cookery.
And from the same book,here are some general notes on cake baking.
The Date/Year and Region: 1876, USA
How Did You Make It: As the general notes on cakes suggested, I separated the eggs to beat them. The Girl did the yolks while I whipped the whites into soft peaks. This was just my guess.
I've never done this by hand before and I really didn't think I could do it!
Gratuitous picture of the Helper Girl.
I gently whisked in the flour, sugar, and the rest. If I had been making a modern cake, I would have added the cream of tartar to the eggwhites as I beat them, then folded everything in. But I wanted to follow these directions as they were written.
The springform pan is 1/2" bigger than the other two, but it's the closest I had.
We went for a walk while they cooled and then it was onto the filling.
I used a microplane grater for zest since I like it grated very fine.
Once again I whipped the eggwhite. This time I tried to fold in the sugar, zest, and juice, but the mixture totally collapsed. It became runny and sad. I tried adding more powdered sugar to thicken it up, which didn't help.
I probably should have given up at this point and reached for the cupboard for some lemon curd or jam, but I plowed ahead for some reason and just spread my sad deflated mixture on the cakes.
I definitely had one of those "everything is falling apart" moments when I was doing this; in addition to my failed filling I also discovered I had placed the second layer without peeling off the parchment paper from the bottom. So I had to pick it up (without spilling the stuff off the top of it!) and peel off the paper, which was now covered with filling goo, and of course shredded up terribly as I peeled it, then spread more filling and place it back down without crumbling it up completely. Phew!
Time to Complete: A couple hours.
Total Cost: No idea, but cakes are pretty cheap, being made mostly of pantry stuff. Especially with no butter. $5?
How Successful Was It?: Having no butter, it had a taste and texture that reminded me of angel-food cake, but the HUGE amount of sugar in the recipe gave the edges a pleasant sort of candy-like chewiness. The cake itself was a winner. The filling, however, was a flop. It kind of soaked into the cake layers and disappeared. The orange zest gave it a great flavor! My only problem was I just couldn't stop saying "Raw eggwhite. Raw eggwhite. Raw eggwhite." over and over in my head with every bite.
Altogether it was very different than what I am used to as "cake." My HB swore he liked it, which just proves he is a wonderful husband and worth keeping. And that raw eggs don't squick him out.
How Accurate Is It?: I did everything by hand and followed the directions the best I could! Still, this is a great example of historic recipes assuming you just know how to do stuff, so they don't have to tell you.
