AUNT SARAH'S EXTRA FINE LARGE SPONGE CAKE
- 2 cups granulated sugar.
- 2¼ cups of flour.
- ¾ cup of boiling water.
- 4 large eggs.
- 2 even teaspoonfuls baking powder.
- 1 teaspoonful lemon juice.
Put whites of eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat very stiff. Add sugar (sifted 3 times), then add the well-beaten yolks, flour (sifted 3 times with baking powder), add lemon juice. Lastly, add the hot water. Bake about 50 minutes in a tube pan in a moderately hot oven with a steady heat. Stand a pan of hot water in the upper rack of oven if the oven is quite hot. It improves the cake and causes it to be more moist. This is an excellent sponge cake and easily made, although the ingredients are put together the opposite way cakes are usually mixed, with the exception of angel cake. When this cake was taken from oven, powdered sugar was sifted thickly over the top. Use cup holding ½ pint, as in all other cake recipes.
ANGEL CAKE—AUNT SARAH'S RECIPE
Mary was taught by her Aunt, when preparing a dish calling for yolks of eggs only, to place the white of eggs not used in a glass jar which she stood in a cold place or on ice. When she had saved one even cupful she baked an angel cake over the following recipe:
One heaping cup of pulverized sugar (all the cup will hold), was sifted 8 times. One cup of a mixture of pastry flour and corn starch (equal parts) was also sifted 8 times. The whole was then sifted together 4 times. The one cupful of white of eggs was beaten very stiff. When about half beaten, sprinkle over the partly-beaten eggs one scant teaspoonful of cream of tartar, then finish beating the whites of eggs. Flavor with almond or vanilla. Then carefully sift into the stiffly beaten whites of eggs sugar, flour and corn starch. Fold into the whites of eggs rather than stir. Aunt Sarah always baked this cake in a small, oblong bread pan. This cake should be baked in a very moderate oven, one in which the hand might be held without inconvenience while counting one hundred; the oven should be just hot enough for one to know there was fire in the range. Do not open the oven door for 15 minutes, then increase the heat a little; if not too hot, open the oven door a moment to cool and bake slowly for about 55 minutes.