The Philosophy of a Sponge-Cake

After many trials and errors, Mary Lawton revealed her recipe in 1893 for the perfect sponge cake.

It has been said some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. It is through the achievements of greatness that one woman points, with wooden spoon, to the cake bowl and baking pan. From her lips come the encouraging words: “There lie the elements of my fame, achieve it too who can!”

There are women who brew,
And women who bake,
Yet women who fail
When they make a Sponge cake!

And so did this self-same woman, though to her, in turn, had been committed her grandmother’s recipe; a true and tried recipe too, that had been handed down with the old gold-rimmed cake platter, through six generations of grand-daughters, “beginning life.”

It was absurdly easy. Nothing was simpler than to put in five eggs; weigh out the half pound of soft sugar; sift the large tea-cup of prescribed flour; add the teaspoonful of baking powder and the same of rose-water.

The mere fact of this simplicity, made failure more maddening. The “guid man” smiled at tea and from the cracker jar took a ginger snap. That ginger snap fixed my purpose; I was determined to grapple with those elements, until like many an x, y, z, in algebra, they should be brought to terms.

In the same proportions, like ingredients went into one cake; and into another, and another, but the results were sadly depressing. I would not cast away the recipe, which, as I have said, was an heirloom; it should have a fair trial.

At last the sickening, deferred hope became a noble realization and the woman who “stirred” her way to family fame, gladly passes on the key-note to other aspirants.  Experience will reveal the fact that there is a certain philosophy in cake mixing, let her deny the fact who will.

It is not enough, haphazard, to cast in the ingredients a recipe demands and expect a good product. There must be a regular order preserved, in incorporating materials of a cake, if the result is to be satisfactory.

Not until I discovered the philosophy of mixing, did I succeed in the recipe that had done good service for so many years; and so I enjoin upon those interested, that to succeed in making and baking a creditable sponge cake, the following details must be carefully observed:

Break the five eggs, separating yolks and whites. With a wooden spoon stir yolks to a cream. To this add one pint of granulated sugar. Rub this at least ten minutes. Then add one-half pint of sifted flour into which has also been sifted a large teaspoonful of good baking powder.

Rub! Rub! Rub yet another ten minutes. Grate in the rind of one lemon, or instead may be used a teaspoonful of vanilla essence. Lastly, put one-half teaspoonful salt in the egg-white, which, being beaten with a wooden fork, becomes firm in a trice. Stir this in well and the dough is delicious.

It may be baked in pans of any shape, but in every instance they should be well heated and buttered before the dough is poured in.

The baking, perhaps, is the most difficult feature of success. The oven must be hot and the fire on the increase.

After twenty-five to thirty minutes, according to the degree of heat commanded, a delightful aroma will encourage the baker, that she may, very gently, open the oven door to test her cake. Should the top be a rich brown, pierce it with a broom straw. Uncooked dough in the center would naturally cling to this. Then take a piece of stout paper, cover the pan, thus preventing a charred crust.

Another test and, perhaps, your cake is ready to whisk out of the oven; to wrap in a dry towel; to be kept out of draughts until it is cold and, lastly to serve.

Thus will be achieved a fame, in exchange for which one finds herself called on to make sponge cake for church and state affairs; for festivals public and private, and finds delight therein, as one woman testifies.

Mary Lawton, 1893