Dinner at 1800: Sponge Cake

Also, apparently, known as “diet-bread” (wouldn’t that be nice?). Easy, right? One would think. But not the way The Frugal Housewife chose to present it! Honestly, this recipe turned out…but I’m getting ahead of myself. Don’t forget to watch the short version over on Instagram!

Sponge Cake

The Frugal Housewife

Published in 1832

This recipe required an extra step. Because, randomly, it called for rose water. Yup. Rose water in a cake! Lucky for me, I have my own rose bushes. So I did something I’ve been wanting to try for years anyway. I made it myself. It was way easier than I thought it would be. I mean, seriously – why didn’t I just do it years ago? All I had to do was pick some roses, rinse them well, and simmer them until all the color was gone. Lo and behold, I had lovely, pink water! I’m not sure what I’ll do with the rest of it, but I can assure you that the internet has lots and lots of ideas.

Then came the recipe. I will admit it, I picked this recipe partially for the rose water, and a lot because I was amused by the measurements. Because it called for “the weight of 6 eggs in sugar” and “the weight of 4 eggs in flour”. And that is precisely what I did. I pulled out eggs, weighed them, and then weighed the same amount in flour and sugar. What a unique way to present measurements! Especially considering her other recipes had no problem calling for a half a pound or more normal ways to measure ingredients.

And then I hit the next line. “The whites and yolks should be beaten thoroughly and separately.” Wait, what? I reread the entire recipe (which consisted of approximately ten lines) three times trying to figure out where she had told me the number of eggs to use. Was that why she used eggs as weight measurements for the flour and sugar? Was that her way of telling me to use ten eggs?

But this is The Frugal Housewife! Her recipes and tips are all about saving money. There are recipes in which she tells you what to replace four eggs with so you don’t have to spend the money. I couldn’t imagine her wanting me to use TEN eggs! In which case, was I supposed to use six eggs or four eggs? I looked up modern recipes but they were little help since they all called for different amounts (though none as high as ten). And the problem was solved for me when I remembered I only HAD four eggs in the house. So, four eggs it was. I faithfully beat them separately (not that it told me how long to beat them) and mixed both into the sugar.

The next part was very stern. It informed me that as soon as the flour was added in, it should be beaten no more than necessary and put in the oven immediately (but only after a few other items had been put in to “take off the first few minutes of furious heat”). I took that to mean that the oven shouldn’t be TOO hot and went with a basic temperature of 350.

Poured it into the pan, got ready to put it in, and….stopped. After all that, can you guess? Yup, I forgot to put in the rose water. Well, no matter what she said about not mixing it too much, I was not going to waste that lovely water. I poured the batter back into the bowl and put some in (no, the amount was not defined. Just as she didn’t tell me when to put it in, which is why I forgot in the first place). Then back into the pan it went and to the oven.

I was expecting a golden brown cake to emerge, but when I finally pulled it out, the top was still very pale. The cake tester came out clean, though, so I figured it must be done. I let it cool and cut into it.

I’ll be honest. I don’t think that is how it was supposed to look. The top was so crusty it broke as I cut into it. The upper part of the cake was super chewy and dense (but, yes, cooked), and the bottom part looked like a fairly normal cake.

On the bright side, it actually tasted…good! I don’t think Daniel would have even thought anything was wrong with it if I hadn’t thoroughly analyzed it in front of him. He polished off his piece no problem, and another one later.

So what went wrong? I’m guessing it needed more eggs. I also would guess mixing the rose water in AFTER the flour was in messed with the composition. There’s also the possibility I was supposed to beat the whites longer. Maybe I’ll have to make a modern sponge cake recipe sometime so I have something to compare.

Have any of you ever made sponge cake or rose water? If so, I’d love to hear your take!