Jack O' Lantern Cakes (1920) ★★★★

8:04 PM 1920s , 20th century , 4 stars , dessert , holiday , interwar , snacks , united states 0 Comments

The recipe I'm sharing today comes from a menu in Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book. This cook book is lovely because it includes a lot of menus for special occasions. I've also been impressed by the recipes I've made previously from this book. Many of them look quite tasty.

Original Recipe:

JACK O' LANTERN CAKES

Bake a sponge cake in individual or muffin pans and then ice with chocolate water icing and make the lantern face with white icing.

SPONGE CAKE—ONE EGG

Place in mixing bowl
Cream well, then add
Beat to mix, then fold in the stiffly beaten white of one egg; bake in well-greased and floured pan in slow oven thirty minutes.

PLAIN WATER ICING

Place in bowl
Beat to mix, then use.

CHOCOLATE ICING

Place in bowl
Beat until smooth, then add one tablespoon of melted butter and use.

The Verdict:

They were okay. I gave four stars because I probably would eat these by choice, but they're really just average. The cake was very thick and kind of unpleasant to chew through because of it. On its own the cake wasn't very nice. It really needs icing or filling to make it tasty. Maybe I'm just a failure at sponge cake, I don't know. The icing was okay, but not great. If I were to make this again, I would make the cakes half the size of a muffin, so that it's not so hard to eat them. The batter also only made four (!) cakes, so, um, yeah...And on the other end of the scale, even half the frosting was waaaay too much. 

Modernized Recipe:

(Adapted from Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book)

1/2 cup SUGAR

1 EGG, separated

1 tablespoon BUTTER

3 tablespoons WATER

2/3 cup FLOUR

1 teaspoon BAKING POWDER

Pinch of SALT

1. Preheat oven to 325F. If not using muffin papers, grease the pan well.

2. In a medium bowl, beat together the sugar, egg yolk, and butter. Beat the egg white separately until stiff peaks form.

3. To the egg yolk batter, add the water, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well and gently fold in the beaten egg white.

4. Divide equally into muffin cups and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 - 25 minutes for full-size muffins or less for smaller ones. Let cool before icing.
5. To make the icing, follow the original recipe (it's easy!), but seriously reduce the amounts...by like halves or quarters.


*I found this image from Sexy Witch. I wanted to find a 1920s representation of a Jack O' Lantern, to make sure I was decorating my cakes accurately!