We all like our fair share of sunshine, so when there isn’t any, we’ll just have to make our own.
And we can start the minute the whim strikes us, thanks to Forum readers who supply a pair of recipes that are not just a type of sunshine, but verifiable golden oldies themselves.
Snohomish cook Patricia Ellis tells us, “Recently, you had a request for an angel-food cake that used whole eggs. I’m sending this recipe my mother made years ago that was always my request for my birthday cake. I have not made it myself, but my sister Margy Turner of Sammamish has.
“By the way, our mother would be celebrating her 100th birthday this year, so you can see it’s an old recipe. This is the way the recipe is written. I would imagine the egg whites are beaten until stiff. I don’t remember if it was ever frosted…”
And faithful longtime Forum sharer Hazel Venables of Stanwood writes, “Hopefully this is the sunshine cake Janice Klatt is looking for. I found it in my 1942 cookbook — a time when making cakes with seven eggs wasn’t uncommon. (My mother made angel-food cakes on order and used 13!)
“I wonder if Janice’s aunt will use an old rotary, hand-cranked egg beater to beat all these whites and yolks as we did in those long-ago times. After we’d sifted the flour three times, of course!”
Just so you know, both recipes appear here exactly as they were originally printed. Admittedly, though, the first sentence of the directions for making the sugar “sirup” in the cookbook recipe sound peculiar and sort of questionable, but the next step apparently pulls it off successfully.
Patricia’s mother’s yellow angel food cake
5eggs, separated
1/2cup cold water
1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups flour
1teaspoon baking powder
1/4teaspoon salt
1teaspoon vanilla
3/4teaspoon cream of tartar
Beat egg yolks and water until light and lemon colored. Add sugar, sifted flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar and fold into first mixture. Bake in an angel food pan for 45 to 50 minutes in a 325 degree oven on lowest rack. Test for doneness. Invert to cool.
1942 cookbook sunshine cake
Cake flour, 1 cup
Sugar, 1 1/4 cups
Water, 1/2 cup
Eggs, separated, 7
Salt, 1/2teaspoon
Cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon
Grated orange rind, 1 tablespoon
Lemon extract, 1 teaspoon, or lemon juice, 1 tablespoon
Sift flour; measure; sift twice again.
Combine sugar and water in saucepan; place over low heat and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat. Boil gently until it spins a thread or to 242 degrees.
In the meantime, beat egg whites until frothy; sprinkle salt and cream of tartar over top and continue beating until stiff but not dry.
Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored; add orange rind and lemon extract or juice; continue beating until very thick.
Wipe off crystals from pouring lip or side of pan in which sugar sirup was cooked, using a damp swab; pour the sirup in a fine stream into egg yolks, beating steadily. Continue beating until nearly cool. Gently fold in beaten whites.
Gradually fold in flour, sifting about 1/4 cup at a time over the surface; blend with as few motions as possible.
Turn into an ungreased tube pan about 9 inches in diameter. Bake in a moderate oven (325 degrees) about 1 hour; remove from oven. Invert pan; let cake stand in the inverted pan about 1 hour or until cooled. Spread with orange butter frosting.
The next Forum will appear in Wednesday’s Good Life section.
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