I had six eggs that really needed using, so I decided to go a little out of my usual time period and try to use my new cake tins today. I picked out a recipe from the tried and tested 1830 Hamburgisches Koch-Buch:
Bisquit
You take six eggs and weigh out an equal weight of sugar and the weight of four eggs in flour. Breat the whites of the eggs to a snow, put the sugar into the yolks and beat this well with a wooden spoon, then stir in the whites and now, gradually, the flour. You can well add a little grated lemon peel or or a few drops of orange water. You can also easily use two more yolks to six eggs; then you must also use more sugar, but not more flour. You dust it with finely sieved sugar from above in its moulds. You also lay finely cut citron on top. The flour must be fine or dry. (14.73, p. 459)
I wanted to see how well a dough with no leavening other than beaten egg whites would hold up, and for all its daunting reputation the technique worked easily. Of course in the absence of a maidservant, I had to rely on an electric mixer to first beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then the egg yolks and sugar until they turned white.This would have taken hours to do by hand. I then folded the whites into the egg yolk mix and the flour, together with some lemon peel, into the combination. Everything held up well and made bubbly noises when agitated.
Then I decided not to follow my instinct. While I feared that this would be a sticky and uncooperative mixture, the recipe clearly mentioned moulds, so I picked out some of my smoother, shallower cake tins and greased them liberally. The cakes went into the oven at 175°C and rose and browned beautifully.
Unfortunately, when the time came to take them out of the oven and try them, it turned out there was no earthly way to remove them from their tins. In every other way, it was a brilliant success – a light, airy crumb surrounded by a thin, brittle crust, a hint of lemon and a melting sweet note, but the only way to eat it is to spoon it from the tin. Next time, I will pipe it out onto baking paper. I am sure it will hold together well enough to make letters and figures, and a greater crust-to-crumb ration will help with that.
And that was what I did on my Sunday evening.