White Mountain Cake

White Mountain Cake is a white sponge layer cake. It is so named because it’s tall — being a layer cake — and because it’s both a white cake, and a cake frosted with white icing, thus, a white mountain.

The cake can be baked as two or three layers. It uses lots of egg whites for leavener, but also uses some baking powder as a back-up. It is frosted with a boiled frosting, which is also used as filling for the layers. The boiled frosting is referred to as “White Mountain Frosting” and is often made in its own right for other cakes.

Layer cakes as we know them first appeared around the latter half of the 1800s in the United States, said Stephen Schmidt, the author of ``Dessert in America,' to be published next year by Scribner. But he said that the ``impulse to layer' could be traced back to the 1820s or even earlier, when cooks made what he said was the original model for the layer cake: the jelly cake.This was fashioned from a poundcake-like batter that was baked on a griddle into thin layers that were then spread with jelly and stacked.

But what truly spawned the layer cake, later in the century, was the cast-iron stove, which gradually replaced less reliable brick hearths in American kitchens, said culinary historian Karen Hess. The availability of baking powder, beginning in the mid-1800s, also made cakes easier to tackle, she continued, adding, ``The oven and the use of chemical leaveners went hand and hand.'

Notice the recipe from Home Interests Column, says to “bake in layers of different sizes, decreasing in size as it is built up,” like a wedding cake. This certainly would make the cake look like a white mountain.

White Mountain Cake - Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook, 1866
One cup white sugar
Two eggs
One-half cup butter
One-half cup sweet milk
One-half teaspoonful soda
One teaspoonful cream of tartar
Two and one-half cups flour
Note - As with many of the old recipes we've researched, directions were not included. Most of the early recipes and cookbooks were not intended for the home cook, but rather for the experienced cook who would have known what to do.

Boiled Icing - Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook, 1866
Beat the whites of four eggs to a stiff froth; boil 1 pound of crushed sugar until it ropes off and spins off in threads; then turn the boiling sugar slowly over the eggs, stirring thoroughly and beating; flavor with lemon, peach, or vanilla.

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White Mountain Cake

Make like Concord cake, and bake in sheets about one inch thick; have all the cakes the same size. Have three cakes in a loaf; lay one cake on a board and spread with frosting; then lay another on top of that and spread this with frosting; then lay on the third, and frost the whole, and set where it will dry. This is very handsome, and will keep a long time.

Concord Cake. One cup of butter, three of sugar, one of sour milk, four and a half of flour, five eggs, one teaspoonful of saleratus, and the rind and juice of one lemon. Make into two loaves, and bake in a moderate oven fifty minutes.

Frosting. Beat to a froth the white of one egg. Beat into it, very gradually, one teacup of powdered sugar, and one scant tablespoonful of corn starch, and the juice of one lemon Spread this over the cake, then wet a clean knife in cold water and smooth the frosting with it. Set in a warm, dry place to harden.
- Maria Parloa's Appledore Cook Book, published in Boston in 1872

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“WHITE MOUNTAIN CAKE.—One pint of milk, two cups of Indian meal, six eggs. Scald the milk. Beat the eggs thoroughly. Just as the milk comes to a boil stir in the Indian meal. Take from the fire and add the eggs. Bake immediately for twenty minutes. This cake must be baked very thin.” — Farm and Household Column. Postville Review. Postville, Iowa. 8 September 1875. Page 3. [Ed: thin likely refers to the layers. No mention of how to frost it. Indian meal is cornmeal.]

“WHITE MOUNTAIN CAKE.—1 cupful of butter, 2 of sugar, 3 of flour, with 2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder, and a little salt, 1 cupful of milk and the whites of 8 well beaten eggs; bake in layers of different sizes, decreasing in size as it is built up. Icing—2 cupfuls white sugar, with just enough water to moisten; boil to a thick sirup, pour boiling hot on the whites of 2 well beaten eggs; add 1 teaspoonful citric acid, and stir till cold, flavor to taste, and ice on top.” — Home Interests Column. Iola Register. Iola, Kansas. 13 October 1877. Page 4.

WHITE MOUNTAIN CAKE.—One cup sugar, one half cup of butter, one half cup sweet milk, one half cup corn starch, one cup flour, whites of six eggs, a little vanilla, two teaspoonfuls baking powder. Bake in layers. Frosting for Above.---Whites of five eggs, twenty table-spoonfuls sifted sugar, beaten very light; a little vanilla. Spread between layers and outside of cake. — The Every-Day Cook-Book and Encyclopedia of Practical Recipes for family use. Miss E. Neil. 1892