Welcome Friends welcome back to the
kitchen welcome back to Sunday morning
in the old cookbook show now if you've
been watching the last couple of weeks I
went down a bit of a rabbit hole uh
looking at chocolate mayonnaise cakes
most of my research for the chocolate
mayonnaise cake happened in newspaper
databases because uh prior to the end of
World War II I couldn't really find it
in any of the other resources that I
have all of the cookbook collection
doesn't show up in the community
cookbooks prior to the end of World War
II
so I researched a lot of cakes
on old newspaper databases going back
into the 1800s
and while I was researching that one
cake that came up over and over and over
again was a cake called the lightning
cake
um
and the first reference to this
lightning cake that I found was in 1916
called blitzkuchen I'll throw it up on
the screen so that you can take a look
at it
Blitz kuchen is German for lightning
cake
and this lightning cake I would see it
over and over and over again uh down
through time and for the most part it
was always the same ish recipe
um a one bowl cake lightning cake
reference the fact that it was an easy
method easy ingredients usually a lemon
flavored cake
you could mix it really quickly you
could bake it really quickly and you
could get it on the table quickly if you
know people showed up and you weren't
expecting them and you needed a cake for
coffee time
so in this bowl I have uh butter and
sugar and I'm creaming that together
here I've got some flour I'm adding
baking powder and salt
the lightning cake that I'm making today
um I only found two instances of it uh
in the newspaper databases this one that
I'm doing today is from 1923 February
3rd 1923 from a newspaper in Des Moines
Iowa
and then I see it again in 1934 in Saint
Cloud this is an outlier
um
and when I when I gave those dates I
didn't do a deep dive on this one I
certainly didn't find every instance of
this cake there's probably more of them
out there if your family still makes
this cake let me know Down Below in the
comments if you still make Blitz kitchen
or lightning cake
and so we're making the batter and we're
going to put that in the baking pan and
then we're at the same time we're making
a meringue and that meringue gets baked
on top
of the cake batter at the same time
so effectively what you have
is a cake and a frosting that bake at
the same time and the you know the
frosting is of course a meringue but I
think the meringue would be kind of cool
on the top of the cake so I've got three
egg yolks in there mixing together
creaming together with the butter and
the sugar
I've got the dry ingredients ready to go
it gets lemon flavoring
whites are in the copper bowl so that we
can make the meringue so I'm going to
add the lemon flavoring
and then I'm going to scoop in a little
bit of the flour
[Music]
and a little bit of the milk
and then back with a little bit of flour
and on an upcoming edition of the Sunday
morning old cookbook show we will be
doing the hundred dollar cake and the
mythology around the hundred dollar cake
and how that carried on to
the Mrs Fields cookie
um
the Neiman Marcus cookie and it even
spawned myths in other parts of the
world in South Africa Woolworths pretty
much exactly the same story as the
Neiman Marcus cookie it's pretty funny
so we're gonna do that we're gonna do
that cake shortly as well
so just about got the cake mixed
together got the flour in
put in the last of the milk
okay that cake batter is done
and so in the copper bowl here we'll
just whip up the egg whites
and this is just a really simple
meringue egg whites and uh and some
sugar
with some nut meats and again they um
as is the norm in these older recipes
they just say nutmegs and you can use
whatever nuts you want whatever nuts you
like so I'm gonna use pecans
okay and we'll just
sprinkle in a little bit of sugar at a
time
a lot of the lightning cake recipes the
farther back you go and the farther back
you go in the place of regular
granulated sugar they use a superfine
sugar or fruit sugar super fine grind
sugar or powdered sugar and that really
finely ground Sugar means that the cake
comes together faster
and I would usually use that if I'm
making a meringue because it dissolves
quicker
so next in the nut Meats like I said I'm
using pecans and that just needs a
really quick spin that's it I've got a
9x9
so we'll get the cake batter in
you don't want to take too long beating
up your egg whites you don't want the
cake batter hanging around
before you get it in the oven
now we'll spread that out the one recipe
mentioned that it should be spread
fairly thin it is just a thin layer of
cake
in the bottom
so get that into all the corners
and then we'll get
the meringue topping on there
now one of the things that I always find
interesting when I look at you know
hundreds of variations or hundreds of
the same recipe and you look at the
variations and you look at the way it
evolves over time you can kind of see
how
you know the recipes will Branch off
into multiple different directions still
be called the same thing but have
different different ideas attached to
them
um a lot of the
Blitz cushion or you know the German
lightning cakes
you were whipping the eggs making a
meringue and then folding them into the
cake batter
um
egg whites and Trigger loving weights
and sugar
in order to make the cake light
and then you were putting cinnamon sugar
on top and maybe some nuts in sort of
you know
like a crumble topping
and I wonder if this cake where the
whites got separated out are separated
out and layered on top in a meringue
if that is just a variation someone
along the line made a mistake and they
really liked it
and and they just sort of you know went
with it
and it turned into a different cake yet
with the same name I mean that is highly
a possibility of how this could have
evolved so I'm sprinkling cinnamon sugar
on top the oven is preheated to 350
degrees just as a medium oven
I didn't use all of the sugar and
cinnamon that the recipe called for I
think that's enough for me so into the
oven we go
okay so let me tell you okay hey Sam's
gonna tell me how are you Glenn hey
friends what are you telling me while
this cake was baking and when I pulled
it out of the oven I was so excited it
looks like it had a big dome on it and
it's kind of settled the meringue was
really tall it was oh that was on the
top so yeah in the newspaper article
the clock is ticking in the newspaper
article the person who wrote this recipe
said
serve and eat within six hours
six hours time is running out okay we
the whole thing the whole thing I don't
know I could if I had to get in there so
there's meringue on the top it's
meringue interesting
so it's called lightning cake
is it super fast to make like what's
with the
it's lemony it's lovely and Lemony and
fluffy and
okay so the cake itself is really light
Airy isn't it like it's
I'm curious about the meringue you
wouldn't know
from the cake
that there were no egg whites in the
batter for the cake because usually in
order to kick that light in the area
it's on the uh right yeah you need to
put the whites you need to whip the
whites and put them in
all the whites are in their meringue are
there what else is in the meringue
though pecans okay and then a little bit
of cinnamon sugar sprinkles a little bit
of cinnamon sugar
okay so let me look at my notes
I found this cake recipe
in a newspaper February 3rd 1923 in Des
Moines Iowa
um and then again in 1934 in Saint Cloud
okay
and then every reference so this is
called the lightning kit because it's
fast to make every other reference that
I found to a lightning cake since 1934
has been
not this
okay but another cake that was really
quick to mix up okay but this idea of
putting the meringue on top I can't seem
to find it I'm hoping
out there we can use everybody you know
in the in the mass research
to find other instances of this cake
because I've never seen it before and I
don't know why it died out no it's
pretty good you're missing it it's a
good cake you're missing out why why are
we not making this why is this not in
every cookbook
and put everything in everything I know
okay so
um
make this cake
make this cake and tell everybody about
this cake it is absolutely amazing
thanks for stopping by see you again
soon