Washington Pie

I have made my share of errors in trying to recreate these recipes. But nothing has failed as spectacularly as this dish from Wartime Recipes from the Maritimes. Partly because it failed TWICE.

First, this is NOT a pie. It’s a cake. Submitted by one Mildred Smith of Wolfville, NS (shout-out to all my Wolfville connections), the intention is that the two layers of cake are separated by a gelatin-based filling. And that was the problem …

Ingredients

Cake:
1/4 cup fat (used butter)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Filling:
1 tsp powdered gelatin (this is 1/3 of a package)
2 tbsp orange juice
2 cups milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Instructions

Prepare the filling at least 4 hours before serving. Soften gelatin in the orange juice. Heat 1/2 cup of milk and stir in softened gelatin, sugar and salt, stirring until dissolved. Mix n the remaining milk and refrigerate about 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Beat until thick and smooth. 

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease and flour two 8" cake pans. 

Cream fat and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Combine dry ingredients, and add to batter alternating with milk. 

Pour into pans and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before layering with filling. 

First of all, don’t try to substitute lemon juice for orange juice. That immediately curdled the milk (duh), and I had to restart.

The filling seemed pretty straightforward, until the “beat until thick and smooth” step.

I got the filling made and in the fridge, and then baked the cakes.

Then, after 4 hours, I tried beating the filling. This was fairly comical. I first tried with a spoon. It was still pretty liquid-y. Then I tried with the mixer. It got aerated, but not “thick” or “smooth”.

I beat and whipped for a loooong time. It looked kinda like whipped cream at this point, so I decided to try construction. It might look like whipped cream, but it definitely does not have the structural support of whipped cream.

You probably saw this coming. The filling rapidly exited the sides of the cake and overflowed the plate. Some of it soaked into the cake and we poured some more on top, so it was tasty. But not exactly what was intended.

Now, if I was looking for low-fat homemade ersatz whipped cream (which would likely have been popular during rationing), this would have fit the bill.

This was such an utter failure that I had to try again, and hopefully redeem myself before posting this recipe. Attempt 2 involved slightly more gelatin (1.5 tsp versus 1 tsp), more than 4 hours in the fridge, and a fair amount of hope.

Once again, I unsuccessfully tried beating with a spoon (thicken, damn you!), and then the mixer.

No luck. Fortunately, I learned by lesson the first time, and didn’t actually proceed to sandwiching the layers. Again, we used the filling as a sauce. I think it was a bit less runny than the first time.

By the next day, the filling was firmer (more like actual whipped cream). Still not stiff enough to layer, though.

The verdict

Everything was tasty, but did not assemble as promised. The filling was like a very loose pannacotta, and added sweetness and a nice milkiness to the less sweet cake. The filling was a pretty good substitute for whipped cream by the next day too. I think much more gelatin would be needed to support the weight of the top layer, and even then I’m not sure how well it would hold together after beating.

(Mildred Smith from Wolfville, why is it so confusing!?)

Do you have a suggestion on how to make this work? PLEASE TELL ME. (In the comments.)