This recipe for Washington Pie I am sharing today is actually a cake recipe, not a pie. It comes from the pages of an old cookery book of mine. Woman's Day, Old Fashioned Desserts by Barbara Myers.
It is a recipe I have been making for a very long time, however. I first tasted this lovely cake when my friend Leona baked it to serve as a dessert when we were invited to her place back in the early 1980's. We fell in love with it. It's a cake that I baked for my children often when they were growing up.
But how does a cake get called a pie? I was intrigued and so this morning I did a search to find out the history behind this delicious cake.
The recipe made its first appearance around 1850 in Mrs. Putnam's Receipt Book. So people have been baking this cake for almost 200 years now.
But why call it a pie when it's actually a cake? From what I have read, it all boils down to equipment used. In the mid 19th century most home cooks often baked their layer cakes in pie tins resulting in many referring to cakes baked in pie tins as "pies."
It is actually a cake that is very similar to the traditional Victoria Sandwich Cake. Both are layer cakes and both have those layers sandwiched together with jam.
Both are also dusted with confectioners' sugar rather than being iced.
The Victoria Sandwich cake however is created by creaming together margarine or butter and caster sugar, and then having eggs beaten in, along with a quantity of self-raising flour. Generally speaking, the sugar, eggs, flour and butter are of the same weight. This enables you to bake a Victoria sponge of almost any size quite easily.
Washington Pie, in contrast, uses white vegetable shortening and much more sugar than its British counterpart. In North American generally this means Crisco and in the UK you would use white flora or a vegetable fat called Trex.
I have to confess I prefer the British version over the North American cake, but both cakes are very good. My tastes have changed since living in the UK for as long as I did. I no longer have the same sweet tooth I had prior to moving over there and find North American desserts and cakes quite sweet in comparison.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE WASHINGTON PIE
Simple everyday baking ingredients. You will also need two 8-inch round layer cake tins.
- 2 cups (249g) sifted cake flour (see note)
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1/3 cup (73g) vegetable shortening
- 3/4 cup (180ml) milk
- 1 large free range egg
- Red raspberry preserves
- Icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
There is no such thing as cake flour as far as I know in the UK. In its place just measure out the flour, removing 1 TBS of flour per cup of flour used (or 2 TBS for this recipe) and then replace it with 2 TBS corn flour/starch.
That's what I did as I didn't have any cake flour in the house.
I think I would prefer to make this cake with butter. I know others have and it works fine. I have lost my taste for shortening through the years, I think. I did do a search to try to find a version where they used only butter but came up short.
I even checked Rose Levy Berenbaum's cookbook, Rose's Heavenly cakes, and Martha Stewart's Bakig Bible, but there were no Washington Pie Cake recipes in either. I cannot say how it would work with butter rather than shortening.
If you are wanting to make a cake with butter than shortening, I would recommend that you use the Victoria Sponge Cake Recipe. I know that recipe works perfectly. It actually uses equal parts margarine and butter, but I have made it with all butter, and it works.
HOW TO MAKE WASHINGTON PIE
If the use of shortening doesn't bother you then this is the cake for you! It is really a relatively simple cake to make.
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter and flour 2 (8-inch) round cake tins, tapping out any excess flour. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the shortening, vanilla and 1/2 cup (120ml) of the milk.Beat for 2 minutes with an electric whisk, or 300 strokes by hand.Add the remaining milk and egg. Beat for 2 minutes longer, scraping down the bowl as needed.Divide the batter between the two prepared pans.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or the tops spring back when lightly touched.
Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then tip out onto the rack and cool completely.Place one layer (bottom side up) on a plate. Spread generously with jam and then top with the second layer (top side up). Dust with some icing sugar to lightly cover the top.
I really hope that I haven't put you off this cake with my ponderings on butter versus shortening. This really is a lovely cake. I just find it a bit sweet for my taste. Hasn't stopped me from eating it and enjoying it however!
The mark of a true Glutton!
As you can see it is a very nice cake, light and fluffy with a beautiful crumb. It really doesn't need any frosting in my opinion although I do know some people that frost the top layer only and sprinkle coconut on that. I think it is pretty perfect just as is.
Some other simple cake recipes in The English Kitchen you might enjoy:
RASPBERRY YOGURT CAKE- I love cakes which are made with sour cream and yogurt. Adding sour cream or yogurt add moisture and makes for a lovely tender crumb. This is a beautiful cake, with a lovely moist crumb. Its light in texture and filled with pockets of sweet tart raspberries. FRENCH ALMOND, PEAR & CARDAMOM CAKE - This is a lovely cake, gluten free, loaded with beautiful ripe pears, ground almonds, and I added a touch of ground cardamom as pears and cardamom are such a quintessentially beautiful partnership and marriage of flavors. It is delicious served warm, cut into squares with either lashings of pouring cream or softly whipped cream on top.
Yield: 6 - 8Author: Marie Rayner
Washington Pie
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 30 MinTotal time: 40 MinA delicious layer cake which has a layer of sweet jam in the middle and a dusting of icing sugar on top. This is a recipe as old as the hills that I have been making for a very long time.Ingredients
- 2 cups (249g) sifted cake flour (see note)
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1/3 cup (73g) vegetable shortening
- 3/4 cup (180ml) milk
- 1 large free range egg
- Red raspberry preserves
- Icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter and flour 2 (8-inch) round cake tins, tapping out any excess flour.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the shortening, vanilla and 1/2 cup (120ml) of the milk.
- Beat for 2 minutes with an electric whisk, or 300 strokes by hand.
- Add the remaining milk and egg. Beat for 2 minutes longer, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Divide the batter between the two prepared pans.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or the tops spring back when lightly touched.
- Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then tip out onto the rack and cool completely.
- Place one layer (bottom side up) on a plate. Spread generously with jam and then top with the second layer (top side up). Dust with some icing sugar to lightly cover the top.
Notes
You can easily make your own cake flour. Simply remove 1 TBS of the flour per cup and replace with 1 TBS corn flour/corn starch. Whisk well together.
Did you make this recipe?
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