White Mountain Cake With Boiled White Icing

A recipe from The Old Mill's ‘Forgotten Recipes of the Smokies’ series, plus a bonus recipe

Built nearly 200 years ago, The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is one of the country’s oldest continually operating gristmills—and one of its most photographed. This recipe for White Mountain Cake, reprinted in our Spring 2024 issue from the Old Mill’s Forgotten Recipes of the Smokies series, was recreated from a cookbook authored by Malinda Russell, the first African-American to write and publish a cookbook in America. The cake is iced with boiled white icing and is considered one of the first true layer cakes.

To those of you who recently upgraded your Substack account, thank you! Our bonus content this week is The Old Mill’s recipe for Hummingbird Bundt Cake, and it follows the White Mountain Cake recipe. Both recipes are being reprinted with permission from The Old Mill.

Note: As with many early American recipes The Old Mill researched, directions were not included. This is because most recipes and cookbooks from this time period were not intended for the home cook, but rather for an experienced cook who would have known what to do. Here is the recipe as The Old Mill interpreted it.

White Mountain Cake With Boiled White Icing

Cake Ingredients
1 cup of white granulated sugar
2 large whole eggs
½ cup of butter
½ cup of whole milk
½ teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of cream of tartar
2½ cups of Miller’s Choice Unbleached Flour

Boiled Icing Ingredients
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of white granulated sugar
⅓ cup of water
4 egg whites
Juice of 1 lemon (about 2–3 tablespoons)
Lemon zest to garnish

Cake Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare three 8-inch round cake pans by greasing and flouring them, or by spraying them with baking spray and lining them with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. If you’re using a hand or stand mixer, let it cream on high for 3-4 minutes. If you're creaming it by hand, push the butter into the sugar with the back of a wooden spoon or paddle until the butter and sugar are well combined, then beat the mixture until it becomes fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each well. Add the milk and beat the mixture until the milk is well incorporated.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture a little at a time until the flour is completely mixed in, then beat the mixture for 2–3 minutes with a mixer, or 150 strokes by hand with a wooden spoon.

4. Divide the batter equally between the three cake pans. Bake for 18–22 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool on a baking rack for 10–12 minutes in the pan. Then remove the cakes from the pan and let them cool completely on the baking rack.

5. Once the cakes have completely cooled, ice them with the boiled icing. Store the iced cake in a cake dome or saver in a cool, dry place.

Icing Directions

1. In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. Do not stir as it boils. Test if it is ready by dipping a knife or fork into the mixture as it boils. If the drip is slow and spins off into a thread, it’s ready.

2. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip 4 egg whites until they are fluffy and firm. When the sugar syrup is ready, slowly stream the hot syrup down the inside of the bowl while continuing to whip the egg whites. The egg whites will begin to fluff up even more as you incorporate the hot syrup. Once all of the syrup is incorporated, add the juice of one lemon* and whip until it is thoroughly mixed in. The icing will be very fluffy, shiny, and smooth.

3. Beginning with the first layer, ice the top, adding each layer and icing until all three layers are stacked. Begin icing the sides, from the top layer on down, with swirling strokes to ensure the icing covers the cake all the way to bottom. The outside of the cake should be covered with a thick layer of icing with no visibility of the cake layers. This recipe makes enough icing for one three-layer cake.

Note: The Old Mill tested this cake recipe multiple times to determine the oven temperature and baking time. Depending on your oven, keep a close eye on the cake for doneness, as over-baking will dry it out quickly. The Old Mill also tested the cake recipe using buttermilk in place of the sweet, or whole, milk for one version. This helped keep it more tender, but the whole milk works fine. Learn more about The Old Mill at old-mill.com.

* In Malinda Russell’s original directions, she suggested flavoring the icing with lemon, peach, or vanilla. 

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Hummingbird Bundt Cake

This moist and flavorful cake is perfect for baking in a Bundt pan. It’s often layered and enrobed in heavy cream cheese frosting, then lightly glazed with frosting or dusted with powdered sugar. The Hummingbird Bundt Cake, which became popular in the 1960s, is infused with the tropical flavors of banana, pineapple, and cinnamon. Here is The Old Mill’s interpretation of this classic recipe.