Fruit Cakes
General Directions
In making fruit cakes always mix the fruit thoroughly with a little of the flour before adding to the cake.
Mix the spices with the sugar or flour.
For directions for cleaning currants, stoning raisins, and blanching almonds (see pp. 3 and 4).
Black Cake
(Wedding Cake)
10 ozs. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
6 large eggs
1 gill brandy and sherry mixed
¹⁄₂ grated nutmeg
1 tea-spoon cinnamon
¹⁄₄ tea-spoon mace
1 ground clove
¹⁄₂ lb. finely chopped almonds
1 lb. currants
1¹⁄₂ lbs. raisins
Beat the butter to a cream. Add the powdered sugar. Beat again very thoroughly. Stir in quarter of a pound of flour. Beat the eggs together until light. Add them and the rest of the flour to the mixture alternately. Beat well. Add the brandy, sherry and spices. Add the currants, raisins and peel, which should all be well floured, gradually, mixing thoroughly. Bake in two tins lined with greased paper, in a moderate oven, for four hours. Let the cakes cool in the tins. This cake, if iced first with almond icing (see p. 67), and then with plain icing (see p. 65), is suitable for a wedding cake.
Cider Cake
1 cup of sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1 egg
¹⁄₂ pint cider
1 level tea-spoon carbonate of soda
2 cups flour
1 cup stoned raisins
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Add the well beaten egg and the flour. Dissolve the carbonate of soda in a table-spoon of boiling water. Add it to the cider. Stir it into the mixture. Beat well together. Add the raisins. Bake in a moderate oven in a buttered tin.
*Currant Cake
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
6 eggs
³⁄₄ lb. flour
³⁄₄ lb. currants
¹⁄₄ lb. sultanas
¹⁄₄ lb. mixed peel
¹⁄₄ lb. ground almonds
1 heaping tea-spoon baking powder
Beat butter and sugar for twenty minutes. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating hard all the time. Add the flour and fruit and mix thoroughly. Bake in a well greased tin in a moderate oven for about three hours. Leave in the tin to cool.
Fruit Cake—I
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1¹⁄₂ cups powdered sugar
3 cups flour
Yolks of four eggs
¹⁄₂ cup milk
1 tea-spoon cream of tartar
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1 wine-glass brandy
1 cup raisins
1 cup currants
Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar and beat well. Add the yolks and beat again. Dissolve the soda in the milk and sift the flour and cream of tartar together. Add the milk and flour alternately to the mixture. Stir in the brandy and the fruit and mix well. Bake in two greased tins in a moderate oven.
*Fruit Cake—II
2 scant cups butter
3 cups dark brown sugar
4 cups sifted flour
6 eggs
1 lb. raisins
1 lb. currants
¹⁄₂ lb. citron, finely chopped
¹⁄₂ cup molasses or treacle
¹⁄₂ cup sour milk
¹⁄₂ grated nutmeg
1 table-spoon ground cinnamon
1 tea-spoon ground cloves
1 tea-spoon ground mace
1 wine-glass brandy
1 level tea-spoon soda
Beat butter and sugar to a cream. Add the spices, molasses and some milk. Stir all well together. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately. Add the yolks and the brandy. Beat thoroughly. Add the flour and stiffly beaten whites alternately. Dissolve the soda in a little water. Add it to the mixture. Mix the fruit together with two table-spoons of flour. Stir it thoroughly into the mixture.
Line two tins with greased paper. Bake in a moderate oven two hours. Let it cool in the pan.
*Genoa Cake
10 ozs. sifted flour
8 ozs. sugar
8 ozs. butter
6 ozs. finely cut peel
4 ozs. chopped almonds
12 ozs. sultanas
5 eggs
1 tea-spoon baking powder
Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Drop in one egg at a time, beating hard all the time. Add the fruit and almonds and lastly the flour. Mix very well. Bake in an oven which is rather quick at first, then moderate.
Imperial Cake
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 lb. flour
³⁄₄ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. chopped almonds
¹⁄₂ lb. chopped citron
1 lb. raisins
¹⁄₂ grated nutmeg
10 eggs
1 wine-glass brandy
Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat again. Beat the yolks. Add them to the mixture. Add the flour gradually, beating hard continually. Add the fruit, chopped almonds, nutmeg and brandy, and the whites beaten to a stiff froth. This cake will keep a year.
Pitcaithley Bannock
1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
2 ozs. blanched almonds
2 ozs. candied orange peel
2 ozs. sugar
2 ozs. carraway seeds or comfits
Melt the butter and mix it with the flour, which should have been dried and sifted. Slice the almonds and cut up the orange peel finely. Add them with the sugar to the flour and butter. Mix very well. Bake in a slow oven for an hour.
*Seed Cake
1 lb. butter
³⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar
1 lb. flour
6 eggs
³⁄₄ oz. carraway seeds
1 wine-glass brandy
Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat well together. Beat the whole eggs and brandy together until very light. Add them and the flour alternately to the mixture, beating well, and then the carraway seeds. Bake in a greased tin in a moderate oven.
Simnel Cake
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
2 ozs. rice flour
4 eggs
7 ozs. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. currants
For the Paste
2 ozs. bitter almonds
10 ozs. sweet almonds
2¹⁄₂ ozs. powdered sugar
Whites of two eggs
Rose water
Beat the butter to a cream, and add the sugar. Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the yolks and the rice flour to the mixture, beating continually, and then the flour and currants. Mix well and stir in the stiffly beaten whites.
Prepare the almond paste beforehand. Blanch and pound the almonds, adding a little rose water to them. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, add the sugar, stir lightly together and then add the almonds.
Line two small tins with greased paper and put a layer of the cake mixture in each, and then a layer of the almond paste, then another layer of cake and almond paste. Bake in a moderate oven.
*Soda Cake
1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. crushed lump sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
1 lb. sultanas
¹⁄₄ lb. mixed peel
3 eggs
1 small tea-cup milk
1 small tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1 full tea-spoon cream of tartar
Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar, which need not be too finely crushed. Beat the eggs well. Add them to the butter and sugar, beating hard. Mix the soda with the milk and the cream of tartar with the flour. Add to the mixture alternately. Add the sultanas and finely cut peel. Mix all very well. Bake for two hours or more in a tin lined with greased paper. The oven should be fairly hot at first and then moderate for the rest of the time.
Spice Cake
³⁄₄ lb. butter
1 lb. sugar
1 lb. flour
10 eggs
1 wine-glass brandy
1 ” sherry
1 ” molasses or treacle
1 ” milk
4 lbs. raisins
2 lbs. currants
1 lb. citron-peel
1 tea-spoon soda
1 table-spoon cinnamon
2 tea-spoons cloves
1 grated nutmeg
¹⁄₄ lb. chopped almonds
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Add the well beaten eggs, brandy, wine, molasses and milk, in which the soda should be dissolved. Then the spices and flour. Stir well together and then add the fruit, which must be well mixed. Bake in two large tins for three or four hours.
*Sultana Cake—I
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. sultanas
3 ozs. lemon peel
3 eggs
1 tea-spoon vanilla
1 level tea-spoon baking powder
Soften, but do not melt the butter. Beat well. Sift the baking powder with the flour. Add the sugar to the butter, then the flour. Beat the yolks well and add them. Add the fruit and vanilla. Beat continually. Stir in the beaten whites. Bake in a greased tin in a quick oven for one and a half hours.
*Sultana Cake—II
4 eggs
Their weight in flour, castor sugar and butter
The rind of a lemon grated
3 ozs. sultanas
1 oz. finely chopped citron
Beat the butter to a cream. Put the sugar into another pan, and break the four eggs on to it. Beat the eggs and sugar together, with a steel carving-fork, until thick and creamy. It will take twenty minutes to half-an-hour. Stir in the flour lightly and quickly, then the butter, and lastly the fruit and grated lemon. Bake in a shallow oblong tin lined with buttered paper.
This cake is better if kept a day or two before eating.
Sultana Cake—III
³⁄₄ lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. sultanas
6 ozs. butter
6 ozs. sugar
3 eggs
1 level table-spoon baking powder
1 oz. candied peel
A little milk
Rub the butter lightly into the flour, in which the baking powder should be mixed. Then add the sugar, sultanas, and chopped peel. Beat the eggs together until creamy and light, and add them to the flour, etc., mixing in the ingredients with a little milk. Bake in a greased tin in a moderate oven.
Sultana or Seed Cake
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
¹⁄₄ lb. butter
¹⁄₄ lb. castor sugar
3 eggs (or 4 eggs if small ones)
2 ozs. sultanas (or carraway seeds)
A little finely-chopped candied peel
Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar, flour and fruit, by degrees, then the eggs, previously well beaten. Beat all well together for ten minutes. Bake in a round cake tin lined with buttered paper for rather less than an hour.
*White Fruit Cake
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
¹⁄₂ cup milk
Whites of three eggs
3 tea-spoons baking powder
1 wine-glass brandy
¹⁄₄ lb. chopped citron
¹⁄₂ lb. blanched and chopped almonds
¹⁄₄ lb. grated cocoanut
Beat the butter to a cream, add the sugar. Beat well together. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Add the butter and sugar, moistening the mixture with the milk and brandy. Add the cocoanut, almonds and citron. Mix well and stir in the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a tin lined with greased paper in a moderate oven.