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Almond and Citron Cake
1 cupful sugar 1 cupful Crisco 5 eggs 1/2 lb. blanched chopped almonds 1/4 lb. shredded candied citron peel 2 cupfuls flour 1 teaspoonful baking powder 1/2 wineglass brandy 1/4 teaspoonful powdered mace 1 teaspoonful salt Cream Crisco and sugar thoroughly together, beat in yolks of eggs one by one, add almonds, citron, brandy, mace, flour, baking powder, salt, mix well and fold in whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Turn into a papered cake pan and bake in a moderate oven for one hour. Cover with boiled frosting if liked. Sufficient for one large cake.
A rich, almond-heavy pound cake in the older style, leavened mostly by beaten egg whites with a little baking powder for insurance. A few of its measures and materials need translating.
- Moderate ovenSet the oven to 350F. With this much nut and peel the cake bakes slowly and evenly; a skewer in the centre should come out clean at about an hour, but check at 50 minutes.
- A wineglassRoughly 2 fluid ounces, so half a wineglass of brandy is about 2 tablespoons. Period wineglasses varied, so treat this as an approximation rather than a fixed measure.
- CriscoThe book was written to sell it. The modern product has been reformulated (the trans fats were taken out) and creams up close enough for this batter. A cup of butter works and many will prefer the flavour, though the crumb may be a little less tender; if you use salted butter you might cut the added salt to about 1/2 teaspoon.
- Papered cake panLine the pan with parchment rather than greasing alone. A 9-inch round or a 9x5 loaf suits this quantity; the batter is stiff and will not spread much on its own, so level it with a spatula.
- Candied citronCitron peel is the thick, pale candied rind of Citrus medica, sold mainly around Christmas now. If you cannot find it, candied orange or lemon peel is the nearest substitute, though citron is milder and less perfumed.
- Folding the whitesThe hinge of the recipe. The five whites do most of the lifting of a batter weighted with half a pound of almonds and a quarter pound of peel, with the teaspoonful of baking powder as backup, so fold in thirds and stop while a few streaks remain. Overworking here gives a dense, heavy cake.
- Boiled frostingA sugar syrup cooked to about 240F and beaten into stiff egg whites. It sets firm and matte and does not keep well in humidity; the cake is entirely good plain.
- Keeping and yieldOne large cake, about 12 to 16 slices. Like other brandy-and-peel cakes it is better after a day or two wrapped tightly; keep it a few days at room temperature and refrigerate beyond that, especially if frosted.
A Calendar of Dinners was one of a series of cookbooks Procter & Gamble commissioned to introduce Crisco, the hydrogenated vegetable shortening it brought to market in 1911, into American home baking. That explains the otherwise odd sight of a cupful of shortening standing where a cupful of butter would have stood in an earlier recipe for this cake, and why the brand name appears in the ingredient list rather than a generic term. The cake itself is older than its fat: rich butter cakes bound with beaten eggs and studded with blanched almonds, candied citron and a splash of spirit descend from the English great cake and plum cake tradition, in which mace and nutmeg were the usual warm spices. Candied citron was a standard festive fruit in such cakes through the nineteenth century; it is now largely a once-a-year Christmas purchase.