Black Cake
Twelve eggs, one and one-half pounds sugar, one pound of butter, three-fourths pound of scorched flour, four pounds of raisins, three pounds currants, one and one-half pounds citron, one small cup brandy, one cup molasses, spice to taste; bake from two to three hours.
COMMON FRUIT CAKE, (VERY NICE.) One cupful molasses, one cup sugar, one cup butter, one cup sour milk, one large teaspoonful cinnamon, one teaspoonful allspice, one teaspoonful soda, one nutmeg, half a teaspoonful of cloves, one pound of fruit; seed and chop the raisins; four and one-half cupfuls of sifted flour, three well beaten eggs.
Two cakes are run together here: a full-scale wedding-and-Christmas black cake with no leavening at all, and a modest sour-milk fruit cake underneath it. Read them as separate formulas.
- Scorched flourThis means flour spread in a pan and toasted until it is nut-brown, which both deepens the colour of the cake and weakens the gluten so the crumb stays tender under all that fruit. Toast it, cool it completely, then weigh and sift; hot flour will melt the butter in the creaming.
- The size of itThe black cake runs to something over fourteen pounds of batter. That is three deep 9-inch pans or one very large one, and most home mixers will not take it in a single batch — divide it and fold the fruit in by hand.
- No leavening, by designThere is no soda or baking powder in the black cake. The only lift comes from twelve eggs beaten thoroughly, so beat the whites separately if you want any rise at all, and expect a dense, close cake regardless.
- Oven heatThe recipe gives only a time, no oven description; a batter this size and this rich wants gentle, prolonged heat, which in modern terms means the low end of the range. Line the pans with a double thickness of parchment, stand them on a baking sheet, and test with a skewer rather than trusting the clock, since a deep pan may want longer than the stated three hours.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in blocks, not the fresh fruit. A pound and a half is a lot by modern taste; mixed candied peel or chopped candied orange can stand in for part of it.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, the small black raisins — not fresh red or black currants. Rinse and dry them, as older stock is often gritty.
- Sour milk and sodaIn the second cake the soda needs the acid of genuine soured milk. Buttermilk is the direct modern equivalent; fresh milk with a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice per cup works if you let it stand ten minutes.
- One nutmegA whole nutmeg grated yields roughly two to three teaspoons, which is assertive but in keeping with the style. 'Spice to taste' in the black cake leaves the mixture to the cook; the second recipe's cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves give an idea of the range.
- KeepingThe black cake is built to age. Cooled, wrapped in brandy-dampened cloth and stored airtight, it improves for weeks; the sour-milk cake is a plainer thing and is best within a few days.
Black cake is the dark, fruit-heavy, spirit-soaked end of the British plum cake tradition — the same lineage as Christmas cake and the Caribbean black cake still made for weddings, where the fruit is soaked in rum for months rather than a cup of brandy stirred in at the last. The colour comes from three directions at once: molasses, dark dried fruit, and the scorched flour, browned flour being a familiar way of darkening a batter. A cake on this scale was not weeknight baking. Twelve eggs, four pounds of raisins and a pound of butter represented real expense — the sliced, keeping cake brought out for callers, weddings and holidays, cut thin because it was rich and because it had to last. The "common fruit cake" printed beneath it is the everyday answer to the same craving: one cup of each staple, sour milk and soda instead of a dozen eggs, a single pound of fruit.