Scotch Cake
One pound sugar, three-fourths pound butter, one pound flour, eight eggs, one wine glass brandy, the juice and grated rind of one lemon, one pound of chopped raisins; separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs, beat the whites to a froth and mix with the butter and sugar, previously stirred well together to a cream, then add the brandy, flour and lemon.
A pound-cake formula scaled to a full pound of each of the main ingredients, and typical of the period in giving no pan, temperature or baking time. Two things in the original text need attention before you start.
- The yolks are never mentioned againThe method separates the eggs, whites into the batter, and then drops the yolks entirely. Beat them into the creamed butter and sugar before folding in the whites, as in any pound cake; otherwise you are discarding half the eggs and the cake will not set properly.
- The raisins are also orphanedA pound of chopped raisins is listed but never added. Toss them with a spoonful of the measured flour and fold them in last, after the flour, so they stay suspended rather than sinking.
- Weights into cupsOne pound sugar is about 2 1/4 cups granulated; three-fourths pound butter is three sticks; one pound flour is roughly 3 1/2 to 4 cups, so weighing is far more reliable here. Eggs of the period are generally thought to have run smaller than today's large eggs, so eight may be closer to seven large by volume.
- A wine glassIn nineteenth-century American receipts a wine glass is about 2 fluid ounces, a quarter cup, not a modern stemmed glass. Brandy in this quantity is for flavour and keeping, not leavening.
- No leavening at allThe lift comes only from creaming and from the beaten whites, so cream the butter and sugar until genuinely pale and light, and fold the whites in with a light hand. Overmixing at that stage gives a dense, close-grained loaf.
- Oven and timeThe receipt gives no oven direction; a moderate oven of about 325F suits a cake this rich. The batter weighs close to five pounds, which is too much for one tin -- use a large tube pan or two 9-inch loaf pans, lined with parchment, and allow about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Test with a skewer at the centre and tent the top with foil if it colours early.
- Yield and keepingRoughly 24 to 30 thin slices. Like most brandied fruit cakes it improves after a day or two wrapped closely.
"Scotch cake" in American receipt books of this period does not necessarily mean Scottish shortbread; here it is a rich fruited pound cake flavoured with brandy, raisins and lemon. The pound-for-pound structure -- a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, a pound of fruit -- is an older way of recording a cake. Cakes of this weight also relied on the cook's judgement of the oven, which is why so many of them, like this one, give no temperature and no time at all.