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Groom's Cake
Ten eggs beaten separately, one pound butter, one of white sugar, one of flour, two of almonds blanched and chopped fine, one of seeded raisins, half pound citron, shaved fine; beat butter to a cream, add sugar gradually, then the well-beaten yolks; stir all till very light, and add the chopped almonds; beat the whites stiff and add gently with the flour; take a little more flour and sprinkle over the raisins and citron, then put in the cake-pan, first a layer of cake batter, then a layer of raisins and citron, then cake, and so on till all is used, finishing off with a layer of cake. Bake in a moderate oven two hours. - Mary Wilcox, Dalton.
A pound-cake formula scaled up to banquet size: five pounds of batter and fruit before the pan even goes in the oven. The proportions are sound, but nothing about the handling is forgiving.
- The hinge: keep the fruit suspendedThe layering of batter and fruit is not decoration, it is the whole trick. A batter this rich will let heavy raisins and citron sink to the bottom during a two-hour bake, so the flouring and the alternating layers are what keep the slice evenly studded. Do not stir the fruit through the batter instead.
- What "a pound" adds up toOne pound each of butter, sugar and flour is about 2 cups butter, 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar and 3 1/2 to 4 cups flour. Ten eggs would come near a pound only if the period's eggs ran small, which is the classic pound-cake balance. Counting the almonds, raisins and citron, the listed ingredients total roughly 7 1/2 lb of batter and fruit.
- Two pounds of almondsA very large quantity by modern eyes, and it makes a dense, marzipan-scented crumb. Blanched almonds chopped fine, not ground to meal; ground almonds will make the cake pasty.
- Oven temperatureA moderate oven is 350F, but for a cake of this depth and richness, 325F is the practical reading, or the outside will be dark before the centre sets. Two hours is realistic for a large deep pan; test with a skewer at 90 minutes.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in blocks at holiday time and increasingly hard to find outside specialty shops. "Shaved fine" means thin slivers, not diced. Candied orange or lemon peel is the usual substitute.
- The panNo size is given. A 10-inch tube pan or two 9-inch deep round pans will take it; line the sides and base with buttered parchment, since two hours against bare metal will scorch the crust of a sugar-heavy batter.
- Handling the whitesThe whites are beaten stiff and added gently along with the flour, folded rather than beaten in. With this much butter, overworking at that stage collapses the foam and the cake bakes short and greasy.
- Yield and keepingForty thin slices or more, given the weight. Fruit-and-almond cakes of this size improve after several days wrapped tightly; the crumb settles and the citron perfumes the whole cake.
Groom's cake belongs to a nineteenth-century wedding convention in which two cakes appeared: a pale, iced bride's cake and a richer, darker, fruit-laden groom's cake, the latter often cut into small squares, boxed and given to guests to carry home. The custom is usually traced to British wedding practice, and the boxed slice was frequently kept as a keepsake rather than eaten; the instruction to sleep with it under the pillow is a folk tradition attached to these boxed slices. This version is on the lighter side of the type, built on a straight pound-cake base and leaning on almonds and citron rather than currants and spice. A recipe signed with a contributor's name and town in this way is characteristic of the community-compiled American cookbooks of the period, which were assembled from recipes sent in by their readers.