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Dundee Cake
Beat half a pound of butter and half a pound of sugar to a cream; have three quarters of a pound of sultanas cleaned and picked; sift one pound of flour and one and a half tea-spoonfuls of baking powder together on to a paper; beat five eggs into the butter and sugar, one at a time; then add the sultanas and a quarter of a pound of candied peel finely chopped. Beat the flour in gradually, adding a little milk if necessary; pour into a cake-tin lined with greased paper, and bake for two hours in a steady oven. Probable cost, 1s. 10d.
A plain, heavy Victorian fruit cake in imperial pounds: the ratio is a full pound of flour to half a pound each of butter and sugar, so the batter is stiff and the crumb closer to a firm tea-loaf than a modern buttery cake.
- The hinge: keep the heat low and steadyA "steady oven" for a two-hour fruit cake is best read as a low, even heat, somewhere in the region of 300-325F in a modern oven, disturbed as little as possible early on. Anything hotter sets and browns the outside long before the dense centre cooks, and the sultanas near the crust will scorch.
- Weights in modern termsHalf a pound is 8 oz (225 g), three quarters of a pound of sultanas is 12 oz (340 g), one pound of flour is 16 oz (450 g), and the candied peel is 4 oz (115 g). Use plain flour, since the recipe supplies its own baking powder.
- Tin size and liningThe original just says "a cake-tin". This quantity suits a deep 8-inch round tin, and the greased paper lining should stand an inch above the rim. For a low oven and a long bake, a double thickness of paper round the sides is worth the trouble.
- EggsVictorian eggs generally ran smaller than today's large ones, so five here will give rather less beaten egg than five modern large eggs. Add them one at a time as directed and the creamed butter and sugar is far less likely to curdle.
- "A little milk if necessary"With this much flour you may well need some: a couple of tablespoons, worked in as the flour goes in gradually, until the batter drops reluctantly from the spoon rather than pouring. A wet batter lets the fruit sink.
- Cleaning the sultanas"cleaned and picked" refers to removing stalks, stray stems and grit from unwashed dried fruit. Modern packaged sultanas need none of this; simply toss them in a spoonful of the weighed flour so they stay suspended.
- Testing for doneTwo hours is a guide, not a rule. The cake is ready when a skewer comes out clean and the top springs back; cool it in the tin, since a cake this heavy will crack or split if turned out hot.
- What is missingMost Dundee cakes are finished with concentric rings of blanched split almonds pressed onto the surface before baking. Cassell's version omits them, along with the whisky or orange notes many later recipes use.
- Yield and the priceSomething over 3 lb of cake, or around 16 generous slices, and it improves after two or three days wrapped in paper. The "probable cost, 1s. 10d." is Victorian shillings and pence, quoted so a housekeeper could cost her week.
Dundee cake takes its name from the Scottish city, and its rise is generally traced to the Dundee marmalade trade, where firms with idle sugar-boiling and candied-peel capacity outside the Seville orange season are said to have turned to fruit cakes. What makes the style distinct is what it leaves out: no glace cherries, no dark spice-heavy batter, and traditionally sultanas alone rather than a mixed bag of currants and raisins, which gives a paler, lighter cake than a Christmas fruit cake. Cassell's places it here among the general cake receipts as an everyday keeping cake rather than a celebration one, which fits its economy: a pound of flour, no spirits, and a costing in shillings and pence for the household accounts. The almond-studded top now taken as the cake's signature is, as here, left optional.