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Genoa Cake
Mix a quarter of a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of raisins, a quarter of a pound of candied lemon, orange, and citron together--all being finely minced--as much powdered cinnamon as will stand on a three-penny piece, six table-spoonfuls of moist sugar, half a pound of flour, and the finely-chopped rind of a fresh lemon. Beat these ingredients for several minutes, with half a pound of clarified butter, four well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of brandy. Put the mixture in a well-buttered shallow tin, and bake about three-quarters of an hour. Mix the white of an egg with a table-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, and a tea-spoonful of sherry. Brush the top of the cake with this, and strew some finely-chopped blanched almonds on the surface. Put it in the oven a few minutes longer, to brown the almonds slightly. Probable cost, 1s. 10d., exclusive of the brandy. Sufficient for a tin two and a half inches deep, and four inches square.
A dense Victorian fruit cake with no chemical leavening at all — its only lift comes from the beaten eggs, so the beating stage is the whole recipe.
- Beat the eggs properlyWith no baking powder or soda, the four eggs are the only aeration. Beat them until pale and thick before they go in, and beat the finished batter several minutes as instructed; a stand mixer on medium does this in three or four.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no oven heat; a moderate oven, around 325F, is a reasonable modern reading. Cassell's gives three-quarters of an hour, which suits a shallow tin; test with a skewer and cover the top with foil if the fruit surface darkens before the centre sets.
- The tin size is wrongTwo and a half pounds of batter will not fit a tin four inches square and two and a half deep. Read it as a guide to depth only, and use an 8-inch square or 8-inch round tin, buttered and lined.
- Moist sugarThis is unrefined soft sugar — use light brown sugar. "Powdered loaf sugar" in the glaze is refined sugar crushed fine, so caster or icing sugar.
- As much as will stand on a three-penny pieceThe Victorian silver threepence was about 16 mm across. A scant quarter-teaspoon of ground cinnamon is the practical equivalent.
- Clarified butterHalf a pound of clarified butter is roughly 8 oz by weight as melted, not 8 oz of butter before clarifying — allow about 10 oz of butter to yield it. It must be cooled to just liquid, or it will cook the eggs on contact.
- Candied peelA quarter pound total of lemon, orange and citron between them, minced fine. Buy peel in whole pieces if you can; the pre-diced supermarket kind is drier and more sugar than fruit.
- The almond glazeBrush on the egg white, sherry and sugar mixture only after the cake has set and is nearly done, then return it for five to eight minutes. Applied at the start, the almonds burn long before the centre cooks.
- YieldAbout 12 slices from an 8-inch tin. It keeps a week wrapped, and improves after a day.
"Genoa cake" in British baking has little to do with Genoese sponge (the génoise of French pastry). Genoa was long associated with the trade in candied citron, lemon and orange peel, and the name is often linked to that fruit rather than to any Italian original, though the origin is not documented. By the time Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery was compiled in the 1870s, Genoa cake had settled into its familiar British form — a lighter fruit cake than a wedding or Christmas cake, spiked with brandy, and finished with almonds on top rather than marzipan and icing. The costing of 1s 10d, given "exclusive of the brandy," is characteristic of the book: Cassell's priced almost every dish so a housekeeper could judge what she was committing to.