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Plum Cake, Plain, for Family Use
Take three pounds of best flour, and mix with it a dessert-spoonful of salt. Make a hole in the centre, and pour in an ounce of German yeast, which has been gradually and perfectly moistened and blended with half a pint of lukewarm water. Stir to this as much of the surrounding flour as will make a batter, then throw a cloth over the bowl, and put it near the fire for about an hour. When the yeast has risen to the top of the flour, cut up half a pound of butter, lard, or good beef dripping. Dissolve this in half a pint of hot milk, and add as much cold milk as will make it new-milk-warm. A beaten egg or two may be added or not, and a grated nutmeg, or half an ounce of powdered allspice. Put in half a pound of brown sugar, and knead all well together, adding a little more milk if necessary. Cover it again, and set it to rise for about an hour, until it is very light, then add half a pound of stoned and chopped raisins, and three-quarters of a pound of washed and dried currants. Put the dough into half a dozen well-greased tins, and bake in a moderate oven. In order to ascertain whether or not a cake is sufficiently baked, plunge the blade of a knife into the middle of it; if it comes out clean the cake is done enough. Time to bake, one hour or more, according to the size of the tins. Probable cost, 2s. 4d. Sufficient for six small or three moderate-sized cakes.
This is a yeast-raised fruit bread rather than a creamed butter cake, so the hinge is temperature control on the two risings — the enriched dough is heavy with fat, sugar and fruit and will be sluggish if anything goes in hot or cold.
- German yeastFresh compressed baker's yeast. One ounce is about 28 g fresh, or roughly 2½ to 3 teaspoons of instant dried yeast. Slake fresh yeast in the lukewarm water as directed; instant yeast can be stirred into the flour instead.
- Half a pintCassell's is an English book, so a pint is 20 fl oz — half a pint is 1¼ US cups. There are two of them here, one of water and one of hot milk, plus more cold milk to temper it.
- "New-milk-warm"Milk at about the temperature it comes from the cow, in the region of 95–100°F. Much above 120°F begins to harm the yeast.
- Moderate oven350°F. Loaf-shaped tins of this size take a good hour; larger ones will want 70–80 minutes. Tent the tops with foil if the fruit on the surface begins to scorch.
- The fatButter, lard or beef dripping all work, and dripping would have been the cheapest of the three. Dripping tends to give a savoury, closer crumb; butter is the more likely modern choice.
- FruitModern raisins are seedless, so the stoning is done for you; simply chop. Currants no longer need washing unless they look dusty, but if you do rinse them, dry them thoroughly or they will wet the dough.
- Adding the fruitWork it in gently after the second rise, then get the dough into the tins and let it prove again until visibly puffed before baking. The original does not mention this final proof.
- YieldThree pounds of flour makes a great deal of cake — three moderate loaf tins or six small ones, as stated. Halve the whole recipe for a single household batch; it freezes well sliced.
"Plum" in an English cake name almost always means dried fruit rather than plums, a usage that survives in plum pudding and plum duff and goes back to a time when "plum" covered raisins and currants generally. A cake raised with ale barm or German yeast, rather than with eggs or chemical raising agents, is the older form: the leavened, spiced, fruited dough sits behind such regional survivals as Yorkshire spice loaf, Lincolnshire plum bread and the Welsh bara brith. By the time Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery was assembled, baking powder and creamed-butter cakes had largely taken over the smarter table, which is why this one is labelled plain and for family use \, the fat is dripping if you like, the eggs are optional, and the costing at 2s. 4d. for six small or three moderate cakes was the point of including it.