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Simnel Yeast Cake

This is a plainer cake than some of them, and is preferred by many people. Dissolve half an ounce of dried yeast in a gill of lukewarm water, add a spoonful of castor sugar, and work it into half a pound of flour to make a dough. Lay it aside for an hour to rise, then mix with it ten ounces of currants, four ounces of candied peel, two beaten eggs, four ounces of fresh butter beaten to a cream, and a tea-spoonful of mixed spice. These materials are to be well worked in, and the dough left to rise for another hour in a warm place, covered. Then put half of it in a tin lined with a few folds of buttered paper, and on it put a layer of almond icing half an inch thick (see ALMOND ICING, FOR CAKES); the remainder of the cake mixture goes on top of this. Bake for about two hours in a steady oven. When cold the outside of the cake can be coated all over, or on top only, with more almond icing, half an inch thick. Probable cost, 2s. 6d.