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YEAST CAKE (another way)
Mix thoroughly in a bowl two pounds and a half of flour, a pinch of salt, and half a pound of Demerara sugar. Make a hollow in the centre of the flour, but do not expose the bottom of the bowl. Pour into this half a pint of lukewarm milk which has been mixed with a table-spoonful of fresh yeast. Stir as much flour into the milk as will make it of the consistency of batter, sprinkle a little flour on the surface, throw a cloth over the bowl, and leave it in a warm place for an hour. Melt three-quarters of a pound of fresh butter to oil, and add this to the other ingredients, together with a pound and a quarter of currants picked and dried, half a pound of candied peel (lemon, orange, and citron together) finely shredded, a quarter of an ounce of grated nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of powdered cinnamon, and a quarter of an ounce of ground allspice. Knead the mixture thoroughly, and add as much milk as will make a smooth, light dough. Line three moderate-sized cake-tins with buttered paper, three-parts fill them with the mixture, let them rise before the fire for half an hour, and bake in a well-heated oven. If liked, this cake may be iced after it has been baked. For instructions in icing see the remarks on icing a cake towards the close of the article on WEDDING CAKE, EXCELLENT. Time to bake the cakes, about an hour and a half. Probable cost, 1s. each.
A rich yeast-raised fruit cake of the old English type, closer to a Bath bun or lardy-cake dough than to a creamed butter cake. The quantities are large: this makes three cakes, and the dough is heavy enough that both rises will take longer than the times given.
- The hinge: give the dough more timeThree-quarters of a pound of butter and over a pound of fruit slow the yeast badly. The stated hour for the sponge and half an hour for the final proof are optimistic in a modern kitchen at 68-70F; work to appearance, not the clock, and let the tins rise until the dough is visibly puffed and springs back slowly, which may take 1.5 to 2 hours.
- Scale in modern terms2.5 lb flour is about 1.1 kg (roughly 9 cups); half a pint of milk is 10 fl oz British measure, about 1.25 cups. The ingredients as listed come to over 5.5 lb before the extra milk goes in, so use a large bowl or a stand mixer with a dough hook.
- Fresh yeastA tablespoon of fresh yeast is roughly half an ounce (15 g) of the compressed cake. Substitute about 2 teaspoons of instant dried yeast, or 1 tablespoon of active dry, dissolved in the lukewarm milk as directed.
- "Melted to oil"This means butter melted fully to a clear liquid rather than softened. Let it cool to lukewarm before adding, or it will kill the sponge you have just raised.
- Oven heatA 'well-heated oven' means a brisk one; the book gives no temperatures. For a cake this rich, an hour and a half at high heat will scorch the fruit; 350F is the practical setting, with foil laid loosely over the tops once they colour.
- Tins and lining'Moderate-sized cake-tins' is not defined; round tins of about 7 inches suit the quantity. Buttered paper is parchment now; line base and sides and let the paper stand an inch above the rim, since the dough continues to rise in the oven.
- SpicesA quarter ounce of each ground spice is roughly 3 teaspoons of nutmeg or cinnamon and rather more of allspice, spread across three cakes. Grate the nutmeg fresh, as the pre-ground version loses most of its point within months.
- Fruit and peel"Picked and dried" refers to sorting currants for stalks and grit and drying them after washing; commercially cleaned dried currants need only a rinse if dusty. Whole candied citron and peel, shredded at home, gives a far better result than the pre-diced mixed peel sold for Christmas baking.
- Doneness and keepingA skewer into the centre should come out clean and the internal temperature should reach about 200F. Cooled and wrapped, these keep four or five days and toast well after that.
Yeast-raised fruit cakes like this one belong to the older English tradition, predating the chemically leavened cakes that spread in the second half of the nineteenth century; a similar lineage runs through the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire spice loaves, the Cornish saffron cake and the Guernsey gache. Cassell's dictionary was compiled while that shift was under way, and gives both kinds side by side. Demerara sugar and citron peel point to the imperial grocery trade that made a cake of this richness affordable to a middle-class household, and the note of 'probable cost, 1s. each' would have been the useful part of the entry for a cook keeping accounts. The instruction to prove the tins 'before the fire' is a reminder that the warm spot in a Victorian kitchen was the open range, not a switched-off oven with the light on.