Home › Griddle Cakes › Citron Cake
Citron Cake
Mix the well-beaten yolks of 6 eggs with half a pound of pounded and sifted sugar, and 10 ounces of fine flour; add half a pound of fresh butter beaten to a cream, 4 ounces of candied citron chopped small, a wineglassful of brandy, and the whites of the eggs beaten to a firm froth. Mix thoroughly, pour the mixture into a well-buttered mould, and bake it in a good oven. Time to bake, about three-quarters of an hour.
A butter-rich pound cake leavened only by beaten egg whites, so the folding is the whole recipe. Everything else is straightforward once the old weights are translated.
- Weights in cupsHalf a pound of sugar is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons; 10 ounces of flour is roughly 2 1/4 cups spooned and levelled; half a pound of butter is 2 sticks. Weighing is far more reliable here than measuring by volume, since the flour-to-fat ratio is what keeps the cake from collapsing.
- Pounded and sifted sugarThis is sugar crushed fine and passed through a sieve — the equivalent of caster or superfine sugar. Granulated will work but dissolves less readily in the yolks; a short spin in a food processor gets you closer.
- A wineglassfulIn nineteenth-century cookery a wineglass is usually reckoned at about 2 fluid ounces, or 1/4 cup, though the measure was not standardised. That is a substantial amount of brandy for one cake.
- Candied citronCitron is the thick-rinded citrus preserved in syrup, sold in blocks or diced pieces alongside baking supplies. Toss the chopped pieces in a spoonful of the measured flour before folding them in so they do not sink to the bottom.
- "A good oven"Read this as a moderate oven, something in the region of 350F, though the phrase is a judgement of the fire rather than a temperature. A cake of this richness at three-quarters of an hour needs steady moderate heat; hotter and the outside sets before the centre rises.
- The hinge: folding the whitesThere is no baking powder or soda in the batter, so the beaten whites supply most of the lift, along with the air worked into the creamed butter and beaten yolks. Beat them to firm but not dry peaks, and fold them in last in two or three additions with a spatula rather than stirring them through.
- Mould and yieldA well-buttered 8- or 9-inch tube pan or a 9x5-inch loaf pan suits the volume; fill no more than two-thirds. Expect 10 to 12 slices, and start testing with a skewer at 40 minutes.
- CoolingLet it sit in the pan 10 minutes before turning out. A cake this high in butter is fragile while hot and firms considerably as it cools.