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Fruit Cake
1 pound granulated sugar, 3/4 pound butter, 1 pound flour, 8 eggs, 2 pounds raisins, 2 pounds currants, 1/4 pound candied orange peel, 1/4 pound candied lemon peel, 1/2 pound citron, 1 heaping tablespoonful cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoonful of cloves, 1 nutmeg, 3 teaspoonfuls soda, 2 tablespoonfuls grape juice, cream, butter, and sugar; add the well-beaten yolks of eggs, spices, then sifted flour, reserving enough to mix with fruit, then soda mixed in grape juice; then add whites, after beating very stiff, and last the fruit. Put buttered paper on tin. Bake in a moderate oven three hours.
A full-sized Victorian fruit cake: roughly nine pounds of batter and fruit, more fruit than cake by weight. The ingredient list and the method run together in the original, so read it through before starting.
- Weigh, don't measureA pound of flour is roughly 3 1/2 to 4 cups depending on how it is measured, a pound of granulated sugar about 2 1/4 cups, and 3/4 pound butter is 3 sticks. With ratios this tight a scale is worth more than cups here.
- Oven temperatureA moderate oven of the period is usually reckoned at around 350F, though the term was never precise. For a cake this dense, three hours at 350F risks scorching the outside; modern practice for heavy fruit cakes is 275-300F, with the longer time the original already allows. Watch the crust rather than the clock.
- The buttered paper"Put buttered paper on tin" means lining the pan, and for a three-hour bake it should be a double thickness up the sides and above the rim. Parchment does the job; some bakers also wrap the outside of the pan in a collar of paper or foil.
- Soda without acidThree teaspoonfuls of soda is a great deal to activate with two tablespoonfuls of grape juice. Period soda was often saleratus rather than modern bicarbonate and may not have behaved identically; in modern baking soda this quantity risks a soapy, metallic edge. One teaspoon is nearer the mark for this weight of flour, or use baking powder instead.
- Nutmeg and spicesOne nutmeg grated gives about 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons. The heaping tablespoon of cinnamon is not an error; heavily fruited cakes of this era were spiced hard.
- Citron and candied peelCitron here is candied citron melon or the citron fruit, sold in blocks and now hard to find outside baking season; candied lemon or grapefruit peel substitutes without much loss. Chop all the candied fruit and toss it with the reserved flour, which is what keeps it from sinking.
- Folding the fruitFour pounds of dried fruit and a pound of candied peel go in last, after the stiff whites. Fold rather than beat, and expect a batter stiff enough to need spreading with a spatula.
- Yield and pansAbout nine pounds of batter, a little less once baked. Divide between two 9-inch round pans or three loaf tins rather than one vessel; a single mass that deep will not cook through. Test with a skewer at the centre, and cool completely in the pan.
- KeepingCakes like this were made weeks ahead and improved on standing. Wrapped tightly and kept cool, it holds for a month or more; the sugar and dried fruit do the preserving.