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Fruit Cake (Without Eggs or Butter)
1 cup brown sugar ½ cup molasses 1 cup sour cream 1 tablespoon soda (put in cream when dissolved) 1 tablespoon boiling water (to dissolve soda) 3½ cups Five Roses flour 2 pounds raisins ½ pound currants Citron 1 cup preserves Pinch of salt Spices Almond flavor If made 1 month before using, this will be found a very moist cake and may be kept any length of time.
A dense boiled-fruit-style cake leavened entirely by soda reacting with sour cream and molasses. The original gives no pan, no temperature and no time, so those are the gaps to fill before you start.
- Oven and timeThe original gives no oven setting; bake at about 300F. A cake this heavy with fruit needs roughly 2 to 3 hours depending on pan depth; test with a skewer in the centre and tent the top with foil once it has coloured.
- Pan and yieldThe batter runs to about five or six pounds. Two 9x5-inch loaf pans or one 9-inch round deep pan, lined with two layers of parchment, is right. It will not rise much, so fill to about three-quarters.
- Sour creamThe sour cream of the period was thinner and naturally soured rather than cultured to a set consistency, and distinctly acidic. Modern cultured sour cream works but is much thicker; full-fat sour cream thinned with a little buttermilk gives a batter closer to the original. Sweet cream carries little acid and will not react with the soda, though the molasses and preserves will.
- That tablespoon of sodaIt is a large amount, but it is doing two jobs: neutralising both the sour cream and the molasses, which is why there is no baking powder. Dissolve it in the boiling water as directed and stir it into the cream, not into the flour, or you will get streaks of soapy taste.
- Fruit proportionsTwo pounds of raisins and half a pound of currants against three and a half cups of flour means the fruit dominates by weight. Expect the batter to look barely sufficient to coat it. Citron is unmeasured; a quarter pound of candied citron peel is in keeping.
- Preserves and spices"1 cup preserves" means thick jam -- any firm fruit jam will do -- and it supplies both moisture and acidity. For "spices" use about 2 teaspoons cinnamon and a teaspoon each of cloves, nutmeg and allspice.
- Almond flavorThis means a teaspoon of almond extract. Do not substitute bitter almond oil, which is a different and hazardous product.
- Keeping it a monthThe claim is sound: sugar, molasses and jam hold moisture and the fruit continues to soften. Cool completely, wrap in parchment then foil or a cloth, and store in a tin in a cool place. With no butter or eggs there is less fat to go rancid than in a conventional fruit cake, though the sour cream contributes some.
The Five Roses Cook Book was issued by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company of Montreal to promote its Five Roses brand of hard-wheat flour, and it circulated in enormous numbers in Canadian kitchens through the 1910s and 1920s. Eggless, butterless fruit cakes like this one belong to a long tradition of thrift baking that predates the First World War but became far more common during it, when eggs and butter were dear and households were urged to conserve them; a similar formula appears elsewhere under names such as war cake or poor man's fruit cake. The leavening is older still, relying on soda and sour cream, the standard chemical pairing in North American home baking before commercial baking powder became cheap and universal. Its keeping quality was the real point in a house without refrigeration: a cake made in November and wrapped away was a cake ready at Christmas.