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Ribbon Fruit Cake (Also Called "Checkerboard Cake")
No. 1 DARK PART 1½ cups sugar (white or brown) 1 cup butter 2 cups browned Five Roses flour Yolks of 6 eggs 1½ pounds raisins ½ pound currants ½ pound citron peel 1 pound dates ¼ pound nuts 1 teaspoon soda (dissolved) ½ teaspoon cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice LIGHT PART 1 cup white sugar 1 cup butter ½ cup sweet cream 2½ cups Five Roses flour 2 teaspoons baking powder (heaping) 1 pound almonds (chopped fine) ½ pound citron peel ½ pound grated cocoanut 1 teaspoon rose water 1 teaspoon lemon extract 1 small slice orange peel Whites of 6 eggs
This is an ingredient list rather than a method — typical of brand cookbooks that assumed the reader already knew how to build a fruit cake. Two batters are made separately, baked or layered so the dark and light alternate, giving the ribbon or checkerboard effect when sliced.
- No method is givenCream butter and sugar for each part separately, beat in yolks (dark) or fold in stiff whites (light), add flour with the leavening, then the fruit and nuts last, dredged in a little of the measured flour so they do not sink. The two batters are then spooned in alternating layers or stripes into lined pans.
- Browned flourFor the dark part the flour is spread in a shallow pan and toasted in the oven until it is the colour of light cocoa, then cooled and sifted before measuring. It contributes colour and a nutty flavour, and it also weakens the gluten slightly, so the dark batter will feel softer than the light.
- Soda, dissolvedDissolve the teaspoon of baking soda in about a tablespoon of warm water or milk and add it near the end. There is no acid ingredient in the dark part beyond the fruit and brown sugar, so it does very little lifting — this is a dense cake by design.
- Sweet cream"Sweet" here means fresh and unsoured, as opposed to the sour cream then common in farm kitchens. Use heavy cream, about 35 per cent.
- CocoanutFreshly grated coconut, moist and unsweetened. Modern desiccated coconut is drier and much of the sweetened kind is sugared; use unsweetened desiccated and add a spoonful or two of extra cream to compensate for the lost moisture.
- Citron peelCandied citron, a thick-rinded citrus preserved in syrup, sold in blocks and diced at home. Mixed candied peel is the usual substitute, though it is sweeter and more strongly orange.
- Rose waterStill sold in Middle Eastern and Indian groceries and in baking aisles. Modern rose waters vary enormously in strength; start with half the teaspoon and taste the light batter before adding more.
- Oven and timingThe recipe supplies neither. A rich fruit cake of this size would suit a slow oven, in modern terms roughly 275-300F, with the pans lined in a double thickness of parchment. Expect two to three hours depending on pan depth; test with a skewer and tent the top with foil once it has coloured.
- YieldThe fruit and nuts alone come to about five and three-quarter pounds, and the finished batter to roughly ten pounds. This fills two large loaf tins and a smaller one, or a deep 10-inch round with some left over. Plan on baking it well ahead -- it keeps for weeks, wrapped, and improves.
The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, whose head office was in Montreal, to promote its Five Roses flour, and it drew its recipes from home cooks across Canada, which is why the instructions are often skeletal -- the contributor knew the method and assumed everyone else did too. Ribbon or checkerboard cakes were a Victorian and Edwardian showpiece: two batters of contrasting colour, baked and assembled so that the cut slice reveals a pattern. This particular version is a fruit cake rather than a plain layer cake, which puts it in the Christmas and wedding category, where the large quantities of raisins, citron, dates and almonds signalled the household's prosperity as much as its taste. The dark part gets its colour from browned flour and dark spices rather than molasses; browned flour turns up in a number of Canadian and New England cookbooks of the era.