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Date Loaf Cake
Make the cake as above, using, however, an additional cup of flour and a second heaping teaspoon of baking powder. Add one grated nutmeg, the grated rind of one lemon, and one pound of dates, stoned, cut fine, and dredged with flour. Bake in a moderate oven one hour or more.
A variation instruction rather than a standalone recipe: it modifies the loaf cake printed immediately before it, so you need that base formula in hand before starting. A few points are worth translating.
- "As above"The recipe is a set of amendments to the preceding loaf cake, not a complete method. Take the base batter and add one cup of flour and a second heaping teaspoon of baking powder to it, along with the flavourings listed here.
- Moderate ovenUsually read today as somewhere around 350F, though the book gives no temperature. An hour or more is right for a full loaf tin; start testing at 55 minutes with a skewer in the centre, and expect a heavily fruited batter to want longer.
- One grated nutmegA whole nutmeg grates down to roughly 2 to 3 teaspoons, which is assertive by current taste. Half a nutmeg gives a warmth that still reads clearly against the dates.
- Dates, stonedA pound of dates was sold with the stones in; buy pitted Deglet Noor or Medjool and check for strays. Medjools are wetter and stickier, so chill them briefly and cut with an oiled knife.
- Dredged with flourThis is the hinge. Tossing the cut dates in flour keeps them suspended rather than sinking into a solid layer at the base, and stops the pieces welding together. Take the dredging flour from the measured total rather than adding extra.
- Heaping teaspoonHeaping spoons ran generous, so roughly 1.5 level modern teaspoons of baking powder is a workable reading. Period powders were single-acting and their strength varied by brand, so err on the lower side.
- Lemon rindGrate only the yellow zest; the pith is where the bitterness lives.
- YieldWith the extra flour and a pound of fruit this fills a large loaf tin, or two smaller ones. Like most heavily fruited cakes it keeps for some days well wrapped.
Date loaf cakes belong to the moment when dried fruit stopped being a luxury import and became ordinary grocery stock. Dates from North Africa and the Middle East arrived in Britain and America pressed into slabs or boxes, cheap enough by the late nineteenth century that cookbooks began treating them as a substitute for the raisins and currants of older fruit cakes. The heavy nutmeg and lemon rind here are inherited from that earlier tradition, where spice and citrus peel carried a plain butter batter.