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Fruit Cakes
The generally accepted unwholesomeness of fruit cakes is chiefly based on the fact that the condensed nutriment of such cakes is not realised and they are eaten "on top of" too much other food or in too great quantity at any time. The dried fruits contain concentrated nourishment and should be eaten sparingly as well as at proper time, with thorough mastication.
WHITE FRUIT CAKE (German Recipe) Beat together one cup of butter and two of sugar; add one-half glass white wine and then the stiff-whipped whites of eight eggs. Now add gradually three cups of flour, in which two teaspoons of baking powder have been sifted, and at the last one-quarter pound fine cut citron, one-half pound chopped almonds, one teacup of light-coloured currants and one-half cup grated cocoanut. Bake slowly about two hours, until it does not stick to the slenderest straw.
I2 BLACK FRUIT CAKE (German Recipe) Cream well one pound each of butter and sugar and add a good glass of brandy, three cups of flour, in which have been sifted five teaspoons of baking powder, one cup of water, the juice and grated rind of one lemon, six wellbeaten eggs, and one pound each of well-prepared currants, raisins, figs, dates, and prunes. Bake three hours.
PLAIN BOILED ICING (With Egg) To a cup of granulated sugar add one-half cup water and let boil till it strings from spoon or hardens slightly in cold water. Have ready the whipped white of an egg (or two) and on this pour the boiling syrup, beating with silver fork. Add flavouring and when the icing has thickened a little spread on the cake.
Three related recipes: two German-style fruit cakes and a boiled meringue icing to finish them. The batters are enormous by modern standards, and the leavening is the part that needs the closest reading.
- "Bake slowly" and "bake three hours""Bake slowly" points to what period cookery called a slow oven, conventionally read as somewhere in the 250-325F range; around 300F is a sensible modern equivalent. Note that the black cake gives three hours but no oven speed at all. Line the pans with parchment and, for the black cake, wrap the outside in a double layer of foil or set the pan in a shallow water bath if the edges darken early.
- Scale and pan sizeThe black cake carries five pounds of dried fruit against one pound each of butter and sugar and three cups of flour — a batter of roughly 9 lb. Split it between two 9-inch round pans or three loaf pans; a single pan that deep will not cook through. The white cake fills one 9-inch tube or two loaf pans.
- The baking powder is out of proportionThe baking powder is generous -- Five teaspoons to three cups of flour works out at about 1⅔ teaspoons per cup, against a modern norm of roughly 1 to 1¼ teaspoons per cup, and an excess of baking powder can leave a soapy or metallic edge. With this much fruit and egg the cake needs structure more than lift. The white cake's two teaspoons to three cups is fine as written.
- "A glass" of wine or brandyGenuinely ambiguous. A wineglass measure of the period is usually given as about 2 fl oz, which would make "one-half glass" about 2 tablespoons and "a good glass" perhaps 1/4 cup. Err low: too much liquid slackens a batter this heavy.
- Cocoanut and currantsGrated cocoanut means unsweetened dried or freshly grated coconut, not the sweetened flake sold today; if you use sweetened, cut the sugar slightly. "Light-coloured currants" most likely indicates the palest dried fruit available for a white cake; golden raisins or sultanas are the practical substitute.
- Preparing the fruit"Well-prepared" means stemmed, pitted, rinsed of grit and chopped, then tossed with a spoonful of the measured flour so it does not sink. Figs, dates and prunes should be cut no larger than a raisin or they form heavy pockets.
- The straw testA skewer is the modern straw, but in a cake this dense it will meet fruit and read wet regardless. Judge by the centre reaching about 200-205F and by the loaf pulling slightly from the pan.
- Boiled icing"Strings from the spoon" is the thread-to-soft-ball range, roughly 230-240F; the recipe's second test, hardening slightly in cold water, points to the upper end. Pour the syrup in a thin steady stream onto the beating whites; dumping it in cooks the egg into threads. The whites are heated but not fully cooked, so use pasteurized whites if serving anyone vulnerable.
- Yield and keepingThe white cake gives about 16 slices, the black cake 30 or more. Both improve after a few days wrapped closely; the brandied black cake keeps for weeks in a tin, brushed occasionally with more spirit.
The prefatory note is characteristic of turn-of-the-century domestic writing, when fruit cake's reputation for "unwholesomeness" was argued in the language of nutrition rather than taste: dried fruit was understood as concentrated nourishment, and the fault was held to lie with the eater and the hour rather than the cake. The pairing of a white and a black fruit cake, both labelled German, sets a pale cake built on whipped egg whites, citron, almonds and light currants against a dark one heavy with prunes, figs, dates and spirits — a distinction between light and dark fruit cakes that recurs widely, though the recipe itself says nothing of where the practice came from. The boiled icing that closes the group is an American fixture of the period, a meringue set by hot syrup that gave a glossy white finish before shortening-based buttercreams became standard.