Prune Cake
Have ready a cup of chopped nuts and two of chopped, dried, steamed prunes. Alternate these in layers with cake batter made with three eggs, one and one-half cups sugar, three-fourths cup sweet milk, one-half cup butter, and one teaspoon baking-powder sifted through three cups of flour. Bake in moderate oven till done through. Or this may be all stirred together.
A plain butter cake with prunes and nuts, written in the compressed style of the period, where the cook is expected to know the mixing method without being told. Two details need attention before you start: the leavening is low by modern standards, and the batter is stiff enough that the prunes must be dry-surfaced or they will sink.
- Moderate ovenAround 350F (period usage for "moderate" ranges roughly 325-375F). Bake until a skewer comes out clean; expect somewhere in the region of 45-55 minutes in a 9x13 pan or two loaf tins, longer in a tube pan.
- Sweet milkOrdinary whole milk. The term only exists to distinguish it from sour milk or buttermilk, which would have called for soda instead of baking powder.
- The baking powder is lowOne teaspoon sifted through three cups of flour is about a third of what current practice uses, though the three eggs supply some lift of their own. With a modern double-acting powder you are likely to get a close, heavy crumb; two to three teaspoons gives the crumb most people now want.
- No salt, no spiceThe original gives neither. Half a teaspoon of salt is worth adding, and prunes take well to a teaspoon of cinnamon or a little grated nutmeg if you want it less austere.
- Preparing the prunesSteam dried prunes until plump, cool them, pit them if they are not already pitted, then chop. Blot the pieces dry and toss them with a spoonful of the measured flour so they stay suspended rather than settling to the bottom.
- Mixing method, unstatedCream the butter with the sugar, beat in the eggs, then add the sifted flour and milk alternately. The batter should be thick, not pourable.
- Layered or stirredThe layered version gives distinct seams of fruit and nut and needs a spatula to spread the stiff batter thinly over each layer. Stirring everything together is easier and bakes more evenly; the recipe treats them as equals and so can you.
- YieldAbout three cups of flour plus two cups of fruit makes a substantial cake, roughly 12 to 16 servings. The fruit should help it keep reasonably well wrapped for a few days.
Prunes are simply plums dried whole, and they were one of the cheapest fruits in an American pantry, shipped in bulk from California orchards that had been planted heavily in the 1880s and 1890s with French varieties. That abundance is why a fruit cake like this one uses no candied peel, no citron and no brandy: the prune did the work of an expensive dried fruit at a fraction of the cost, and it was often said to turn up everywhere ips and fillings. The recipe's offhand closing line "Or this may be all stirred together" tells you how such a cake was actually used at home, as everyday baking rather than an occasion piece, with the layering offered to anyone who had the patience for it.