Fruit Filling
1 cup stoned raisins 1/2 lb. blanched almonds 1/2 lb. figs 1/2 lb. citron All chopped fine; add enough frosting to make a soft paste.
A dried-fruit-and-nut layer filling bound with frosting rather than custard, of the sort spread between yellow or white cake layers around 1900. The whole thing hinges on one vague direction — "enough frosting" — so read that first.
- What "frosting" means hereThe recipe gives no icing recipe or quantity, and presumably expects the cook to have plain confectioners' or boiled icing already on hand. A simple uncooked icing of about 2 cups powdered sugar beaten with a little egg white or cream is closest in behavior; add it a few spoonfuls at a time until the chopped fruit holds together and no more.
- Quantities in weightHalf a pound of blanched almonds is roughly 1 1/2 cups whole, about 2 cups once chopped. Half a pound of figs is 8 to 10 dried figs, stems trimmed off. The four fruits and nuts together come to well over 3 cups chopped, which is a great deal of filling — enough for two or three layers of a standard 9-inch cake.
- CitronCandied citron, the thick candied peel of Citrus medica, the large knobbly citrus sold in blocks at Christmas, not lemon juice or fresh fruit. It is still available in the baking aisle seasonally; candied orange peel or mixed peel is the usual substitution and gives a less resinous, less bitter result.
- Blanching almondsIf you buy them skin-on, pour boiling water over, stand 60 seconds, drain, and slip the skins off. Blanched slivered almonds from a bag work and save the step; they chop more evenly than whole nuts.
- Chopping"All chopped fine" was knife work, and a knife still gives the best texture. A food processor will turn the figs and raisins to paste in seconds and the almonds to meal; if you use one, pulse the nuts separately and briefly, and keep the fruit coarse enough to read as pieces.
- Sticky fruitFigs and raisins clog a blade. Dusting the chopped fruit with a spoonful of flour or powdered sugar keeps it separate and helps the filling spread rather than tear the crumb.
- Consistency and assemblyAim for a paste that mounds on a spoon but spreads without dragging — stiffer than jam, softer than marzipan. Spread it on a fully cooled layer; on a warm cake the frosting binder loosens and the layers slide.
- KeepingThe sugar and dried fruit make this stable for several days at room temperature under a cake cover. If you have used egg white in the icing, refrigerate the finished cake.
Fillings like this belong to the era when a layer cake was a showpiece and the interest lay between the layers rather than on top: dried figs, raisins, citron and almonds were shelf-stable pantry goods a household kept year-round, and binding them with leftover frosting wasted nothing. The combination is essentially the flavor profile of a fruitcake or of the older "fig cake" and "citron cake" recipes, redistributed into a soft spread. Gold Medal's cook book, issued by the Washburn-Crosby milling company as promotional literature for its flour, is typical of the branded cookbooks that flooded American kitchens in the late nineteenth century — terse, assuming a cook who already knew how to make a boiled icing and needed only the proportions. That assumption may be why this entry gives no measurement for the frosting at all.