Queen's Cake
4 cups sugar 4 lbs. raisins 2 lbs. currants 6 2/5 cups Gold Medal flour 1 teaspoon soda 1 cup sweet cream 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 8 eggs 1 cup wine 1 cup brandy 3 cups butter 2 nutmegs 1 tablespoon orange peel or marmalade
This is an ingredient list rather than a method, which was common in cake sections of the period — the compiler assumed the cook knew how to make a rich fruit cake. What follows fills in the parts the page leaves out.
- The scaleWith 6 lb of dried fruit, 1 1/2 lb of butter, eight eggs and two cups of spirits, this is roughly 12-14 lb of batter. It fills three or four deep 9-inch pans. Halving or quartering the quantities is reasonable; the proportions hold.
- The method it omitsCream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, add the cream and spirits alternately with the flour and salt, then fold in the fruit dredged with a little of the measured flour so it does not sink. Line the pans with buttered paper.
- OvenA cake this rich wants a slow oven, 275-300F, for two and a half to four hours depending on pan depth. Tent with foil once the top has coloured; the centre needs a long, gentle bake or the outside will be dry before the middle sets.
- The sodaOne teaspoon of soda in this much batter is nominal. There is little to activate it beyond the acidity of the wine and whatever tartness the cream carries, so the eggs and the creamed butter do most of the lifting. Do not increase the soda hoping for a lighter crumb — it will only taste soapy.
- Sweet creamMeans fresh, unsoured cream, as opposed to the sour cream that older recipes call for by name. Heavy cream is the right modern substitute.
- CurrantsZante currants — small dried grapes — not fresh red or black currants. Along with the raisins they should be picked over, rinsed and dried before use.
- NutmegsTwo whole nutmegs grated comes to roughly four to six teaspoons of freshly grated nutmeg — a substantial amount. Pre-ground jarred nutmeg is weaker and duller; grate it yourself if you can.
- The odd flour measure6 2/5 cups looks like a conversion from weight: at the common period reckoning of 4 cups of flour to the pound it works out to about 1 lb 10 oz. Weighing is more reliable than counting out two-fifths of a cup.
- KeepingThe wine and brandy are preservative as much as flavour. Wrapped well, the cake keeps for weeks and improves for the first fortnight; some cooks feed it with additional spirits during that time.
Queen cakes were an English standby from the eighteenth century onward — a rich butter cake, usually studded with currants, often baked in small heart- or shell-shaped tins. The name is traditionally grouped with the likes of "queen's pudding" and "queen's soup" rather than tied to any documented monarch. In this version the name has drifted onto something closer to a full wedding or Christmas fruit cake: pounds of raisins and currants, a cup each of wine and brandy, and nutmeg by the whole nut. Gold Medal was the flour brand of Washburn-Crosby of Minneapolis, and books built around a brand name in every ingredient list were promotional in purpose, which is why the flour is specified and nothing else is.