Fruit Cake
Two pounds of raisins Two pounds of currants One pound of citron One-half pound of figs One pound of almonds One-fourth pound of dates One pound of butter One pound of brown sugar Twelve eggs One tablespoon of Larkin Nutmeg Two tablespoons of Larkin Cinnamon One teaspoon of Larkin Cloves One pound of flour One teaspoon of Larkin Soda Prepare the fruit the day before and in the morning mix the other ingredients as for any cake, adding fruit at the very last. Bake slowly for five hours. This cake should be baked several weeks before being used.
A full-sized Edwardian black fruit cake: about seven pounds of fruit and nuts held together by roughly three pounds of batter. Everything here scales down cleanly by half if the full quantity is more than you want to store.
- Bake slowly means 275-300FBake slowly means a low oven -- "slow" in period cookbooks is generally reckoned somewhere between 250 and 325F, and for a cake of this density the lower end is safer. Five hours is plausible for the full quantity in deep pans; check at four with a skewer, or take the centre to 200-210F.
- Pan and liningThis is a very large quantity of batter and will need several deep pans rather than one or two; divide it instead of crowding. Line them with a double thickness of parchment standing an inch above the rim, and set a shallow pan of water on the oven floor to keep the edges from hardening before the middle sets.
- Currants are dried, not freshThese are Zante currants, small dried grapes sold near the raisins. Fresh red or black currants would ruin the cake.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in half-pound tubs at holiday time or by weight from a good grocer. If you cannot find it, candied orange and lemon peel in equal measure stand in.
- "Prepare the fruit" the day beforeAt the time this was written that meant seeding and stoning raisins, washing and drying currants, blanching and slicing almonds, and cutting citron, figs and dates small. Modern fruit is already seeded, so the overnight step becomes dredging everything in a few spoonfuls of the measured flour so it does not sink.
- The soda has nothing to react withThe soda has little to react with -- There is no sour milk or buttermilk here; only the molasses in the brown sugar offers any acid, so the teaspoon of soda is not much of a leavener and twelve eggs do most of that work. It will darken the crumb slightly. Leaving it out changes little.
- Larkin spicesLarkin was the brand the book was written to sell. Ordinary ground nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves in the stated amounts are exactly what is meant.
- No liquid but eggsThe batter is very stiff and will need working with a sturdy mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon. Resist adding milk; the fruit releases moisture as it bakes.
- Ageing and yieldAbout 10-11 pounds of cake, or 60-plus thin slices. Cool completely, wrap in parchment then foil, and keep somewhere cool and dry. With no spirits in the batter, a monthly brushing with brandy or rum on the wrapping cloth is the usual insurance against mould over several weeks.
Cakes like this one are the direct descendants of the English plum cake: dried fruit, spice and eggs, no chemical leavening to speak of, baked long and slow and kept for weeks so the flavours settle. The Larkin Company of Buffalo, a mail-order soap and household-goods firm, distributed recipe booklets in which its own spices, extracts and baking soda were named among the ingredients; the branding is the reason a plain fruit cake calls for "Larkin Nutmeg" rather than nutmeg. The quantities tell you something about the household this was written for: two pounds of raisins and a dozen eggs at once, mixed in the morning and given over five hours of oven, assumes a coal or wood range already lit for the day and a cook with the time to watch it.