Norfolk Cake
Beat to a cream: 1 teacup of butter. 6 eggs. 3 teacups of sugar. 1 teacup of cream. 4 teacups of flour. 1/2 nutmeg. 1 wine-glass of brandy. 1 pound raisins. 1 teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in cream.--Mrs. Dr. S.
A plain rich fruit cake in the old Virginia manner: creamed butter and sugar, six eggs, brandy, raisins, and soda for lift. The book assumes you know what to do with the batter once it is mixed, so the practical work is in the vessel, the oven and the leavening.
- Teacup and wine-glassA teacup in this period is usually reckoned at about 3/4 cup, though the books are not consistent and some cooks used a full cup. A wine-glass is 2 fluid ounces. Measured at 3/4 cup, this comes to roughly 6 oz butter, 1 lb sugar, 6 oz cream and about 13 oz flour he batter will tell you if your cups run large.
- The soda needs an acidOne teaspoon of soda dissolved in cream only works as a raiser if that cream is sour, and soured or clabbered cream was common in kitchens of this period, so it is very likely what was meant. With modern sweet cream the soda has little to react with and can leave a soapy, faintly yellow crumb. Use cultured sour cream or buttermilk, or substitute an equivalent measure of baking powder.
- NutmegHalf a nutmeg grated is close to 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons of freshly grated nutmeg. Pre-ground jarred nutmeg is markedly weaker and flatter; grate it yourself if the cake is to taste like the original.
- RaisinsA pound of raisins in about 13 oz of flour is a heavy load. Toss them in a spoonful of the measured flour before folding in, and expect them to settle somewhat regardless. Nineteenth-century raisins were often stemmed and seeded at home; modern seedless need no preparation.
- OvenThe recipe gives no oven direction, pan or time; for a cake of this richness a moderate oven, about 325 to 350F, suits. A tube or deep 9-inch pan will want roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours; test with a skewer at the center rather than by time.
- Mixing orderThe recipe lists ingredients rather than steps. Cream butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, add the soured cream with the dissolved soda, then the flour and nutmeg, and stir in the brandy and raisins last.
- Yield and keepingAbout 4 1/4 lb of batter by the weights above -- one large tube cake, 16 to 20 slices. Like most brandied fruit cakes it improves after a day or two wrapped closely.
Cakes named for towns and counties fill American manuscript and community cookbooks of the nineteenth century. Whether this one takes its name from Norfolk in Virginia or the English county is not recorded, and the recipe itself gives no clue. Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878) was assembled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housekeepers, many credited only by initial, which is why the recipe ends with an attribution rather than instructions: Mrs. Dr. S. was writing for readers who already knew how to build a pound-cake batter and only needed her proportions. The use of soda rather than yeast or beaten eggs alone is consistent with a period in which chemical leavening had become a household staple.