Almond Cake
4 ounces of ground almonds 4 ounces of butter 4 ounces of Albene or oil 6 ounces of flour 1 ounce of citron 1 teaspoon of baking powder 3 ounces of sugar Beat the butter and Albene to a cream, and add the sugar and flour, a little at a time, so that they may be well mixed; then add the almonds and thinly sliced citron and mix them well together. Put into a well-buttered cake-tin, and bake for three-quarters of an hour.
This is not a sponge but a rich shortbread-style cake: no eggs, no milk, no liquid at all. Expect a dense, crumbly, buttery slab rather than a risen crumb, and treat it accordingly.
- AlbeneApparently a proprietary vegetable cooking fat of the kind sold to vegetarian and reform households in the early twentieth century; it is no longer available. Use any solid white shortening, or a firm block margarine; the recipe's own alternative of oil will give a greasier, softer cake, so the solid fat is the better choice.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, which was normal when ranges had no dial. Bake at 325–350°F; at three-quarters of an hour the edges should be pale gold and the centre firm to a light press.
- Weights, not cupsThe whole recipe is in ounces by weight and works far better that way. For reference: 4 oz ground almonds is about 1 cup, 4 oz butter is 8 tablespoons, 6 oz flour is about 1 1/3 cups, 3 oz sugar is a scant 1/2 cup.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in blocks and now scarce outside baking-supply shops around the winter holidays. Candied lemon or orange peel is the nearest substitute; slice it very thinly as directed or it sinks and burns.
- The baking powder does almost nothingThe baking powder can do only so much -- with no egg and no added liquid there is little for it to react with beyond the water in the butter, and the paste is stiff. Rather than adding more, beat the fats and sugar thoroughly, since the air worked in at that stage supplies much of the lightness.
- Mixing orderThe instruction to add sugar and flour "a little at a time" matters here: the mixture is stiff and dry, and dumping the flour in produces pockets that never combine. Work it to an even, pastry-like paste, then fold in almonds and peel.
- Tin and yieldThe listed ingredients come to about 1 lb 6 oz of mixture -- a 7-inch round or a small loaf tin, buttered and base-lined. Cuts into 8 to 10 slices.
- CoolingVery short-textured cakes of this kind break if turned out hot. Leave it in the tin 15 minutes before unmoulding, and it keeps well for several days in a tin.
Recipes like this belong to the vegetarian and "meatless" cookery movement that flourished in Britain and America either side of 1900, when reform-minded households wanted baking free of suet, lard and often eggs. The gap was filled by branded vegetable fats — Albene among them, alongside better-remembered names like Nutter — some of them sold to cooks who had renounced animal shortening; their inclusion by trade name in a recipe book is a reminder that these products were new enough to need naming rather than describing. Ground almonds do double duty: they were the traditional enrichment of English cakes long before this period, and in an eggless batter they are often said to supply something of the fat and body that eggs would otherwise contribute. The candied citron places the cake in a much older line of English cakery, where a block of imported candied peel was commonly taken as a mark of a festive or company loaf.