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Christmas Fruit Cake or Dark Wedding Cake
1 lb. shortening 1/2 lb. light brown sugar 1/2 lb. cane sugar 1 cup egg yolks, well beaten 2 tablespoons molasses 1 cup sour milk or cream 1 1/4 lbs. pastry flour 2 teaspoons nutmeg, cloves, allspice, cinnamon 1/2 cup grape juice 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 lb. each: seedless raisins, citron, and shelled nuts (almonds, hickory, pecans, Brazil and walnuts) 1/4 lb. each: candied ginger, cherries, pineapple, prunes, orange and lemon peel, and dates 1 cup egg whites, beaten stiff Chop the fruit and nuts together and dredge with flour. Then make up the rest of the ingredients into regulation cake batter, creaming sugar and shortening, adding egg yolks, then combined dry ingredients, molasses with sour milk. It is good idea to brown 2/3 of the flour in oven before using. When batter is ready, add the chopped fruit, and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. If accessible, it improves the flavor to add cooking sherry to the fruit, letting it stand that way over night. Bake in loaf or large tube cake pans, in slow oven. Baked in one cake pan, takes 4 hours to bake. Cake should be made several weeks before using. Keep it wrapped in wax paper in tin boxes. Top of cake may be decorated with candied fruit and nuts and covered with a sugar glaze.
This is a full-scale holiday fruitcake: roughly six pounds of batter carrying nearly five pounds of fruit and nuts. Plan the pans and the calendar before you start, because the cake is meant to be made weeks ahead.
- Total volume and yieldWeighed out, the batter plus fruit comes to about 10 lb. That is two 10-inch tube pans, or four to five 9x5-inch loaves, and 40 or more servings. Baking the whole thing as "one cake pan" in four hours assumes a very large deep pan; splitting it is more reliable.
- Slow ovenRead this as 275-300F. Fruitcake this dense and this sugary scorches at the edges long before the center sets, which is why the original allows four hours.
- Egg measured by cupA cup of yolks is about 14-16 large yolks; a cup of stiffly beaten whites represents only a white or two, so if the writer meant a cup of unbeaten whites measured first, that is 7-8. Given the quantity of yolks, measure 7-8 whites and beat them.
- The spice line is ambiguous"2 teaspoons nutmeg, cloves, allspice, cinnamon" can be read as 2 teaspoons of each or 2 teaspoons divided among the four. Two teaspoons each (about 8 teaspoons total) is in proportion to a cake this size.
- Sour milkThis means naturally soured whole milk, not spoiled milk. Buttermilk is the direct substitute; otherwise stir 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar into a cup of whole milk and let it stand 10 minutes. Its acid is what the baking soda works on.
- Pastry flour and browning itPastry flour is lower in protein than all-purpose; substitute all-purpose with a couple of tablespoons per cup replaced by cornstarch, or use it straight and accept a slightly firmer crumb. Toasting two-thirds of the flour in a shallow pan until it smells nutty and colors lightly deepens the flavor and dries it, so dredge the fruit with the untoasted third.
- Dredging the fruitTake the dredging flour from the measured 1 1/4 lb rather than adding extra, or the cake tightens. Chopping fruit and nuts together and coating them is what keeps them suspended instead of sinking.
- Pan preparationLine the pans with a double thickness of parchment, sides and bottom, and butter it. At four hours in a slow oven an unlined pan will give you a hard rind.
- Judging donenessA skewer will always meet fruit, so go by internal temperature: 200-205F at the center, with the cake pulling slightly from the sides. Tent the top with foil if it darkens early.
- Curing and storageWrap cooled cakes closely and keep them in a tin in a cool place for at least two to three weeks. Waxed paper was the period's choice; parchment or foil over parchment works better now. If you used sherry on the fruit, a monthly brushing of the same on the crust keeps it moist. Glaze and decorate only just before serving.