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Crumbly Tea Cake
1/2 cup butter 3/4 cup shortening 1 2/3 cups sugar 4 eggs, well beaten 2 cups raisins 1/3 cup chopped orange peel 1/3 cup candied cherries 5 3/4 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon powdered cardamon 5 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 cup cream Cream the shortening with the sugar, gradually add the eggs and beat well. Flour the fruit, mix the dry ingredients together and add them to the creamed mixture, then add the cream and fruit. Bake in a buttered, floured old, in a moderate oven (325 degrees F.) for 1 hour and 15 minutes. This cake should be dry and somewhat crumbly.
A stiff, fruit-studded loaf closer to a light fruitcake than to a butter cake, and the note about dryness at the end is a description of the intended result rather than an apology for it.
- The batter is meant to be stiffNearly six cups of flour against only 3/4 cup cream, four eggs and 1 1/4 cups of fat gives a dough you press rather than pour. Resist adding liquid to loosen it; the crumbly texture the recipe promises depends on that ratio.
- Oven325F is given and is right for a dense fruited batter this size. Check at one hour with a skewer in the centre; the fruit holds moisture and can read wet even when the crumb is set.
- PanNo pan size is specified. This quantity fills a 10-inch tube pan or two 9x5-inch loaf tins; use two tins if you want the shorter bake and a firmer edge. Butter and flour thoroughly, as the sugar and candied fruit will stick.
- ShorteningThe 3/4 cup of shortening most likely means a hydrogenated vegetable fat, though the recipe does not say and lard is possible. If you substitute all butter, expect a denser, browner cake.
- CardamomA full teaspoon of ground cardamom is assertive and is what distinguishes this from a generic spice loaf. Buy it recently ground or grind the seeds yourself, since preground cardamom fades quickly.
- Flouring the fruitTossing the raisins, peel and cherries in a little of the measured flour before folding keeps them suspended. In a batter this thick they will not sink much anyway, but the coating also stops the sticky candied fruit clumping.
- CreamUse heavy or whipping cream. Light cream or half-and-half will work but the crumb loses some of its shortness.
- Yield and keepingNo yield is given; a cake of this size baked in a tube pan will give roughly twenty or more thin slices. Like many heavily fruited cakes it is better after a day wrapped tightly; the dry crumb takes well to butter.
Cakes like this sit at the join between the English fruitcake tradition and the American "tea cake" — sweet enough for company, dry enough to slice thin and serve with tea or coffee rather than as a dessert with sauce. The cardamom may point to Scandinavian and northern European baking, a flavouring that reached American home kitchens through immigrant communities and turns up in community and company-brand cookbooks. Candied peel and cherries were an expense, which suggests a special-occasion bake.