Fig Loaf Cake
1 cup butter or shortening 2 cups brown sugar 4 eggs 3 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking-powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 cup water 1/2 pound finely cut figs 2 cups chopped raisins Cream the butter or shortening and add the sugar. Add the eggs, well beaten. Mix and sift the dry ingredients and add alternately with the water. Add figs and raisins, dredged with a little of the flour. Bake in a greased loaf pan in a slow oven (320 degrees F.) about two hours.
A heavy spiced fruit loaf of the 1920s, closer to a light fruitcake than a butter cake. The batter is stiff and the bake is long and low.
- Oven320F is the figure the recipe itself prints for a "slow oven". Set 320-325F and expect the full two hours.
- Pan sizeThis is a large batter, well over 3 pounds. The recipe directs a single greased loaf pan, but the volume suits two 9x5-inch loaf pans or a 10-inch tube pan; in one pan it is likely to overflow and to stay underbaked in the centre.
- Line the panGreasing alone is not enough for a two-hour bake with this much sugar and fruit. Line with parchment, and tent the top with foil once it has browned, usually after an hour.
- FigsHalf a pound of dried figs, stems trimmed, cut small with scissors. If they are hard, cover with hot water for ten minutes and drain well before dredging with flour.
- Dredging the fruitTossing figs and raisins in a spoonful of the measured flour keeps them suspended instead of sinking to the bottom. Take that flour from the three cups, not in addition.
- Brown sugarPeriod brown sugar is usually taken to be close to today's light brown. Pack it when measuring; two cups is about 14 oz.
- TestingA skewer should come out clean of batter, though it may be sticky from fruit. Internal temperature of about 205F is a more reliable sign in a loaf this dense.
- Yield and keepingTwo loaves, roughly 20 slices. Like most fruit loaves it improves after a day wrapped tightly, and slices better cold.