Wedding Cake
4 pounds raisins 3 pounds currants 1 pound citron 1 pound flour 1/2 ounce mace 1/2 ounce cinnamon 1/2 ounce nutmeg 1/2 ounce ground cloves 1 pound butter or shortening 1 pound brown sugar 10 eggs 2 cups molasses 1/4 cup strong coffee Seed the raisins and chop them. Wash the currants and remove the little stems by vigorously rubbing them in a coarse towel, then shake in a colander. Cut the citron into small pieces. Sift the flour and spices together so that they are thoroughly mixed. Rub the butter or shortening and sugar together until they are foamy. Beat the yolks until they are thick and lemon-colored, then add them to the fat and sugar. Add the molasses and coffee and stir well. Sift a little of the flour over the fruit and add the rest of it to the cake mixture, beating until smooth. Add the fruit and lastly fold in the beaten egg-whites. Put in deep cake pans lined with greased paper and bake in a slow oven (320 degrees F.) for three or four hours. When cold, frost the top with boiled frosting, maple-sugar frosting, brown-sugar frosting, or coffee frosting.
This is a full-scale bridal fruitcake: roughly eight pounds of fruit against one pound of flour, with no chemical leavening at all. The batter is barely more than mortar holding the fruit together, and everything depends on very low heat over a very long bake.
- Yield and pansThe batter runs to roughly 14 pounds. The recipe says only "deep cake pans"; that weight would divide about right between two 9-inch deep rounds plus a loaf, or three 8-inch squares. Fill each no more than two-thirds and expect almost no rise.
- Oven temperatureThe 320°F given is a genuine slow oven and should be respected; 300-325°F is the working range. At three to four hours the outside will scorch at anything higher, and the centre needs that time to set.
- Pan liningThe recipe says only "lined with greased paper." For a bake this long it is worth using a double or triple thickness of parchment up the sides, standing an inch above the rim. A collar of brown paper tied round the outside of the pan was a common precaution against a hard crust.
- CurrantsThese are Zante currants, small dried grapes, not fresh red or black currants. Modern packaged ones are already stemmed and clean, so the towel-rubbing and colander step can be skipped.
- Raisins and citronRaisins with seeds are now hard to find; seedless dark raisins, coarsely chopped, will do. Citron is candied citron peel, sold around the winter holidays or from a baking supplier; candied orange peel is a common stand-in.
- "Rub until foamy"This is creaming. Butter or shortening and brown sugar should be beaten until pale and aerated, five minutes or so in a stand mixer. With no baking powder or soda in the formula, the creaming and the folded whites are the only lift the cake gets.
- Flouring the fruitSifting a little of the measured flour over the fruit keeps it suspended rather than sinking. Take that flour from the pound already weighed out, not in addition to it.
- Testing and coolingA skewer to the centre should come out clean and the top should feel firm rather than tacky. Cool completely in the pans; a hot cake this heavy will break apart if turned out early.
- KeepingWrap the cooled cakes well and hold them at least a week before frosting so the crumb settles and the spices come forward. Boiled frosting should go on shortly before serving, as it turns grainy after a few days.