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Molasses Pound Cake
2/3 cup butter 3/4 cup sugar 2 eggs 2/3 cup milk 2 1/8 cups flour ¾ teaspoon soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon allspice ¼ teaspoon clove ¼ teaspoon mace ½ cup raisins, seeded and cut in pieces 1/3 cup citron, thinly sliced and cut in strips Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, eggs well beaten, and milk and molasses. Mix and sift flour with soda and spices, and add to first mixture, then add fruit. Bake in small buttered tins from twenty-five to thirty minutes in a moderate oven.
This recipe makes twenty-four little cakes. 1 lb. butter 1 lb. light brown sugar 9 eggs 1 lb.
A heavily spiced fruit cake of the pound-cake family, leavened chiefly by the reaction of soda with molasses rather than by baking powder. The method is straightforward creaming; the points below cover the vessels, the oven and the ingredients that have shifted since 1896.
- A moderate ovenSet 350F. Small tins of a batter this rich colour quickly, so check at twenty minutes; molasses and brown sugar both brown well before the crumb is set.
- "Small buttered tins"Standard muffin or cupcake pans are the modern equivalent, filled about two-thirds. Divide the batter to give twenty-four cakes, as the text directs.
- Soda and molassesThe soda is there to neutralise the acid in the molasses and lift the batter. Golden syrup is near neutral and honey only slightly acidic, so substituting either may leave some of the soda unreacted, with a soapy or faintly metallic edge.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in tubs at Christmas or from Italian grocers. Candied orange or lemon peel is the nearest substitute; the flavour is milder but the texture is right.
- Seeded raisinsThe instruction to seed them shows the raisins of the day still carried seeds; muscatels were one common sort. Modern seedless raisins need no work beyond a rough chop, and a brief soak in hot water keeps them from drawing moisture out of the crumb.
- MaceGround mace is the outer aril of nutmeg — warmer and less sweet than nutmeg itself. It is worth buying rather than swapping, since two teaspoons in a pound-cake batter is a defining flavour, not a background note.
- Pound-cake proportionsA pound each of butter, sugar and flour with nine eggs is a very large batch -- around four pounds of batter. Halve it unless you are baking for a crowd, and have the butter and eggs at room temperature or the creamed mixture will curdle.
- Creaming by handA stand mixer will cream a pound of butter with the sugar in five to eight minutes. The text calls for the eggs well beaten; adding them gradually is a modern precaution against curdling, not something the recipe specifies.
Molasses was a mainstay sweetener in New England baking, and its dark, slightly sour flavour underpins a whole family of regional dishes -- gingerbread, Indian pudding, brown bread, and cakes like this one. A true pound cake takes its name from the old English formula of a pound each of butter, sugar, flour and eggs, and by the late nineteenth century the term was often applied more loosely to rich, densely creamed cakes in that tradition. The candied citron and the seeded raisins suggest a holiday or company cake rather than everyday fare; both were imported and comparatively costly.