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Hartford Election Cake
Take one cup of butter; two cups of sugar; one and one-half pints of flour; three eggs; two and one-half teaspoons of baking powder; two cups of raisins, stoned; twenty drops of extract of vanilla; one cup of currants; one-half cup of citron, chopped; one-half cup of lemon peel, chopped; one-half cup of almonds, shredded; twenty drops of extract of bitter almonds; one cup of milk. Rub the butter and sugar to a light cream, add the eggs, and beat for a few minutes longer. Then stir in the flour and baking powder sifted together; add the raisins, citron, currants, lemon peel, almonds, extract and milk; mix to a batter, place paper in a tin, and bake for one and one-half hour in a moderate oven.
A rich fruited loaf that has shed the yeast dough of its ancestors for baking powder. The measurements are workable once translated, but the bake time and oven need attention.
- Flour measureOne and one-half pints is three cups, or about 13 oz of all-purpose flour. Spoon it in lightly rather than packing the cup; the recipe sifts it with the baking powder afterwards.
- Twenty dropsTwenty drops is roughly a quarter teaspoon. Use a quarter teaspoon each of vanilla and almond extract; the bitter-almond flavouring sold today is a benzaldehyde-based extract, not the unrectified oil of the period, and a quarter teaspoon is plenty in a single cake.
- A moderate oven350F. For a cake this dense and this fruited, 325F suits the full ninety minutes better; at 350F the outside sets and browns well before the middle is done.
- Line the tin properly"Place paper in a tin" is vague; a full parchment lining, sides included, is the safe reading. The sugar and dried fruit will scorch against bare metal over an hour and a half.
- Raisins, stonedSeeded raisins, a job now done for you. Use ordinary seedless raisins, and toss the raisins, currants, citron and peel in a spoonful of the measured flour so they do not sink.
- Citron and lemon peelCandied citron is still sold at holiday time; candied lemon peel substitutes without complaint. Both are already heavily sugared, so do not increase them.
- Almonds, shreddedBlanched almonds cut lengthwise into slivers, not the flaked almonds sold in packets. Sliced almonds work if you accept a softer texture in the crumb.
- Pan and yieldThis is a large batter; divide it between two 9x5 loaf pans, or use one deep, generously sized round tin. Start testing with a skewer well before the full ninety minutes; it should come out clean of batter, though fruit will still be sticky.
- KeepingLike most heavy fruit cakes it improves after a day or two wrapped tightly. Cool completely in the tin before turning out or the loaded crumb will break.
Election cake belongs to New England, where the annual spring election day brought militia musters, a sermon and a crowd into the county town, and households baked a large keeping cake to feed them. Amelia Simmons printed an "Election Cake" in American Cookery in 1796. The original was a yeast-raised dough, closer to a spiced fruit bread, mixed the night before and left to rise; by the time the Butterick book appeared at the turn of the twentieth century the ritual had faded and chemical leavening had taken over, so what survives here is the fruit, the citron and the name attached to a straightforward baking-powder cake.