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Christmas Cake
Rub a quarter of a pound of butter, or butter and lard mixed, into a pound of finely-sifted flour, into which have been mixed a teaspoonful of baking powder and a pinch of salt; when the fat has all been thoroughly worked in add half a pound each of well-washed dried currants and mixed candied peel and a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, together with half a teaspoonful of mixed spice. Form into dough with water and place in a greased cake-tin, baking in a moderately hot oven.
A plain English rubbed-in fruit cake given in avoirdupois weights, with no tin size, no temperature and no baking time. The proportions work; everything else has to be supplied.
- The weights in cupsA pound of flour is about 3 1/2 cups (450 g), a quarter pound of butter is one stick (115 g), and half a pound each of currants and candied peel is roughly 1 1/2 cups each (225 g each). A quarter pound of sugar is about 1/2 cup packed (115 g).
- Moist sugarThis is unrefined sugar that has not been fully dried — light brown sugar is the closest modern stand-in. Granulated white will work but the cake loses colour and a little of its keeping quality.
- Mixed spiceThe British blend, usually built on cinnamon and nutmeg with allspice, cloves, ginger and often coriander. Pumpkin pie spice is a passable substitute; a half teaspoon in a pound of flour is a very restrained hand, and you can double it without offending the recipe.
- Mixed candied peelOrange and lemon peel, not the neon mixed-fruit confetti sold for fruitcake. Buy whole candied peel and chop it, or the cake will taste of little but sugar.
- Rub the fat in coldThis is the hinge. The butter should be firm and worked into the flour with the fingertips to the texture of coarse crumbs; if it warms and smears, the crumb turns heavy and greasy. Chill the butter and work quickly.
- Water, added sparinglyThere are no eggs and no milk here — water alone binds it, and the dough should be stiff enough to hold a shape rather than pour. Start with about 3/4 cup and add a spoonful at a time. Overwatering gives a dense, gummy centre.
- Oven and time"Moderately hot" is conventionally reckoned at somewhere around 375-400F, which is brisker than suits a fruited cake of this depth. Bake at 325-350F and expect 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 hours in an 8-inch round or a 9x5 loaf tin, covering the top with foil once it has coloured. A skewer should come out clean.
- Yield and keepingOne 8-inch cake, about 12 slices. With no eggs it is a firm, dryish "cut-and-come-again" sort of cake, the kind usually sliced thin and buttered; wrapped in paper it should keep for some days.
This is the humble end of the Christmas cake tradition — no eggs, no brandy, no almond paste, just flour rubbed with fat and loaded with dried fruit and peel, bound with water and baked in a tin. Its appearance in Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection is a reminder that the book is not only a record of what came out of the Waldorf's kitchens but a general household compendium, gathering plain domestic formulas alongside hotel cookery. Currants and candied citrus peel had been the markers of festive baking in English kitchens for centuries by then, imported goods that were still enough of a luxury to signal an occasion even in a recipe as frugal as this one.