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Cake-Washington
Mrs. J. H. Mead.
One and three-quarters pounds of flour, one and onequarter of a pound of sugar, three-quarters of a pound of butter, four eggs, a wine glass of brandy and one of wine, one pint of milk, a teaspoon of soda, one nutmeg , two pounds of raisins, currants, and candied fruit.
A full-sized nineteenth-century fruit cake given as a list of weights, with no pan, no oven and no time. Everything you need to supply is below.
- The weights in cups1¾ lb flour is about 6 cups; 1¼ lb sugar about 2¾ cups; ¾ lb butter is 3 sticks. The two pounds most likely covers the raisins, currants and candied peel combined, though the wording could also be read as two pounds of each.
- A wine glassIn American receipts of this period a wine glass is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz, so roughly ¼ cup brandy and ¼ cup wine. A sweet fortified wine — sherry, madeira or port — would suit the style, and is often what such receipts intend.
- The soda needs an acidOne teaspoon of soda against a pint of sweet milk has little to react with and can leave a soapy taste. Sour milk or buttermilk commonly accompanied soda in receipts of this kind, and the small quantities of brandy and wine are unlikely to supply enough acid on their own.
- OvenA cake this size and this heavy with fruit wants 300–325F. Anything hotter sets and browns the crust long before the middle is done.
- Pan and timeThe batter comes to something over 7 lb by the recipe's own weights. Divide between three or four 9x5 loaf pans, or use a large tube pan plus a loaf, line with parchment, and reckon on 2 to 3 hours. Test with a skewer in the centre rather than by the clock.
- NutmegOne whole nutmeg, grated, is about 2 to 2½ teaspoons — assertive by modern standards but correct for the style. Grate it fresh; pre-ground is a different and duller spice.
- Handling the fruitToss the raisins, currants and candied fruit with a few spoonfuls of the measured flour before folding them in, or they sink to the bottom of a batter this loose.
- KeepingCakes of this composition were made to age. Wrapped well, it improves over a week or two, and a little more brandy brushed over the surface as it cools helps it keep.
Washington cake belongs to a family of American "great cakes" — heavy, fruited, butter-rich loaves named for national figures, alongside Lafayette gingerbread and Election cake. It is not a documented invention of any Washington household but a nineteenth-century patriotic label attached to a rich fruit cake of the older English type, and the name floats: recipes printed under it range from a modest raisin loaf to something close to a wedding cake, as here. The form of this entry — a bare list of quantities credited to a named contributor — is typical of the charitable community cookbooks compiled from local women's receipts, passed between cooks who already knew what oven to use and how long to leave it there, with the attribution to Mrs. J. H. Mead standing in for the instructions.