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Fruit Cake (Two pounds of raisins stoned)
Two pounds of raisins, stoned, two pounds of currants, one pound of butter, one pound sugar, one and one-quarter pounds of flour, ten eggs, one) wine glass of brandy, one wine glass of wine, one tablespoon of cloves, one tablespoon of allspice, two tablespoons of cinnamon, one nutmeg, one teaspoon of sweet almond-meats blanched and cut in slices, two ounces candied lemon, two ounces citron ; a little molasses improves it, nearly a teacup; flour the fruit, using it out of that weighed out for the cake ; put a half teaspoonful of soda or one teaspoonful of Cook's Friend baking powder with it on the fruit ; bake three hours, slowly.
A full-sized Victorian fruit cake: roughly nine pounds of batter and fruit before baking. The instructions assume you already know how to make a cake, so the method has to be supplied from practice.
- Method, which the original omitsCream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs a few at a time, add the brandy and wine, then fold in the spiced flour, and last the floured fruit and nuts. Beating the eggs whole and adding them too fast will curdle the batter; a spoonful of the measured flour steadies it.
- "Bake three hours, slowly"Victorian slow baking has no single fixed modern equivalent; for a cake this dense 275-300F is a reasonable reading. Line the pan with two layers of parchment and tie a band of paper or a folded towel around the outside so the edges do not scorch before the middle sets. Three hours is a starting point; test with a skewer.
- Pan and yieldThis much batter needs more capacity than two tins: divide it among three or four, whether 9-inch rounds or 9x5 loaves, filling each no more than two-thirds. It will give something in the region of forty to fifty thin slices.
- Wine glass and teacupA Victorian wine glass is about 2 fluid ounces, so the brandy and wine together come to about half a cup. A teacup is roughly 3/4 cup, so "nearly a teacup" of molasses is about 2/3 cup. The wine was more likely a fortified one -- sherry, madeira or port -- than a table wine, though the recipe does not say.
- The almond measurement is wrongThe almond measurement is odd -- "One teaspoon of sweet almond-meats blanched and cut in slices" is hard to reconcile with two pounds each of raisins and currants, and may well be a misprint for a larger measure. If you want the almonds to register, a few ounces of blanched sliced almonds is a safe reading; the printed teaspoon can be followed as written without harm.
- Currants and raisinsCurrants here are dried Zante currants, not fresh red or black ones. Stoning raisins is no longer necessary; buy seedless. Both should be rinsed and dried if they are dusty, and warmed slightly if hard.
- Cook's FriendA Canadian baking powder brand, still sold; a teaspoon of any double-acting baking powder does the same work. The half teaspoon of soda is the alternative, not an addition, and it suits the molasses. Either way the leavening is nominal in a cake this heavy with fruit.
- SpicesA tablespoon of cloves and a tablespoon of allspice is assertive by modern taste; these are ground spices, and if yours are fresh rather than a year old in the cupboard, consider two teaspoons each. Grate the whole nutmeg fresh.
- KeepingCool completely in the tin. Wrapped in cloth moistened with brandy and stored airtight, this improves for weeks and keeps for months. Cut it no sooner than a few days after baking.
The Home Cook Book was compiled by "ladies of Toronto and chief cities and towns in Canada" and published in 1877, and it is generally credited as the first Canadian fundraising cookbook, sold to benefit the Hospital for Sick Children. Recipes like this one arrived as household contributions, which explains the telegraphic style: a list of weights and one line of instruction. The scale is not extravagance but economy of labour, since a cake built on two pounds each of raisins and currants, spirits, and heavy spicing was a keeping cake, baked once for Christmas, weddings and christenings and cut over weeks. The nod to Cook's Friend baking powder is a small period marker of its own: chemical leavening was still new enough that brands were named outright in recipes.