Home › Dainty Dishes › Imperial Cake
Imperial Cake
One pound each of sugar, butter, flour and raisins, stoned and chopped. One-half pound blanched almonds chopped or cut finely with a knifé; one-quarter pound citron, cut in threads, eight eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately, two-thirds cup of milk or half and half of sherry, wine and milk, two teaspoonfuls baking powder. Fold the whites of eggs in lightly at the last.
This is a pound cake scaled up with fruit and nuts, written for a cook who already knew how to bake one. The original gives no pan, no temperature and no time, which is the main thing to supply.
- Bake it low and longWith four pounds of sugar, butter, flour and fruit plus eight eggs, this is a dense batter that must bake slowly or the outside will set while the centre stays raw. Use 300-325F for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, testing with a skewer from about the two-hour mark, and tent the top with foil once it has coloured.
- The weights in cupsA pound of sugar is about 2 1/4 cups granulated; a pound of butter is four sticks; a pound of flour is roughly 3 1/2 to 4 cups scooped and levelled. Weighing is far more reliable here, since the whole structure depends on the fat, flour and sugar being in balance.
- Yield and pansThe finished batter runs to about six pounds. Divide it between two 9x5 loaf pans, or use a large 10-inch tube pan. Line the pans with parchment; a cake this rich in sugar and fruit sticks badly.
- "Raisins, stoned"Nineteenth-century raisins came with seeds and had to be pitted by hand. Modern seedless raisins need only chopping, which is still worth doing so the fruit distributes instead of sinking.
- CitronCandied citron is the thick-rinded preserved peel sold in blocks at holiday time; it is not lemon. Cut it into thin threads as directed, and if you cannot find it, candied orange or lemon peel is the nearest substitute.
- Method the recipe assumesCream the butter and sugar thoroughly, beat in the yolks, then add the flour (sifted with the baking powder) alternately with the liquid, then the floured fruit and almonds, and fold the stiff whites in last. Folding the whites in at the end is the one instruction the original bothers to spell out, and overmixing at that point costs you the lift.
- The liquidTwo-thirds of a cup is very little liquid for this much flour; the eggs and butter carry the rest. The sherry-and-milk option appears in other rich cakes of the period and gives a different flavour from milk alone.
- What is missingThere is no salt and no spice or extract. Add half a teaspoon of salt if your butter is unsalted, and a teaspoon of vanilla or a little grated lemon zest is in keeping with the period without altering the character.
- KeepingLike all butter-and-fruit cakes of this type it improves after a few days wrapped closely. Cool completely before wrapping or the fruit will sweat.
"Imperial cake" was one of a family of grand, ornamental names -- Imperial, Empire, Queen's, Bride's -- given to rich butter cakes in American and British cookbooks through the second half of the nineteenth century, and the titles signalled expense rather than any fixed formula. What marks this one as a special-occasion cake is the sheer quantity of costly imported goods: blanched almonds, candied citron, raisins and sherry, all of which arrived in the ordinary household kitchen through the grocer rather than the garden. The recipe also captures the moment when chemical leavening had become routine -- two teaspoons of baking powder work alongside the older technique of separately beaten whites, a belt-and-braces approach common in cake recipes through the later nineteenth century.