Fruit cake

“ When all are mixed in, and the cake looks very light, add the spice, fruit, almonds, and half a pint of brandy; set it in a well heated oven to bake; when it has risen, and the top is beginning to brown, cover it with paper; let it bake four hours, and when it is nearly cool, ice it. This will keep a long time in a stone pan, covered close.
A cheaper Fruit Cake.
Take four pounds of flour, three of butter, three of sugar, two of raisins, one of currants, two dozen eggs, an ounce of mace, three nutmegs, and a half pint of brandy; if you want it dark, put in a little molasses ”

“ Spread the flat sides with an icing colored green. Blanch some almonds, split them, and cut them in strips. Arrange them in a circle, and place in the center a little icing mixed with yolk of egg to color it yellow; or the icing can be white and the almonds colored in the oven to a light yellow.
No. 3. Medallion fruit-cakes. Use a sponge- or a cup-cake mixture and bake it in gem-pans. If they rise in the center cut off the tops to even them. Invert them, and with a small cutter stamp a circle in the center of each one and take out a thin layer of the cake. ”

“ Heat oven to 375° F. (moderate) . Cream together first five ingredients. Stir in molasses. Melt chocolate over hot water; add to shortening-sugar, etc., mixture. Beat in eggs. Add sour milk alternately with flour (about 1⁄3 of each at a time) . Bake 25 minutes or until done in 2 well-greased, lightly floured, round, 8-inch, layer cake pans. Cool; frost as desired.
YIELD: 12 servings.
OLD FASHIONED FRUIT CAKE
(heavy with fruit)
21⁄2 lbs. ”

“ Unless otherwise specified the general rule in making cakes is to cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs, then flour and baking powder (mix the baking powder with the flour) and then add fruit or other ingredients and beat well. If fruit is to be added do not make the cake very soft, or currants, &c., will be liable to sink, but they are less likely to do so if previously rubbed in flour.
Always grease cake tins with lard as the cakes will be less liable to burn than if the tins are rubbed with butter. ”

“ Again, cakes that contain no fruit can, at the same time, be made exceedingly rich, the richness chiefly depending upon the amount of butter and eggs that are used. We will first give a few directions with regard to making what may be termed plain cakes, i.e., cakes that contain no fruit at all. Perhaps the best model we can give to illustrate the general principles will be that of a pound cake. The recipe is a very easy one to recollect, as a pound cake means one that is made from a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of flour. ”

“ Then commence to fill up the mould in layers of currants, seedless raisins, sliced citron, and chopped almonds, then a layer of cake, until it is full. Make ready a custard of one pint of milk, the yolks of two eggs, a quarter of a pound of sugar, and half a teaspoonful of extract of lemon, rose, or almonds; let it simmer a little, but not enough to curdle, as it will certainly do if allowed to stay too long on the fire. When it simmers, take it off, and let it cool a little. When only lukewarm pour it over the fruit and cake in the mould. Cover tightly, and bury it in ice and salt. ”

“ FINE CAKES. PLUM CAKE.— In making very fine plum cake first prepare the fruit and spice, and sift the flour (which must be the very best superfine,) into a large flat dish, and dry it before the fire. Use none but the very best fresh butter; if of inferior quality, the butter will taste through every thing, and spoil the cake. In fact, all the ingredients should be excellent, and liberally allowed. Take the best bloom or muscatel raisins, seeded and cut in half. Pick and wash the currants or plums through two waters, and dry them well. ”

“ Many women fail in making these delicious goodies because they do not realize that the addition of large amounts of sugar, fruit, shortening and eggs to yeast dough, unless carefully handled, is apt to produce heavy, moist cakes that lack the light, velvety texture which makes cake a success. ”

“ Fruit should be thoroughly dry if added to the other ingredients damp, cakes will be liable to be heavy. Dust your fruit with a little of the flour to be used for the cake and stir into the other ingredients just before putting in the rest of the flour. ”

“ Dredge the raisins with flour when you have picked them over with great care, washed and dried them.
Mix the beaten yolks with the creamed butter and sugar; then, the spice and brandy. Beat three minutes, and stir in the cream or milk lightly with the [329] soda-water. Put in, first a handful of one, then a spoonful of the other, the flour and whipped whites. At last, beat in the fruit.
Bake in two large loaves, or four smaller ones. My own preference is for small loaves of cake. They are safer in baking, and can be cut more economically, especially where the family is not large. ”

“ Beat Nutter and sugar to a cream; add eggs one by one, beating all the time; have ready the flour, with the fruit, grated lemon rind and ground almonds mixed in, and add gradually to the above mixture, beating all the time, and until of even consistency throughout. Line a cake tin with double thickness of buttered paper, pour in the mixture and bake in moderate oven about one and a half hours.
Any housewife who doubts the possibility of making light and dainty cakes without the now customary baking powder and baking soda, etc., should try the above recipe. ”

“ Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat again. Beat the yolks. Add them to the mixture. Add the flour gradually, beating hard continually. Add the fruit, chopped almonds, nutmeg and brandy, and the whites beaten to a stiff froth. This cake will keep a year. ”

“ Put the flour in the sieve and cream of tartar, sieve through. Mix and bake in lunch cake pans. Grease heavy. Bake in good heat, 600 degrees F. When baked and cool, ice with chocolate icing. Sold for one cent each, or six for five cents.
Tutti Frutti Cake.
Tutti Frutti Cake is made with ordinary cake mixture, any price you may wish, usually baked in pound moulds, covered on top with assorted fruit glace, including Almonds, Figs, Cherries, Apricots, etc., chopped fine and mixed with water icing. Some use whipped cream and as layer cake.
Velvet Cake. 11⁄2 lbs. Sugar. 3⁄4 lb. Butter. 9 Eggs. ”

“ The dark fruit cakes should be avoided by both sick and well, on account of the indigestible nature of the dried fruits used in them, and also because they are often compact and close-grained, not light. ”

“ Also, (besides a somewhat larger allowance of spice, liquor, &c.) add the juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon or two, and half a pound of sultana or seedless raisins, cut in half and dredged with flour. Butter your small cake tins, and fill to the edge with the batter. They will not run over the edge if well made, and baked with a proper fire, but they will rise high and fine in the centre. Ice them when beginning to cool, flavoring the icing with lemon or rose. Queen cakes made exactly as above are superlative. ”

“ One mix or dough from which can be derived a large benefit and satisfaction is the ordinary wine cake or layer cake mix, from which you can make layers for layer cakes, ten and five cent wine cakes, loaf cakes; adding chopped nuts and nut flavor to part of the mix, you can make nut cakes. By adding melted chocolate to a certain part of the mix, you can make devil’s food cakes, lemon cakes, Boston squares, chocolate and maple squares, raspberry and chocolate drops, cup and currant cakes, and other cakes like nut and cocoanut slices, penny golden-rod squares, etc., can also be made. ”

“ When the cakes are cool, spread every one thickly over with grape jelly, peach marmalade, or any other sweetmeat that is smooth and thick; currant jelly will be found too thin, and is liable to run off. Lay the cakes smoothly one on another, (each having a layer of jelly or marmalade between,) and either grate loaf-sugar over the top one, or ice it smoothly; marking the icing with cross lines of coloured sugar-sand, all the lines meeting at the centre so as to divide the cake, when cut, into triangular or wedge-shaped slices. If you ice it, add the juice of a lemon to the icing. ”

“ If only you could see the things we made!--apple and lemon tarts, and mince and cranberry 'turnovers,' and doughnuts all twisted into a sort of French bow-knot such as Gabrielle used to make of her back hair, and a queer kind of cake they call 'marble,' all streaky with chocolate and white, and butternut candy made with maple sugar, and an Indian pudding, and little bits of nut-cakes with a small piece of currant jelly inside and all powdered sugar out ”

“ Mix well, then stir in three-fourths pound of pounded almonds or walnuts, one teaspoon of cinnamon, one-fourth teaspoon of cloves, one pound of flour, one teaspoon of baking-powder, and a few drops of bitter almond essence. Put in four layer pans and bake in slow oven. Put together with apricot, strawberry, or raspberry jam and pineapple marmalade, each layer having a different preserve. Ice top and sides. If only two layers are desired for home use, half the quantity of ingredients can be used. This is a very fine cake. It is better the second day. ”

“ Butter these paper plates, and lay them on baking tins. Spread over each a layer of the above mixture not thicker than a thin pancake. Bake them in a moderate oven a nice yellow, but do not let them tinge brown. When cold cut away the paper round, turn the cakes over, and peel off the bottom paper, but take great care not to break the cakes. Lay one cake over the other, with preserve between each, till all are piled up. It may be all of one sort of preserve, or varied, one layer of marmalade if liked. Dissolve powdered sugar with a little lemon juice. ”

“ Stir as stiff as you can stir it with a large spoon, cover, set in a warm place to rise until morning, when roll out some of the dough into cakes about one inch thick, put in pie tins to rise, and when light, make half a dozen deep impressions on top of each cake with the forefinger, spread with melted butter and strew light-brown sugar thickly over top, or mix together 1 cup sugar, butter size of an egg, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons boiling water, beat well and spread the mixture on cakes just before placing in oven. ”

“ Should the cakes stick, they cannot be got out without breaking.
For queen-cakes, &c. the small tins of a round or oval shape are most convenient. Fill them but little more than half.
After the mixture is completed, set it in a cool place till all the cakes are baked.
In rolling oat cakes made of dough, use as little flour as possible. When you lay them in the pans, do not place them too close together, lest they run into each other.
When you are cutting them out, dip the cutter frequently in flour, to prevent its sticking.
QUEEN CAKE.
One pound of powdered white sugar. ”

“ When you beat the almonds in the mortar with orange-water, put in by degrees about four spoonfuls of citron water or ratafia of apricots, or, for want of these, brandy and sack mixed together, two spoonfuls of each. The cake must be baked in a tin pan; flour the pan before you put the cake into it. To try if it is done enough, thrust a straw through it, and if the cake sticks to the straw it is not baked enough; let it remain till the straw comes out clean.
Another.
Take twelve eggs, leaving out half the whites; beat the yolks by themselves till they look white ”

“ Five full-sized eggs, the weight of four in sugar, and of nearly three in flour, will make an exceedingly good cake: it may be flavoured, like the preceding one, with lemon-rind, or with bitter almonds, vanilla, or confected orange-blossoms reduced to powder. An hour will bake it thoroughly. All the ingredients for sponge cakes should be of good quality, and the sugar and flour should be dry; they should also be passed through a fine sieve kept expressly for such purposes. ”

“ After bringing to the table, when ready to begin, the sugar can, the butter jar, the egg dish, the milk, the vanilla and the baking powder, so that everything will be convenient, and having well greased a pan for the gold cake (which will be baked in a loaf) and the two jelly tins for the white cake, she can then separate three eggs, and to the three yolks add one whole egg. On account of the baking it is best to make the white cake first, and then it can be iced and the dishes cleaned away while the loaf cake bakes. ”

“ Crush ten strawberries with a little sugar and few drops lemon juice and let stand until juicy; mix in gradually three cups of confectioner's sugar. Spread between layers and on top of cake.
Maple Icing. I
1/2 teaspoon butter
2 tablespoons hot milk
1-1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring
Add butter to hot milk; add sugar slowly to make paste of the right consistency to spread; add flavoring and spread on cake.
Maple Icing. II
1 cup maple syrup
whites of 2 eggs
Boil syrup without stirring until it spins a thread; add slowly to stiffly beaten egg whites ”

“ Always sift your flour, for neither bread nor cake should be made with unsifted flour, not merely because there may be dirt in it, but because packing injures its lightness, and sifting restores it, and makes bread and cake lighter.
The day before you wish to make cake, stone your raisins, and blanch your almonds, by pouring hot water131 on them, to take off the skins, and then throwing them into cold water to whiten them. When ready to make your cake, grate your lemon or orange peel. Next weigh your butter and cut it in pieces, and put it where it will soften, but not melt. ”