Currant Cake

Ingredients

• lib. of sugar
• lib. of butter
• eight eggs
• lib. of flour
• 21b. of washed and dried currants
• jib. of candied lemon-peel

Method

1. 1

   Work the butter and sugar together, then add the beaten eggs gradually.

2. 2

   Mix in the flour and currants, then bake in a buttered cake tin for nearly two hours.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The encyclopædia of practical cookery (1890) by Theodore Francis Garrett, page 19. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

lib. of butter, lib. of sugar, eight eggs, and 14oz. of flour ; mix the butter and sugar together until it is creamy (if the butter is hard it may be warmed a little), break the eggs into a basin and work them into the mixture very slowly, as the (lightness of the Cake depends upon this. Having done so, work in the flour very lightly ; seeds, or currants and peel, may be added according to taste. Bake as before. (10) Warm Jib. of butter and stir in |lb. of caster sugar; mix thoroughly together, and then add, one by one, six eggs. When well beaten, sift in gradually lOoz. of flour and the grated peel of two lemons; add Jib. each of washed and dried currants, mixed peel cut small, stoned raisins, or 1 table- spoonful of caraway-seeds if preferred to the fruit. Line with paper some Cake-rings three or four thicknesses round and underneath, stand them on iron baking-sheets, pour in the Cake mixture, and bake. Fig. 286. Pound-cake Ring (Mathews and Son). (11) Put into a basin £lb. of butter and fib. of powdered sugar. Grate in the rind of half a lemon, and with the hand knead well for twenty minutes. Break in five eggs, adding gradually and carefully, and kneading sharply with the hand for ten minutes longer. Then add fib. of well-sifted flour, mixing the whole slowly and thoroughly for five minutes longer. Butter a 2qt. round Cake-mould, and line it with thick paper at the bottom and sides. Fill it with the pre- paration, and put it in a slow oven to bake for fully one hour. Remove, and let it cool for about two hours. Unmould, detach the paper, and lay it on a pastry wire grating. Glaze the tops and sides with a vanilla-flavoured chocolate icing. Lay the Cake on a dish with a fancy white paper. Prepare 3oz. of candied cherries, 2oz. of angelica, 2oz. of red and the same of white pears, both candied ; cut the cherries in halves, the ang-elica lozenge shaped, and the pears each in six parts (except one white one, which is kept whole), keeping the fruits all separate. Place the whole pear on top of the Cake in the centre, stem upward. Then decorate thus : at the base of the pear lay two slices of red pear, carefully, one against the other on one side. Repeat on the other side, and arrange in the same way two slices of the white pear in the middle of the space on one side, and two more slices opposite. Now cover the four spaces nearest the pear with half a cherry each, and arrange four angelica lozenges in the empty place at the end of the layers of pear. Then on each of the four angelica points lay half a cherry. Begin decorating the edge of the Cake all around in a crown shape with one angelica lozenge, putting near the point one half cherry, then another lozenge, and continue the same all round until joined. Arrange the remaining slices of pear in the spaces near the border, and it will be ready to send to table. (12) Slightly warm lib. of butter, add lib. of caster sugar, and mix them thoroughly together with a wooden spoon, then beat in three eggs. Mix in gradually £lb. of flour and a small quantity each of powdered cinnamon and grated nutmeg, and then add six more well-beaten eggs. Work the mixture well, then add another |lb. of flour, 1 wineglassful of sherry, a few drops of essence of rose-water, £ wineglassful of brandy, §lb. of finely-chopped candied fruit, and |lb. of chopped citron. Beat the mixture well ; butter the interior of a Cake-tin, strew in some finely-sifted breadcrumbs, and shake out those that do not adhere to the butter ; put in the Cake-mixture, and bake in a moderate oven. The mixture should only three-parts fill the mould when it is first put in, as room must be left for the Cake to rise. When cooked, turn the Cake out of the tin, leave it until cold, then glaze it over with icing. (13) Warm slightly a large basin, put lib. of sugar and lib. of butter into it, and work them well together with the hand for a-quarter-of-an-hour. Into another basin break eight eggs, and beat them until they are very light ; add them gradually to the butter and sugar, stirring them in with a wooden spoon. Mix in lib. of flour, adding it a little at a time, and stirring well in ; add 21b. of washed and dried currants, and jib. of candied lemon-peel

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.