Plum Cake

Ingredients

• One lb. butter
• One lb. sugar
• One lb. flour
• 10 eggs
• 1 lb. raisins
• 1/2 lb. currants
• 1/2 lb. sliced citron
• 1 teaspoonful of ground cloves
• 1 of mace
• 1 nutmeg
• 3^ coffeecup of molasses

Method

1. 1

   Beat the butter till it is soft and creamy, then add the sugar.

2. 2

   Beat the whites and the yolks of the eggs separately; stir the yolks in with the butter and sugar; stir the flour in gradually.

3. 3

   When the flour is about half worked in, put in 0.5 teaspoonful soda dissolved in as little water as possible; then add the whites of the eggs, and lastly the fruit, which is well covered with the rest of the flour.

4. 4

   Bake in a large tin, with a buttered paper on the sides and bottom; it will need to bake slowly for 5 hours.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The white ribbon cook book (1894) by Kathryn Armstrong, page 76. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

One lb. flour, 3^ lb. drip- ping, 2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder, a little all- spice and salt, 3^ lb. currants, 3^ lb. white sugar, and 3^ pt. milk. Mix into the flour the baking powder and salt, then with the hands rub the dripping in the flour until it resembles bread-crumbs. Add the currants, allspice and sugar. Take care that the ingredients are well mixed; pour in the milk and mix with a wooden spoon. Grease a quartern tin and pour the mixture into it; bake 1 hour. To insure the cake being done stick a piece of broom straw into it. This answers the same purpose as a knife and is better, as the knife is apt to make the cake heavy. Turn the cake on end to allow the steam to evaporate. Plain Fruit Cake (2)— One lb. flour, i^ lb. raisins, 4 oz. dripping, 4 oz. white sugar, 1 tea- cup milk, 1 egg, 2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder, a little salt, 1 Oz. lemon peel. Add to the flour the baking-powder and salt; rub the dripping into the flour with your hands. Take care it is well incorporated. Stone the raisins, grate the lemon rind, and with the sugar add to the other ingredients. Well whisk the egg, and mix in the milk, adding to the mixture; thoroughly mix. Grease a cake tin and bake 1 hour. Proceed to test as above. Economical Fruit Cake — Five oz. butter, 2 lbs. flour, 3^ lb. sugar, 1 lb. currants, 1 gill yeast, enough milk to make a thick batter, 1 table- spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Bread and Cakes. 161 Mix the flour, leaving out }^ lb., with the but- ter cut in small pieces, the sugar, cinnamon and fruit; add milk enough to form a thick batter, and lastly stir in the yeast. Mix it over night, and set it avs^ay to rise; in the morning stir in the remainder of the flour, and let it rise; when light, mould it out very lightly; butter your pan, and bake it in an oven about as hot as for bread. Plum Cake — One lb. each of butter, sugar and flour, 10 eggs, 1 lb. raisins, }/£ lb. each of cur- rants and sliced citron, 1 teaspoonful of ground cloves, 1 of mace, 1 nutmeg, the juice and grated peel of 1 lemon, 3^ coffeecup of molasses

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