Twelfth-Night Cake

Ingredients

• one cupful of butter
• two of granulated sugar
• four of flour
• one of milk
• five eggs
• the rind of a lemon
• juice of a lemon
• a teaspoonful of cream-of-tartar
• half a teaspoonful of soda
• three cupfuls of powdered sugar
• the whites of three eggs
• one tablespoonful of lemon juice
• half a pound of French candied cherries
• a quarter of a pound of angelica

Method

1. 1

   Beat the butter to a cream, gradually add sugar and lemon juice and rind.

2. 2

   Add milk, then beaten eggs, and finally flour mixed with soda and cream-of-tartar.

3. 3

   Pour into a buttered round pan, adding the bean, clove, and pea.

4. 4

   Bake in a moderate oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

5. 5

   After cooling, mix egg white with powdered sugar for icing.

6. 6

   Spread over the cake, then prepare icing with egg whites and confectioners' sugar, adding lemon juice.

7. 7

   Decorate the cake with cherries and angelica.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Miss Parloa's kitchen companion (1887) by Maria Parloa, page 397. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

one cupful of butter, two of granulated sugar, four of flour, one of milk, five eggs, the rind and juice of a lemon, a teaspoonful of cream-of -tartar, and half a tea- spoonful of s«da. For the decorations there will be required three cupful s of powdered sugar, the whites of three eggs, one table-spoonful of lemon juice, half a pound of French candied cherries, and a quarter of a pound of angelica, unless the same amount of French candied almonds be preferred. There should be three fancy figures to represent the king, queen, and knave; 754 MISS PARLOA'S KITCHEN COMPANION. and for the centre of the cake there should be a crowu or a tiny Christmas-tree. To make the cake, beat the butter to a cream, and grad- ually beat into it the sugar and lemon juice and grated rind. Add the milk, then the eggs, well beaten, and finally the flour, thoroughly mixed with the soda and cream-of- tartar. Have at hand a large round pan, well buttered, and pour the mixture into it. Drop the bean and clove into one side of the cake, marking their location by two clean broom-straws, and drop the pea into the other side. The straws will not make the cake heavy, and can be drawn out at the proper time. Place the pan in a mod- erate oven, and bake for an hour and a quarter. After the cake has been baked and has become par- tially cool, put the white of one egg into a bowl, and gradually stir into it a cupful of powdered sugar. Spread this mixture over the cake, and while it is hardening, make the icing for decoration. Put the whites of two eggs into a bowl, and beat into them two cupfuls of con- fectioners' sugar. The addition of sugar should be made very slowly, about two minutes being used for each table- spoonful. Probably an hour will be needed for beating the icing. Add the lemon juice, and beat about three minutes longer. Spread a thin coat of this icing over the cake. Have ready a bag made by folding a piece of rubber sheeting, about ten inches square, into a triangular shape, and sew- ing the two edges together. Cut the rubber at the apex just enough to permit a confectioners' small tube to be pushed through, — a tube having at its point small teeth like those of a saw. Pour the remainder of the icing into this bag, and decorate the cake with it. Part should be pressed through the tube, and formed in a wreath on top of the cake, and near the edge. Another wreath should be put around the side of the cake, and near the top, and a third at the base. Make also a small circle in the centre of the top. CAKE. 755 Have the cherries cut in two, and the angelica cut in half-disks. Dispose the cherries tastefully on the large wreath on top of the cake, and also on that at the bottom, and arrange the angelica on the wreath at the top of the sides, as well as on the small circle in the centre. It is important throughout the work not to lose knowledge of the location of the bean, pea, and clove. Withdraw the straws, and set the figures of the king and knave on the side containing the bean and clove, and the figure of the queen on that in which the pea was put. Place the little tree in the centre. In serving the cake, the part containing the pea should be offered to the ladies, and the other half to the gentle- men. It is hardly necessary to say that a very plain cake, with a simple icing, and a little color in the way of candied fruit or confectionery, may afford just as good sport as that made by the foregoing receipt; but the design is to show how a genuine Twelfth-Night cake is made, and it is hoped that the directions may not, be- cause of their fulness, give anybody the erroneous impression that the work is very difficult. Mocha Cake. There are three divisions in the making of this cake, giving the receipt the appearance of intricacy, although the work is really simple enough. For the first step these ingredients are required : a cupful of sugar, half a cupful of butter, half a cupful of corn-starch, a scant half-cupful of milk, a cupful and a quarter of flour, the whites of three eggs, half a teaspoonful of cream-of-tartar

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