orange-flower
water, but not too much. When the cake is done, pour the iceing over it,
and return it to the oven for fifteen minutes. But if the oven be quite
warm, keep it near the mouth, and the door open, lest the colour be
spoiled.--Another. Dried flour, currants washed and picked, four pounds;
sugar pounded and sifted, a pound and a half; six orange, lemon, and
citron peels, cut in slices. These are to be mixed together. Beat ten
eggs, yolks and whites separately. Melt a pound and a half of butter in
a pint of cream; when cold, put to it half a pint of yeast, near half a
pint of sweet wine, and the eggs. Then strain the liquid to the dry
ingredients, beat them well, and add of cloves, mace, cinnamon, and
nutmeg, half an ounce each. Butter the pan, and put it into a quick
oven. Three hours will bake it.--Another. Mix with a pound of well-dried
flour, a pound of loaf sugar, and the eighth of an ounce of mace, well
beaten. Beat up five eggs with half the whites, a gill of rose water,
and a quarter of a pint of yeast, and strain them. Melt half a pound of
butter in a quarter of a pint of cream, and when cool, mix all together.
Beat up the batter with a light hand, and set it to rise half an hour.
Before it is put into the oven, mix in a pound and a half of currants,
well washed and dried, and bake it an hour and a quarter.--For a rich
cake, take three pounds of well-dried flour, three pounds of fresh
butter, a pound and a half of fine sugar dried and sifted, five pounds
of currants carefully cleaned and dried, twenty-four eggs, three grated
nutmegs, a little pounded mace and cloves, half a pound of almonds, a
glass of sack, and a pound of citron or orange peel. Pound the almonds
in rose water, work up the butter to a thin cream, put in the sugar, and
work it well; then the yolks of the eggs, the spices, the almonds, and
orange peel. Beat the whites of the eggs to a froth, and put them into
the batter as it rises. Keep working it with the hand till the oven is
ready, and the scorching subsided; put it into a hoop, but not full, and
two hours will bake it. The almonds should be blanched in cold water.
This will make a large rich plum cake.--A small common cake may be made
of a pound of dough, a quarter of a pound of butter, two eggs, a quarter
of a pound of lump sugar, a quarter of a pound of currants, and a little
nutmeg.--Another. Take a pound and a half of fine white dough, roll into
it a pound of butter, as for pie cr