Cookery for every household

First prepare all the fruit, clean the currants, shred the candied peel finely, blanch and chop the almonds, and cut the cherries in small pieces. Mix the different kinds together with 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of the flour. More or less fruit may be put into the cake according to individual taste, and the kind of fruit may also be varied. Put the butter into a large warm basin, and beat it to a cream. When very light, mix in the sugar, grated lemon rind, and nutmeg ; then add the eggs one at a time with a little of the flour, beating well after each. When all are in, add the treacle, brandy, and fruit, and stir just sufficiently to mix all together. Bake the mixture in one or two cake tins, which have been greased and lined with two or three folds of strong white paper. A good moderate oven will be required, and then towards the end of the baking a cool one to dry the cakes. This cake should be made a month or two before it is required, as it improves with keeping. It should be kept in a tin box wrapped in greaseproof paper. When required, cover the cake with a good coating of almond paste and then with royal icing (Recipe 2853). Decorate with some of the icing put through a forcing bag, with preserved fruit, with fancy sweets, or little sprays of artificial holly and mistletoe. Note. — For a plainer Christmas cake use the recipe given for Holiday Cake (Recipe 2789), adding a little more fruit if wished. Time to bake, 2 to 3 hours if two cakes, 4 to 5 horns if one cake. Probable cost, without icing, 5s. 2772. Christmas Cake, 2 1 lb. butter. 1 lb. castor sugar. 2 lbs. flour. 3 lbs. currants. 1 lb. candied peel. £.lb. sweet almonds. 1 tea-sp. ground cinnamon. 1 tea-sp. mixed spice. 12 eggs. 2 glasses brandy. Put the butter into a large warm basin, and beat it to a cream. Add the sugar, yolks of eggs, and spices, and beat for a few minutes. Have the whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and add them next, alternately with the flour. Beat again for 20 minutes. Add the fruit, carefully prepared, and the brandy at the last. Pour the mixture into one or two well-lined cake tins, and bake in a moderate and steady oven from 2 to 4 hours according to size. This cake ought to be kept at least three months before it is cut. It should be wrapped in greaseproof paper, and stored in a tin box. It may be iced in the same way as a wedding cake. See p. 591. Time to bake, 2 to 4 hours. Probable cost, 7s. 6d. 2773. Cocoanut Cake | lb. butter. 6 oz. castor sugar. 1 lb. flour. 3 eggs. 4 lb. desiccated cocoanut. 1 tea-sp. baking powder. About 1 tea-cupful milk. Beat the butter to a cream, and mix in the sugar, carefully sieved. Add the cocoanut, and the eggs well beaten. Then sieve the flour with the baking powder, and mix these in to the other mixture gradually, adding enough milk to make the mixture just soft enough to drop from the spoon. (A cake made with milk should never be too moist.) When all is thoroughly beaten, pour the mixture into a lined cake tin and bake in a moderate oven until the cake is nicely risen and feels firm to the touch. Time to bake, 1J to 2 hours. Probable cost, Is. 8 d. 2774. Coffee Cake | lb. flour. 2 eggs. | lb. brown sugar. 2 to 3 oz. butter. 2 table-sps. syrup. 2 table-sps. coffee essence. 1 tea-sp. mixed spice. J lb. currants. | lb. sultanas. 1 tea-sp. carbonate of soda.