CONNECTICUT ELECTION CAKE.
From MRS. VIRGINIA T, SMITH, of Connecticut, Alternate Lady Manager.
Two pounds best pastry flour; one pound shortening (half butter and half lard); one pound and two ounces sugar; whites of two eggs; one nutmeg; half a pound of raisins (loose Muscatels); quarter teaspoon of mace; one tablespoon of lemon juice; one tablespoon extract of orange; half teaspoon salt; half a compressed yeast cake, and two ounces of citron. Work the shortening and sugar to a cream; then rub half of it into the flour; dissolve the yeast cake in a little warm water; mix the flour and yeast with sufficient milk (about one and a half pints that has been scalded and cooled) to make a batter about like graham bread; work with the hands for at least twenty minutes; make at night and set in a moderately warm room to rise; in the morning add the remainder of the shortening and sugar; work again with the hands, as when first made, for fifteen or twenty minutes, and set to rise again. Seed and cut the raisins, grate the nutmeg and sprinkle that and the mace over the raisins. When the cake is light, add first the lemon juice, then extract of orange and whites of eggs, well beaten; stir in fruit well floured: dip into three pans, buttered and lined with paper. Let it stand until it begins to rise—it will come up very quickly in the oven if it has been twice well raised. Have oven hot enough to check the rising after it has reached the top of the pans; after it begins to brown, check the fire and let it bake rather slowly the remainder of the time. Whole time, one hour and a quarter.