59. Christmas or Wedding Cake.
1-lb. flour.
1-lb. butter.
1-lb. Demerara sugar.
½-lb. Valencia raisins.
1½-lbs. currants.
½-lb. candied peel.
½-lb. citron.
9 English eggs.
½ nutmeg.
Wine glass of rum.
Beat the butter to cream, add sugar, add flour by degrees, then eggs, and beat with a wooden spoon 20 minutes. Add raisins (weighed after they are stoned and chopped) and rest of fruit, etc. and mix well and put in a tin. Cut the citron in thick pieces (1 inch long) and push into the cake here and there. Bake 5 hours in slow oven.
Almond Paste.
1½-lbs. ground almonds.
2½-lbs. castor sugar.
½ small packet of gelatine.
Mix the almonds and sugar and bind with a very little dissolved gelatine. Put on the cake with a knife.
Icing.
Put 2-lbs. icing sugar in a bowl and moisten with the beaten whites of 2 eggs and lemon juice, or a little dissolved gelatine. Pour over the cake and make smooth with a knife dipped in water. Ornament with crystalized fruits or crystals put on when the icing is soft. Put in dry place to dry.