Sultana Cake.
4 cups flour.
1 cup of butter.
3 cups powdered sugar.
8 eggs, beaten light. Strain the yolks.
1 cup cream, or rich milk.
1 pound sultana (seedless) raisins, dredged thickly.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
2 smaller teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.
½ grated nutmeg, and ½ teaspoonful of cinnamon.
Cream the butter and sugar. Sift the cream of tartar with the flour. Dredge the raisins with flour when you have picked them over with great care, washed and dried them.
Mix the beaten yolks with the creamed butter and sugar; then, the spice and brandy. Beat three minutes, and stir in the cream or milk lightly with the soda-water. Put in, first a handful of one, then a spoonful of the other, the flour and whipped whites. At last, beat in the fruit.
Bake in two large loaves, or four smaller ones. My own preference is for small loaves of cake. They are safer in baking, and can be cut more economically, especially where the family is not large. It is better to cut up the whole of a small cake for one meal, than to halve or quarter a large one, since the outer slices must be dry at the next cutting, and are wasted, to say nothing of the effect of the air upon the whole of the exposed interior.
The Sultana must be baked slowly and carefully, and like all fruit-cakes, longer than a plain one. Ice thickly. It will keep very well.