One pound of flour, half a pound of clarified butter, half a pound of currants, half a pound of sugar; mix and pinch into small cakes.
Royal Cakes.
Take three pounds of very fine flour, one pound and a half of butter, and as much currants, seven yolks and three whites of eggs, a nutmeg grated, a little rose-water, one pound and a half of sugar finely beaten; knead it well and light, and bake on tins.
Savoy or Sponge Cake.
Take twelve new-laid eggs, and their weight in double refined sugar; pound it fine, and sift it through a lawn sieve; beat the yolks very light, and add the sugar to them by degrees; beat the whole well together till it is extremely light. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a strong froth; then mix all together by adding the yolks and the sugar to the whites. Have ready the weight of seven eggs in fine flour very well dried and sifted; stir it in by degrees, and grate in the rind of a lemon. Butter a mould well, and bake in a quick oven. About half an hour or forty minutes will do it.
Another.
Take one pound of Jordan and two ounces of bitter almonds; blanch them in cold water, and beat them very fine in a mortar, adding orange-flower and rose-water as you beat them to prevent their oiling. Then beat eighteen eggs, the whites separately to a froth, and the yolks extremely well, with a little brandy and sack. Put the almonds when pounded into a dry, clean, wooden bowl, and beat them with your hand extremely light, with one pound of fine dried and sifted sugar; put the sugar in by degrees, and beat it very light, also the peels of two large lemons finely grated. Put in by degrees the whites of the eggs as they rise to a froth, and in the same manner the yolks, continuing to beat it for an hour, or until it is as light as possible. An hour will bake it; it must be a quick oven; you must continue to beat the cake until the oven is ready for it.
Seed Cake. No. 1.
Heat a wooden bowl, and work in three pounds of butter with your hands, till it is as thin as cream; then work in by degrees two pounds of fine sugar sifted, and eighteen eggs well beaten, leaving out four of the whites; put the eggs in by degrees. Take three pounds of the finest flour, well dried and sifted, mixed with one ounce and a half of caraway seeds, one nutmeg, and a little mace; put them in the flour as you did the sugar, and beat it well up with your hands; put it in your hoop; and it will take two hours’ baking. You may add sweetmeats if you like. The dough must be made by the fire, and kept constantly worked with the hands to mix it well together. If you have sweetmeats, put half a pound of citron, a quarter of a pound of lemon-peel, and put the dough lightly into the hoop, just before you send it to the oven, without smoothing it at top, for that makes it heavy.