Set a sponge as in the foregoing receipt, with the same proportions of flour, sugar, milk, and yest: when it has lain some time, mix it with three quarters of a pound of butter oiled, one pound and a quarter of currants, half a pound of candied lemon and orange-peel cut fine, grated nutmeg, ground allspice and cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of each: case a hoop as stated [No. 59], bake it in a good-heated oven one hour and a half.
N.B. It may be iced with [No. 84], and ornamented as a twelfth cake.
Queen, or Heart Cakes.—(No. 61.)
One pound of sifted sugar, one pound of butter, eight eggs, one pound and a quarter of flour, two ounces of currants, and half a nutmeg grated.
Cream the butter as at [No. 55], and mix it well with the sugar and spice, then put in half the eggs and beat it ten minutes, add the remainder of the eggs, and work it ten minutes longer, stir in the flour lightly, and the currants afterward, then take small tin pans of any shape (hearts the most usual), rub the inside of each with butter, fill and bake them a few minutes in a hot oven, on a sheet of matted wire, or on a baking-plate; when done, remove them as early as possible from the pans.
Queen’s Drops.—(No. 62.)
Leave out four ounces of flour from the last receipt, and add two ounces more of currants, and two ounces of candied peel cut small; work it the same as in the last receipt, and when ready put the measure into a biscuit-funnel,[378-*] and lay them out in drops about the size of half a crown, on white paper; bake them in a hot oven, and, when nearly cold, take them from the paper.
Shrewsbury Cakes.—(No. 63.)
Rub well together one pound of pounded sugar, one pound of fresh butter, and one pound and a half of sifted flour, mix it into a paste, with half a gill of milk or cream, and one egg, let it lie half an hour, roll it out thin, cut it out into small cakes with a tin cutter, about three inches over, and bake them on a clean baking-plate in a moderate oven.