Plum Cake.
Reading edition
Take: Flour, 1½ lbs.; butter, 1 lb.; sugar, 1 lb.; currants, ½ lb.; candied citron, ½ lb.; orange peel, ½ lb.; sweet almonds, 2 oz.; allspice, ½ oz.; cinnamon ½ oz.; eggs, 10.
Beat the sugar and butter to a light cream; add the allspice and pounded cinnamon; work in the yolks of the eggs, two at a time; whip the whites till they are highly frothed, and work them in, keeping the paste warm, or it may become heavy. Cut the citron and orange peel into strips; mix them with the currants (previously well washed and dried before the fire), and also with the almonds; stir in by degrees the flour. Beat the whole together thoroughly, and bake 1½ hours in a moderate oven. There should be a couple sheets of paper both under and over the cake.
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