No. 1322 Baba.
This cake is made of the same description of paste as the last, but using six more eggs, as it requires to be softer, and working lightly with your hand about ten minutes before adding the leaven, to which add a teaspoonful of powdered saffron; you have also picked and cleaned a quarter of a pound of Smyrna raisins, half a pound of Malaga, a quarter of a pound of currants, and a little candied orange, lemon-peel, and citron, cut into thin slices, soak the whole in half a pint of Madeira wine and three glasses of brandy or rum, and mix with the paste, working together lightly with the hands, have buttered a large sponge-cake mould, or stewpan, place a band of paper three inches in height round the rim, put it into a warm place for two or three hours, or until raised nearly to the top of the mould, stand it upon a trivet in a warmish oven, and bake about three hours, ascertaining when done with a skewer, as in the last; your paste must not be made too thin, or all the fruit would fall to the bottom and spoil its appearance. Take off the band of paper, turn the baba over upon a hair sieve, and serve either hot or cold. Previously to mixing the fruit with the paste you may line the interior of the mould very thinly with some of it, mix the fruit with the remainder and fill, this process will prevent the cake sticking to the mould, as the fruit will sometimes cause it to do, but gives rather too much the appearance of brioche when on the table.