177 Black or Fruit Cake
Stir for twenty minutes, four pounds of butter with five of sugar. Beat forty eggs, the whites and yolks separate, and stir them into the butter and sugar, then add a table spoonful of cinnamon, the same quantity of rosewater, a tea spoonful of essence of lemon, or three of orange flower water, half an ounce of allspice, the same of mace, and a tea spoonful of cloves. Stir in very gradually, five pound of sifted flour. Mix three glasses of white wine, three of brandy, and two of milk. Stir it with the rest of the above ingredients for twenty minutes, then stir in three quarters of a pound of blanched, dried and pounded almonds, four pounds of stoned raisins, five of Zante currants, and a pound of citron, cut in small pieces, the fruit should be stirred in gradually, a handful of each kind alternately. Bake it immediately in a moderate oven, for about two hours and a half. This kind of cake will keep good four or five months.