Take one pound of fresh butter one pound of sugar, one pound and a half of flour, two pounds of currants, a glass of brandy, one pound of sweetmeats, two ounces of sweet almonds, ten eggs, a quarter of an ounce of allspice and pounded cinnamon. Melt the butter to a cream and put in the sugar. Stir it till quite light, adding the allspice and pounded cinnamon; in a quarter of an hour, take the yolks of the eggs and work them two or three at a time; and the whites of the same must by this time be beaten into a strong snow, quite ready to work in. As the paste must not stand to chill the butter, or it will be heavy, work in the whites gradually, then add the orange-peel, lemon and citron, cut in fine strips, and the currants, which must be mixed in well with the sweet almonds; then add the sifted flour and a glass of brandy. Bake this cake in a tin hoop, in a hot oven, for three hours, and put twelve sheets of paper under it to keep it from burning.
source: Enquire Within (1856)
Once again we see an original Victorian recipe in all its glory. The sudden and unexpected introduction of ingredients, the lack of comprehensive instructions and the addition of "12 sheets of paper" to prevent burning! All of this and it has to be remembered that they were using coal fires with plenty of coal dust in the air!
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