[Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday

[Johnna Holloway]

Depends on how much fruit and what type of cake I suppose in part.
They show up titled as great cakes. Then there are the questions as to:
Mixed fruits? Rising agents being eggs, ale barm, yeast, or baking 
powders/sodas???

MWBoC has this one-- pounds of currants and eggs and ale barm.

S 151 TO MAKE A *GREAT* *CAKE*

Take a peck of flower & put to it 10 eggs beaten; take out 3 of ye 
whites. Put in nutmeg, cinnamond, cloves, & mace, of each a quarter of 
an ounce; A full quart of Ale barme, & mingle with ye flower two pound 
of fresh butter. When it
allmoste kneaded, put in 6 spoonfulls of hot water to it, & 10 pounds of 
currans, & halfe a pound of sugar beaten. Let it ly by ye fire to rise, 
& then bake it. 

*Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery*. pp.315

This would be Tudor-Jacobean. My version of the recipe is in the 
Florilegium.

Johnnae


Cat . wrote:
> On the other topic, your discussion got me curious just how far back fruit cake recipes go.  If I had to pick a country how about English?  any online leads?  
>
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