ALMOND CHRISTMAS CAKE

 

Fin de souper, Jules-Alexandre Grün (1913)

After chocolate chip cookies, brown sugar 7-minute frosting and ginger snaps, it's time for a Christmas cake from Ruth Wakefield's Toll house tried and true recipes (1936). I’ve noted before that her directions were not easy to follow because she used common ingredients but not so common methods. Well, I just revisited several pages of her cookbook and I believe Ruth Wakefield Graves was something of a poet - in the broad sense. Her instructions were given with elegance and economy, as can be seen in the transcription of a recipe below.

Almond Christmas

Cake                                                       1/4 lb. candied cherries; blend

                                                                      all together with fingers.

       Cream                                                    Add part of whites of

   1/2 cup butter. Add                            5      eggs, beaten dry

1     cup sugar                                     1 1/2 cups flour, mixed and sifted

   1/2 lb. almonds, blanched and                    with

          chopped                                    2    tsp. baking powder

   1/2 lb. cocoanut                                   1/2 tsp. almond extract and re-

                                                                     maining whites

Bake 2 hours in a moderate, 300o, oven.

 

This cake was slow-baked like a pudding and the guest star was coconut, a fruit introduced to the Americas from Europe in the Columbian exchange - not the other way round. Brazil evolved into a massive producer behind Southeastern Asia but coconut also became popular in the southern States and the Carribean. And Ruth Wakefield’s pupils, customers & readers could probably afford it, or else she wouldn't have shared the recipe in the middle of the Great Depression. 

 

 

 

ALMOND CHRISTMAS CAKE

This cake is lightly sweetened and generally dry.

I n g r e d i e n t s

115g butter, at room temperature

200g sugar

230g ground almonds

230g coconut shreds

115g glazed cherries

5 large egg whites, beaten stiff

200g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

1/2tsp almond extract

M e t h o d

Cream the butter with the sugar. Knead the rest of the ingredients with the beaten egg whites, adding the glazed cherries last. Transfer to a Bundt cake pan, decorate with sugar if liked, and bake at 150oC for 2 hours.