Wedding Cake (1924)

  The Home Maker’s Cookbook: Containing Tried and True and Tried Recipes by the Tewksbury (Mass.) Congregational Church Women’s Missionary Society (1924) 

This is the most traditional style of wedding cake: lots of fruit and richness to wish fertility and abundance on the newlyweds. 

Wedding Cake 

1/2 lb. butter 

1/2 lb. sugar 

4 eggs—adding whites last 

2 tablespoons molasses 

1/2 teaspoon soda (scant) dissolved in 2 tablespoons milk 

1 small jar maraschino cherries 

1/4 teaspoon clove, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon 

10 oz. flour 

1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice 

1 lb. raisins 

1 lb. currants 

6 oz. citron, shredded 

Bake in moderate oven about two hours. —Alice E. Ramsay

———

My grocery store only sells candied fruit around Christmas, so instead I candied some orange peels and made my 10 year old and her friend eat the insides.  I also realized while assembling everything that I had forgotten currants.  As going back to the store would make me scream, I pulled out some dried prune plums from my tree last year to replace them.  

Verdict: Amazing!  Dense and rich.  I took it to a get-together with friends, and everyone who tried it said they liked it.  One friend said it was the first fruitcake she had ever liked!  I would be very comfortable serving this at a wedding now.  Nice work, Alice E. Ramsay!  

Update: I dropped some cake off with a neighbor, who texted me “[Husband] never left the plate! He loves it sooooo much!!! We should have married in the 20s!” 

Redaction: 

Wedding Cake 

1/2 lb. butter 

1/2 lb. sugar 

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons molasses 

10 oz. flour 

1/4 teaspoon each clove, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice 

1 jar maraschino cherries, halved 

1 lb. raisins 

1 lb. currants 

6 oz. citron, shredded

4 egg whites, whipped to stiff peaks 

Cream butter and sugar together until butter is light and fluffy.  Add egg yolks and molasses.  In a separate bowl, mix together flour, spices, and baking soda.  Add to butter mixture alternately with maraschino cherry juice.  Mix in raisins, currants, and citron. Gently fold in whipped egg whites. Pour in greased and floured cake pan, and bake at 325 F. for about 2 hours, covering with aluminum foil if the top starts getting too brown.