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Martha
Washington's
Great Cake
This
recipe was one of Mrs. Washington's favorites, and
a cake often served for Christmas or other special occasions
held at Mount
Vernon.
Martha
Washington's Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats
The family
cookbook Martha Washington kept and used for fifty years,
with over five hundred classic recipes.
Take 40
eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to
a froth. Then work 4 pounds of butter to a cream and put
the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is
well work'd. Then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to
it in the same manner then put in the Yolks of eggs and 5
pounds of flour and 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake
it. Add to it half an ounce of mace and nutmeg half a pint
of wine and some fresh brandy.
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Notes
:
In
making the great cake, Mount Vernon's curatorial staff
followed Mrs. Washington's recipe almost exactly. Where
the recipe called for 5 pounds of fruit, without specifying
which ones, 2 pounds of raisins, 1 pound of currants, and
2 pounds of apples were used. The wine used was cream sherry.
Since no pan large enough was available to hold all the
batter, two 14 layers were made and stacked (note: the
original was one single tall layer). The layers were baked
in a 350 degree oven for 1.5 hours. Should be iced with
a very stiff egg-white based icing, flavored with rosewater
or orange-flower water.
Sucanat is basically dehydrated sugar cane with little to no processing,
making it an excellent source of iron, calcium, vitamin
B6, potassium and chromium, which helps balance blood sugar.
Malitol is
a bit more expensive, but is a little less sweet than actual
sugar. What's nice about Sucanat is you can use in a 1:1
ratio wherever you'd use sugar. You can get more info about
using nutritious, natural sweetener substitutes for your
holiday baking here.
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