Old French Cake

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Old French Cake

Amy Vanderbilt's COMPLETE COOKBOOK

 

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp powdered mace

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs, well beaten

1/4 cup milk

2 cups sifted flour

1 1/2 cups chopped raisins

2 tsp baking powder

flour

 

Start oven at 250F; preheat 1 hour. Grease 9x9 inch pan and dust lightly

with flour.

 

Cream butter, adding sugar gradually. Beat eggs in gradually until

mixture is light. Mix and sift dry ingredients. Sift into egg mixture

alternately with milk,blending carefully. DO NOT BEAT !

 

Sprinkle raisins lightly with flour; shake in sieve, then add to batter.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 1 hour or until cake tester shows done and it has shrunken slightly

from sides of pan. Let cool in pan few minutes, then turn out and cool

on rack. Frost with special butter frosting.

 

SPECIAL BUTTER FROSTING

Combine 3 tbl butter with 2 cups confectioners' sugar, beating until

well creamed. Add 3 tbl milk or strongly brewed coffee and 1 tsp

vanilla. Beat all until smooth. Or use 3 tbl lemon juice and grated

peel 1 orange or lemon in place of milk and coffee.

 

Be sure not to use an overly refined cake flour for this. It is

supposed to be of coffee-cake texture. Its long baking in a slow oven

approximates the Dutch-oven baking of the French farm kitchen. We have

this often with evening tea and there is never any left to grow stale.

 

**** Submitter's note : You can skip the mace, the raisins, and the

frosting AND IT'S STILL GREAT ! Just don't use a mixer to beat the

mixture.