Imperial Cake

[Eleanor Rose]

View attachment 223185​

This delicious Imperial Cake from an 1881 recipe is essentially a pound cake because it contains one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. This recipe would have yielded a very large cake that would have been able to serve multiple families.

Imperial Cake:
This is a rich cake and a very delicious one. Cream together a pound of the best butter and a pound of white sugar. Then add eight eggs - yolks and whites beaten separately - a pound of raisins, stoned and chopped, one-half pound blanched almonds and quarter pound of citron- both thinly sliced - a little mace and a pound of sifted flour. Bake in a steady oven and be sure the cake is thoroughly done.


Source: The Willimantic Journal - March 9, 1881

 

[nitrofd]

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This delicious Imperial Cake from an 1881 recipe is essentially a pound cake because it contains one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. This recipe would have yielded a very large cake that would have been able to serve multiple families.

Imperial Cake:
This is a rich cake and a very delicious one. Cream together a pound of the best butter and a pound of white sugar. Then add eight eggs - yolks and whites beaten separately - a pound of raisins, stoned and chopped, one-half pound blanched almonds and quarter pound of citron- both thinly sliced - a little mace and a pound of sifted flour. Bake in a steady oven and be sure the cake is thoroughly done.


Source: The Willimantic Journal - March 9, 1881

Pound cake it is.

 

[MRB1863]

Named so because it will pack on the pounds?

 

[donna]

Pound cakes are always good. My Mom's friend from years ago made them all the time. She would give one to my parents about once a week.

 

[Jimklag]

Love the look of this cake. If it's pound cake, so be it. Thanks, Ellie.

 

[nitrofd]

I like to slice pound cake from a loaf and put it in the toaster,here comes the butter.

 

[Deleted User CS]

Ellie. This recipe is another homerun. I love this cake. It almost reminds me of coffee cake but denser. This cake is absolutely delicious with a nice hot cup of tea with honey and ABSOLUTELY NO MILK. (The emphasis is for my friend Waterloo500, the tea drinking Englishman who puts milk, of all things, in his tea, which Churchill said was "uncivilized") Just kidding of course Waterloo500. David.

 

[Eleanor Rose]

Thanks @christian soldier! Leave it to @Waterloo50 to come up with adding milk to his tea. I wonder if his lovely wife, @Steph-GB, does that too.

 

[Belle Montgomery]

Yum!

 

[Deleted User CS]

Thanks @christian soldier! Leave it to @Waterloo50 to come up with adding milk to his tea. I wonder if his lovely wife, @Steph-GB, does that too.

I have been wondering that myself. David.

 

[Steph-GB]

Thanks @christian soldier! Leave it to @Waterloo50 to come up with adding milk to his tea. I wonder if his lovely wife, @Steph-GB, does that too.

Haha definitely have milk in tea! Have never even thought to try it with out milk in! Just sounds a crazy idea too

 

[Waterloo50]

Ellie. This recipe is another homerun. I love this cake. It almost reminds me of coffee cake but denser. This cake is absolutely delicious with a nice hot cup of tea with honey and ABSOLUTELY NO MILK. (The emphasis is for my friend Waterloo500, the tea drinking Englishman who puts milk, of all things, in his tea, which Churchill said was "uncivilized") Just kidding of course Waterloo500. David.

I have absolutely no idea why it is that us English have milk in tea but I really can't imagine drinking a brew any other way. I think most Brit kids get their first cup of tea when they are toddlers, it's normally a warm milky sugary tea, probably not so much sugar these days with all the health concerns but that's just how we're brought up. To really enjoy a cup of tea you need biscuits, you have to dunk your biscuits in your tea, it's all about timing, dunk them to little and you don't get the taste of the tea and milk, dunk them to long and you risk creating a floater in your tea, it's a tricky skill to learn but once mastered is very rewarding.

 

[Waterloo50]

Had to share this, hobnob biscuits.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

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This delicious Imperial Cake from an 1881 recipe is essentially a pound cake because it contains one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. This recipe would have yielded a very large cake that would have been able to serve multiple families.

Imperial Cake:
This is a rich cake and a very delicious one. Cream together a pound of the best butter and a pound of white sugar. Then add eight eggs - yolks and whites beaten separately - a pound of raisins, stoned and chopped, one-half pound blanched almonds and quarter pound of citron- both thinly sliced - a little mace and a pound of sifted flour. Bake in a steady oven and be sure the cake is thoroughly done.

Source: The Willimantic Journal - March 9, 1881

What an excellent recipe. Reminds me a little bit of sweet yeast bread my grandmother used to make with raisins and walnuts. You could certainly feed an awful lot of families with that much cake! Thanks for sharing it with us.