CHRISTMAS SPICE LOAF
The Classic Grand Americana recipe. The popular puritan Christmas Cake dessert was sold in all the pharmacies of the United States of America in 1908. The original recipe of the New England and New York
For this original British American Christmas cake of the beginning of the last century you will need:
7 pounds of white wheat all purpose flour
6 pounds of black currants
1 pound of black treacle
2 pounds of pork lard(beef suet works better though)
2 pounds of margarine
1 pound of moist brown sugar
1/4 pound ground mixed spice(ginger, cinnamon, cloves,alspice)
11 /2 ounces of baking powder (Calumet or Glabber Girl)
1 ounce of egg powder
Tinned milk enough to make the soft dough
You begin with making this cake by reduce the tin milk in the cast iron kettle with the tepid water and then you mix in the treacle. Let your liquids become cool, Rub in the softened the fats into the flour with your hands- better to melt them, than to grate in with a grater, then add sugar powders and fruits. Mix and rub it well, then wet it up with the milk and treacle mixture. Scale off the dough into 1 1/2 and 2 pound lumps. Bake in round, papered tins, dust with castor sugar, and bake each cake for 1 hour and 20 mins in a medium heat oven.