Measure one large coffee cup of cream or rich milk, (which, for
this cake, is best when sour,) one cup of fresh butter; two cups
of powdered white sugar; and four cups of sifted flour. Stir the
butter and sugar together till quite light; then by degrees add
the cream, alternately with half the flour. Beat five eggs as
light as possible, and stir them into the mixture, alternately
with the remainder of the flour. Add a grated nutmeg and a large
tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, with eight drops of oil of
lemon. Lastly, stir in a very small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus or
pearl-ash, melted in a little vinegar or lukewarm water. Having
stirred the whole very hard, put it into little tins; set them in
a moderate oven, and bake them about twenty minutes.