One pound of powdered white sugar.
One pound of fresh butter--washed.
Fourteen ounces of sifted flour.
Ten eggs.
One wine-glass of wine and brandy, mixed.
Half a glass of rose-water, or twelve drops of essence of lemon.
One tea-spoonful of mace and cinnamon, mixed.
One nutmeg, beaten or grated.
Pound the spice to a fine powder, in a marble mortar, and sift it
well.
Put the sugar into a deep earthen pan, and cut the butter into it.
Stir them together, till very light.
Beat the eggs in a broad shallow pan, till they are perfectly
smooth and thick.
Stir into the butter and sugar a little of the beaten egg, and
then a little flour, and so on alternately, a little egg and a
little flour, till the whole is in; continuing all the time to
beat the eggs, and stirring the mixture very hard. Add by degrees,
the spice, and then the liquor, a little at a time. Finally, put
in the rose-water, or essence of lemon. [Footnote: In buying
essence or oil of lemon, endeavour to get that which is white, it
being much the strongest and best. When it looks greenish, it is
generally very weak, so that when used, a double or treble
quantity is necessary.] Stir the whole very hard at the last.
Take about two dozen little tins, or more, if you have room for
them in the oven. Rub them very well with fresh butter. With a
spoon, put some of the mixture in each tin, but do not fill them
to the top as the cakes will rise high in baking. Bake them in a
quick oven, about a quarter of an hour. When they are done, they
will shrink a little from the sides of the tins.
Before you fill your tins again, scrape them well with a knife,
and wash or wipe them clean.
If the cakes are scorched by too hot a fire, do not scrape off the
burnt parts till they have grown cold.
Make an icing with the whites of three eggs, beaten till it stands
alone, and twenty-four tea-spoonfuls of the best loaf-sugar,
powdered, and beaten gradually into the white of egg. Flavour it
with a tea-spoonful of rose-water or eight drops of essence of
lemon, stirred in at the last. Spread it evenly with a broad
knife, over the top of each queen-cake, ornamenting them, (while
the icing is quite wet) with red and green nonpareils, or fine
sugar-sand, dropped on, carefully, with the thumb and finger.
When the cakes are iced, set them in a warm place to dry; but not
too near the fire, as that will cause the icing to crack.
[Footnote: You may colour icing of a fine pink, by mixing with it
a few drops of liquid cochineal; which is prepared by boiling very
slowly in an earthen or china vessel twenty grains of cochineal
powder, twenty grains of cream of tartar, and twenty grains of
powdered alum, all dissolved in a gill of soft water, and boiled
till reduced to one half. Strain it and cork it up in a small
phial. Pink icing should be ornamented with white nonpareils.]