Take a pound of flour, well dried and sifted; add to it one pound of
sugar also dried and sifted; take one pound of butter, and work it in
your hands till it is like cream; beat very light the yolks of ten eggs
and six whites. Mix all these by degrees, beating it very light, and a
little sack and brandy. It must not stand to rise. If you choose fruit,
add one pound of currants, washed, picked, and dried.

_A very rich Cake._

Two pounds and a half of fresh butter, twenty-four eggs, three-pounds of
flour, one pound and a half of sugar, one ounce of mixed spice, four
pounds of currants, half a jar of raisins, half of sweet almonds, a
quarter of a pound of citron, three quarters of orange and lemon, one
gill of brandy, and one nutmeg. First work the butter to a cream; then
beat the sugar well in; whisk the eggs half an hour; mix them with the
butter and sugar; put in the spice and flour; and, when the oven is
ready, mix in the brandy, fruit, and sweetmeats. It will take one hour
and a half beating. Let it bake three hours.

_Cake without butter._

Beat up eight eggs for half an hour. Have ready powdered and sifted one
pound of loaf sugar; shake it in, and beat it half an hour longer. Put
to it a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds beat fine with orange-flower
water; grate the rind of a lemon into the almonds, and squeeze in the
juice. Mix all together. Just before you put it in the oven, add a
quarter of a pound of dry flour; rub the hoop or tin with butter. An
hour and a half will bake it.

_Another._

Take ten eggs and the whites of five; whisk them well, and beat in one
pound of finely sifted sugar, and three quarters of a pound of flour:
the flour to be put in just before the cake is going to the oven.

_Almond Cake._

Take a pound of almonds; blanch them in cold water, and beat them as
small as possible in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle, putting in, as
you beat them, some orange-flower water. Then take twelve eggs, leaving
out half of the whites; beat them well; put them to your almonds, and
beat them together, above an hour, till it becomes of a good thickness.
As you beat it, sweeten it to your taste with double-refined sugar
powdered, and when the eggs are put in add the peel of two large lemons
finely rasped. When you beat the almonds in the mortar with
orange-water, put in by degrees about four spoonfuls of citron water or
ratafia of apricots, or, for want of these, brandy and sack mixed