Happy Thanksgiving and a Recipe for Queen's Cake

Last Thanksgiving, I posted a recipe for a Victorian pumpkin pie:

http://bryonyseries.blogspot.com/2010/11/1850-recipe-for-pumpkin-pie.html

This year, I found something a little different: Queen's Cake. It's far too rich for me to reproduce at home, but perhaps you're a bit more indulgant. At any rate, it's certainly not intended for everyday fare.

So if you're an adult from the United States and are commemorating Thanksgiving today, or if you live in another country and just feeling overall celebratory, and you have some time to spare, perhaps give this recipe a try.

First published in

Miss Beecher’s domestic receiptbook: designed as a supplement to her Treatise on domestic economy.

Queen's Cake:

1 pound dried and sifted flour

1 pound sugar

1/2 pound butter

4 eggs

1 nutmeg

1 gill of wine

1 gill of brandy

1 gill thin cream

1 pound fruit

Rub butter and sugar together. Beat separately the yolks and whites of the eggs. Mix all the ingredients, except the flour and the fruit, which must be added just before putting in the oven. This makes two three-pint pans full. It requires one and a half hours to bake.

Note: 1 gill equals 1/2 cup