1 1/2 c Golden, seedless, and puffed
-seeded raisins, combined
4 c White flour
1 ts Baking soda
1 1/2 c Dried currants
1 ts Salt
1 c Plus 2 tb Blackberry Cordial
-or other wine
1 ts Cinnamon
1 ts Cloves
1 ts Allspice
1 c Alaskan Sourdough Starter
1/2 ts Mace
6 tb Butter
3 c Candied fruit; green and red
-cherries, pineapple,
-orange, citron and ging
1 c White sugar
1 c Brown sugar
3 Eggs, well beaten
1 c Chopped nuts
2 tb Grated lemon rind
Soak raisins and currants in 1 cup wine overnight. Remove starter
from refrigerator and set, tightly covered, in warm place overnight.
It should be in at least a two cup container as it will just about
double its volume overnight. In the morning, cream butter with sugar
and beat in eggs and lemon rind. Drain wine from raisins into
creamed mixture. Stir in starter and 3 cups of the flour sifted with
the soda, salt and spices. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of flour over
the fruit and nuts in a large bowl. Toss and shake until well-coated.
Add to batter and mix thoroughly. Turn into loaf pans which have been
generously buttered. Let stand in warm place for 30 minutes. Bake in
oven preheated to 300 with a pan of water on floor of oven and rack
as near as possible in middle of oven. Bake about 2-1/2 hours for
medium-sized loaves watching carefully to see that they do not brown
to quickly. Test with toothpick. Remove from oven, turn pans on sides
and allow to set for a few minutes before taking from pans. When cold
drip 2 tbsp. of wine over each cake. As soon as it is absorbed, wrap
tightly in cellophane freezer paper and store in refrigerator or
freezer. They improve with age.
Yields
6 servings