ELECTION CAKE.

Make a sponge (as it is called) in the following manner:—Sift into a
pan two pounds and a half of flour; and into a deep plate another
pound. Take a second pan, and stir a large table-spoonful of the best
West India molasses into five jills or two tumblers and a half of
strong fresh yeast; adding a Jill of water, warm, but not hot. Then
stir gradually into the yeast, &c. the pound of flour that you have
sifted separately. Cover it, and let it set by the fire three hours to
rise. While it is rising, prepare the other ingredients, by stirring in
a deep pan two pounds of fresh butter and two pounds of powdered sugar,
till they are quite light and creamy; adding to them a table-spoonful
of powdered cinnamon; a tea-spoonful of powdered mace; and two powdered
nutmegs. Stir in also half a pint of rich milk. Beat fourteen eggs till
very smooth and thick, and stir them gradually into the mixture,
alternately with the two pounds and a half of flour which you sifted
first. When the sponge is quite light, mix the whole together, and bake
it in buttered tin pans in a moderate oven. It should be eaten fresh,
as no sweet cake made with yeast is so good after the first day. If it
is not probable that the whole will come into use on the day it is
baked, mix but half the above quantity.