Mount Vernon recipe

Martha Washington's Great Cake

This 21st century recipe adaptation is for a cake like what would have traditionally been served on Twelfth Night, the wedding anniversary of George and Martha Washington.

10 eggs
1 lb. butter
1 lb. sugar
1-1/4 lbs. flour
1/1/4 lbs. assorted dried or fresh fruits and nuts—based on what would have been available to Mrs. Washington, the following are suggested:

• 5 oz. pear (peeled, cored, and diced)
• 9-1/2 oz. apple (peeled, cored, and diced)
• 3-1/2 oz. raisins
• 2 oz. almonds, sliced

2-1/2 tsp. ground mace
2-1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 oz. wine
2 oz. French brandy

Preheat the oven to 350º. Separate the egg whites from the yolks and set the yolks aside. Beat egg whites to a "soft peak." Cream the butter. Slowly add the beaten egg whites, one spoonful at a time, to the butter. Slowly add the sugar, one spoonful at a time, to the egg whites and butter. Add egg yolks. Add flour, slowly. Add fruits and nuts. Add ground mace, nutmeg, wine, and brandy. Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch springform cake pan. Pour batter into pan and bake about 75 minutes. Allow cake to cool after baking.

Modern Adaptation of an 18th-Century Icing

Beat 3 egg whites and 2 tbsp. powdered sugar.  Repeat additions of sugar until you have used 1-1/2 cups of powdered sugar.  Add 1 tsp. lemon peel grated and 2 tbsp. orange-flower water.  Beat until the icing is still enough to stay parted when a knife cuts through it.  Smooth it onto the cake.  Let it dry and harden in a 200º oven for one hour (Note:  icing will be brittle when cut with a knife).

---

We went on a candlelight tour of Mount Vernon, George Washington's plantation home south of Alexandria, last Saturday evening. A light snow fell as we walked through the estate. We got the aforementioned cake recipe in the house. Before going to the house, they had us in a "hospitality area" with a real camel and a great big fire in an iron cauldron, where they gave us hot cider and little paper-thin gingerbread cookies. There were period actors in the house to tell about things, and 18th century dance lessons in the greenhouse.