A dark fruit-studded colonial cake on a wooden board with currants and raisins scattered around it

Colonial America · United States

Martha Washington's Great Cake

Name: Martha Washington's Great Cake
Total time: 190 min
Yield: 16
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 450 g butter, softened; 450 g caster sugar; 10 eggs, separated; 450 g plain flour; 300 g raisins; 300 g currants; 2 teaspoons ground mace; 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 120 ml brandy

From Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery · Martha Washington (manuscript) · 1749

Verified from original source

A colonial celebration cake rich with dried fruit, spices and brandy.

Historical note: Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks...

History

Martha Washington's Great Cake is a monumental colonial American fruit cake from the mid-18th century, requiring 40 eggs, four pounds of butter, and copious dried fruits and spices. Though attributed to Martha Washington, the manuscript is actually a family collection transcribed around 1749, containing recipes from earlier English sources. Such 'great cakes' were festive centrepieces for wealthy colonial families, reflecting English baking traditions transplanted to America. These labour-intensive cakes demonstrated hospitality and status, requiring days of preparation and expensive imported ingredients like nutmeg and mace. The recipe exemplifies how elite colonial Americans maintained British culinary customs whilst adapting to New World ingredients and conditions.

Sources

Karen Hess (ed.), Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats, 1981
Nancy Carter Crump, Hearthside Cooking: Early American Southern Cuisine Updated for Today's Hearth and Cookstove, 2008
Sandra L. Oliver, Food in Colonial and Federal America, 2005
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives
Andrew F. Smith (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2004

Serves

Prep

40m

Cook

150m

Difficulty

Medium