Beat the eggs in a broad shallow pan, till they are perfectly smooth and thick.
Stir into the butter and sugar a little of the beaten egg, and then a little flour, and so on alternately, a little egg and a little flour, till the whole is in; continuing all the time to beat the eggs, and stirring the mixture very hard. Add by degrees, the spice, and then the liquor, a little at a time. Finally, put in the rose-water, or essence of lemon. [Footnote: In buying essence or oil of lemon, endeavour to get that which is white, it being much the strongest and best. When it looks greenish, it is generally very weak, so that when used, a double or treble quantity is necessary.] Stir the whole very hard at the last.
Take about two dozen little tins, or more, if you have room for them in the oven. Rub them very well with fresh butter. With a spoon, put some of the mixture in each tin, but do not fill them to the top as the cakes will rise high in baking. Bake them in a quick oven, about a quarter of an hour. When they are done, they will shrink a little from the sides of the tins.
Before you fill your tins again, scrape them well with a knife, and wash or wipe them clean.
If the cakes are scorched by too hot a fire, do not scrape off the burnt parts till they have grown cold.
Make an icing with the whites of three eggs, beaten till it stands alone, and twenty-four tea-spoonfuls of the best loaf-sugar, powdered, and beaten gradually into the white of egg. Flavour it with a tea-spoonful of rose-water or eight drops of essence of lemon, stirred in at the last. Spread it evenly with a broad knife, over the top of each queen-cake, ornamenting them, (while the icing is quite wet) with red and green nonpareils, or fine sugar-sand, dropped on, carefully, with the thumb and finger.
When the cakes are iced, set them in a warm place to dry; but not too near the fire, as that will cause the icing to crack. [Footnote: You may colour icing of a fine pink, by mixing with it a few drops of liquid cochineal; which is prepared by boiling very slowly in an earthen or china vessel twenty grains of cochineal powder, twenty grains of cream of tartar, and twenty grains of powdered alum, all dissolved in a gill of soft water, and boiled till reduced to one half. Strain it and cork it up in a small phial. Pink icing should be ornamented with white nonpareils.]
POUND CAKE.
One pound of flour, sifted. One pound of white sugar, powdered and sifted. One pound of fresh butter. Ten eggs. Half a glass of wine \ Half a glass of brandy }mixed. Half a glass of rose-water / Twelve drops of essence of lemon. A table-spoonful of mixed mace and cinnamon. A nutmeg, powdered.
Pound the spice and sift it. There should be twice as much cinnamon as mace. Mix the cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg together.
Sift the flour in a broad pan, or wooden bowl. Sift the powdered sugar into a large deep pan, and cut the butter into it, in small pieces. If the weather is very cold, and the butter hard, set the pan near the fire for a few minutes; but if the butter is too warm, the cake will be heavy. Stir the butter and sugar together, with a wooden stick, till they are very light, and white, and look like cream.
Beat the eggs in a broad shallow pan with a wood egg-beater or whisk. They must be beaten till they are thick and smooth, and of the consistence of boiled custard.
Pour the liquor and rose-water, gradually, into the butter and sugar, stirring all the time. Add, by degrees, the essence of lemon and spice.
Stir the egg and flour alternately into the butter and sugar, a handful of flour, and about two spoonfuls of the egg (which you must continue to beat all the time,) and when all is in, stir the whole mixture very hard, for near ten minutes.
Butter a large tin pan, or a cake mould with an open tube rising from the middle. Put the mixture into it as evenly as possible. Bake it in a moderate oven, for two, or three, or four hours, in proportion to its thickness, and to the heat of the fire.