Pound cake recipe

1. One pound of flour, sifted.
2. One pound of white sugar, powdered and sifted.
3. One pound of fresh butter.
4. Ten eggs.
5. Half a glass of wine \
6. Half a glass of brandy }mixed.
7. Half a glass of rose-water /
8. Twelve drops of essence of lemon.
9. A table-spoonful of mixed mace and cinnamon.
10. 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 eggbeater 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 spoonful 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 mold 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.
When you think it is nearly done, thrust a twig or wooden
skewer into it, down to the bottom. If the stick come out
clean and dry, the cake is almost baked. When quite done, it
will shrink from she sides of the pan, and cease making a
noise. Then withdraw the coals (if baked in a dutch oven),take off the lid, and let the cake remain in the oven to cool
gradually.
You may ice it either warm or cold. Before you put the
icing on a large cake, dredge the cake all over with flour,
and then wipe the flour off; this will make the icing stick on
better—If you have sufficient time, the appearance of the
cake will be much improved by icing it twice. Put on the first
icing soon after the cake is taken out of the oven, and the
second the next day when the first is perfectly dry. While
the last icing is wet, ornament it with coloured sugar-sand or
nonpareils.