Belated 12th Night Cake

Revisited the 1857 Godey's receipt-in-verse for Twelfth Cake again this year. The changes this time were:

• I finally found candied citron, and thus was able to include all of the fruit and nuts in their proper proportions.
• I made a half-receipt worth of cake.
• I made a cake with gluten-free flour.
• I tried freezing the cake.
• I decorated the cake using piped icing. 
  

By way of explanation, I had two 12th Night events planned, one period and one modern, and so made two quarter-receipt-sized cakes. For the modern one, I again used a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour substitute, while I used regular flour for the period one. The period event then got postponed, so I stuck the extra cake in the freezer.

Period cake in the hoop, modern in the springform pan.

My first takeaway of the experience is that the candied citron mostly gets lost in the mass of other fruit (and some spice) flavors. There just isn't that much citron, so it's only every few bites that I'd get a flash of citron flavor among the currants and almonds. That being said, it was strong enough to be picked out, and it worked with the other flavors. I'm glad to have the chance to try it, and would use it again in the future, but I also think the cake doesn't suffer from missing it when the citron isn't available.

Since I used different flours, I was really making two quarter-batches rather than one half-batch. In the process, I observed that my modern springform pans are not large enough for even a half-receipt of the cake (the period cake hoop could probably manage a half batch, though not a whole), and it's doubtful that my mixer would be up to the half-batch either. I didn't notice any difference in taste or texture between the two cakes (both being functionally a mass of dried fruit held together with minimal batter), making it one of my most successful gluten-free baking experiments to date. Freezing the one cake worked beautifully:  as soon as it was cool, I wrapped it tightly with the parchment paper I had baked it in, then covered that with tin foil. It was in the freezer for a month, then I let it thaw for a day before frosting and serving it.

The icing was still my modern buttercream frosting, though I have since received a tip about adapting period royal icing which I will try next time (apparently meringue powder allows one to avoid the 'uncooked egg whites' issue).  I opted for piped decorations this time, since I came across detailed period instructions for piping icing onto Twelfth Cakes (also Wedding Cakes), though I failed to save the link for once. Will update when I find it again.

 

Modern cake. The period one had white-on-white frosting.