groom's cake

Ingredients

• Servings: 5
• 9 cups raisins, finely chopped
• 6 cups golden raisins
• 3 cups dried currants
• 1 1/2 pounds chopped candied citron
• 1/2 pound candied lemon peel
• 1/2 pound chopped candied orange peel
• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground mace
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 2 cups butter
• 2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 12 eggs, separated
• 1 cup
• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
• 1 cup molasses
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup hot water

Recipe

• in a large bowl, sift 3 cups flour with spices. in another bowl, mix raisins, sultana raisins, currants, citron, and citrus rinds; dredge with 1/3 cup flour. stir raisin mixture into the flour.
• in a very large bowl, cream the butter or margarine. beat in sugar, a small amount at a time. add beaten egg yolks, flour mixture, , chocolate and molasses. beat egg whites until stiff, and fold them into the batter. dissolve baking soda in hot water and stir gently into batter. grease and flour 5 bread pans, and pour batter into prepared pans.
• bake at 275 degrees f (135 degrees c) for 4 hours. cool. cut into 275 to 300 slices; wrap each slice.