Election Day Cake
From Dorothy McNett's Recipe Book at www.dorothymcnett.com. As stated in The American Heritage Cookbook..."A recipe for Election Cake (one of the first foods to be identified with American politics) was published as early as 1800 in Amelia Simmons' American Cookery. The cake was served at election time and, in the 1830's this recipe became popularly known as Hartford Election Cake." I have changed some of the steps to make it easier to make in our modern kitchens. This cake has no political party affiliations, it only wants to be at the party you throw for family and friends.
1 medium potato
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
11/2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 egg
3 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 cup all purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup sherry
1 cup seedless raisins, chopped up a bit
Peel and quarter the potato and place in batter bowl. Cover with waxed paper. Microwave on high 3 minutes, or until tender. Cool slightly. In food processor with steel chopping blade in place, process the warm potato until smooth, adding the milk gradually. Add the salt, sugar, yeast, egg and flour and process just enough to make a soft but manageable dough. Turn out onto floured countertop, and dust with flour as needed. Hand knead until smooth and elastic, several minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, cover and allow to stand in a warm draft free spot for about 45 minutes.
In meantime, whisk the flour, spices and salt in a bowl. Set aside. Measure remaining ingredients and have ready. When the cake/bread mixture is light and puffy, punch it down with your fist. On a clean counter (no flour) hand knead in the soft butter. Put back in the bowl and add the remaining ingredients, blending well. It will be very stiff and sticky, just use a wooden spoon and work the stuff in as good as you can! Pour and scrape it into a 10 inch buttered tube pan. Cover with a clean dish towel and allow to stand in warm draft free place about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours until it has doubled in size. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and bake 60 minutes. Cool about 10 minutes and drizzle with a powdered sugar glaze, or simply shake on powdered sugar.
Recipe created 2004-10-25.
