Queen's Cake and Roasting Chestnuts On An Open Fire

On my second day back to work, I decided to make a Queen's Cake.  In full disclosure, I'm going through a bit of an American Girl phase at the moment.  Last week, my mom and I went through my Felicity collection, straightened it out, figured out what we owned, put it in the proper boxes, etc.  In her tea set, Felicity has a Queen's Cake.  So, it'd been on my mind.

(Mmm Queen's Cake!)

A Queen's Cake is your basic pound cake, except you add in cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and currants.  My currants were soaked in a liberal amount of brandy, which also found its way into the cake itself.  For those who want to know: first, take a pound of butter.  Using your hands, work the butter until it's very soft and creamy.  This takes longer in a cold, cold kitchen than it will in your climate-controlled kitchen at home.  Once the butter has been creamed, add in a pound of sugar and work it into the butter.  Work and work until you can barely feel the grains of sugar in the butter anymore.  This also takes a while, but your hands get a nice butter-sugar scrub, so that's good.  Then, separate your eggs into two bowls-- one for yolks, one for whites.  Whip up your yolks good, then fold them into the butter-sugar mixture.  Next, whip up your whites really well, until they are starting to become like a solid froth.  Like bubbles in a bath tub.  The whites are your leavening in this cake, so the more whipped they become, the lighter the cake.  This will be a dense cake no matter what, so be sure to really, really whip those whites.  Fold them into the mixture.  Then add in your flour, get it to a batter, then add in your spices and currants.  Once you've worked it altogether, put it into a buttered/greased small cake pan (or bundt pan) and bake... at cake-heat until done.  If you recall from this summer, I really can't give you a better estimate than that.  Maybe 350 degrees for 45 minutes?  It will also depend on your cake pan; just keep an eye on it is all.  Then, enjoy!

I personally like a slice of Queen's Cake for breakfast.

Anyway, it was cold outside that day, so Barbara also decided that we should roast some chestnuts.  My goodness!  "Chestnuts roast[ed] on a open fire" are amazing!!!  They are kind of chewy and sweet and totally wonderful.  Years ago we had some very bad roasted chestnuts that totally put me off of them, but these!  These were amazing!  Plus, it's not often you can say "Oh, yes, I went to work and roasted chestnuts on an open fire."  What a perfect way to get into the Christmas spirit!

(Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)