Tricia Nixon's Wedding Cake

Tricia Nixon's famous Wedding Cake is a pound cake. Those attending Trish Nixon's wedding "oohed and ahhed" over the wedding cake. The recipe was distributed and all across America people were trying this wonderful cake. It was disastrous - either lumpy, soupy or rock hard. Still the White House chef insisted the recipe worked.

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 pound sugar (2 3/4 cups)
• 1 pound butter (room temperature)
• 8 ounces cake flour (2 cups + 1 tablespoon)
• Grated rind of two lemons
• 1 pinch salt
• 11 egg whites, unbeaten
• 1 pound cake flour (4 cups + 2 tablespoons)
• 1/8 ounce baking powder (2 1/2 teaspoons)
• 7 egg whites
• 7 ounces sugar (1 cup)

Royal Icing

• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Sifted confectioner's sugar

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Use a 12 x 2 round brown paper lined cake pan with a 3 inch collar.

Cake

1. Cream together sugar and sugar. Add flour, lemon rind and salt. Cream thoroughly.
2. To creamed mixture, slowly add egg whites.
3. Sift together one pound cake flour and baking powder. After sifting, slowly add to the creamed mixture until batter is smooth.
4. Beat remaining egg whites. Add the one cup sugar slowly to egg whites before whites are completely stiff. Fold egg white/sugar mixture into the creamed mixture.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes.

Royal Icing

1. Put egg white in large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the sugar and beat for 3 minutes using a perforated wooden spoon. Repeat until 1 1/2 cups of the sugar are used. Then gradually add cream of tarter as mixture thickens. Continue adding sugar by spoonsful, beating until frosting is stiff enough to spread. Spread thinly with icing: when this has hardened, put on a thicker layer, having mixture somewhat stiffer than the first coating.