Put into a bowl half a pound of sugar and half a pound of good butter. Mix thoroughly with the hand for fifteen minutes. Break four eggs, leaving the whites in a basin, and drop the yolks in with the butter and sugar. Mix again. Now beat the whites to a froth and add them to the other ingredients. Grate in half a saltspoon-ful of nutmeg; add half a pound of flour; mix well again; stir in two ounces of well-cleansed currants (No. 1080), and two ounces of peeled sweet almonds (No. 1207) Gut into small pieces. Mingle all well together with the hand for five minutes, and with the other hand drop in one gill of brandy. Have a round cake-mold holding two quarts; butter it lightly with a hair brush, and sprinkle in a little sugar. Drop a third of the preparation into the mold; spread over it two ounces of candied orange, shred into thin slices; then add half of the remaining preparation; spread on top of it two ounces of shred, candied citron, and fill the mold with the rest. Lay a piece of brown paper over, and put the mold into a very moderate oven for two hours. Let it get a good golden color. Remove, and cool off in the mold, which will take about three hours. Remove the cake by turning it bottom up. Arrange a lace paper on a dessert-dish. Glaze the cake with a glace a l'eau (No. 1197), dress it on the dish, and decorate the top and border tastefully with assorted candied fruits.