Known from advertisements from the 1850's to the 1950's, usually at a much higher price than the 1d suggested in Vine's receipt below...
Original Receipt from 'Saleable Shop Goods for Counter-Tray and Window:' by Frederick T Vine (Vine 1907)No. 70.- Duchess Cakes.
1 lb. butter; 1 lb. sugar.
1 lb. soda flour; ¾ lb. plain flour.
½ lb. pineapple chips; ¼ lb. angelica.
8 eggs; Milk.
Mode. - Chop up the crystallised pineapple chips and angelica into pieces about the size of peas; sieve the flours together on the board; cream up the butter and sugar, beating in the eggs; then add a few drops of essence of vanilla; mix in the flour and fruit to ordinary cake batter consistency with milk; fill into round pans with a palette knife, place on to flat tins, and bake to a pale colour in a moderate oven. When done, turn out on to a wire; and when cold ice over with Vienna Icing No. 6, spreading it on quite thin and smooth; then put some of the icing, coloured pink, into a bag with a star tube, and decorate the cakes with festoons round the edges; lay a cherry in the centre. Sell at 1d. each.