CAKE-MAKING.

In all cake-making, see that every thing is ready to your hand,–pans
buttered, or papered if necessary; flour sifted; all spices and other
materials on your working-table; and the fire in good order.

No matter how plain the cake, there is a certain order in mixing, which,
if followed, produces the best result from the materials used; and this
order is easily reduced to rules.

First, always cream the butter; that is, stir it till light and creamy. If
very cold, heat the bowl a little, but never enough to melt, only to
soften the butter. Second, add the sugar to the butter, and mix
thoroughly.

Third, if eggs are used, beat yolks and whites separately for a delicate
cake; add yolks to sugar and butter, and beat together a minute. For a
plain cake, beat yolks and whites together (a Dover egg-beater doing this
better than any thing else can), and add to butter and sugar.

Fourth, if milk is used, add this.

Fifth, stir in the measure of flour little by little, and beat smooth.

Flavoring may be added at any time. If dry spices are used, mix them with
the sugar. Always sift baking powder with the flour. If soda and cream of
tartar are used, sift the cream of tartar with the flour, and dissolve the
soda in a little milk or warm water. For very delicate cakes, powdered
sugar is best. For gingerbreads and small cakes or cookies, light brown
answers.

Where fruit cake is to be made, raisins should be stoned and chopped, and
currants washed and dried, the day beforehand. A cup of currants being a
nice and inexpensive addition to buns or any plain cake, it is well to
prepare several pounds at once, drying thoroughly, and keeping in glass
jars. Being the very dirtiest article known to the storeroom, currants
require at least three washings in warm water, rubbing them well in the
hands. Then spread them out on a towel, and proceed to pick out all the
sticks, grit, small stones, and legs and wings to be found; then put the
fruit into a slow oven, and dry it carefully, that none may scorch.

In baking, a moderate oven is one in which a teaspoonful of flour will
brown while you count thirty; a quick one, where but twelve can be
counted.

The “cup” used in all these receipts is the ordinary kitchen cup, holding
half a pint. The measures of flour are, in all cases, of _sifted flour_,
which can be sifted by the quantity, and kept in a wooden pail. “Prepared
flour” is especially nice for doughnuts and plain cakes. No great variety
of receipts is given, as every family is sure to have one enthusiastic
cake-maker who gleans from all sources; and this book aims to give fuller
space to substantials than to sweets. Half the energy spent by many
housekeepers upon cake would insure the perfect bread, which, nine times
out of ten, is not found upon their tables, and success in which they
count an impossibility. If cake is to be made, however, let it be done in
the most perfect way; seeing only that bread is first irreproachable.

SPONGE CAKE.

One pound of the finest granulated, or of powdered, sugar; half a pound of
sifted flour; ten eggs; grated rind of two lemons, and the juice of one;
and a saltspoonful of salt.

Break the eggs, yolks and whites separately, and beat the yolks to a
creamy froth. Beat the whites till they can be turned upside down without
spilling. Put yolks and whites together, and beat till blended; then add
the sugar slowly; then the lemon rind and juice and the salt, and last the
flour. Whisk together as lightly and quickly as possible. Turn into either
three buttered bread-pans of the size given on p. 201, or bake in a large
loaf, as preferred. Fill the pans two-thirds full, and, when in the oven,
do not open it for ten minutes. Bake about half an hour, and test by
running a clean broom-straw into the loaf. If it comes out dry, they are
done. Turn out, and cool on a sieve, or on the pans turned upside down.

ROLLED JELLY CAKE.

Three eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately; one heaped cup of sugar;
one scant cup of flour in which a teaspoonful of baking powder and a pinch
of salt have been sifted; quarter of a cup of boiling water.

Mix as in sponge cake; add the water last, and bake in a large
roasting-pan, spreading the batter as thinly as possible. It will bake in
ten minutes. When done, and while still hot, spread with any acid jelly,
and roll carefully from one side. This cake is nice for lining
Charlotte-Russe molds also. For that purpose the water may be omitted, its
only use being to make the cake roll more easily.

CUP CAKE.

One cup of butter; two cups of sugar; four eggs, yolks and whites beaten
separately; one cup of milk; three and a half cups of flour; a grated
nutmeg, or a teaspoonful of vanilla or lemon; and a heaping teaspoonful of
baking powder.

Cream the butter; add the sugar, and then the yolks; then the milk and the
whites, and last the flour, in which the baking powder has been sifted.
Bake half an hour, either in two brick loaves or one large one. It is
nice, also, baked in little tins. Half may be flavored with essence, and
the other half with a teaspoonful of mixed spice,–half cinnamon, and the
rest mace and allspice. By using a heaping tablespoonful of yellow ginger,
this becomes a delicious sugar gingerbread, or, with mixed spices and
ginger, a spice gingerbread.

This cake with the variations upon it makes up page after page in the
large cook-books. Use but half a cup of butter, and you have a plain _Cup
Cake_. Add a cup of currants and one of chopped raisins, and it is plain
_Fruit Cake_, needing to bake one hour. Bake on Washington-pie tins, and
you have the foundation for _Cream_ and _Jelly Cakes_. A little
experience, and then invention, will show you how varied are the
combinations, and how one page in your cook-book can do duty for twenty.

POUND CAKE.

One pound of sugar; one pound of flour; three-quarters of a pound of
butter; nine eggs; one teaspoonful of baking powder, and one of lemon
extract; one nutmeg grated.

Cream the butter, and add half the flour, sifting the baking powder with
the other half. Beat the yolks to a creamy foam, and add; and then the
sugar, beating hard. Have the whites a stiff froth, and stir in, adding
flavoring and remainder of flour. Bake in one large loaf for one hour,
letting the oven be moderate. Frost, if liked.

FRUIT CAKE.

One pound of butter; one pound of sugar; one pound and a quarter of sifted
flour; ten eggs; two nutmegs grated; a tablespoonful each of ground
cloves, cinnamon, and allspice; a teaspoonful of soda; a cup of brandy or
wine, and one of dark molasses; one pound of citron; two pounds of stoned
and chopped raisins, and two of currants washed and dried.

Dredge the prepared fruit with enough of the flour to coat it thoroughly.
To have the cake very dark and rich looking, brown the flour a little,
taking great care not to scorch it. Cream the butter, and add the sugar,
in which the spices have been mixed; then the beaten yolks of eggs; then
the whites beaten to a stiff froth, and the flour. Dissolve the soda in a
very little warm water, and add. Now stir in the fruit. Have either one
large, round pan, or two smaller ones. Put at least three thicknesses of
buttered letter-paper on the sides and bottom; turn in the mixture, and
bake for three hours in a moderate oven. Cover with thick paper if there
is the least danger of scorching. This will keep, if well frosted, for two
years.

DOVER CAKE.

One pound of flour; one pound of sugar; half a pound of butter; one teacup
of milk; six eggs; one teaspoonful of baking powder; one grated nutmeg.

Cream the butter; add first sugar, then beaten yolks of eggs and milk,
then whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and last the flour. Bake
forty-five minutes in a large dripping-pan, sifting fine sugar over the
top, and cut in small squares; or it may be baked in one round loaf, and
frosted on the bottom, or in small tins. Half a pound of citron cut fine
is often added.

WHITE OR SILVER CAKE.

Half a cup of butter; a heaping cupful of powdered sugar; two cups of
flour, with a teaspoonful of baking powder sifted in; half a cup of milk;
whites of six eggs; one teaspoonful of almond extract.

Cream the butter, and add the flour, beating till it is a smooth paste.
Beat the whites to a stiff froth, and add the sugar and essence. Now mix
both quickly, and bake in a sheet about an inch and a half thick. About
half an hour will be needed. Frost while hot, with one white of egg,
beaten ten minutes with a small cup of sifted powdered sugar, and juice
of half a lemon. This frosting hardens very quickly. Before it is quite
hard, divide it into oblong or square pieces, scoring at intervals with
the back of a large knife. The milk can be omitted if a richer cake is
wanted. It may also be baked in jelly-cake tins; one small cocoanut
grated, and mixed with one cup of sugar, and spread between, and the whole
frosted. Or beat the white of an egg with one cup of sugar, and the juice
of one large or two small oranges, and spread between. Either form is
delicious.

GOLD CAKE.

One cup of sugar; half a cup of butter; two cups of flour; yolks of six
eggs; grated rind and juice of a lemon or orange; half a teaspoonful of
soda, mixed with the flour, and sifted twice.

Cream the butter; add the sugar, then the beaten yolks and the flour,
beating hard for several minutes. Last, add the lemon or orange juice, and
bake like silver cake; frosting, if liked. If frosting is made for either
or both cakes, the extra yolks may be used in making this one, eight being
still nicer than six.

BREAD CAKE.

Two cups or a pint-bowlful of raised dough ready for baking; one cup of
butter; two cups of sugar; one teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, or half a
nutmeg grated; three eggs; one teaspoonful of soda in quarter of a cup of
warm water, and half a cup of flour.

Cream the butter, and add the sugar. Then put in the bread dough, and work
together till well mixed. The hand is best for this, though it can be done
with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs, then the flour, and last the soda. Let
it stand in a warm place for one hour, and bake in a moderate oven
forty-five minutes, testing with a broom-straw. A pound of stoned and
chopped raisins is a nice addition. Omitting them, and adding flour enough
to roll out, makes an excellent raised doughnut or bun. Let it rise two
hours; then cut in shapes, and fry in boiling lard. Or, for buns, bake in
a quick oven, and, a minute before taking out, brush the top with a
spoonful of sugar and milk mixed together.

PLAIN BUNS.

One pint-bowlful of dough; one cup of sugar; butter the size of an egg;
one teaspoonful of cinnamon.

Boll the dough thin. Spread the butter upon it. Mix sugar and cinnamon
together, and sprinkle on it. Now turn over the edges of the dough
carefully to keep the sugar in, and press and work gently for a few
minutes, that it may not break through. Knead till thoroughly mixed. Roll
out; cut like biscuit, and let them rise an hour, baking in a quick oven.

The same rule can be used for raised doughnuts.

DOUGHNUTS.

First put on the lard, and let it be heating gradually. To test it when
hot, drop in a bit of bread; if it browns as you count twenty, it is
right. Never let it boil furiously, or scorch. This is the rule for all
frying, whether fritters, croquettes, or cakes.

One quart of flour into which has been sifted a teaspoonful of salt, and
one of soda if sour milk is used, or two of baking powder if sweet milk.
If cream can be had, use part cream, allowing one large cup of milk, or
cream and milk. One heaping cup of fine brown sugar; one teaspoonful of
ground cinnamon, and half a one of mace or nutmeg; use one spoonful of
butter, if you have no cream, stirring it into the sugar. Add two or three
beaten eggs; mixing all as in general directions for cake. They can be
made without eggs. Roll out; cut in shapes, and fry brown, taking them out
with a fork into a sieve set over a pan that all fat may drain off.

Cut thin, and baked brown in a quick oven, these make a good plain cooky.

GINGER SNAPS.

One cup of butter and lard or dripping mixed, or dripping alone can be
used; one cup of molasses; one cup of brown sugar; two teaspoonfuls of
ginger, and one each of clove, allspice, and mace; one teaspoonful of
salt, and one of soda dissolved in half a cup of hot water; one egg.

Stir together the shortening, sugar, molasses, and spice. Add the soda,
and then sifted flour enough to make a dough,–about three pints. Turn on
to the board, and knead well. Take about quarter of it, and roll out thin
as a knife-blade. Bake in a quick oven. They will bake in five minutes,
and will keep for months. By using only four cups of flour, this can be
baked in a loaf as spiced gingerbread; or it can be rolled half an inch
thick, and baked as a cooky. In this, as in all cakes, experience will
teach you many variations.

PLAIN GINGERBREAD.

Two cups of molasses; one of sour milk; half a cup of lard or drippings;
four cups of flour; two teaspoonfuls of ginger, and one of cinnamon; half
a teaspoonful of salt; one egg, and a teaspoonful of soda.

Mix molasses and shortening; add the spice and egg, then the milk, and
last the flour, with soda sifted in it. Bake at once in a sheet about an
inch thick for half an hour. Try with a broom-straw. Good hot for lunch
with chocolate. A plain cooky is made by adding flour enough to roll out.
The egg may be omitted.

JUMBLES.

The richest jumbles are made from either the rule for Pound or Dover Cake,
with flour enough added to roll out. The Cup-Cake rule makes good but
plainer ones. Make rings, either by cutting in long strips and joining the
ends, or by using a large and small cutter. Sift sugar over the top, and
bake a delicate brown. By adding a large spoonful of yellow ginger, any of
these rules become hard sugar-gingerbread, and all will keep for a long
time.

DROP CAKES.

Any of the rules last mentioned become drop cakes by buttering muffin-tins
or tin sheets, and dropping a teaspoonful of these mixtures into them. If
on sheets, let them be two inches apart. Sift sugar over the top, and bake
in a quick oven. They are done as soon as brown.

CREAM CAKES.

One pint of boiling water in a saucepan. Melt in it a piece of butter the
size of an egg. Add half a teaspoonful of salt. While still boiling, stir
in one large cup of flour, and cook for three minutes. Take from the fire;
cool ten minutes; then break in, one by one, six eggs, and beat till
smooth. Have muffin-pans buttered, or large baking-sheets. Drop a spoonful
of the mixture on them, allowing room to spread, and bake half an hour in
a quick oven. Cool on a sieve, and, when cool, fill with a cream made as
below.

FILLING FOR CREAM CAKES.

One pint of milk, one cup of sugar, two eggs, half a cup of flour, and a
piece of butter the size of a walnut.

Mix the sugar and flour, add the beaten eggs, and beat all till smooth.
Stir into the boiling milk with a teaspoonful of salt, and boil for
fifteen minutes. When cold, add a teaspoonful of vanilla or lemon. Make a
slit in each cake, and fill with the cream. Corn-starch may be used
instead of flour. This makes a very nice filling for plain cup cake baked
on jelly-cake tins.

MERINGUES, OR KISSES.

Whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth; quarter of a pound of sifted
powdered sugar; a few drops of vanilla.

Add the sugar to the whites. Have ready a hard-wood board which fits the
oven. Wet the top well with boiling water, and cover it with sheets of
letter-paper. Drop the meringue mixture on this in large spoonfuls, and
set in a _very slow_ oven. The secret of a good meringue is to _dry_, not
bake; and they should be in the oven at least half an hour. Take them out
when dry. Slip a thin, sharp knife under each one, and put two together;
or scoop out the soft part very carefully, and fill with a little jelly or
with whipped cream.

PASTRY AND PIES.

In the first place, don’t make either, except very semi-occasionally.
Pastry, even when good, is so indigestible that children should never have
it, and their elders but seldom. A nice short-cake made as on p. 209, and
filled with stewed fruit, or with fresh berries mashed and sweetened, is
quite as agreeable to eat, and far more wholesome. But, as people _will_
both make and eat pie-crust, the best rules known are given.

Butter, being more wholesome than lard, should always be used if it can be
afforded. A mixture of lard and butter is next best. Clarified dripping
makes a good crust for meat pies, and cream can also be used. For
dumplings nothing can be better than a light biscuit-crust, made as on p.
208. It is also good for meat pies.

PLAIN PIE-CRUST.

One quart of flour; one even teacup of lard, and one of butter; one teacup
of ice-water or very cold water; and a teaspooonful of salt.

Rub the lard and salt into the flour till it is dry and crumbly. Add the
ice-water, and work to a smooth dough. Wash the butter, and have it cold
and firm as possible. Divide it in three parts. Roll out the paste, and
dot it all over with bits from one part of the butter. Sprinkle with
flour, and roll up. Roll out, and repeat till the butter is gone. If the
crust can now stand on the ice for half an hour, it will be nicer and more
flaky. This amount will make three good-sized pies. Enough for the bottom
crusts can be taken off after one rolling in of butter, thus making the
top crust richer. Lard alone will make a tender, but not a flaky, paste.

PUFF PASTE.

One pound of flour; three-quarters of a pound of butter; one teacupful of
ice-water; one teaspoonful of salt, and one of sugar; yolk of one egg.

Wash the butter; divide into three parts, reserving a bit the size of an
egg; and put it on the ice for an hour. Rub the bit of butter, the salt,
and sugar, into the flour, and stir in the ice-water and egg beaten
together. Make into a dough, and knead on the molding-board till glossy
and firm: at least ten minutes will be required. Roll out into a sheet ten
or twelve inches square. Cut a cake of the ice-cold butter in thin slices,
or flatten it very thin with the rolling-pin. Lay it on the paste,
sprinkle with flour, and fold over the edges. Press it in somewhat with
the rolling-pin, and roll out again. Always roll _from_ you. Do this again
and again till the butter is all used, rolling up the paste after the last
cake is in, and then putting it on the ice for an hour or more. Have
filling all ready, and let the paste be as nearly ice-cold as possible
when it goes into the oven. There are much more elaborate rules; but this
insures handsome paste. Make a plainer one for the bottom crusts. Cover
puff paste with a damp cloth, and it may be kept on the ice a day or two
before baking.

PATTIES FROM PUFF PASTE.

Roll the paste about a third of an inch thick, and cut out with a round or
oval cutter about two inches in diameter. Take a cutter half an inch
smaller, and press it into the piece already cut out, so as to sink
half-way through the crust: this to mark out the top piece. Lay on tins,
and bake to a delicate brown. They should treble in thickness by rising,
and require from twenty minutes to half an hour to bake. When done, the
marked-out top can easily be removed. Take out the soft inside, and fill
with sweetmeats for dessert, or with minced chicken or oysters prepared as
on p. 140.

GRANDMOTHER’S APPLE PIE.

Line a deep pie-plate with plain paste. Pare sour apples,–greenings are
best; quarter, and cut in thin slices. Allow one cup of sugar, and quarter
of a grated nutmeg mixed with it. Fill the pie-plate heaping full of the
sliced apple, sprinkling the sugar between the layers. It will require not
less than six good-sized apples. Wet the edges of the pie with cold water;
lay on the cover, and press down securely, that no juice may escape. Bake
three-quarters of an hour, or a little less if the apples are very tender.
No pie in which the apples are stewed beforehand can compare with this in
flavor. If they are used, stew till tender, and strain. Sweeten and flavor
to taste. Fill the pies, and bake half an hour.

DRIED-APPLE PIES.

Wash one pint of dried apples, and put in a porcelain kettle with two
quarts of warm water. Let them stand all night. In the morning put on the
fire, and stew slowly for an hour. Then add one pint of sugar, a
teaspoonful of dried lemon or orange rind, or half a fresh lemon sliced,
and half a teaspoonful of cinnamon. Stew half an hour longer, and then use
for filling the pies. The apple can be strained if preferred, and a
teaspoonful of butter added. This quantity will make two pies. Dried
peaches are treated in the same way.

LEMON PIES.

Three lemons, juice of all and the grated rind of two; two cups of sugar;
three cups of boiling water; three tablespoonfuls of corn-starch dissolved
in a little cold water; three eggs; a piece of butter the size of an egg.

Pour the boiling water on the dissolved corn-starch, and boil for five
minutes. Add the sugar and butter, the yolks of the eggs beaten to a
froth, and last the lemon juice and rind. Line the plates with crust,
putting a narrow rim of it around each one. Pour in the filling, and bake
half an hour. Beat the whites to a stiff froth; add half a teacup of
powdered sugar and ten drops of lemon extract, and, when the pie is baked,
spread this on. The heat will cook it sufficiently, but it can be browned
a moment in the oven. If to be kept a day, do not make the frosting till
just before using. The whites will keep in a cold place. Orange pie can be
made in the same way.

SWEET-POTATO PIE OR PUDDING.

One pound of hot, boiled sweet potato rubbed through a sieve; one cup of
butter; one heaping cup of sugar; half a grated nutmeg; one glass of
brandy; a pinch of salt; six eggs.

Add the sugar, spice, and butter to the hot potato. Beat whites and yolks
separately, and add, and last the brandy. Line deep plates with nice
paste, making a rim of puff paste. Fill with the mixture, and bake till
the crust is done,–about half an hour. Wickedly rich, but very
delicious. Irish potatoes can be treated in the same way, and are more
delicate.

SQUASH OR PUMPKIN PIE.

Prepare and steam as in directions on p. 194. Strain through a sieve. To a
quart of the strained squash add one quart of new milk, with a spoonful or
two of cream if possible; one heaping cup of sugar into which has been
stirred a teaspoonful of salt, a heaping one of ginger, and half a one of
cinnamon. Mix this with the squash, and add from two to four well-beaten
eggs. Bake in deep plates lined with plain pie-crust. They are done when a
knife-blade on being run into the middle comes out clean. About forty
minutes will be enough. For pumpkin pie half a cup of molasses may be
added, and the eggs can be omitted, substituting half a cup of flour mixed
with the sugar and spice before stirring in. A teaspoonful of butter can
also be added.

CHERRY AND BERRY PIES.

Have a very deep plate, and either no under crust save a rim, or a very
thin one. Allow a cup of sugar to a quart of fruit, but no spices. Stone
cherries. Prick the upper crust half a dozen times with a fork to let out
the steam.

For rhubarb or pie-plant pies, peel the stalks; cut them in little bits,
and fill the pie. Bake with an upper crust.

CUSTARD PIE.

Line and rim deep plates with pastry, a thin custard pie being very poor.
Beat together a teacupful of sugar, four eggs, and a pinch of salt, and
mix slowly with one quart of milk. Fill the plate up to the pastry rim
_after it is in the oven_, and bake till the custard is firm, trying, as
for squash pies, with a knife-blade.

MINCE-MEAT FOR PIES.

Two pounds of cold roast or boiled beef, or a small beef-tongue, boiled
the day beforehand, cooled and chopped; one pound of beef-suet, freed from
all strings, and chopped fine as powder; two pounds of raisins stoned and
chopped; one pound of currants washed and dried; six pounds of chopped
apples; half a pound of citron cut in slips; two pounds of brown sugar;
one pint of molasses; one quart of boiled cider; one pint of wine or
brandy, or a pint of any nice sirup from sweet pickles may be substituted;
two heaping tablespoonfuls of salt; one teaspoonful of pepper; three
tablespoonfuls of ground cinnamon; two of allspice; one of clove; one of
mace; three grated nutmegs; grated rind and juice of three lemons; a
cupful of chopped, candied orange or lemon peel.

Mix spices and salt with sugar, and stir into the meat and suet. Add the
apples, and then the cider and other wetting, stirring very thoroughly.
Lastly, mix in the fruit. Fill and bake as in apple pies. This mince-meat
will keep two months easily. If it ferments at all, put over the fire in a
porcelain-lined kettle, and boil half an hour. Taste, and judge for
yourselves whether more or less spice is needed. Butter can be used
instead of suet, and proportions varied to taste.

RAMMEKINS, OR CHEESE STRAWS.

One pound of puff paste; one cup of good grated cheese. Roll the paste
half an inch thick; sprinkle on half the cheese; press in lightly with the
rolling-pin; roll up, and roll out again, using the other half of the
cheese. Fold, and roll about a third of an inch thick. Cut in long, narrow
strips, four or five inches long and half an inch wide, and bake in a
quick oven to a delicate brown. Excellent with chocolate at lunch, or for
dessert with fruit.