Part 21

Cream your sugar and butter, measure milk, spices, etc., before beginning work. For fruit-cake it is best to prepare the materials the day before. Let your icing dry thoroughly before wrapping up the cake.

_Sift your flour before measuring_, as all the following receipts are for sifted flour.

ICING. ✠

Whites of 4 eggs. 1 pound powdered white sugar. Lemon, vanilla, or other seasoning.

Break the whites into a broad, clean, cool dish. Throw a small handful of sugar upon them, and begin whipping it in with slow, steady strokes of the beater. A few minutes later, throw in more sugar, and keep adding it at intervals until it is all used up. Beat perseveringly until the icing is of a smooth, fine, and firm texture. Half an hour’s beating should be sufficient, if done well. If not stiff enough, put in more sugar. A little practice will teach you when your end is gained. If you season with lemon-juice, allow, in measuring your sugar, for the additional liquid. Lemon-juice or a very little tartaric acid whitens the icing. Use _at least_ a quarter of a pound of sugar for each egg.

This method of making icing was taught me by a confectioner, as easier and surer than the old plan of beating the eggs first and alone. I have used no other since my first trial of it. The frosting hardens in one-fourth the time required under the former plan, and not more than half the time is consumed in the manufacture. I have often iced a cake but two hours before it was cut, and found the sugar dry all through.

Pour the icing by the spoonful on the top of the cake and near the centre of the surface to be covered. If the loaf is of such a shape that the liquid will settle of itself to its place, it is best to let it do so. If you spread it, use a broad-bladed knife, dipped in cold water. If it is as thick with sugar as it should be, you need not lay on more than one coat. You may set it in a moderate oven for three minutes, if you are in great haste. The better plan is to dry in a sunny window, where the air can get at it, and where there is no dust.

Color icing yellow by putting the grated peel of a lemon or orange in a thin muslin bag, straining a little juice through it, and squeezing it hard into the egg and sugar.

Strawberry-juice colors a pretty pink, as does also cranberry-syrup.

ALMOND ICING.

Whites of four eggs. 1 pound sweet almonds. 1 pound powdered sugar. A little rose-water.

Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them and stripping off the skins. When dry, pound them to a paste, a few at a time, in a Wedgewood mortar, moistening it with rose-water as you go on. When beaten fine and smooth, beat gradually into icing, prepared according to foregoing receipt.

Put on very thick, and, when nearly dry, cover with plain icing.

This is very fine.

_Or,_

Mingle a few bitter almonds with the sweet. The blended flavor of these and the rose-water is very pleasant.

MARTHA’S CAKE (_For Jelly._) ✠

3 eggs. 1 cup sugar. Butter, the size of an egg. 1 cup flour. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, sifted in the flour. ½ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in a tablespoonful milk.

Bake in jelly-cake tins, and spread, when cold, with fruit-jelly.

This is, although so simple and inexpensive, an admirable foundation for the various kinds of jelly, cream, and _méringue_ cake, which are always popular. It seldom fails, and when well mixed and baked, is very nice. If prepared flour be used leave out soda and cream-tartar.

MRS. M.’S CUP CAKE. ✠

1 cup butter. 2 cup sugar. 3 cups _prepared_ flour. 4 eggs. 1 cup sweet milk.

Bake in a loaf, or as jelly-cake.

CREAM-CAKE. ✠

2 cups powdered sugar. ⅔ cupful butter. 4 eggs. ½ cupful milk. ½ teaspoonful soda. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar. 3 cups flour.

Bake in thin layers as for jelly-cake, and spread between them, when cold, the following mixture:—

½ pint of milk. 2 small teaspoonfuls corn-starch. 1 egg. 1 teaspoonful vanilla. ½ cup sugar.

Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the corn-starch, wet with a little cold milk; take out a little and mix gradually with the beaten egg and sugar; return to the rest of the custard, and boil, stirring constantly until quite thick. Let it cool before you season, and spread on cake. Season the icing also with vanilla.

JELLY-CAKE.

1 lb. sugar. 1 lb. flour. ½ lb. butter. 6 eggs. 1 cup milk. ½ teaspoonful soda. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar.

Bake in shallow tins, and when cold put jelly between.

COCOANUT-CAKE. ✠

2 cups powdered sugar. ½ cup butter. 3 eggs. 1 cup milk. 3 cups flour. 2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. 1 teaspoonful soda.

Bake as for jelly-cake.

_Filling._

1 grated cocoanut. To one half of this add whites of three eggs, beaten to a froth, and one cup of powdered sugar. Lay this between the layers.

Mix with the other half of the grated cocoanut four tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, and strew thickly on top of cake.

ROSIE’S COCOANUT-CAKE.

2 cups flour. 1½ cups sugar. ½ cup butter. ½ cup sweet milk. 3 eggs. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar. ¼ teaspoonful soda.

Sift cream-tartar and soda into the dry flour; cream the butter and sugar; add the beaten eggs, then the milk; lastly the flour. Bake in jelly-cake tins.

Grate one cocoanut; mix with it a cup and a half of white sugar, also the milk of the cocoanut. Set the mixture in the oven until the sugar melts; then spread between the cakes.

LOAF COCOANUT-CAKE.

1 lb. sugar. ½ lb. butter. 6 eggs. ½ lb. prepared flour. 1 lb. finely grated cocoanut, stirred lightly in the last thing.

Bake immediately.

“ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR” COCOANUT-CAKE.

1 cup butter. 2 cups sugar. 3 cups flour. 4 eggs (the whites only). 1 cup milk. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, } ½ teaspoonful soda, } sifted into the flour. ½ small cocoanut, stirred in at the last.

COCOANUT-CAKES (_Small._)

1 cocoanut, carefully skinned and grated. Milk of the same. 1½ lb. powdered sugar. As much water as you have cocoanut milk. Whites of three eggs.

Dissolve one pound of sugar in the milk and water. Stew until it becomes a “ropy” syrup, and turn out into a buttered dish. Have ready the beaten white of egg, with the remaining half-pound of sugar whipped into it; mix with this the grated cocoanut, and little by little—beating all the while—the boiled syrup, so soon as it cools sufficiently not to scald the eggs. Drop in tablespoonfuls upon buttered papers. Try one first, and if it runs, beat in more sugar. Bake in a very moderate oven, watching to prevent scorching. They should not be suffered to brown at all.

These will keep some time, but are best quite fresh.

COCOANUT CONES.

1 lb. powdered sugar. ½ lb. grated cocoanut. Whites of 5 eggs. 1 teaspoonful best arrowroot.

Whip the eggs as for icing, adding the sugar as you go on, until it will stand alone, then beat in the cocoanut and arrowroot.

Mould the mixture with your hands into small cones, and set these far enough apart not to touch one another upon buttered paper in a baking-pan. Bake in a very moderate oven.

LEE CAKE. ✠

10 eggs. 1 lb. sugar. ½ lb. flour. 2 lemons. 1 orange.

Beat whites and yolks separately; add to all the yolks and the whites of seven eggs the sugar, the rind of two lemons, and juice of one. Bake as for jelly-cake.

To the whites of three eggs allow a pound and a quarter of powdered sugar; beat stiff as for icing, take out enough to cover the top of the cake and set aside. Add to the rest the juice and half the grated rind of a large orange. When the cake is nearly cold, spread this between the layers. Beat into the icing reserved for the top a little lemon-juice, and, if needed, more sugar. It should be thicker than that spread between the cakes.

You can make a very delightful variation of this elegant cake, by spreading the orange icing between layers made according to the receipt given for “Martha’s Jelly-Cake” several pages back, and frosting with lemon _méringue_, as above.

WHITE-MOUNTAIN CAKE.

3 cups sugar. 1 cup butter. ½ cup sweet milk. Whites of ten eggs. ½ teaspoonful soda, } 1 teaspoonful cream tartar,} sifted with the flour. 4 cups flour. Flavor with essence of bitter almond.

Icing, whites of three eggs, 1 lb. powdered sugar. Flavor with lemon-juice. Bake in jelly-cake tins, and fill with grated cocoanut, sweetened with a quarter of its weight of powdered sugar, or with icing such as is made for Lee cake, only flavored with lemon entirely.

FRENCH CAKE.

1 lb. sugar. ½ lb. butter. 1 lb. currants, washed clean and dredged with flour. 3 cups flour. 4 eggs. Nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. ½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in three tablespoonfuls milk.

LEMON CAKE (_No. 1._)

1 lb. sugar. 12 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately. ¾ lb. flour. Juice and rind of a lemon. Icing flavored with same.

Baked in small square tins, and iced on sides and top, these are sometimes called biscuits _glacés_.

LEMON-CAKE (_No. 2._)

1 cup of butter (packed). 2 scant cups of sugar. 10 eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately. 1 small cup of milk. Juice and rind of a lemon. 1 small teaspoonful soda.

Flour to make tolerably thin batter (a little over three cups). Of some qualities of flour four cups will be needed.

Bake in a quick oven.

LADY-CAKE (_No. 1._)

½ lb. butter. 1 lb. flour. 8 eggs. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, ½ teaspoonful soda. 1 lb. sugar. ½ pint milk.

LADY-CAKE (_No. 2._) ✠

1 lb. sugar. ¾ lb. sifted flour. 6 oz. butter. The whipped _whites_ of ten eggs.

Flavor with bitter almond, and bake in square, not very deep tins. Flavor the frosting with vanilla. The combination is very pleasant.

SISTER MAG’S CAKE. ✠

2½ cups powdered sugar. ¾ cup of butter. 1 cup sweet milk. 3 cups flour. 4 eggs. 1 lemon, juice and rind. 1 small teaspoonful soda.

Bake in a square or oblong tin, and frost with whites of two eggs beaten stiff with powdered sugar.

DOVER CAKE. ✠

1 lb. flour. 1 lb. white sugar. ½ lb. butter, rubbed with the sugar to a _very_ light cream. 6 eggs. 1 cup sweet milk. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in vinegar. 1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon. 1 tablespoonful rose-water.

Flavor the frosting with lemon-juice.

CHOCOLATE CAKE. ✠

2 cups of sugar. 1 cup butter. The yolks of five eggs and whites of two. 1 cup of milk. 3½ cups flour. ⅓ teaspoonful soda. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, sifted into the flour.

Bake in jelly-cake tins.

_Mixture for filling._

Whites of three eggs. 1½ cup sugar. 3 tablespoonfuls grated chocolate. 1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Beat well together, spread between the layers and on top of cake.

CARAMEL CAKE. ✠

3 cups sugar. 1½ cups butter. 1 cup milk. 4½ cups prepared flour. 5 eggs.

_Caramel for Filling._

1½ cup brown sugar. ½ cup milk. 1 cup molasses. 1 teaspoonful butter. 1 tablespoonful flour. 2 tablespoonfuls cold water.

Boil this mixture five minutes, add half a cake Baker’s chocolate (grated), boil until it is the consistency of rich custard. Add a pinch of soda, stir well, and remove from fire.

When cold, flavor with a large teaspoonful vanilla, and spread between the layers of cake, which should be baked as for jelly-cake. Cover the top with the same, and set in an open, sunny window to dry.

The above quantity will make two large cakes.

MARBLE CAKE.

_Light._

1 cup white sugar. ½ cup butter. ½ cup milk. Whites of three eggs. 2 cups prepared flour.

_Dark._

½ cup brown sugar. ¼ cup butter. ½ cup molasses. ¼ cup milk. ½ cup nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon. ½ teaspoonful allspice. ½ teaspoonful soda. 2 cups flour. Yolks of three eggs.

Butter your mould, and put in the dark and light batter in alternate tablespoonfuls.

MARBLED CAKE. ✠

1 cup butter. 2 cups powdered sugar. 3 cups flour. 4 eggs. 1 cup sweet milk. ½ teaspoonful soda. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar sifted with flour.

When the cake is mixed take out about a teacupful of the batter, and stir into this a great spoonful of grated chocolate, wet with a _scant_ tablespoonful of milk. Fill your mould about an inch deep with the yellow batter, and drop upon this, in two or three places, a spoonful of the dark mixture. Give to the brown spots a slight stir with the tip of your spoon, spreading it in broken circles upon the lighter surface. Pour in more yellow batter, then drop in the brown in the same manner as before, proceeding in this order until all is used up. When cut, the cake will be found to be handsomely variegated.

_Or,_

You may color the reserved cupful of batter with enough prepared cochineal to give it a fine pink tint, and mix as you do the brown.

CHOCOLATE ICING (_Simple._)

¼ cake chocolate. ½ cup sweet milk. 1 tablespoonful corn-starch. 1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Mix together these ingredients, with the exception of the vanilla; boil it two minutes (after it has fairly come to a boil), flavor, and then sweeten to taste with powdered sugar, taking care to make it sweet enough.

CARAMELS (_Chocolate._)

2 cups brown sugar. 1 cup molasses. 1 tablespoonful (heaping) of butter. 3 tablespoonfuls flour.

Boil twenty-five minutes; then stir in half a pound of grated chocolate wet in half a cup of sweet milk, and boil until it hardens on the spoon, with which you must stir it frequently. Flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla.

CHOCOLATE ÉCLAIRS.

4 eggs. The weight of the eggs in sugar. Half their weight in flour. ¼ teaspoonful soda, } ½ teaspoonful cream-tartar,} sifted _well_ with the flour.

If you bake these often, it will be worth your while to have made at the tinner’s a set of small tins, about five inches long and two wide, round at the bottom, and kept firm by strips of tin connecting them. If you cannot get these, tack stiff writing-paper into the same shape, stitching each of the little canoes to its neighbor after the manner of a pontoon bridge. Have these made and buttered before you mix the cake; put a spoonful of batter in each, and bake in a steady oven. When nearly cold, cover the rounded side with a caramel icing, made according to the foregoing receipt.

These little cakes are popular favorites, and with a little practice can be easily and quickly made.

ELLIE’S CAKE. ✠

1 cup of sugar. ½ cup of butter. 3 eggs. ½ cup sweet milk. 2½ cups prepared flour.

Bake in jelly-cake tins, and fill with jelly or chocolate. A simple and excellent cake.

SPONGE CAKE.

1 teacup powdered sugar. 3 eggs. ½ teaspoonful cream-tartar. ¼ teaspoonful soda. 1 teacupful flour.

Flavor with lemon—half the juice and half the rind of one. Bake twenty minutes in shallow tins.

MRS. M.’S SPONGE-CAKE. ✠

12 eggs. The weight of the eggs in sugar. Half their weight in flour. 1 lemon, juice and rind.

Beat yolks and whites _very_ light, the sugar into the former when they are smooth and stiff; next, the juice and grated peel of the lemon, then the beaten whites; lastly, the flour, _very_ lightly.

The lady from whom I had this admirable receipt was celebrated among her acquaintances for her beautiful and delicious sponge-cake.

“Which should always be baked in tins like these,” she said to me once, sportively, “or it does not taste just right.”

The moulds were like a large brick in shape, with almost perpendicular sides. I instantly gave an order for a couple precisely like them, and really fancied that cake baked in them was a little better than in any other form. But you can hardly fail of success if you prepare yours precisely as I have directed, bake in whatever shape you will. Be careful that your oven is steady, and cover the cake with paper to prevent burning.

It is a good plan to line the pans in which sponge-cake is baked with buttered paper, fitted neatly to the sides and bottom.

POUND CAKE (_No. 1._)

1 lb. sugar. 1 lb. flour. ¾ lb. butter. 9 eggs. 2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. 1 teaspoonfuls soda.

Cream the butter and sugar with great care; beat the yolks and whites separately; sift the cream-tartar well through the flour. Add the flour last.

POUND CAKE (_No. 2._)

1 lb. flour. 1 lb. eggs. 1 lb. sugar. ¾ lb. butter. 1 glass brandy. 1 nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful mace.

Cream half the flour with the butter, and add brandy and spice. Beat the yolks until light, add the sugar, then the beaten whites and the rest of the flour alternately. When this is thoroughly mixed, put all together and beat steadily for half an hour.

If properly made and baked this is a splendid cake.

WASHINGTON CAKE.

3 cups sugar. 2 cups butter. 5 eggs. 1 cup milk. 4 cups flour. 2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. 1 teaspoonful soda.

Mix as usual and stir in, at the last—

½ lb. currants well washed and dredged. ¼ lb. raisins seeded and chopped fine, then floured. A handful of citron sliced fine. Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.

Fruit-cake takes longer to bake than plain, and the heat must be kept steady.

LINCOLN CAKE.

¾ lb. butter. 1 lb. sugar. 1 lb. flour. 6 eggs. 2 cups sour cream or milk. 1 grated nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon. ¼ lb. citron. 1 tablespoonful rose-water. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water, and stirred into the milk just before adding the latter to the cake.

Cream the butter and sugar, put with them the yolks whipped light, then the cream and spice, next the flour, then the rose-water, and a double-handful of citron cut in slips and dredged; finally, the beaten whites of the eggs. Stir all well, and bake in a loaf or in a “card,” using a square shallow baking-pan.

This is a good cake, and keeps well.

BLACK OR WEDDING CAKE.

1 lb. powdered sugar. 1 lb. butter. 1 lb. flour. 12 eggs. 1 lb. currants well washed and dredged. 1 lb. raisins seeded and chopped. ½ lb. citron cut into slips. 1 tablespoonful cinnamon. 2 teaspoonfuls nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful cloves. 1 wineglass brandy.

Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten yolks of the eggs, and stir all _well_ together before putting in half of the flour. The spice should come next, then the whipped whites stirred in alternately with the rest of the flour, lastly the brandy.

The above quantity is for two large cakes. Bake at least two hours in deep tins lined with well-buttered paper.

The icing should be laid on stiff and thickly. This cake, if kept in a cool, dry place, will not spoil in two months.

I have eaten wedding-cake a year old.

Test the cakes well, and be sure they are quite done before taking them from the oven.

FRUIT-CAKE (_plainer._)

1 lb. powdered sugar. 1 lb. flour. ¾ lb. butter. 7 eggs. ½ lb. currants—washed, picked over, and dredged. ½ lb. raisins—seeded and chopped, then dredged. ¼ lb. citron cut into slips. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon. 1 glass brandy.

Cream butter and sugar; add the beaten yolks, then the spice and the whipped whites alternately with the flour; the fruit and brandy last.

ALMOND CAKE.

1 lb. powdered sugar. 1 lb. flour. ¼ lb. butter. 8 eggs. 1 coffee-cupful sweet almonds, blanched by putting them into hot water, and, when stripped of their skins and perfectly cold, beaten to a smooth paste in a Wedgewood mortar, with a little rose-water and half a teaspoonful essence of bitter almonds.

Beat whites and yolks separately; stir butter and sugar to a cream; add to this the yolks; beat very hard before putting in the flour; stir in the almond-paste alternately with the whites. Put in the brandy last.

Season the icing with rose-water.

NUT-CAKE. ✠

2 cups sugar. 1 cup butter. 3 cups flour. 1 cup cold water. 4 eggs. 1 teaspoonful soda. 2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. 2 cupfuls kernels of hickory-nuts or white walnuts, carefully picked out, and added last of all.

GOLD CAKE. ✠

1 lb. sugar. ½ lb. butter. 1 lb. flour. Yolks of ten eggs—well beaten. Grated rind of one orange, and juice of two lemons. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.

Cream the butter and sugar, and stir in the yolks. Beat very hard for five minutes before putting in the flour. The soda next, and lastly the lemon-juice, in which the grated orange-peel should have been steeped and strained out in a piece of thin muslin, leaving the flavoring and coloring matter in the juice.

Flavor the icing also with lemon.

SILVER CAKE. ✠

1 lb. sugar. ¾ lb. flour. ½ lb. butter. Whites of ten eggs—whipped very stiff. 1 large teaspoonful essence bitter almonds.

Cream butter and sugar; put next the whites of the eggs; then the flour, lastly the flavoring.

Make gold and silver cake on the same day; bake them in tins of corresponding size, and lay them in alternate slices in the cake-basket. Flavor the icing of silver cake with rose-water.

ALMOND MACAROONS.

Prepare the almonds the day before you make the cakes, by blanching them in boiling water, stripping off the skins, and pounding them when _perfectly_ cold—a few at a time—in a Wedgewood mortar, adding from time to time a little rose-water. When beaten to a smooth paste, stir in, to a pound of the sweet almonds, a generous tablespoonful of essence of bitter almonds; cover closely, and set away in a cold place until the morrow. Then to a pound of the nuts allow:—

1 lb. powdered sugar. The beaten whites of eight eggs. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful arrowroot.

Stir the sugar and white of egg lightly together; then whip in gradually the almond-paste.

Line a broad baking-pan with buttered white paper; drop upon this spoonfuls of the mixture at such distances apart as shall prevent their running together. Sift powdered sugar thickly upon each, and bake in a quick oven to a delicate brown.

Try the mixture first, to make sure it is of the right consistency, and if the macaroons run into irregular shapes, beat in more sugar. This will hardly happen, however, if the mixture is already well beaten.

HUCKLEBERRY CAKE. ✠

1 cup butter. 2 cups sugar. 3 cups flour. 5 eggs. 1 cup sweet milk. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and the same of cinnamon. 1 qt. ripe, fresh huckleberries, thickly dredged with flour.

Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, add the beaten yolks; then the milk, the flour, and spice, the whites whipped stiff, and the soda. At the last stir in the huckleberries with a wooden spoon or paddle, not to bruise them. Bake in a loaf or card, in a moderate but steady oven, until a straw comes out clean from the thickest part.

This is a delicious cake, and deserves to be better known. It is best on the second day after baking.

CORN-STARCH CAKE. ✠

2 cups sugar,} 1 cup butter,} rubbed to a cream. 1 cup milk. 2 cups flour. 3 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately. ½ cup corn-starch. 2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar, sifted well through the flour. 1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.

Sift the corn-starch with the flour, and add the last thing. Bake in small tins and eat while fresh. They dry in two or three days and become insipid, but are very nice for twenty-four hours after they are baked.

WHITE CAKE. ✠

1 cup butter. 2 cups sugar. 1 cup sweet milk. Whites of five eggs. 3 cups prepared flour.

COOKIES, ETC.

MRS. B.’S COOKIES. ✠

6 eggs, whites and yolks separately. 1 cup butter. 3 cups sugar.

Flour to make batter _just_ stiff enough to be moulded with well-floured hands.