Part 5

Turn out, and when cold, flavor with vanilla and put into glasses.

Whip the whites of three eggs to a smooth _méringue_, beat in three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and heap upon the brown mixture.

Chocolate Blanc-mange.

(Our French scholars will say that this should be termed “_Brun-mange_.”)

Mix with the soaked gelatine four heaping tablespoonfuls of Baker’s chocolate, grated, and stir into the scalding milk, and treat as above directed. In straining, squeeze the bag hard to extract all the coloring matter. Flavor with vanilla.

Coffee Blanc-mange.

Soak the gelatine in a cupful of strong, clear black coffee, instead of the cold water, and proceed as with plain blanc-mange, using no other flavoring than the coffee.

Tea Blanc-mange

Is made in the same way by substituting for the water very strong, mixed tea. Eat with powdered sugar and cream.

Pineapple Trifle.

One package of gelatine.

Two cups of white sugar.

One small pineapple, peeled and cut into bits.

One-half teaspoonful of nutmeg.

Juice and grated peel of a lemon.

Three cups of _boiling_ water.

Whites of four eggs.

Soak the gelatine four hours in a cup of cold water.

Put into a bowl with the sugar, nutmeg, lemon-juice, and rind and minced pineapple.

Rub the fruit hard into the mixture with a wooden spoon, and let all stand together, covered, two hours.

Then pour upon it the boiling water and stir until the gelatine is dissolved.

Line a colander with a double thickness of clean flannel, and strain the mixture through it, squeezing and wringing the cloth hard, to get the full flavor of the fruit. Set on ice until cold, but not until it is hard.

It should be just “jellied” around the edges, when you begin to whip the whites of the eggs in a bowl set in ice water. When they are quite stiff, beat in a spoonful at a time the gelatine. Whip a minute after adding each supply to mix it in perfectly.

Half an hour’s work with the “Dover” will give you a white spongy mass, pleasing alike to eye and taste.

Wet a mould with cold water, put in the sponge and set on ice until you are ready to turn it out.

This is a delicious dessert. For pineapple substitute strawberries, raspberries, or peaches.

A Simple Susan.

Two cups of fine, dry bread crumbs.

Three cups of chopped apple.

One cup of sugar.

One teaspoonful of mace, and half as much allspice.

Two teaspoonfuls of butter.

One tablespoonful of salt.

Butter a pudding-dish and cover the bottom with crumbs. Lay on these a thick layer of minced apple, sprinkled lightly with salt and spices—more heavily with sugar. Stick bits of butter over all. Then more crumbs, going on in this order until all the ingredients are used up. The top layer should be crumbs. Cover closely, and bake half an hour. Remove the cover and set on the upper grating of the oven until nicely browned. Send to table in the dish in which it was baked.

Sauce for the Above.

Two cupfuls of powdered sugar.

Two tablespoonfuls of butter.

Half teaspoonful of mace or nutmeg.

Juice (strained) of a lemon.

Two tablespoonfuls of boiling water.

Melt the butter with the hot water and beat in, with egg whisk or “Dover,” the sugar, a little at a time, until the sauce is like a cream. Add lemon juice and nutmeg, mould into a mound on a glass dish, or a deep plate, and set in a cold place until it is firm. This is a good “hard sauce” for any hot pudding.

Cottage Pudding.

Two eggs.

One cup of milk.

One cup of sugar.

One tablespoonful of butter.

Three cups of prepared flour.

If you have not the prepared, use family flour with two tablespoonfuls of baking powder, sifted _twice_ with it.

One tablespoonful of salt.

Put the sugar in a bowl, warm the butter slightly, but do not melt it, and rub it with a wooden spoon into the sugar until they are thoroughly mixed together. Beat the eggs light in another bowl, stir in the sugar and butter, then the milk, the salt, and lastly the flour.

Butter a tin cake mould well, pour in the batter and bake about forty minutes in a steady oven.

Should it rise very fast, cover the top with white paper as soon as a crust is formed, to prevent scorching.

When you think it is done stick a clean, dry straw into the thickest part. If it comes up smooth and not sticky the loaf is ready to be taken up.

Loosen the edges from the mould with a knife, turn out on a plate, and send hot to table. Cut with a keen blade into slices, and eat with pudding sauce.

An easy receipt and one that seldom fails to give general satisfaction.

13

CAKE-MAKING.

NEVER undertake cake unless you are willing to give to the business the amount of time and labor needed to make it _well_. Materials tossed together “anyhow” may, once in a great while, come out right, but the manufacturer has no right to expect this, or to be mortified when the product is a failure.

Before breaking an egg, or putting butter and sugar together, collect all your ingredients. Sift the flour and arrange close to your hand, the bowls, egg-beater, cake-moulds, ready buttered, etc.

Begin by putting the measured sugar into a bowl, and working the butter into it with a wooden spoon. Warm the butter slightly in cold weather. Rub and stir until the mixture is as smooth and light, as cream. Indeed, this process is called “creaming.”

Now, beat the yolks of your eggs light and thick in another bowl; wash the egg-beater well, wipe dry and let it get cold before whipping the whites to a standing heap in a third vessel. Keep the eggs cool before and while you beat them. Add the yolks to the creamed butter and sugar, beating hard one minute; put in the milk when milk is used, the spices and flavoring; whip in the whites, and lastly, the sifted and prepared flour.

Beat _from the bottom_ of the mixing-bowl with a wooden spoon, bringing it up full and high with each stroke, and as soon as the ingredients are fairly and smoothly mixed, stop beating, or your cake will be tough.

Let your first attempt be with cup-cake baked in small tins. Learn to manage your oven well before risking pound or fruit-cake.

Should the dough or batter rise very fast lay white paper over the top, that this may not harden into a crust before the middle is done. To ascertain whether the cake is ready to leave the oven, thrust a clean straw into the thickest part. If it comes out clean, take out the tins and set them _gently_ on a table or shelf to cool before turning them upside down on a clean, dry cloth or dish.

A Good Cup-cake.

One cup of butter.

Two cups of sugar—powdered.

Four eggs.

One cup of sweet milk.

One teaspoonful of vanilla.

One half-teaspoonful of mace.

Three cups of prepared flour, or the same quantity of family-flour with one even teaspoonful of soda and two of cream-tartar, sifted twice with it.

Two teaspoonfuls of baking powder will serve the same end. Mix as directed in “Practical Preliminaries,” and bake in small tins.

Jelly-cake

Is made by mixing the above cup-cake, leaving out the flavoring, and baking it in “jelly-cake tins,” turning these out when almost cold by running a knife around the edges, and spreading all but that intended for the top with a thick coating of fruit-jelly. Sift white sugar over the upper one or frost it.

Cream-cake.

Mix a cup-cake without spice or other flavoring, bake in jelly-cake tins, and when cold spread between the layers this filling:

One egg.

One cup of milk.

One half cup of sugar.

Two rounded teaspoonfuls of corn-starch.

One teaspoonful of vanilla or other essence.

Scald the milk in a farina-kettle; wet the cornstarch with a little cold milk and stir into that over the fire until it thickens. Have the egg ready whipped light into a bowl; beat it in the sugar; pour the thick hot milk upon this, gradually, stirring fast, return to the kettle and boil (still stirring,) to a thick custard. Let it cool before seasoning.

Frost the top-cake, or sift powdered sugar over it.

Cocoanut-cake.

Mix and bake as for jelly-cake, flavoring with rose-water.

Whip the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth.

Add one cup of powdered sugar, and two thirds of a grated cocoanut.

When the cakes are cold, spread between the layers.

To the remaining third of the cocoanut add four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and cover the top of the cake with it.

Apple-cake.

Mix and bake as for jelly-cake, flavoring the dough with essence of bitter almond.

Beat one egg light in a bowl, and into it a cup of sugar. Add to this the strained juice and grated rind of a lemon.

Peel and grate three fine pippins or other ripe, tart apples directly into this mixture, stirring each well in before adding another. When all are in, put into a farina-kettle and stir over the fire until the apple-custard is boiling hot and quite thick. Cool and spread between the cakes. A nice and simple cake. Eat the day it is baked.

Chocolate-cake.

Mix and bake as for jelly-cake, flavoring with vanilla. For filling, whip the whites of three eggs stiff; stir in one cup and a half of sugar and four tablespoonfuls of Baker’s Vanilla Chocolate, grated. Beat hard for two minutes and spread between the layers and on the top of the cake.

White Cup-cake.

One cup of butter.

Two cups of powdered sugar.

Three cups of prepared flour.

One cup of sweet milk.

Whites of five eggs.

One teaspoonful of essence of bitter almond.

Cream butter and sugar; add milk and beat hard before putting in the whites of the eggs. Stir in flavoring and, lightly and quickly, the prepared flour. Bake in small tins.

Frosting for Cake.

Whites of three eggs.

Three cups of powdered sugar.

Strained juice of a lemon.

Put the whites into a _cold_ bowl and add the sugar at once, stirring it in thoroughly. Then whip with your egg-beater until the mixture is stiff and white, adding lemon-juice as you go on. Spread thickly over the cake, and set in the sun, or in a warm room to dry.

White Lemon Cake.

Make “white cup-cake,” bake in jelly cake-tins and let it get cold. Prepare a frosting as above directed, but use the juice of two lemons and the grated peel of one. Spread this mixture between the cakes and on the top.

Sponge Cake.

Do not attempt this until you have had some practice in the management of ovens, and let your first trial be with what are sometimes termed “snow-balls,”—that is, small sponge cakes, frosted. Put six eggs into a scale and ascertain their weight _exactly_. Allow for the sponge cake the weight of the eggs in sugar, and half their weight in flour. Grate the yellow peel from a lemon and squeeze the juice upon it. Let it stand ten minutes, and strain through coarse muslin, pressing out every drop.

Beat the yolks of the eggs very light and then the sugar into them; the lemon-juice; the whites, which should have been whipped to a standing froth;—finally, stir in the sifted flour swiftly and lightly. Bake in a steady oven from twenty-five to thirty minutes, glancing at them now and then, to make sure they are not scorching, and covering with white paper as they harden on top.

This is an easy, and if implicitly obeyed, a sure receipt.

Nice Gingerbread.

Three eggs.

One cup of sugar.

One cup each of molasses, “loppered” or buttermilk, and of butter.

One tablespoonful of ground ginger, a teaspoonful of cinnamon, and half as much allspice.

Four and a half _full_ cups of sifted flour.

One teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling water.

Put butter, molasses, sugar and spice in a bowl, set in a pan of hot water and stir with a wooden spoon until they are like brown cream. Take from the water and add the milk. Beat yolks and whites together until light in another bowl, and turn the brown mixture gradually in upon them, keeping the egg-beater going briskly.

When well-mixed, add the soda, at last, the flour. Beat _hard_ three minutes, and bake in well-buttered pans.

Sugar Cookies.

Two cups of sugar.

One cup of butter.

Three eggs, whites and yolks beaten together.

_About_ three cups of flour sifted with one teaspoonful of baking powder.

One teaspoonful of nutmeg, and half this quantity of cloves.

Cream butter and sugar, beat in the whipped eggs and spice; add a handful at a time the flour, working it in until the dough is stiff enough to roll out. Flour your hands well and sprinkle flour over a pastry-board. Make a ball of the dough, and lay it on the board. Rub your rolling-pin also with flour and roll out the dough into a sheet about a quarter of an inch thick.

Cut into round cakes; sift granulated sugar over each and bake quickly.

Ginger Snaps.

Two cups of molasses.

One cup of sugar.

One cup of butter.

Five cups of flour.

One heaping teaspoonful of ground ginger, and the same quantity of allspice.

Stir molasses, sugar and butter together in a bowl set in hot water, until _very_ light. Mix in spices and flour, and roll out as directed in last receipt, but in a thinner sheet. Cut into small cakes and bake quickly.

All cakes in the composition of which molasses is used, are more apt to burn than others. Watch your ginger snaps well, but opening the oven as little as may be.

These spicy and toothsome cakes are better the second day than the first, and keep well for a week or more.

14

JELLIES, CREAMS AND OTHER FANCY DISHES FOR TEA AND LUNCHEON OR SUPPER-PARTIES.

THE pleasing custom in many families is to make the daughters responsible for “fancy cookery.” Mamma turns naturally, when company is expected, to her young allies for the manufacture of cake, jellies, blanc-mange, etc., and for the arrangement of fruit and flowers, and seldom cavils at the manner in which they do the work.

The difference in the appointment of feasts in houses where there are girls growing up and grown, and in those where there are none, is so marked that I need not call attention to it.

Lemon or Orange Jelly.

One package of gelatine soaked in two cups of cold water.

Two and a half cups of sugar.

Juice of four lemons and grated peel of two (same of oranges).

Three cups of boiling water.

A quarter-teaspoonful powdered cinnamon.

Soak the gelatine two hours; add lemon juice, grated peel, sugar and spice, and leave for one hour. Pour on the boiling water, stir until dissolved, and strain through double flannel. Do not shake or squeeze, but let the jelly filter clearly through it into a bowl or pitcher set beneath. Wet moulds in cold water and set aside to cool and harden.

Ribbon Jelly.

Take one third currant jelly, one third lemon jelly, and as much plain blanc-mange. (_See Desserts._)

When all are cold and begin to form, wet a mould, pour in about a fourth of the red jelly and set on the ice to harden; keep the rest in a warm room, or near the fire. So soon as the jelly is firm in the bottom of the mould, add carefully some of the white blanc-mange, and return the mould to the ice. When this will bear the weight of more jelly, add a little of the lemon, and when this forms, another line of white.

Proceed in this order, dividing the red from the yellow by white, until the jellies are used up. Leave the mould on ice until you are ready to turn the jelly out.

A pretty dish, and easily managed if one will have patience to wait after putting in each layer until it is firm enough not to be disturbed or muddied by the next supply.

Buttercup Jelly.

One half package of gelatine soaked in half a cup of cold water for two hours.

Three eggs.

One pint of milk.

One heaping cup of sugar.

One teaspoonful of vanilla.

Bit of soda the size of a pea stirred into the milk.

Heat the milk to scalding in a farina-kettle and stir in the soaked gelatine until the latter is dissolved, and strain through a coarse cloth. Beat the yolks of the eggs light, add the sugar and pour the boiling mixture gradually upon it, stirring all the time.

Return to the farina-kettle and stir three minutes, or until it begins to thicken. Let it cool before you flavor it. Whip the white of one egg stiff, and when the yellow jelly coagulates around the edges, set the bowl containing the frothed white in cracked ice or in ice-water and beat the jelly into it, spoonful by spoonful, with the egg-whip, until it is all in and your sponge thick and smooth. Wet a mould and set it on the ice to form. Lay about the base when you dish it.

Whipped Cream.

I have been assured by those who have made the experiment, that excellent whipped cream can be produced, and very quickly, by the use of our incomparable Dover Egg-beater. I have never tried this, but my pupils may, if they have not a syllabub-churn.

Put a pint of rich, sweet cream in a pail or other wide-mouthed vessel with straight sides, and set in ice while you whip or churn it.

As the frothing cream rises to the top, remove it carefully with a spoon and lay it in a perfectly clean and cold colander, or on a hair sieve, set over a bowl. If any cream drips from it return to the vessel in which it is whipped to be beaten over again. When no more froth rises, whip a tablespoonful of powdered sugar into the white syllabub in the colander, and it is ready for use.

Swan’s Down Cream.

One pint of whipped cream.

Whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth.

One cup of powdered sugar.

One teaspoonful essence bitter almond.

Just before you are ready to send the dish to table, beat whipped cream, frothed whites, sugar and flavoring together in a bowl set deep in cracked ice. Heap in a glass dish and leave in the ice until it is to be eaten.

Send sponge cake around with it.

Jellied Oranges.

Cut a small round piece from the blossom end of each of six or eight oranges, and scoop out the pulp very carefully, so as not to widen the hole, or tear the inside of the fruit. Use your fingers and a small teaspoon for this purpose until the oranges are empty and clean.

Lay them then in very cold water while you prepare with the pulp and juice you have taken out, and the grated peel of another orange, half the quantity of orange-jelly called for by the receipt for lemon jelly. When it is quite cold, fill the orange-skins with it, and set in a cold place to harden.

In serving them, cut the oranges cross-wise with a _sharp_ knife and arrange in a glass dish, the open sides upward. A few orange, lemon, or japonica leaves to line the edges of the dish, will give a pretty effect.

Ambrosia.

Peel fine, sweet oranges, and cut into small pieces, extracting the seeds. Put a layer in a glass dish and sprinkle well with sugar. In this scatter a thick coating of grated cocoanut, strewing this also with powdered sugar. Over the cocoanut lay thin slices of bananas, peeled and cut crosswise. Fill the dish in this order, the top being covered with banana.

A nice dessert for Sundays and warm afternoons when one dreads the heat of the stove.

How to make Coffee and Tea.

If you wish to have really strong coffee, allow a cup of freshly-ground coffee to a quart of boiling water. Put the coffee in a bowl and wet with half a cup of cold water. Stir in the white and shell of a raw egg, and turn into a clean, newly-scalded coffee-boiler. Shut down the top and shake hard up and down half a dozen times before pouring in the boiling water. Set where it will boil hard, but not run over, for twenty minutes, draw to the side of the range and check the boil suddenly by pouring in a third of a cup of cold water. Let it stand three minutes to settle, and pour off gently into the pot which is to be set on the table.

Scald the milk to be drunk with coffee, unless you can serve really rich cream with it.

Tea.

FIRST RULE. The water should boil.

SECOND RULE. The water in which the tea is steeped, must be boiling.

THIRD RULE. The water used for filling the pot must be boiling.

I speak within bounds when I say that I could tell on the fingers of my two hands the tables at which I have drunk really good, hot, fresh tea. Sometimes it is made with boiling water, then allowed to simmer on the range or hob until the decoction is rank, reedy and bitter. Sometimes too little tea is put in, and the beverage, while hot enough, is but faintly colored and flavored.

Oftenest of all, the tea is made with unboiled water, or with water that did boil once, but is now flat and many degrees below the point of ebullition.

Scald the china, or silver, or tin teapot from which the beverage is to flow directly into the cups; put in an even teaspoonful of tea for each person who is to partake of it, pour in a half-cup of boiling water and cover the pot with a cozy or napkin for five minutes. Then, fill up with boiling _water from the kettle_ and take to the table. Fill the cups within three minutes or so and you have the fresh aroma of the delicious herb.

INDEX.

BREADS.

Bread Sponge 16 Breakfast Biscuits 23 Crumpets 30 English Muffins 28 First Loaf, The 11 Graham Bread 19 Graham Rolls 23 Graham Cakes 40 Griddle Cakes 37 Hominy Cakes 39 Quick Biscuits 35 Quick Muffins 31 Sally Lunn 33 Sour Milk Cakes 38 Tea Rolls 21

CAKE.

Apple Cake 136 Cup-cake 133 Cream-cake 134 Cocoanut-cake 135 Chocolate-cake 136 Gingerbread 139 Ginger Snaps 141 Jelly-cake 134 Sponge Cake 138 Sugar Cookies 140 White Cup-cake 137 White Lemon Cake 138 Frosting for Cake 137

DESSERTS.

Blanc-mange 123 Blanc-mange, Chocolate 124 Blanc-mange, Coffee 125 Blanc-mange, Tea 125 Cup Custard 121 Custard, boiled 119 Chocolate Custard 124 Custard, frosted 122 Cottage Pudding 129 Floating Island 122 Pineapple Trifle 125 Simple Susan 127

EGGS.