Part 27

3 eggs ⅔ cup sugar 1 tablespn. lemon juice 1 tablespn. ice water ⅔ cup pastry flour 3 drops extract rose

Put together and bake same as nut and citron cake except for the nut meal. This makes 1 loaf or 2 small layers. 3 times the quantity makes 2 large square loaves, or 4 large layers.

May use 1½ tablespn. of orange juice with yolks of eggs and ½ tablespn. lemon juice with whites in place of the water and lemon juice. Flavor sugar with oil of orange and add ½ teaspn. vanilla to the cake. Finished with royal filling and icing, this makes a cake suitable for a royal occasion.

=Variations of Royal Sponge Cake=

(1) Use 2 tablespns. of cream in cake instead of lemon juice and water, with or without 1 teaspn. of lemon juice in whites of eggs.

(2) Use ⅔ cup of molasses in place of the sugar, no water, 1 teaspn. only, of lemon juice in the whites of eggs, 1 cup of flour and 1-2 teaspns. ground coriander seed.

(3) Use brown sugar in place of white, and orange or vanilla flavoring.

=★ Sponge Layer Cake=

3 eggs 1 cup sugar 4 tablespns. water 1-1½ cup flour

Boil sugar and water till syrup will thread, pour hot syrup slowly over beaten yolks; beat until cool, chop in stiffly-beaten whites and flour; flavor if desired. 2 small layers.

The sponge layer cake and all sponge cakes containing the yolks of eggs may be put together as follows: Break the eggs into a cake bowl, set the bowl into a pan of boiling water on the table and beat until light; add hot water (if any) and the sugar (or the hot syrup) gradually, beating. When light, remove from water, add flavoring and fold in flour lightly.

=★ Old Friend Sponge Cake=

1½ cup granulated sugar flavored with oil of lemon large ½ cup cold water 7 eggs 1-1½ tablespn. lemon juice 2½ cups flour, sifted 5 or 6 times after measuring

Pour cold water over sugar, heat and boil slowly until perfectly clear; cool, beat yolks of eggs, add syrup and half the lemon juice and beat very light; slide whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth with the remainder of the lemon juice on to mixture, sift flour over, a little at a time, and chop in with whites until all the flour is in. Bake ¾-1 hr. in slow oven until just done, no longer. 1 large loaf in deep square tin.

=Cocoanut Sponge Cake. 1846=

6 eggs 1 cup sugar 1 cup flour a trifle of salt 1½ cup grated fresh cocoanut lemon or vanilla flavoring

Put together as nut and citron cake, or beat eggs in dish set in hot water, add sugar, cocoanut and flavoring, then flour. Put mixture 1½ in. deep in pans lined with buttered paper.

=Rice Flour Sponge Cake. 1846=

6 eggs ½ cup sugar flavoring ⅔ cup rice flour scant ⅓ cup pastry flour

Beat eggs in dish set in hot water, add sugar, flavoring and rice and pastry flour mixed. Bake in moderate oven.

=Angel Cake=

1 cup of egg whites 8 large or 10 small eggs 1¼ cup granulated or 1½ cup powdered sugar 1 cup flour 1-2 tablespns. lemon juice a pinch of salt 1 teaspn. vanilla

Sift 2 or 3 cups of sugar twice; measure out 1 cup; sift a sifter of flour 4 times; measure out 1 cup and mix it with the cup of sugar; put both in the sifter and sift once, return to the sifter and set in cold place; separate the eggs, putting the whites into the dish in which they are to be beaten and set them in a cold place for 15-20 m.; when cool, add the salt to the eggs and begin beating with a long slow stroke, gradually increasing the velocity until the eggs begin to stiffen, then pour the lemon juice over and beat more rapidly for a time; continue beating until whites are stiff and feathery, then add flavoring; sift flour and sugar mixture over gradually, chopping and folding it in carefully; when all is in, drop by spoonfuls evenly into the pan and bake in slow oven 35-50 m., testing with broom straw. When done, turn the pan upside down with the sides resting on two saucers (unless you have the pans with projections for that purpose), so that a current of air will pass under and over the cake.

=Tri-Colored Layer Cake=

Angel cake--½ white flavored with vanilla; ½ pink flavored with rose, 3 or 4 large layers. Other layers, of sponge layer cake lemon flavored, or some nice light brown cake such as molasses sugar cake or sponge layer cake with part browned flour. Filling of raisin dressing.

=Miss Lubey’s Cream Puffs. 1 doz.=

1 large cup boiling water ½ cup butter or oil 1 cup pastry flour 3 eggs salt

Add dry flour all at once to boiling water and butter; stir quickly over the fire until mixture forms a ball which leaves the pan; remove from fire and stir till partly cool; add beaten yolks of eggs, part at a time, beating well, then slightly beaten whites; beat; set in cold place, covered, for 1 hr. or more; drop by spoonfuls about 2 in. apart on oiled and floured tin, flatten with brush or fingers dipped in milk (may leave without shaping); have oven rather quick at first, then slower until there is no “singing”. Puffs are light weight when done. They will keep for several days. Reheat before filling. To fill, cut open at the side with shears.

The butter and flour may be creamed together first, and the boiling water poured over, then the whole cooked as before.

_Cream_--

1 pt. milk ½ cup sugar 1 tablespn. flour 2 eggs salt 1 teaspn. vanilla

Mix sugar and flour, pour boiling milk over, boil up well; pour over beaten eggs, return to fire until just creamy, not boiling, cool; add salt and flavoring.

If cream is preferred thicker, use ½ cup of flour and cook in double boiler 15 m. before adding the eggs.

Whipped cream may be used for the filling, but does not harmonize as well with the shells.

These shells are sometimes used for trumese and celery salad, or for creamed meat dishes.

Dainty little puffs filled with different creams may be used for garnishes for desserts, or piled on fancy plates for cakes.

Additions to Cookies and Small Cakes

Caraway or anise seeds, ground coriander or anise seed; chopped shelled nuts; grated or shredded cocoanut; grated orange or lemon rind; English currants; fine cut or ground raisins, citron, figs and dates; sometimes a raisin or half a blanched almond or half of a pecan or hickory nut meat in the center of each.

Suggestive Combinations

Coriander, English currants and English walnuts; raisins in molasses cookies; almonds chopped without blanching, and raisins; almonds same, and caraway or ground coriander seed.

Graham flour cookies with English currants; 1 part raisins and ⅓ part each of nuts, cocoanut and citron, with or without vanilla or lemon.

All cooky dough should be set in a cold place for 2 hrs. or longer before rolling out. Roll out in cool room on well floured board. Cut the cakes all out, put on tins and set in cold place before beginning to bake them as the baking will require all one’s attention.

Very thin dough may be cut oblong, round or in any desired shape and some of the following fillings placed between each two pieces before they are baked--

Ground or mashed dates or figs rolled thin and cut with the same cutter that the dough was cut with; raspberry or other fruit jams and jellies or orange marmalade, also some of the suitable cake fillings.

It may sometimes be more convenient to cut the dough into strips 4 in. wide, spread half the width with the fruit, fold the other half over, pinch down the edge and cut into 3 in. lengths.

Tops of cookies may sometimes be brushed with white of egg and water or with syrup of ½ cup each sugar and water boiled together; or, sprinkled with sugar, coriander, chopped nuts or suitable fruits.

Instead of sprinkling cookies with different materials, brush the tops with milk and turn them on to any preparation or mixture desired.

Grated and sifted maple sugar may be used in place of other sugar in cookies by using a somewhat smaller quantity.

Oil and flour pans for baking cookies.

It is a good plan to bake cookies on the bottom of inverted dripping pans. This prevents them from burning on the bottom and it is easier to remove them from the tins.

=★ Rich Small Cakes--Cookies=

(_From an old recipe book of my auntie’s, published in 1846_)

1 cup butter scant 1¼ cup sugar 2⅔-2⅞ cups pastry flour 2 eggs vanilla, almond or any desired flavoring

_By weight_--

½ lb. butter, ½ lb. sugar, 10 ozs. flour.

Cream butter, add sugar, beaten eggs, flavoring and flour; let stand in cold place until thoroughly cold; roll ⅜-½ in. thick. Bake in oven which is moderately hot at first, so cakes will not spread. Be careful not to burn.

A little more flour may be used if preferred, also half oil instead of all butter, and brown sugar instead of granulated.

For _Jumbles_, break off pieces of dough the size of a walnut and make into rings by rolling out rolls as large as the finger and joining the ends; or, cut in rings; dust with sugar.

=Yolk Jumbles=

¼ cup butter ½ cup sugar lemon flavoring yolks 4 eggs scant pint of flour salt

Poach yolks of eggs dry and mealy; rub them smooth and add butter gradually, creaming; add sugar and flavoring, then flour, a little at a time; cool, roll thin, cut with doughnut cutter, dust with sugar, bake.

=★ Cream Cookies=

1½ cup sugar 1 cup thin cream 1 teaspn. vanilla yolks of 3 eggs scant ¾ cup butter and oil half and half about 4½ cups flour

Cream butter and sugar, stir in a little flour, add beaten yolks, beat well, then add the cream gradually with the flavoring, and lastly, all of the flour. Handle after mixing the same as rich small cakes. Fruits, nuts or seeds maybe added. These cookies will keep almost indefinitely.

=Lunch Cakes=

Take ½ the sugar and a little more flour in rich small cakes, or cream cookies, and roll to ½ or 1 in. in thickness. Cut of the size to fit tins, crinkle edges or press with fork, crease in squares and bake in moderate oven. Caraway or other flavoring may be used. Chopped nuts, a little sugar and ground or shredded citron may be mixed on a board or flat pan and one side of the cakes pressed into the mixture before baking. Set in cold place before rolling out.

=Anise Wafers, or German Christmas Cakes=

½ cup butter 1 cup sugar 3 eggs ¾ teaspn. ground anise seed or 1 teaspn. whole seed flour for soft dough

Cream butter, add sugar and a little flour, with seeds, then the yolks of the eggs, one at a time, and the stiffly-beaten whites, with flour, folding together lightly; knead in flour for soft dough, cover and set in cold place; roll rather thin, cut cakes about the size of a half dollar.

=Sour Cream Cookies--no soda=

1½ cup sugar 1 cup thick sour cream yolks 3 eggs scant ¾ cup oil or butter any desired flavoring, fruits nuts or seeds 5-5½ cups pastry flour

Mix lightly, set in cold place, roll rather thin.

=Honey Wafers=

1 cup honey boiled and cooled ⅔ cup butter 2 small eggs or 1 large one pinch salt 5 cups flour

Cream butter with a little flour, add beaten egg and honey, then remainder of flour.

=Molasses Cookies=

¾ cup molasses 2 eggs 1 cup butter ½ cup granulated sugar ½-¾ teaspn. lemon extract 2 tablespns. browned flour about 3½ cups pastry flour

Heat molasses to boiling and pour slowly, stirring, over well beaten eggs; cool; cream butter and sugar, stir in browned flour mixed with a little of the white flour, add flavoring with eggs and molasses, then the remainder of the flour or enough to make a not too soft dough. Set in cold place and roll out the same as small cakes. Care must be taken in baking, as molasses burns easily.

Or, boil and cool molasses, cream butter and sugar, add beaten eggs, a little flour, then molasses gradually, beating well, and finally, the flour.

Browned flour may be omitted and a few drops of rose extract used in flavoring.

=★ Molasses Cakes--no eggs=

1¼ cup oil or butter 2 cups molasses orange or lemon rind or coriander, anise, rose or vanilla flavoring pastry flour

Cream butter with a little flour, add molasses which has been boiled and cooled, with flavoring, and flour for stiff dough, about 2¼ qts. Mix as little as possible, cover and set in cold place for several hours. Shape into small thick cakes, or, roll about ½ in. thick, prick with fork or crease and cut into small cakes. Bake in moderate oven. Remove from tins as soon as baked.

With nice flavored molasses, no other flavoring is necessary. More shortening may be used.

=★ Molasses Snaps--no eggs=

½ cup oil or butter, or half of each 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 2 cups molasses flavoring more flour

Cream butter, sugar and the 2 cups of flour, pour hot molasses over, add flavoring and flour for stiff dough, perhaps about 6 cups; press together lightly, set in cold place for several hours; roll thin, bake in moderately quick oven and remove from tins at once. These cakes will be brittle when first made and will grow softer with time. One cup of butter may be used for richer cakes.

=Nut Wafers=

1 cup chopped English walnut, pecan or hickory nut meats 1 cup dark brown sugar 2 eggs 4 level tablespns. flour salt

Beat eggs, add sugar gradually, beating well; then add flour, salt and nuts. Mix, spread as thin as possible on buttered pans, set in cold place, bake in quick oven. When nearly cold, cut into squares.

=Nut Cakes--Bro. Hurdon=

1 cup chopped nut meats 1 cup sugar 1 cup flour 1 egg

Mix, drop on well oiled tins some distance apart, bake. Remove from tins when taken from the oven.

=Hard Sponge Cakes=

Cream together ¼ cup butter and 1 cup sugar, add 1 well beaten egg and 1 cup of flour to which has been added a pinch of salt; stir in 1 cup chopped nut meats; drop in spoonfuls on buttered tins and flatten or shape a little; bake in moderate oven.

=Risen Doughnuts--Baked=

_Sponge_--

1 cup milk ⅔ cake compressed yeast 2 cups flour

Add dissolved yeast and flour to warm milk, beat well, let rise.

_When light_--

½ cup sugar 5 tablespns. oil or melted butter vanilla, lemon, coriander or anise for flavoring 2-2½ cups flour ¼ teaspn. salt

Beat oil and sugar together with a little flour, add flavoring, salt and light sponge, gradually, beating; then enough flour for a moderately stiff dough; knead a little and let rise. When well risen, roll ½ or ¾ in. thick, cut with doughnut cutter and place on floured, oiled tins some distance apart. Let rise, bake.

Roll in sugar with or without ground coriander seed or chopped nuts before laying on tins, if desired, or moisten with sugar syrup or white of egg and water and roll in sugar after baking.

Another half-spoon of oil may be added to sponge, with 1 white and 2 yolks of eggs well beaten, but eggs are not necessary. If a yellow color is desired, use a little saffron. Mix softer when eggs are used.

=Risen Doughnuts=

_Sponge_--

1 cup skimmed milk ⅔ cake compressed, or 2 tablespns. soft yeast 2 cups flour

_When light_--

3 tablespns. oil or melted butter ½ cup sugar salt flavouring yolk of 1 egg or not flour for rather stiff dough

Proceed as in baked doughnuts, lay on floured board, cover; when very light, fry in cooking or olive oil, hot enough for the cakes to rise to the top almost instantly. Turn at once with a fork. ⅓ of a cup of oil may be used in the cakes and 1 whole well beaten egg.

Our grandmothers’ twisted doughnuts are dear to all our hearts.

Sometimes roll the dough thin, cut with biscuit cutter and put a teaspoonful of some jelly or jam on one side, fold the other side over, having moistened the edges, press well together, fry when light, roll in sugar. Baked doughnuts may be prepared the same.

=Crullers=

⅓-½ cup butter ⅓-½ cup sugar 3 eggs (separate if desired) flour for soft dough

Mix, chill, roll thin, cut in strips 3½ in. long and 2 in. wade; cut 2 slits in each piece and give each strip of dough a twist. Fry in oil or bake in oven. When to be fried, use the smaller quantity of butter and sugar.

Crullers may have 4 incisions made lengthwise to within ⅓ of an in. of each end. To fry, take up the second and fourth strips and let the others separate in the middle from those in the hand as you drop them into the hot oil. For baking, it is better to twist the strips.

=Fried Cakes=

1 cup milk 2 eggs ¾ cup sugar salt, flour 3 tablespns. oil or melted butter

Add sugar and yolks of eggs to cold milk, agitate with wire batter whip until full of bubbles, sprinkle flour in gradually, keeping up the agitating motion. When the batter is quite stiff, beat in the oil gradually, and chop in the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs. Add flour for rather stiff dough and set in cold place for 2 hrs. or longer. Shape and fry the same as risen doughnuts.

ICINGS AND FILLINGS FOR CAKES

Starch, which is changed into sugar in the process of digestion, and cane sugar, form so large a part of all cakes as to furnish in themselves an excess of that element; so why should we put a coating of almost solid sugar over the outside? Certainly not for hygienic reasons. If a cake is well baked, the icing only hides its beauty, and the excessive sweetness destroys the flavors of the finest cake. Let us not use it. Protest and recipes are both given.

Instead of icing, sometimes sift granulated, brown or powdered sugar over the top of the loaf of cake, or over one layer to be used for the top, before baking.

Glaze the top of molasses cookies or cakes before baking with a mixture of 1 yolk of egg and 2 tablespns. of milk.

Sprinkle half a cup of chopped or ground blanched almonds or other nuts over the top of the cake just before it goes into the oven, and cover the cake until nearly done to prevent browning the nuts.

The tops of cakes may be brushed after baking with equal parts of molasses and milk mixed.

=Water Icing=

The simplest of icings is granulated, powdered or xxxx confectioner’s sugar formed into a paste so that it will run just smooth, by the addition of hot or cold water. That made from granulated sugar must be made with hot water and be pretty stiff. It takes longer to dry and is more likely to run; that from powdered sugar is also quite likely to run. The icing made from confectioner’s sugar is the most satisfactory. It is usually made with cold water, but one authority recommends hot water very positively.

One recipe for granulated sugar frosting is--

1 cup sugar, 1 tablespn. boiling water, beat until it will spread.

=Fruit Juice Icing=

Stir rolled and sifted confectioner’s sugar into any desired fruit juice until of the right consistency to spread; use a knife dipped in cold water to smooth the icing; 1-1½ tablespn. of liquid will be enough for the top of a medium sized loaf of cake.

If you have never made such an icing, you will be surprised to see how much sugar a little liquid will take. More icing is quickly made if you do not have enough.

When juices of different fruits are used in their season, the top of the cake may be decorated with the fruit whole, in halves or in slices. For instance, slices from the heart of strawberries, or, halves of red raspberries. The fruit may also be placed between the layers of the cake.

=Cream Icing=

Stir confectioner’s sugar into cream, plain or whipped, for both filling and icing.

If you have a little of these icings left over, cover it and set in a cold place, and add more liquid and sugar to it the next time.

=White of Egg Icing--Miss Stokes=

white of 1 egg 1 tablespn. ice water speck of salt 1 cup confectioner’s sugar flavoring

Beat white of egg with water, flavoring and salt to a stiff dry froth; add sugar until of the right consistency to spread, if too stiff, add quickly 1 teaspn. of cream or a few drops of water.

The icing is sometimes made by mixing the water and egg without beating and stirring the sugar in, making a smoother and more tender frosting. May use powdered sugar.

=White of Egg Icing with Lemon Juice=

white of 1 egg 1 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespn. lemon juice ½ teaspn. vanilla

Put the white of egg into a bowl and add the sugar by degrees, beating; when the sugar is all in, add lemon juice and vanilla.

=Golden Icing=

Yolks of 2 or 3 eggs and powdered sugar to make stiff enough to spread, about 1 cupful for 3 yolks; vanilla or orange flavoring or both. Beat until thick and creamy.

For an orange cake, use the juice and grated rind of a small orange to 3 yolks with the powdered sugar, and use for filling and icing. Sections of orange may be laid on top. Confectioner’s sugar may be used.

=★ Butter Frosting--almost like whipped cream=

Work together 1 cup confectioner’s sugar and 1 level tablespn. of butter. Flavor with vanilla. Add 1¼-1½ tablespn. of milk. Beat well.

=Jelly Icing=

Beat a glass of jelly, a little at a time, into the whites of 2 eggs. If the jelly is very tart, use 2-3 tablespns. powdered sugar. Prepare the icing some little time before it is to be used and set on ice. Elder-berry jelly gives a delightful flavor and beautiful color. Quince is also nice.

=Boiled Icing=

1 cup granulated sugar ⅓ cup water white of 1 egg ½ teaspn. vanilla, or the proper proportion of any desired flavoring

Stir sugar and water together over the fire until sugar is dissolved, then boil without stirring until the syrup will spin in threads when dropped from the tines of a fork, or until a hard ball is formed when dropped into cold water. Pour slowly over the stiffly-beaten white of egg, beating briskly, until stiff enough to spread. If the icing gets too stiff, set over hot water or thin with a trifle of lemon or other fruit juice, or hot water. ½-1 teaspn. of lemon juice added to the white of egg when about half beaten will make the icing more creamy. Some beat the white of egg slightly, only.

2 or 3 whites may be used with this quantity of syrup. One writes that she turns her syrup on to a platter and allows it to become perfectly cold before beating in the eggs, and she thinks it is much smoother and nicer.

One combination of flavors is, ¼ teaspn. each vanilla, orange and strawberry, or 1 or 2 drops of rose in place of strawberry.

Bro. Cornforth’s directions are excellent: “Boil the sugar and water till it threads well, not just till it begins to thread; then set the dish off the stove and cover tight while you beat the whites stiff; then pour the hot syrup in a small stream into the whites, beating continuously; beat till it becomes cool enough to spread on the cake.”

=Boiled Milk Icing--no egg=

1 cup granulated sugar 4 tablespns. milk, with or without a little butter or 1½ cup sugar and ½ cup milk

Boil 5 m., or until syrup stiffens in cold water; stir until thick enough to spread.

=Caramel Icing--no egg=

1½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup cream. Boil until syrup stiffens when dropped in water. Substitute ⅔ cup sour cream for sweet, with brown or granulated sugar.

=Boiled Maple Icing--no egg=

Add ¾ cup sweet cream to 2 cups rolled or grated maple sugar. Boil slowly until mixture will thread. Cool about half, stir in ½ cup chopped English walnut meats, beat until creamy, and spread over cake.

Half granulated sugar may be used, and ½ cup of milk with a little butter substituted for the cream.

=Maple Syrup Icing and Filling=

Boil ¾-1 cup of maple syrup until it will form a soft ball in cold water. Pour over beaten white of egg. Beat until stiff enough to spread. If desired, stir in ½ cup of rolled butternut meats just before spreading on the cake. The syrup may be boiled until it threads.

=Whipped Cream=

Flavored with vanilla is delightful, of course, on the top of thin loaves of cake cut in squares. Or, for filling, with chopped, blanched almonds, dry, fine-cut stewed prunes, or slices of banana.