The Project Gutenberg eBook of The cake and biscuit book, by Elizabeth Douglas

Title: The cake and biscuit book

Author: Elizabeth Douglas

Release Date: May 21, 2022 [eBook #68137]
Last Updated: July 7, 2022/p>

Language: English

Produced by: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

The New Cookery Books

II
The Cake and Biscuit Book

By ELIZABETH DOUGLAS.

Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 2s. each.

I.

THE SOUP AND SAUCE BOOK.

II.

THE CAKE AND BISCUIT BOOK.

III.

THE PASTRY AND SWEET BOOK.

The recipes in this book are English, French, Portuguese and Dutch; while some of the best come from America, which is the true land of cakes. All are good: the best I have starred.

Amateur cooks should know that for cakes to be successful it is almost imperative that they are made and baked by the same person. Delegation too often means ruin, the bond of sympathy between maker and baker being only in very rare instances sufficiently close to defeat the imp of mischief that lurks in every oven.

Lastly, I might say that the eggs cannot be too fresh, nor the butter too pure; and molasses is better than treacle.

E. D. [Pg vii]

[Pg 1]

Utensils.—Use earthenware bowls and wooden spoons for mixing.

Several sets of tins are necessary if cake is to be made often. One or two ordinary round tins, a tin with a hollow tube in the centre, square tins, and shallow round tins about 8 inches in diameter for jam sandwich and layer cakes, should be kept. A small dripping-pan is very good to bake gingerbread in, and for very light cakes the German tin with a loose bottom should be used. These tins are excellent, for the bottom can be pushed up, away from the sides, and there is no danger of the cake being broken in taking it out of the tin. They can be bought at Harrod’s Stores, Brompton Road.

Measuring.—Flour, sugar, salt, ground spices, soda, must always be sifted before measuring. This is of the utmost importance in making good cakes.

A cup is a breakfast-cup holding half a pint. The spoons are the silver ones in general use.

[Pg 2]

A spoonful of dry material is one in which the convexity at the top corresponds to the concavity of the spoon. A scant spoonful should be made level with the edges of the spoon.

In measuring half a tea-spoon of dry material, fill it first, and then divide it with a knife long-ways down the spoon.

A “heaping cupful” is a cup filled as full as it will hold. A “cupful” should be levelled. A “scant cupful” should not be filled above about quarter of an inch from the top.

It is necessary to remember in measuring half or quarter cups that a cup is smaller at the bottom than the top. It is more satisfactory measuring to have half-pint measures marked into quarters.

Table of Measures

4 cups flour = 1 quart or 1 lb.
2 cups of butter (solid) = 1 lb.
2¹⁄₂ cups powdered sugar = 1 lb.
1 cup = ¹⁄₂ pint
1 glass = ¹⁄₂ pint
1 pint milk or water = 1 lb.
9 large eggs = 1 lb.
1 table-spoon butter = 1 oz.
1 heaping table-spoon butter = 2 ozs.
Butter the size of an egg = 2 ozs.

Baking Powder.—Baking powder can be used in the making of most cakes. In some however[Pg 3] the proportion of carbonate of soda and cream of tartar of which it consists is not right, in which case the two ingredients should be used separately according to the directions. Almost invariably soda should be mixed with milk or water, which should then be strained in order to keep back any dregs. Cream of tartar should be mixed with the flour, which should then be sifted. Both cream of tartar and soda should be pulverized before they are measured or used.

Baking powder can be bought, or made as follows:—

1 part carbonate of soda
2 parts cream of tartar

It should be kept in an air-tight tin.

In nearly all cases baking powder is best mixed with the flour, which should then be sifted through a fine sieve.

To clean currants.—Sprinkle the currants with flour, put them on a coarse sieve and rub them until the stems and grit are separated and go through the sieve. Then wash thoroughly in water, changing it until clear. Drain on a towel and pick over. Dry, if the weather permits, in the sun, not in an oven.

To stone raisins.—Pour boiling water over the raisins, and let them stand in it for ten minutes.[Pg 4] Drain and rub each raisin between finger and thumb till the seeds come out. Cut open or chop.

Sultanas.—Pick over sultanas carefully, removing the little stems.

To blanch almonds.—Put the almonds into boiling water and let them soak in it until the skins rub off easily between the finger and thumb. Drain and spread out to dry.

To pound almonds.—After blanching let them soak for an hour in cold water, then pound in a good sized mortar until reduced to a soft pulp. Whilst pounding add a few drops of orange-flower water or lemon juice.

Mixing.—There are three ways of mixing. Stirring, Beating, Cutting (or Folding).

To stir.—Let the spoon touch the bottom and sides of the basin and move it round quickly in circles of various sizes. Do not lift it out of the mixture, and work well against the sides.

To beat.—Tip the bowl to one side. Bring the spoon or fork quickly down into the mixture and through it, take it out the other side and bring it over and down again, scraping the sides well each time it goes in.

It is important to keep the bowl of the spoon well scraped out during mixing.

Beat quickly and hard.

[Pg 5]

To cut or fold.—Turn over the mixture with a spoon and lift it up, folding in the white of egg as lightly as possible. Do not stir or beat but mix very gently until quite blended.

To beat eggs.—It is generally best to beat the yolks and whites separately. For beating them there is nothing better than a Dover egg beater, although a fork can be used for the yolks and a steel knife for the whites.

Beat the yolks in a bowl until they thicken and become light and creamy.

Beat the whites on a platter until they are stiff and absolutely dry.

To beat butter.—In beating butter to a cream, if very hard it can be slightly warmed in the oven or put into a hot bowl, but it must on no account be melted. It should just be softened in order to make it more easy to beat it.

To grease and fill tins.—Tins can be greased with fresh butter, lard or sweet oil. Sides and bottom should be evenly but not thickly smeared with grease.

When a tin is to be lined with paper, cut a piece to fit the bottom exactly, another piece to go right round the sides. This piece should project two or three inches above the top of the tin.

Grease the papers thoroughly before putting them in the tin.

[Pg 6]

Fill the tins two-thirds full, leaving a very slight depression in the centre if a flat cake is wanted, as the tendency is to rise in the middle.

The oven.—Nearly all cakes should be baked in a moderate oven, and the fire should be so made up before putting a cake in the oven, that it will not have to be touched again until the cake is taken out. If this is impossible, owing to the length of time it takes, add a little coal frequently to the fire instead of letting it down and making it up with a great deal of fuel.

In baking in a gas stove, it is important that there should be no draughts from window or door.

Set the cake in the middle of the oven and do not move it until it has risen its full height, which will take about half the time in which it is baked. For the first quarter of an hour it is not necessary to look at the cake unless there is a fear that the oven is too hot. Afterwards do so occasionally, opening and shutting the oven door very gently and never taking the cake out. After it has fully risen, the cake can be turned round if it is baking quicker on one side than the other.

Do not have anything else in the oven while baking a cake.

For layer cakes and thin cakes make up a larger fire. They should bake quickly.

[Pg 7]

To test whether a cake is done, put a clean straw or skewer into the thickest part of it. If it comes out clean the cake is done.

To remove cakes from tins.—With a few exceptions cakes should be taken out of their tins directly they come out of the oven. Turn the tin upside down, and, if necessary, loosen the sides with a knife. Set on a sieve to cool.

To all cake mixtures add a little salt, sifting it with the flour in the proportion of a small salt-spoon of salt to every half-pint of flour.

Keep flour and sugar in a dry place, or dry thoroughly before using.

[Pg 10]

General Directions

In making sponge cakes, beat the yolks till creamy and thick. Add the sugar gradually, beating all the time. Add the flavouring. Beat the whites until perfectly dry and very stiff. Stir them lightly in. Sift in the flour and mix as lightly as possible. Do not beat after the flour is added. Line the tins with greased paper and bake at once.

[Pg 11]

*American Sponge Cake

³⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
7 eggs
Grated rind of a lemon
3 tea-spoons lemon juice
1 gill cold water

Break the eggs in a basin leaving out the whites of two. Add to the eggs the lemon peel and juice. Boil the sugar and water together until clear. Pour the syrup gently over the unbeaten eggs, and beat quickly and well for fifteen minutes. Sift the flour three times and stir it lightly into the mixture. Bake in square flat tins. Use the whites to make an icing.

Berwick Sponge Cake

6 eggs
9 ozs. powdered sugar
12 ozs. sifted flour
2 even tea-spoons cream of tartar
1 even tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1 lemon

Beat the eggs, yolks and whites together, with the sugar until very light. This should take about half-an-hour. Take half of the flour and[Pg 12] sift it gradually into the eggs and sugar. Mix the cream of tartar with a gill of water, and add it to the mixture. Beat for a minute. Add the rest of the flour and the juice and rind of the lemon. Add a little salt. Mix well. Dissolve the carbonate of soda in four table-spoons of hot water. Stir it carefully in. Beat again. Bake in large square or oblong tins in a quick oven.

*Gateau de Savoie

¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
12 yolks of eggs
6 whites ”
1 whole egg
5 ozs. potato flour
5 ozs. finest flour
The grated peel of a lemon and a half

Grate the lemon very finely. Mix it thoroughly with the sugar. Set it where it will become very dry. Dry the flours and sift them.

Beat the yolks, the whole egg and the sugar together until very light and creamy. This should take about half-an-hour. Then sift in the flour and potato flour gently, and beat lightly with a whisk. Add the whites, which should be whisked to a stiff froth. Mix lightly.

Butter a mould and sprinkle powdered sugar in it. Pour the mixture into it gently. Set the[Pg 13] mould in a moderate oven, over a tin containing hot ashes, and put a piece of greased paper over the cake. Bake for about an hour.

Milanese Cake

4 eggs
Their weight in sugar
2 ozs. flour
2 ozs. potato flour
Juice and rind of half a lemon
Handful of sultanas

Set aside two whites, and whisk them to a stiff froth. Put the flour and sugar in a basin. Mix them. Make a hole in the centre, break the eggs into it. Mix altogether and beat for quarter of an hour. Add the beaten whites, a large handful of sultanas, and the lemon. Bake three quarters of an hour in a well greased mould in a moderate oven.

*Sponge Cake

4 eggs
Their weight in powdered sugar
The weight of two eggs in flour

Put the sugar (with which should be included several lumps which have been well rubbed on a lemon and then crushed) into a basin and break[Pg 14] the eggs on to it. Beat with a steel carving fork until the mixture becomes thick and creamy, which should take from twenty to thirty minutes. Stir in the flour as lightly as possible. Put into a tin lined with buttered paper, and bake at once in a moderate oven.

[Pg 16]

*Almond Cake—I

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. sweet almonds
10 bitter almonds
1 lb. white sugar
8 eggs
1 wine-glass brandy

Blanch and pound the almonds. Beat the yolks and sugar together till light and creamy. Whisk the whites to a stiff froth. Add them to the butter and sugar.

Stir in the flour until thoroughly mixed. Add the almonds. Bake in a tin lined with greased paper, in a moderate oven for an hour and a half.

Almond Cake—II

7 eggs
¹⁄₂ lb. sifted sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. almonds

Blanch and pound the almonds. Beat up the yolks of the eggs for ten minutes. Add the sugar. Beat again thoroughly. Add the almonds. When well mixed add the whites, which should be beaten stiff. Bake in a German tin (see p. 1).

[Pg 17]

*Angel Cake

¹⁄₂ pint fine flour
1 tea-spoon cream of tartar
³⁄₄ pint powdered sugar
11 whites of eggs
3 tea-spoons vanilla

Add the cream of tartar to the flour. Sift five times. Sift the sugar. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Stir the sugar lightly into the whites of eggs. Add the vanilla. Add the flour. Stir in lightly and quickly. Pour into a clean bright tin. It must not be buttered. Bake in a moderate oven for forty minutes. When done leave in the tin, inverted on its edge (not completely upside down) on a sieve until cold.

Cocoanut Cake

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
4 whites of eggs
1 small cup milk
1 tea-spoon baking powder
¹⁄₂ small cocoanut grated

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Sift the flour with the baking powder. Add it to the mixture gradually moistening it with the milk.[Pg 18] When thoroughly mixed add the grated cocoanut. Beat for ten minutes. Stir in the whites beaten to a stiff froth very lightly. Bake immediately in a buttered tin in a moderate oven.

*Cocoanut Pound Cake

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
1 lb. sifted flour
1 lb. powdered sugar
2 tea-spoons baking powder
1 tea-spoon grated lemon peel
¹⁄₄ lb. grated or desiccated cocoanut
4 eggs
1 cupful milk

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat again. Add the sifted flour (in which the baking powder has been mixed), well-beaten eggs and milk alternately in small quantities. Stir all well together. Add the cocoanut and lemon peel. Beat well together.

Use shallow square tins. Butter them and line as well with buttered paper. Pour the mixture in to the depth of an inch and a half. Bake in a quick oven. Ice while hot and set back in the oven for a moment to dry.

[Pg 19]

Dutch Almond Cake

1 lb. sweet almonds
¹⁄₂ oz. bitter almonds
1 lb. powdered sugar
12 eggs
5 table-spoons pounded biscuit or flour
Rose water

Blanch and pound the almonds, adding to them a little rose water. Beat up the yolks. Add them to the sugar and beat thoroughly together. Then add the whites, whisked to a stiff froth, and the pounded almonds. Add the finely crushed biscuits or flour. Bake in a moderate oven in a German tin lined with greased paper.

Eversley Cake

5 ozs. butter
6 ozs. best flour
3 eggs
5 ozs. castor sugar
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon baking powder
¹⁄₄ lb. mixed peel

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar, then the flour, and well-beaten eggs, the sliced peel and lastly the baking powder. Beat altogether for twenty minutes and bake in a good oven for an hour.

[Pg 20]

Lady Cake

1 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups flour
¹⁄₂ cup milk
Whites of 8 eggs
2 tea-spoons cream of tartar
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1 tea-spoon extract of almonds

Beat the butter to a cream. Stir in the sugar gradually, beating hard all the time. Mix the cream of tartar with the flour, and the soda with the milk. Add flour and milk alternately in small quantities, beating continually. Add the flavouring, and then stir in the stiffly-beaten whites lightly. Bake in a moderate oven in a tin lined with greased paper.

*Potato Flour Cake

1 lb. butter
11 eggs
1 lb. sugar
1 lb. potato flour
1 wine-glass rum

Soften the butter. Then beat it until very light and creamy. Add to it alternately one whole egg, one table-spoon flour, one table-spoon sugar,[Pg 21] beating well between each addition. When about half the materials are used add the rum. Add the rest of the ingredients alternately as before. From first to last the cake should be beaten for an hour. Bake in a buttered tin for one hour and a half to two hours.

*Pound Cake—I

1 lb. butter
1 lb. powdered sugar
10 eggs
1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ wine-glass sherry
¹⁄₂ wine-glass brandy

Cream the butter. Add the sugar and well beaten yolks. Beat thoroughly. Add the flour and wine, beating all the time. Stir in the whites, which should be whisked to a stiff froth. Bake in three or four small well greased tins in a moderate oven, as this cake is always lighter if baked in small tins. Crystallised cherries halved are an excellent addition to a pound cake. They should be thoroughly mixed in the cake before the whites are added.

[Pg 22]

Pound Cake—II

1 lb. flour
1 lb. eggs
1 lb. sugar
³⁄₄ lb. butter
1 glass brandy

Beat the butter and half of the flour until light and creamy. Add the brandy. Beat the yolks thoroughly and add them alternately with the stiffly beaten whites and the rest of the flour. Beat all together for half-an-hour. Bake in two tins in a moderate oven for about an hour.

*Rice Cake—I

6 yolks
3 whites
Grated peel of one lemon
4 ozs. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. ground rice
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar

Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the grated rind to the yolks. Beat again and add the whites. Mix well. Mix the flour, rice and sugar together. Add the eggs gradually, beating continually for about an hour. Bake in a tin lined with greased paper in a slow oven for about an hour.

[Pg 23]

Rice Cake—II

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2¹⁄₄ cups rice flour
6 eggs
Juice and grated rind of a lemon

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Add the well beaten yolks and the flour. Beat thoroughly for five minutes. Add the lemon juice and rind and the stiffly beaten whites.

Bake in shallow square tins in which the depth of the mixture when poured in is less than two inches.

Bake thirty-five to forty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

Rice Cake—III

4 ozs. butter
2 eggs
4 ozs. powdered sugar
4 ozs. ground rice
6 ozs. flour
1 tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the butter to a cream and add the sugar. Beat the eggs till creamy and light, and add them with the flour (in which the baking powder should be mixed) and ground rice. Add a little[Pg 24] milk and a few drops of essence of lemon or vanilla. Bake in a moderate oven for three quarters of an hour.

*Snow Cake

1 lb. arrowroot
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
Whites of six eggs
Vanilla or lemon flavouring

Beat the butter to a cream. Stir in the sugar and beat well again. Add the arrowroot, beating all the time vigorously. Whisk the whites to a stiff froth. Add them to the mixture. Beat all together for twenty minutes. Add a little vanilla or the juice or rind of a lemon. Bake in a buttered mould in a moderate oven for from one hour to one hour and a half.

*White Cake—I

1 cup butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup milk
5 cups sifted flour
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda
2 tea-spoons cream of tartar
Whites of twelve eggs
1 tea-spoon vanilla

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat well. Add the soda to the milk and the[Pg 25] cream of tartar to the flour. Add flour and milk to the mixture, beating hard all the time. Beat the eggs to a stiff froth. Add them and the vanilla. Bake in two tins lined with greased paper. The oven should be slow at first, then moderate.

White Cake—II

3 cups sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1 cup sweet milk
2 tea-spoons cream of tartar
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda
3 cups flour
Whites of four eggs

Mix as for the first receipt.

*White Cake—III

3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup milk
3 cups flour
1 cup corn starch
12 whites of eggs
2 tea-spoons cream of tartar
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda

Mix the cream of tartar thoroughly with the flour and dissolve the soda in half of the milk. Stir the cornflour in the rest of the milk until perfectly smooth.

[Pg 26]

Beat the butter and yolks together until creamy. Add the corn starch paste. Stir it well in. Add the milk and soda and the flour. Beat the whites to a stiff froth and stir in lightly. Bake in two papered tins in a moderate oven.

[Pg 28]

General Directions

The tins for these cakes should be about 8 inches in diameter with a very shallow rim. They should be kept perfectly clean, and before being used should be slightly warmed and well greased with butter, lard or good sweet oil.

Three layers are sufficient for a cake. They should not be thick.

Cool each layer when baked on a perfectly flat surface and spread with the filling when cold.

[Pg 29]

Layer Cake—I

3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
Butter size of an egg
1 cup flour
1 even tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Add the well beaten yolks and then the flour, in which the baking powder has been thoroughly mixed. Beat the whites till stiff.

Bake in three round shallow buttered tins in a moderate oven. When cold, place one round on a large plate and spread it with jelly, jam or other filling. Cover it with another round and spread this. Ice the top. If jam is used it should be beaten or warmed a little in order that it may spread more easily.

Layer Cake—II

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
5 eggs
6 ozs. flour
2 ozs. cornflour
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
1 tea-spoon vanilla
2 table-spoons sherry

Beat butter to a cream. Add sugar gradually, beating all the time. Then add the yolks, the[Pg 30] flour and corn starch. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Add them and the flavourings to the mixture. Bake in three tins for fifteen minutes, in a moderately quick oven.

Layer Cake—III

8 ozs. sugar
5 eggs
¹⁄₄ lb. butter
1 tea-cup milk
12 ozs. flour
1 tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the sugar with the eggs for fifteen minutes. Melt the butter and add it. Beat again very thoroughly. Add the baking powder to the flour and sift it. Add it and the milk to the mixture, beating continually.

Layer Cake—IV

6 eggs
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 heaped table-spoons butter
¹⁄₃ cup milk
2 tea-spoons cream of tartar
1 scant tea-spoon carbonate of soda

Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the sugar to the yolks. Beat thoroughly. Add the butter, which should be softened but not[Pg 31] melted. Dissolve the soda in a tea-spoon of boiling water. Add it to the milk. Sift the cream of tartar with the flour. Add the flour and milk to the mixture and then the whites. Bake in a moderate oven in shallow round tins.

Almond Cream Filling

1 lb. sweet almonds
1 small cup cream
2 table-spoons corn starch
Powdered sugar to taste

Cook the corn starch for ten minutes in as small a quantity of milk as is possible. Blanch the almonds and pound them to a paste. Beat the cream. Mix the almonds, cream and corn starch together and beat thoroughly. Add the powdered sugar.

Chocolate Filling—I

3 whites of eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup grated chocolate
Vanilla

Beat the white of eggs slightly. Mix all well together.

[Pg 32]

Chocolate Filling—II

5 table-spoons grated chocolate
¹⁄₂ cup cream
1 cupful sugar
1 egg
1 tea-spoon vanilla

Beat the egg well. Add it to the chocolate and cream. Stir over the fire till thoroughly mixed. Flavour with vanilla.

Cocoanut Filling—I

¹⁄₂ cup cream
¹⁄₂ cup grated cocoanut
¹⁄₂ cup powdered sugar

1. Beat the cream slightly. Add the sugar and cocoanut.

2. Add a small cup of finely grated cocoanut to some plain icing (see p. 65).

Cocoanut Filling—II

¹⁄₂ cocoanut
Whites of three eggs
1 cup powdered sugar

Grate the cocoanut. Add it with the sugar to the whites beaten to a stiff froth.

[Pg 33]

Cream Filling—I

1 pint milk
2 eggs
3 table-spoons sifted flour
1 cup powdered sugar

Cook the flour, mixed smooth, in a little milk for ten minutes. Add it to the milk in which the eggs (or yolks only) have been beaten up. Put all in an enamel saucepan. Add the sugar. Stir continually but take off before it boils. Add flavouring.

Cream Filling—II

¹⁄₂ cup cream
2 table-spoons powdered sugar
Flavouring

Whip the cream. Add the sugar and a very little flavouring.

Fig Filling

1 lb. figs
1 tea-cup water
¹⁄₂ tea-cup sugar

Chop the figs finely. Cook them with the water and sugar until soft and smooth.

[Pg 34]

Fruit Filling

4 table-spoons citron
4 ” raisins
¹⁄₂ cupful chopped almonds
¹⁄₄ lb. chopped figs
3 whites of eggs
¹⁄₂ cup sugar

Chop the citron and stoned raisins very fine. Chop the almonds and figs. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Add the sugar. Mix together thoroughly. Add the other ingredients.

Orange and Cocoanut Cream Filling

1 egg
1 cup whipped cream
¹⁄₂ cup powdered sugar
1 cup grated cocoanut
Juice of one orange
Grated rind of half an orange

Mix all together.

Strawberry Cream Filling

¹⁄₂ pint cream
¹⁄₂ cup powdered sugar
¹⁄₄ oz. gelatine
1 cup mashed strawberries

Whip the cream. Set it on ice. Add the sugar to the strawberries. Mash them. Mix[Pg 35] them with the cream. Dissolve the gelatine. Add it carefully to the cream and strawberries. Stir over the ice until the cream begins to set. Leave the mixture on the ice until the cake is ready to serve. Spread it thickly between each layer.

Californian Fig Cake

1 cup sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1 cup flour
¹⁄₂ cup cornflour
¹⁄₂ cup sweet milk
Whites of three eggs

Filling

¹⁄₂ lb. almonds
6 ozs. figs
¹⁄₂ cup seeded raisins
2 ozs. citron
1 egg
1 glass white wine

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar and beat again. Sift the flours together. Add them and the milk. Beat very well and add the whites beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in two shallow tins in a quick oven.

For the filling. Chop all the ingredients very finely together. Mix them with the egg and wine. Spread in a thick layer between the two cakes.

[Pg 36]

*Coffee Cake

7 ozs. flour, sifted and dried
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
7 ozs. butter
1 table-spoon potato flour
7 eggs
2 table-spoons brandy

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar and beat well again. Beat up the yolks, add them and the flour, in which the potato flour should be mixed, to the butter and sugar. Stir in the brandy. Mix all well together. Beat the whites to a stiff froth and stir in lightly. Bake in a mould with a tube in centre.

Cream

Whites of four eggs
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ wine-glass extract of coffee
¹⁄₂ lb. butter

Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Sift in the sugar. Add the coffee extract. Beat the butter to a cream. Add the mixture to it and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Cut the cake across, when cold, into several sections, spread the cream between each layer. Put together neatly. Fill the hollow in the centre with the cream, and spread it all over the cake.

[Pg 37]

Fruit Layer Cake

1 cup sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1¹⁄₂ cups flour
¹⁄₂ cup wine
1 cup stoned and chopped raisins
2 eggs
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon soda

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Add the flour, the well beaten yolks, and the wine gradually, beating all the time. Dissolve the soda in a very little hot water. Add it to the mixture, and the raisins chopped and floured. Stir in the wine and the whites beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in a moderate oven in three shallow round tins. Put plain icing between each layer.

*Jam Sandwich—I

2 eggs
Their weight in flour and powdered sugar
A little less than their weight in butter
1 small tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the eggs well beaten, then the sugar and flour and, lastly, the baking powder. It is an improvement if the sugar includes four or five lumps of sugar which have been well rubbed on a lemon and then[Pg 38] crushed. Bake in two shallow buttered tins (about 8¹⁄₂ inches) in a moderate oven, about fifteen minutes. When cold spread one round with jam. Place the second round on it. Press it lightly down and sift powdered sugar over it.

Jam Sandwich—II

1 egg
Its weight in butter, sugar, flour and ground rice
1 tea-spoon milk
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the butter and sugar together. Add the unbeaten egg, then the flour, ground rice, milk and, lastly, the baking powder. Bake in two shallow well-buttered round tins (8 inch) for ten to fifteen minutes. Proceed as above.

Lemon Layer Cake

10 eggs
1 lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
2 lemons
1 orange
1¹⁄₄ lb. icing sugar

Beat the yolks well together. Add seven whites beaten until stiff, the sugar, the rind of two[Pg 39] lemons and the juice of one. Bake in separate layers in a moderate oven.

Beat the remaining whites (3) and add to them gradually the icing sugar. Set aside sufficient to ice the outside of the cake. To the rest add the juice of the orange and half of the rind grated. Wait until the cake is nearly cold and then spread the layers with the mixture.

Add a little lemon juice to the icing for the top and sides and spread it on as thickly as possible.

Ribbon Cake

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1 table-spoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tea-spoon vanilla
1 tea-spoon mixed mace and cinnamon
1 cup stoned and floured chopped raisins and currants
1 table-spoon molasses or treacle
1 dessert-spoon brandy

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Add the well beaten yolks and beat all together thoroughly. Add the flour (with which the baking powder has been thoroughly mixed) and[Pg 40] the milk. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Stir them lightly into the mixture. Add the vanilla.

Divide the mixture into three parts. To one part add the spice, raisins, currants, molasses and brandy. Mix thoroughly.

Bake the three parts on separate shallow, round or oblong tins for half-an-hour in a moderate oven. When cold spread a layer of light cake with plain icing or red-currant jelly. Put the layer of dark cake over it. Ice this layer or spread jelly on it and cover with the second layer of light cake. Press lightly together and trim.

Swiss Roll

2 eggs
Their weight in powdered sugar
3 ozs. flour
1 small tea-spoon baking powder

Break the eggs on to the sugar. Beat until light and creamy. Add the flour gradually, beating continually. Stir in the baking powder. Bake in a large flat tin which should be thoroughly greased. Spread the mixture over it and bake quickly for seven to ten minutes. Turn out at once on to a board on which sugar has been sifted. Spread with jam and roll.

[Pg 42]

Buttercup Cake

³⁄₄ cup butter
1¹⁄₂ cups sugar
Yolks of eight eggs
1 whole egg
¹⁄₂ cup milk
2 cups flour
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1¹⁄₂ tea-spoons cream of tartar
Juice and grated rind of half a lemon

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat thoroughly. Beat the eggs till light and frothy. Add to the butter. Dissolve the soda in the milk. Mix the cream of tartar with the flour. Add milk and flour to the mixture, beating well continually. Add the lemon juice and rind. Bake in two greased tins in a moderate oven until the cake shrinks from the sides.

*Chocolate Cake—I

9 ozs. butter
7 ozs. chocolate powder
9 ozs. sugar
5 eggs
6 ozs. flour

Mix the chocolate powder (which should be of the finest quality) with the butter. Beat for a[Pg 43] quarter of an hour. Add the sugar and beat again. Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the yolks, then the flour, beating well all the time. Add the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a tin lined with greased paper in a moderate oven for an hour.

*Chocolate Cake—II

4 ozs. powdered chocolate
4 ozs. castor sugar
4 ozs. butter
3 eggs
2¹⁄₂ ozs. flour
1 small tea-spoon baking powder

Put the chocolate into the oven to warm. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the eggs until light and creamy. Add them to the butter and sugar. Then stir in the warmed chocolate and mix thoroughly. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add gradually, beating hard all the time. Beat for ten minutes. Bake in a tin lined with greased paper in a quick oven for an hour.

[Pg 44]

*Chocolate Cake—III

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
12 eggs
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. pounded almonds
4 ozs. powdered chocolate
1 salt-spoon crushed cloves and mace

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the yolks gradually, beating continually. Add the pounded almonds, sugar, chocolate and spices. Beat altogether for twenty minutes. Add the whites whisked to a stiff froth. Bake in a German tin (see p. 1) lined with greased paper, in a very moderate oven for an hour and a quarter. Ice when cold.

Gold Cake

1 lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
1 lb. flour
Yolks of ten eggs
Grated rind of one orange
Juice of two lemons
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the yolks. Beat hard for five or six minutes. Add the flour. Dissolve the soda in a very little hot water. Stir[Pg 45] it thoroughly into the mixture. Add the lemon and orange flavouring. This flavouring should be prepared beforehand by putting the grated orange peel to soak for half-an-hour in the lemon juice, which should then be strained off through fine muslin. Bake in greased tins. Ice with orange icing (see p. 68).

Marbled Cake

1 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups flour
4 eggs
1 cup sweet milk
1 tea-spoon baking powder
1 heaping table-spoon grated chocolate
1 dessert-spoon milk

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Add the well-beaten eggs and the flour, in which the baking powder should be mixed. Take out a tea-cup of the mixture and add the chocolate and the milk to it.

Butter a tin and fill it to the depth of an inch with the white mixture. Drop two or three spoonfuls of chocolate mixture on to this in circles and spots. Add another layer of the white mixture and on to it drop more of the brown, and so on until both mixtures are finished.

[Pg 46]

Nut Cake

1¹⁄₂ cups sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
2 cups flour
³⁄₄ cup milk
Whites of four eggs
1 cup broken nuts
2 tea-spoons baking powder

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Mix the baking powder with the flour. Add it to the mixture with the milk, beating well all the time. Mix in the nuts thoroughly. Lastly add the whites, which should be beaten as stiff as possible. Bake in shallow square tins. Ice.

*Shortbread—I

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
3 ozs. sugar

Knead all together until smooth. Roll out an inch thick. Prick all over with a fork. Bake quickly in shallow buttered tins.

[Pg 47]

*Shortbread—II

¹⁄₂ lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
4 eggs
2 ozs. comfits
Grated rind of a lemon

Beat the butter to cream. Add the flour, sugar and eggs alternately in small quantities. When thoroughly mixed, add the grated rind and mix again lightly. Pour into a greased oblong tin (the mixture should be about an inch and a half deep). Sprinkle the comfits over the surface. Do not allow the cake to colour deeply in baking.

*Walnut Cake

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
4 eggs
4 ozs. flour
4 ozs. pounded dry walnuts

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the yolks to the cake. Mix the flour and the walnuts, which must be pounded as fine as possible. Add to the mixture. Stir in the whites. Bake in a shallow square tin. Ice.

[Pg 50]

General Directions

In making fruit cakes always mix the fruit thoroughly with a little of the flour before adding to the cake.

Mix the spices with the sugar or flour.

For directions for cleaning currants, stoning raisins, and blanching almonds (see pp. 3 and 4).

[Pg 51]

Black Cake

(Wedding Cake)

10 ozs. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
6 large eggs
1 gill brandy and sherry mixed
¹⁄₂ grated nutmeg
1 tea-spoon cinnamon
¹⁄₄ tea-spoon mace
1 ground clove
¹⁄₂ lb. finely chopped almonds
1 lb. currants
1¹⁄₂ lbs. raisins

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the powdered sugar. Beat again very thoroughly. Stir in quarter of a pound of flour. Beat the eggs together until light. Add them and the rest of the flour to the mixture alternately. Beat well. Add the brandy, sherry and spices. Add the currants, raisins and peel, which should all be well floured, gradually, mixing thoroughly. Bake in two tins lined with greased paper, in a moderate oven, for four hours. Let the cakes cool in the tins. This cake, if iced first with almond icing (see p. 67), and then with plain icing (see p. 65), is suitable for a wedding cake.

[Pg 52]

Cider Cake

1 cup of sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1 egg
¹⁄₂ pint cider
1 level tea-spoon carbonate of soda
2 cups flour
1 cup stoned raisins

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Add the well beaten egg and the flour. Dissolve the carbonate of soda in a table-spoon of boiling water. Add it to the cider. Stir it into the mixture. Beat well together. Add the raisins. Bake in a moderate oven in a buttered tin.

*Currant Cake

¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
6 eggs
³⁄₄ lb. flour
³⁄₄ lb. currants
¹⁄₄ lb. sultanas
¹⁄₄ lb. mixed peel
¹⁄₄ lb. ground almonds
1 heaping tea-spoon baking powder

Beat butter and sugar for twenty minutes. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating hard all[Pg 53] the time. Add the flour and fruit and mix thoroughly. Bake in a well greased tin in a moderate oven for about three hours. Leave in the tin to cool.

Fruit Cake—I

¹⁄₂ cup butter
1¹⁄₂ cups powdered sugar
3 cups flour
Yolks of four eggs
¹⁄₂ cup milk
1 tea-spoon cream of tartar
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1 wine-glass brandy
1 cup raisins
1 cup currants

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar and beat well. Add the yolks and beat again. Dissolve the soda in the milk and sift the flour and cream of tartar together. Add the milk and flour alternately to the mixture. Stir in the brandy and the fruit and mix well. Bake in two greased tins in a moderate oven.

[Pg 54]

*Fruit Cake—II

2 scant cups butter
3 cups dark brown sugar
4 cups sifted flour
6 eggs
1 lb. raisins
1 lb. currants
¹⁄₂ lb. citron, finely chopped
¹⁄₂ cup molasses or treacle
¹⁄₂ cup sour milk
¹⁄₂ grated nutmeg
1 table-spoon ground cinnamon
1 tea-spoon ground cloves
1 tea-spoon ground mace
1 wine-glass brandy
1 level tea-spoon soda

Beat butter and sugar to a cream. Add the spices, molasses and some milk. Stir all well together. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately. Add the yolks and the brandy. Beat thoroughly. Add the flour and stiffly beaten whites alternately. Dissolve the soda in a little water. Add it to the mixture. Mix the fruit together with two table-spoons of flour. Stir it thoroughly into the mixture.

Line two tins with greased paper. Bake in a moderate oven two hours. Let it cool in the pan.

[Pg 55]

*Genoa Cake

10 ozs. sifted flour
8 ozs. sugar
8 ozs. butter
6 ozs. finely cut peel
4 ozs. chopped almonds
12 ozs. sultanas
5 eggs
1 tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Drop in one egg at a time, beating hard all the time. Add the fruit and almonds and lastly the flour. Mix very well. Bake in an oven which is rather quick at first, then moderate.

Imperial Cake

1 lb. powdered sugar
1 lb. flour
³⁄₄ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. chopped almonds
¹⁄₂ lb. chopped citron
1 lb. raisins
¹⁄₂ grated nutmeg
10 eggs
1 wine-glass brandy

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat again. Beat the yolks. Add them to the mixture. Add the flour gradually, beating hard continually. Add the fruit, chopped almonds, nutmeg and brandy, and the whites beaten to a stiff froth. This cake will keep a year.

[Pg 56]

Pitcaithley Bannock

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
2 ozs. blanched almonds
2 ozs. candied orange peel
2 ozs. sugar
2 ozs. carraway seeds or comfits

Melt the butter and mix it with the flour, which should have been dried and sifted. Slice the almonds and cut up the orange peel finely. Add them with the sugar to the flour and butter. Mix very well. Bake in a slow oven for an hour.

*Seed Cake

1 lb. butter
³⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar
1 lb. flour
6 eggs
³⁄₄ oz. carraway seeds
1 wine-glass brandy

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat well together. Beat the whole eggs and brandy together until very light. Add them and the flour alternately to the mixture, beating well, and then the carraway seeds. Bake in a greased tin in a moderate oven.

[Pg 57]

Simnel Cake

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
2 ozs. rice flour
4 eggs
7 ozs. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. currants

For the Paste

2 ozs. bitter almonds
10 ozs. sweet almonds
2¹⁄₂ ozs. powdered sugar
Whites of two eggs
Rose water

Beat the butter to a cream, and add the sugar. Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the yolks and the rice flour to the mixture, beating continually, and then the flour and currants. Mix well and stir in the stiffly beaten whites.

Prepare the almond paste beforehand. Blanch and pound the almonds, adding a little rose water to them. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, add the sugar, stir lightly together and then add the almonds.

Line two small tins with greased paper and put a layer of the cake mixture in each, and then a layer of the almond paste, then another layer of cake and almond paste. Bake in a moderate oven.

[Pg 58]

*Soda Cake

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. crushed lump sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
1 lb. sultanas
¹⁄₄ lb. mixed peel
3 eggs
1 small tea-cup milk
1 small tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1 full tea-spoon cream of tartar

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar, which need not be too finely crushed. Beat the eggs well. Add them to the butter and sugar, beating hard. Mix the soda with the milk and the cream of tartar with the flour. Add to the mixture alternately. Add the sultanas and finely cut peel. Mix all very well. Bake for two hours or more in a tin lined with greased paper. The oven should be fairly hot at first and then moderate for the rest of the time.

[Pg 59]

Spice Cake

³⁄₄ lb. butter
1 lb. sugar
1 lb. flour
10 eggs
1 wine-glass brandy
1 ” sherry
1 ” molasses or treacle
1 ” milk
4 lbs. raisins
2 lbs. currants
1 lb. citron-peel
1 tea-spoon soda
1 table-spoon cinnamon
2 tea-spoons cloves
1 grated nutmeg
¹⁄₄ lb. chopped almonds

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Add the well beaten eggs, brandy, wine, molasses and milk, in which the soda should be dissolved. Then the spices and flour. Stir well together and then add the fruit, which must be well mixed. Bake in two large tins for three or four hours.

*Sultana Cake—I

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. sultanas
3 ozs. lemon peel
3 eggs
1 tea-spoon vanilla
1 level tea-spoon baking powder

Soften, but do not melt the butter. Beat well. Sift the baking powder with the flour. Add the[Pg 60] sugar to the butter, then the flour. Beat the yolks well and add them. Add the fruit and vanilla. Beat continually. Stir in the beaten whites. Bake in a greased tin in a quick oven for one and a half hours.

*Sultana Cake—II

4 eggs
Their weight in flour, castor sugar and butter
The rind of a lemon grated
3 ozs. sultanas
1 oz. finely chopped citron

Beat the butter to a cream. Put the sugar into another pan, and break the four eggs on to it. Beat the eggs and sugar together, with a steel carving-fork, until thick and creamy. It will take twenty minutes to half-an-hour. Stir in the flour lightly and quickly, then the butter, and lastly the fruit and grated lemon. Bake in a shallow oblong tin lined with buttered paper.

This cake is better if kept a day or two before eating.

[Pg 61]

Sultana Cake—III

³⁄₄ lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. sultanas
6 ozs. butter
6 ozs. sugar
3 eggs
1 level table-spoon baking powder
1 oz. candied peel
A little milk

Rub the butter lightly into the flour, in which the baking powder should be mixed. Then add the sugar, sultanas, and chopped peel. Beat the eggs together until creamy and light, and add them to the flour, etc., mixing in the ingredients with a little milk. Bake in a greased tin in a moderate oven.

Sultana or Seed Cake

¹⁄₂ lb. flour
¹⁄₄ lb. butter
¹⁄₄ lb. castor sugar
3 eggs (or 4 eggs if small ones)
2 ozs. sultanas (or carraway seeds)
A little finely-chopped candied peel

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar, flour and fruit, by degrees, then the eggs, previously well beaten. Beat all well together for ten minutes. Bake in a round cake tin lined with buttered paper for rather less than an hour.

[Pg 62]

*White Fruit Cake

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
¹⁄₂ cup milk
Whites of three eggs
3 tea-spoons baking powder
1 wine-glass brandy
¹⁄₄ lb. chopped citron
¹⁄₂ lb. blanched and chopped almonds
¹⁄₄ lb. grated cocoanut

Beat the butter to a cream, add the sugar. Beat well together. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Add the butter and sugar, moistening the mixture with the milk and brandy. Add the cocoanut, almonds and citron. Mix well and stir in the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a tin lined with greased paper in a moderate oven.

[Pg 64]

In all icing that is not boiled it is necessary to use “icing” sugar, which is very fine and flour-like in appearance.

[Pg 65]

Plain Icing

Whites of 2 eggs
¹⁄₂ lb. icing sugar
Flavouring, lemon, vanilla, or almond, etc.

Break the whites into a good sized dish. Add two heaping table-spoons of sugar and stir it in steadily. Beat for a few minutes. Add the sugar gradually, beating well. The making should take about half-an-hour. When thick enough it should not run together again after being cut with a knife. If flavoured with lemon juice, a little more sugar should be added or the icing will not be stiff enough.

Pour the icing on to the cake by large spoonfuls and allow it to settle itself as much as possible. When using a knife, dip it first in cold water.

Ice a cake two or three hours before it is to be eaten. It can be set to harden in a moderate oven for five minutes if needed quickly: but it is best to dry it slowly in a warm, sunny place.

[Pg 66]

Boiled Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup water
Whites of two eggs
Flavouring

Boil the sugar and water together until it spins a thread from a spoon. Then take the syrup off the fire and pour it into a basin. Add the whites (beaten to a stiff froth) to it gradually, beating hard all the time. Continue beating until the mixture is cold. Add flavouring.

Gelatine Icing

1 tea-spoon gelatine
1 table-spoon cold water
2 table-spoons hot water
1 cup icing sugar

Soak the gelatine in the cold water for half-an-hour. Add to it the hot water and dissolve it in the same. Add it to the sugar and beat till smooth and firm.

Icing without Eggs

1 cup powdered sugar
5 table-spoons milk

Add the milk to the sugar in a saucepan. Stir it till it boils. Then set it where it can boil[Pg 67] gently for five minutes. Do not stir. Take off the fire. Put into a basin. Flavour. Beat constantly until cold.

Almond Icing

2 whites of eggs
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. sweet almonds
5 bitter almonds
Rose water

Blanch the almonds and let them dry. Pound them in a mortar and moisten them with a little rose water. When perfectly smooth and fine add them to an icing made as above (see p. 65), of the sugar and white of egg. Spread thickly upon the cake. Place it near a sunny window, allow it to dry partly and cover with a coating of plain sugar icing.

Chocolate Icing—I

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 ozs. chocolate
1 tea-spoon vanilla

Boil the sugar and water together until it forms a syrup which will spin a thread. Add the chocolate and vanilla. Take off the fire and beat well together.

[Pg 68]

Chocolate Icing—II

Melt two ozs. of chocolate. Add it to the plain icing (see page 65). Flavour with a few drops of vanilla.

Cocoanut Icing

To the plain icing (see p. 65), made with rather less sugar than is given, add half a cup of grated or desiccated cocoanut.

Orange Icing

Grate the thin outer rind of an orange. Put it in a cup. Cover it with four tea-spoons orange juice. Let it soak for half-an-hour. Squeeze the juice through a fine cloth. Add to the plain icing (see p. 65).

[Pg 69]

Tutti Frutti Icing

1 oz. blanched and chopped almonds
¹⁄₂ cup stoned and chopped raisins and sliced citron
2 whites of eggs
¹⁄₂ lb. icing sugar

Mix the whites and the sugar as for plain icing (see p. 65). Beat for about twenty minutes. Work in the almonds and fruit gradually.

Yellow Icing

2 yolks
¹⁄₂ lb. icing sugar
Flavouring

Beat the yolks until frothy and light. Add the sugar very gradually, beating hard in one direction for about half-an-hour. Flavour.

[Pg 72]

*American Soft Gingerbread—I

12 ozs. flour
1 cup black treacle or West India molasses
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sour milk
¹⁄₂ cup melted butter
¹⁄₂ cup melted lard
2 eggs
1¹⁄₂ tea-spoons ground ginger
1¹⁄₂ tea-spoons ground cinnamon
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon ground cloves
1 good tea-spoon carbonate of soda
Salt-spoon salt

Beat the eggs well in a large basin. Add the sour milk, treacle and sugar. Mix well with a wooden spoon. Add the spices and soda, and beat well. Then add the melted butter and lard and last of all the flour. Beat quickly and bake at once in two small dripping pans about 8 inches by 10 inches, in a very moderate oven for forty minutes.

[Pg 73]

American Soft Gingerbread—II

1 cup butter
¹⁄₂ cup brown sugar
2 cups molasses
1 cup sour or sweet milk
1 table-spoon ginger
1 tea-spoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs
4 cups sifted flour
Tea-spoon soda
1 table-spoon hot water

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat again. Add the molasses, milk and spices. Beat all very well together. Add the eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately. Add half of the flour. Beat. Add the soda, which must be thoroughly dissolved in the hot water. Add the rest of the flour. Beat till thoroughly mixed. Bake in two square tins lined with greased paper in a moderate oven for forty minutes to an hour.

Hard Gingerbread

Follow the above receipt, omitting the eggs. Roll out and cut into squares half an inch thick. While hot rub over the top with molasses.

[Pg 74]

*Gingerbread Loaf

1 cup butter and lard
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup treacle
1 cup milk
1 cup stoned and chopped raisins
2 eggs
10 ozs. flour
1 tea-spoon soda
2 tea-spoons ginger
2 tea-spoons cinnamon
1 ground clove

Melt the sugar and lard. Then mix all the ingredients well together, adding the flour last. The soda should be dissolved in the milk. The raisins may be omitted. Bake in tins lined with greased paper, in a slow oven for about forty minutes.

*Portuguese Gingerbread

2 lbs. flour
2 lbs. black treacle
1 lb. brown sugar
1 lb. butter
¹⁄₄ lb. citron
5 eggs
1 table-spoon ground cloves
1 table-spoon ground ginger
2 tea-spoons carbonate of soda
Rind of three lemons grated
Wine-glass of brandy

Beat the eggs with the sugar till light and creamy. Add the butter, which should be melted,[Pg 75] the spices, lemon peel and finely sliced citron. Stir continually. Then add the brandy and treacle, mixing well. Mix the soda with the flour. Stir the flour into the mixture, and do not beat after it is well mixed. Paper and grease three or four dripping pans, or shallow square tins. Bake immediately in a very moderate oven, for an hour and a half. This cake burns easily.

*Scotch Gingerbread

2¹⁄₄ cups flour
³⁄₄ cup medium oatmeal
1 cup syrup
³⁄₄ cup lard, butter or dripping
3 tea-spoons ground ginger
3 tea-spoons ground cinnamon
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1 or 2 eggs
1 cup sour milk

Mix as for American gingerbread, and bake in a greased flat tin in a moderate oven.

[Pg 76]

Yorkshire Parkins

¹⁄₂ lb. oatmeal
¹⁄₄ lb. flour
¹⁄₄ lb. butter
1 oz. mixed spice
6 oz. brown sugar
¹⁄₄ oz. carbonate of soda
¹⁄₄ lb. treacle

Mix the oatmeal and flour together. Rub in the butter. Add the spice, sugar and carbonate of soda. Warm the treacle and pour it on the rest of the ingredients, mixing well. If the mixture is too dry, add a little melted butter. It should be rather soft. Divide into small flat cakes, and bake on greased tins in a slow oven. Brush over with milk when baked.

[Pg 78]

Bread Cake

I.
1 pint dough
3 ozs. butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
Grated rind half a lemon
1 cup of currants

II.
4 table-spoons brown sugar
2 ozs. butter
1 table-spoon flour
1 tea-spoon cinnamon
2 heaping table-spoons bread crumbs

I. Add the butter, sugar, eggs and lemon rind to the dough. Mix thoroughly and beat till light. Add the currants, which should have been washed, dried and floured. Mix them in lightly. Pour the mixture into a square greased pan. It should not be more than an inch deep.

II. Beat the brown sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon together till light. Stir in the bread-crumbs, which should be very fine. Drop spoonfuls of this mixture over the top of the cake. Press them down into the cake with the fingers.[Pg 79] Set the cake to rise in a warm place. When risen bake in a moderately quick oven. Cover the cake with a piece of brown paper to prevent burning.

Brioche

1 lb. flour
1 lb. butter
7 eggs
2 spoonfuls yeast
1 spoonful sugar
Salt

Set a quarter of a pound of flour, with the yeast dissolved in a very little hot water, to rise for half an hour in a covered basin in a warm place.

Rub the butter into the rest of the flour, with which the sugar and a little salt has been mixed. Beat the eggs well. Mix them with the butter and flour and beat until light and creamy. Add this mixture to the flour and yeast and mix lightly but well. Let the whole rise for eight hours. Fill a buttered mould, or form into small loaves and place on a greased tin. Bake in a moderate oven for about an hour.

[Pg 80]

Dough Cake

1 lb. dough
3 ozs. lard
3 ozs. butter
3 ozs. sugar
¹⁄₄ lb. currants
1 egg
1 tea-spoon ginger and ground nutmeg

The dough should have risen a second time before it is used. Mix all the ingredients in a large pan with the hand. Bake in a square buttered tin.

Kugelhupf or German Coffee Cake

6 ozs. butter
9 ozs. flour
1¹⁄₂ ozs. cornflour
1¹⁄₂ ozs. powdered sugar
1 oz. German yeast
9 eggs
2 ozs. sultanas

Beat the butter to a cream, and slowly add to it, beating continually, the dried and sifted flour and cornflour. When thoroughly mixed, add the sugar, the yeast dissolved in a very little warm water and the well beaten yolks. Mix well and add the floured sultanas and seven whites, whisked to a stiff froth. Butter a large tin,[Pg 81] with a tube in the centre, put the mixture in it, and set it in a warm place to rise for two hours. Bake in a moderate oven from one and a quarter to one and a half hours. Take out of the tin at once and stand upon a hair sieve to cool. Sift over with powdered sugar.

Kugelhupf—II

1¹⁄₄ lbs. flour
3 eggs
1³⁄₄ cups lukewarm milk or cream
6 ozs. butter
4 table-spoons German yeast
2 heaping table-spoons powdered sugar
4 ozs. sultanas or currants
1 salt-spoon salt

Dry and sift the flour. Melt the butter in the milk and when just lukewarm add to the flour. Add salt, sugar and yeast dissolved in a little of the milk, and beat for a full half hour. Cover the basin with a cloth and set in a warm place to rise for one and a half hours. Then beating it well, add the sultanas to the dough. Butter a large mould with a hollow centre, sprinkle sliced almonds in it, and pour in the mixture. Let it rise again for about one and a half hours. Bake for an hour and turn out on to a hair sieve to cool. Sift over with powdered sugar.

[Pg 82]

Seed Dough Cake

1 quartern dough
6 eggs
8 ozs. sugar
8 ozs. butter
¹⁄₂ oz. caraway seeds

Work all the ingredients well into the dough with the hands. When all are thoroughly mixed put into a greased pan and set to rise in a warm place. Bake in a moderate oven.

Scotch Bun

2 lbs. raisins
1 lb. currants
¹⁄₂ lb. orange peel
¹⁄₄ lb. lemon peel
¹⁄₄ lb. chopped sweet almonds
¹⁄₂ oz. ground cloves, cinnamon and ginger
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
2¹⁄₂ lbs. twice risen dough

Divide the dough into two parts. With one part mix the fruit, butter and spices thoroughly. Line a buttered tin with half of the plain dough. Put over it the dough mixed with fruit, and cover with the rest of the plain dough. Brush over with the yolk of an egg. Bake in a moderate oven.

[Pg 84]

General Directions

Fried cakes are best cooked in a mixture of lard and clarified beef-dripping which has not been used before. It should be made very hot, and be quite still. Test it by throwing in a small piece of the mixture. If it rises at once, swells, and begins to brown on the under side, the temperature is right for frying.

Doughnuts should take from 8 to 10 minutes to fry, and should be a golden brown when finished. Directly they are ready, take them out, allowing all the fat to drip off, and putting them on soft brown paper to drain.

[Pg 85]

Cinnamon Cakes

1 cup sugar
1 cup of butter
3 eggs
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon cinnamon
2 table-spoons milk
Flour

Beat the butter and sugar together until light. Beat the eggs together and add to the butter and sugar with the cinnamon, milk and sufficient flour to make the mixture stiff enough to roll out. Roll the mixture out on a floured pastry board until very thin. Cut into narrow strips. Twist or braid them. Drop them into boiling fat, boil till a golden brown. Dust with powdered sugar while hot.

Crullers

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
³⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar
6 eggs
Nutmeg
Flour

Beat the butter to a cream with the sugar. Flavour with nutmeg. Add the well beaten eggs and sufficient flour to make the mixture stiff enough to roll out. Cut in their proper shapes and fry in a large pan of boiling lard until a rich yellow. Keep for a day before eating.

[Pg 86]

Doughnuts

1 cup sugar
2¹⁄₂ table-spoons butter
3 eggs
1 cup milk
4 tea-spoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon grated nutmeg and cinnamon
Salt
3¹⁄₂ cups flour

Cream the butter. Add half of the sugar. Beat the eggs until very light. Add them with the rest of the sugar to the butter. Add the salt, spices, and baking powder to the flour. Sift them and add to the mixture. Beat well. Add more flour, if necessary, and roll out until quarter of an inch thick. Cut into rings and fry.

Doughnuts made with Yeast

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
³⁄₄ lb. sugar
1 pint sweet milk
2 eggs
¹⁄₂ cup yeast
1 dessert-spoon spices (mace or nutmeg and cinnamon)
Flour
Salt

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Add the milk, yeast, and about a pint and a half[Pg 87] of sifted flour. Set to rise over night. Add the well beaten eggs, spices, and sufficient flour to make a stiff dough in the morning. Roll out. Cut into rounds and fry. Sift sugar over them while hot.

Puff-ball Doughnuts

3 eggs
1 cup powdered sugar
1 pint sweet milk
Flour
2 heaping tea-spoons baking powder

Beat the eggs. Add the sugar and milk. Add flour (with which the baking powder should be mixed) until the batter is stiff enough for the spoon to stand upright in. Beat until very light. Drop by dessert-spoonfuls into boiling lard.

Snowballs

1 cup powdered sugar
4 table-spoons milk
¹⁄₃ tea-spoon soda
³⁄₄ tea-spoon cream of tartar
2 eggs
Flour

Mix the soda with the milk and the cream of tartar with the flour (sufficient to make a stiff[Pg 88] batter). Beat the egg, add the rest of the ingredients, and beat until light. Make into small balls. Fry in lard. When cold, dip in the beaten white of an egg and roll in powdered sugar.

[Pg 91]

Almond Cakes

¹⁄₂ lb. sweet almonds
1 white of egg
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
³⁄₄ lb. flour
2 eggs
1 tea-spoon ground cinnamon

Blanch and pound the almonds, adding the beaten whites and mixing well together. Add them to the rest of the ingredients and knead well together with the hands. Roll out and cut into round cakes. Brush over with the beaten yolk of an egg, and dust with powdered sugar. Bake on a well greased tin in a slow oven until they are a rich yellow.

*Bottle Cakes

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. sifted sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
Juice and grated rind of half a lemon
2 eggs

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat the eggs and add with the rest of the ingredients,[Pg 92] beating all thoroughly. Grease a baking tin and drop the mixture on it by tea-spoonfuls. Bake about five minutes in a moderate oven. Slip the cakes off the tin with a knife. Lay a number of bottles on their sides on a table. Lay the cakes on them to cool, and press gently down on the bottles in order to give them a rounded shape. These cakes should be very thin and richly coloured round the edges.

*Butter Rings

3 ozs. butter
2 eggs
4 yolks
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
Grated rind of a lemon

Beat the butter to a cream. Add one egg and five yolks (which should have been well beaten together) and the sugar. Then add the flour and the lemon rind. Beat until smooth and light. Roll out the mixture lightly and cut it into ring-shaped biscuits. Brush over each with the white of an egg, and sprinkle crystallised sugar over them. Bake in a slow oven on a well greased tin.

[Pg 93]

Caraway Cakes

3 lbs. sugar
1 lb. butter
¹⁄₂ pint cold water
3 eggs
3 lbs. flour
1 tea-spoon soda
4 table-spoons caraway seeds

Cut the butter up in the flour as finely as possible. Dissolve the sugar in the water. Add it to the butter and flour. Beat the eggs till very light and add them to the mixture. Dissolve the soda in a very little hot water and stir it in. Roll the caraway seeds in a little flour, and add them, mixing thoroughly. Roll out lightly and cut in round shapes. Bake quickly on a greased tin.

*Chocolate Cakes—I

6 ozs. sifted sugar
¹⁄₄ lb. sifted chocolate powder
2 ozs. sifted flour
4 whites of eggs

Beat the whites until very stiff. Mix quickly but thoroughly with the other ingredients.

Form into cone-like shapes on a baking sheet or tin and bake in a moderate oven.

[Pg 94]

*Chocolate Cakes—II

2 ozs. powdered chocolate
2 ozs. castor sugar
2 ozs. butter
2 eggs
1¹⁄₂ ozs. flour
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon baking powder

Put the chocolate in the oven to warm. Beat the butter to a cream and add the sugar gradually, beating continually. Then stir in the well beaten eggs and the warmed chocolate. When thoroughly well beaten, add the flour, with which the baking powder should be mixed. Bake in patty pans in a quick oven. When baked, split open and spread with Devonshire cream.

*Cinnamon Biscuits

¹⁄₄ lb. sugar
3 eggs
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon cinnamon
1 oz. potato flour
1 oz. Vienna flour

Mix the sugar and the yolks of the eggs with the cinnamon and beat hard for ten minutes. Add the whites, which should have been beaten[Pg 95] until they are stiff, and the potato flour and Vienna flour. Divide into small tins. Sprinkle with a little white sugar. Bake in a moderate oven until light brown.

Coburg Cake

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
¹⁄₂ cup syrup
¹⁄₂ cup water
1 cup butter milk (or sour milk)
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
3 eggs
2 tea-spoons soda
2 tea-spoons ground ginger
2 tea-spoons ground cinnamon
1 tea-spoon allspice
2 ozs. sweet almonds

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Whisk the eggs till light and creamy and mix with the butter. Add the syrup, water, spices and flour, mixing thoroughly, and lastly the soda dissolved in a little boiling water.

Blanch and chop the almonds, and sprinkle them in the bottom of the patty pans. Pour in the mixture and bake in a quick oven for about twenty minutes.

[Pg 96]

Cocoanut Cones

1 lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ a grated cocoanut
5 whites of eggs
1 tea-spoon arrowroot or flour

Beat the eggs till firm. Add the sugar gradually. Beat in the cocoanut and arrowroot. Form into small cone-shaped cakes. Set on buttered paper in a tin and bake in a very moderate oven.

Cocoanut Rings

¹⁄₂ cup grated cocoanut
¹⁄₂ cup butter
³⁄₄ cups powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 table-spoon milk
2¹⁄₂ cups sifted flour

Cream the butter. Add the sugar to it and beat well. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately. Stir them in. Add the milk and flour, and then gradually add the cocoanut, beating constantly. Roll out thin on a board, and cut with two different sized cutters into rings. Bake in a quick oven five to ten minutes.

[Pg 97]

Cornflour Cakes—I

¹⁄₄ lb. cornflour
¹⁄₄ lb. sifted white sugar
3 ozs. butter
¹⁄₄ tea-spoon baking powder
1 egg
Grated rind of half a lemon

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the cornflour, with which the baking powder has been mixed, sugar, well-beaten egg and lemon peel. Mix all well together. Bake five minutes in a quick oven.

*Cornflour Cakes—II

3 ozs. castor sugar, finely sifted
3 ozs. butter
2 ozs. Oswego cornflour (Kingsford’s)
2 eggs
1 small tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the butter and sugar together to a cream. Beat in the cornflour. Add the eggs (not previously beaten) and beat all well together. Then stir in the baking powder carefully. Bake in well buttered patty pans, in a moderate oven, until they are a delicate golden colour.

[Pg 98]

*Fairy Gingerbread

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup sweet milk
4 cups flour
³⁄₄ tea-spoon carbonate of soda
2 tea-spoons ground ginger

Beat the butter to a cream, add the sugar gradually. When the mixture is very light and creamy add the ginger. Dissolve the soda in the milk and add it with the flour. Grease a perfectly clean baking tin. Spread the mixture as thinly as possible over it with a knife. Bake in a moderate oven till brown. Cut into squares while hot and slip off the tin.

Fluffy Cakes

¹⁄₂ lb. cornflour
¹⁄₄ lb. castor sugar
6 ozs. butter
2 eggs
1 table-spoon milk
1 tea-spoon essence of vanilla
1 tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the eggs thoroughly and mix them with the butter and sugar. Sift in the cornflour, mixed with the baking powder, gradually, and mix well. Stir in[Pg 99] about a table-spoonful of milk mixed with a small tea-spoonful of essence of vanilla.

Grease the patty pans with lard and sprinkle a little ground rice in each. Half fill them and bake in a quick oven for ten minutes.

*German Biscuits

5 ozs. flour
2 ozs. butter
2 ozs. sugar
2 yolks of eggs
1 white of egg
2 table-spoons cream or milk
1 oz. almonds

Beat the sugar and butter together. Add the flour and the beaten yolks. When well mixed add the cream or milk. Cut the paste thus made into strips and form it into different shapes. Brush over with the white of egg. Blanch and chop the almonds and strew them over the biscuits. Bake on a greased tin.

*Gingerbread Nuts

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
1¹⁄₂ lbs. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ oz. ginger
¹⁄₂ nutmeg grated
10 ozs. treacle

Sift the flour. Rub the butter finely into it. Sift the sugar and add it to the butter and flour.[Pg 100] Add the rest of the ingredients (and caraway seeds if liked). Mix well together. Shape into little cakes. Bake on oiled paper in a slow oven.

Ginger Snaps

1 large cup butter and lard mixed
¹⁄₂ cup sugar
1 cup molasses
¹⁄₂ cup water
1 table-spoon ginger
1 table-spoon cinnamon
1 tea-spoon cloves
1 tea-spoon soda
Flour

Mix altogether, dissolving the soda in a very little hot water. Add sufficient flour to make a fairly stiff dough. Roll out thin and bake in a quick oven.

Ground Rice Biscuits

¹⁄₂ lb. ground rice
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. castor sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
2 eggs
1 tea-spoonful of baking powder

Mix the baking powder with the flour and ground rice, and then rub the butter into it. Add[Pg 101] the well-beaten eggs. Roll out on a board and cut into rounds about the size of a five-shilling piece. Bake on a floured tin.

Hazel Nut Biscuits

4 ozs. hazel nuts
1 oz. sweet almonds
Whites of two eggs
6 ozs. powdered sugar
Flour

Blanch the nuts and pound them, but not very finely. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Mix them with the nuts. Add the sugar. Mix in sufficient flour to make a paste. Roll it out on a board as thin as possible. Cut into small rounds. Bake on buttered tins in a slow oven.

*Kletskoppen

7 ozs. flour
12 ozs. brown sugar
4 ozs. almonds
2 ozs. butter

Mix sugar and butter together. Add the flour and the almonds blanched and chopped. Divide into small cakes. Bake in a quick oven.

[Pg 102]

*Little Biscuits

¹⁄₂ lb. flour
2 eggs
¹⁄₄ lb. butter
¹⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar
A small tea-spoonful baking powder
A small wine-glass of sherry

Put the flour, sugar and baking powder into a basin and stir well together. Rub in the butter and add the well beaten eggs. Mix with the wine into a paste just firm enough to roll out on a paste-board. Cut out in little rounds with a small wine-glass. Bake on a floured tin until a delicate colour, like nicely baked pastry.

*Little Dutch Cakes

4 ozs. butter
4 ozs. white sugar
4 ozs. flour
Vanilla
2 yolks
1 white of egg
1 oz. almonds blanched and chopped

Mix the butter and sugar thoroughly together. Add the flour. Flavour with a few drops of vanilla. Beat the yolks and add them to the mixture. Roll out the paste. Shape it into rings. Dip each in the white of egg and sprinkle over them the chopped almonds.

[Pg 103]

Louisa Cakes

3 oz. cornflour
3 oz. flour
4 ozs. butter
3 eggs
4 ozs. powdered sugar
1 tea-spoon baking powder

Beat the butter to a cream and add the sugar. Then add one egg at a time, beating thoroughly. Stir in the flour (in which the baking powder has been mixed) and beat well. Bake in greased patty pan in a quick oven from 15 to 20 minutes. Ice when nearly cold with plain icing, p. 65, and ornament with crystallised cherries.

Macaroons

1 lb. sweet almonds
10 bitter almonds
Whites of eight eggs
1 tea-spoon arrowroot

Blanch and pound the almonds, adding to them a little rose water. Put in a basin, cover and set aside for twenty-four hours. Then beat the whites to a very stiff froth. Stir in the sugar lightly and add the almonds and arrowroot gradually. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture on buttered paper, sprinkle with powdered sugar and bake on[Pg 104] a tin sheet in a quick oven until a delicate brown. One or two sliced almonds can be stuck into each biscuit.

Macaroons

1 lb. sweet almonds
Whites of four eggs
1 lb. powdered sugar
Rose water

Blanch and pound the almonds, add to them a little rose water. Mix thoroughly with the sugar over a fire. Whisk the whites to a stiff froth. Add to the almonds. Grease a paper and spread it on a baking sheet. Put the mixture on by spoonfuls. Bake in a rather slow oven for twenty minutes.

Madeleines

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
14 ozs. flour
1 lb. powdered sugar
6 eggs
1 dessert-spoon orange flower water

Melt the butter and pour it into a basin. Add to it gradually, beating all the time, the flour and sugar. Beat the yolks and whites separately.[Pg 105] Add the yolks first, then the flavouring, and, lastly, the whites. Butter a number of little tin shapes, fill them and bake in a moderate oven.

Oat Cakes

1 lb. oatmeal
A pinch of soda
Hot water

Mix oatmeal and soda, adding hot water to make a soft dough. Knead till smooth. Press into a round cake ¹⁄₂ inch thick, then roll out as thin as required with a roller. Divide into cakes with a cutter. Place them on a hot griddle and bake till firm. Take them off, rub them with meal and toast before the fire till they curl.

Orange Biscuit

Several Seville oranges
Their weight in powdered sugar

Boil the oranges whole, three times, changing the water each time. Cut them in halves and take out all the pulp and juice. Beat the outside very fine in a mortar and add to it the sugar. Mix into[Pg 106] a paste. Spread very thinly on glass or plates and set in the sun to dry. When nearly dry cut into shapes and turn over. When quite dry put away in an air-tight tin.

*Orange Wafers

¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
¹⁄₄ lb. flour
4 eggs
¹⁄₂ orange
1 lemon

Grate the yellow rind from half an orange. Put it in a cup and squeeze the juice of a whole lemon over it. After half-an-hour strain off the juice.

Beat the sugar and yolks until light and creamy. Add the strained juice and the whites whipped to a stiff froth. Sift in the flour and do not beat any more. Drop by the spoonful on to greased paper and bake quickly. Spread half of the wafers, when baked, with marmalade and put the others on top of them, pressing them lightly down.

[Pg 107]

Rice Cakes

2 eggs
Their weight in flour, powdered sugar and butter
1 large table-spoon rice flour
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon baking powder

Cream the butter and add the sugar. Mix the baking powder, flour and rice flour together and add to the butter and sugar. Whisk the eggs till light and frothy. Beat all well together. Bake in buttered patty pans.

Rock Cakes—I

¹⁄₂ lb. flour
2 ozs. butter
3 ozs. moist sugar
2 ozs. currants
2 eggs
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon baking powder

Rub the butter into the flour. Add the sugar and currants. Beat the eggs well and add to the mixture. Mix well together and drop in irregular shapes on a buttered tin. Bake in a moderate oven.

[Pg 108]

Rock Cakes—II

¹⁄₂ lb. self-raising flour
1 egg
¹⁄₄ lb. Demerara sugar
¹⁄₂ tea-cup milk
¹⁄₄ lb. butter and lard mixed
2 ozs. currants
Candied peel
1 table-spoon desiccated cocoanut

Mix flour, sugar, butter, currants and cocoanut well, then add the egg and milk. If the butter is soft it will not require all the milk, for they are better mixed as dry as possible. Put the mixture in rough pieces on a tin, and bake in a rather quick oven for fifteen or twenty minutes.

Shortbread

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. fresh butter
¹⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar

Soften the butter a little and cut it into the flour. Knead in the sugar. Roll out. Cut into shapes. Bake in a tin, on buttered paper, until a delicate brown.

[Pg 109]

*Shortbread Biscuits

1 lb. flour
4 ozs. butter
1 egg
A little cream

Rub the butter into sifted and dried flour. Add the sugar and the egg slightly beaten.

Moisten with a very little cream or milk. Roll out thin. Cut into rounds. Bake on tins in a quick oven.

Snow Cakes

2 cups sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1 cup sweet milk
3 cups flour
3 tea-spoons baking powder
Whites of five eggs

Cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat well. Then add the flour, in which the baking powder should be mixed, and the milk. Beat for ten minutes. Whisk the whites to a stiff froth, and stir in lightly. Bake in square tins. When quite cold, cut off all the brown outside and divide into pieces about two inches square. Take each piece on a fork and ice and roll in finely grated cocoanut.

[Pg 110]

Sponge Fingers or Cakes

10 eggs
1 lb. powdered sugar
³⁄₄ lb. flour

Beat the eggs together until very light. Add the sugar and beat for fifteen minutes. Sift the flour in lightly. Bake in tins made for the purpose, in a quick oven.

Sugar Cakes

6 eggs
1 cup butter
3 cups sugar
Flour

Beat the yolks and whites separately very thoroughly. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the yolks. Beat well. Stir in the whites and enough flour to make a paste that can be lightly rolled out. Flavour with a few drops of lemon juice. Cut into rounds and bake in a quick oven.

Whole Meal Biscuits

1 cup rich cream, sour or sweet
¹⁄₄ cup powdered sugar
1 salt-spoon salt
2 cups fine whole meal

Mix together and knead with the hand until stiff enough to roll out as thin as a wafer. Cut into rounds and bake on floured tins in a very hot oven.

[Pg 112]

*American Crumpets

3 cups warm milk
¹⁄₂ cup yeast
2 table-spoons melted butter
1 salt-spoon salt
1 salt-spoon soda
Flour

Mix the yeast, milk, salt and sufficient flour to make a good batter, together and set to rise. When well risen beat in the melted butter. Sift the soda and stir it in dry. Put in well greased patty pans or muffin rings, allowing the batter to rise for fifteen minutes before putting into the oven. Bake in a quick oven.

American Muffins with Eggs

1 quart milk
³⁄₄ cup yeast
2 table-spoons powdered sugar
1 table-spoon butter
1 tea-spoon salt
4 eggs
Flour

Mix all the ingredients, except the eggs, with sufficient flour to make a good batter, overnight.[Pg 113] Cover and set to rise. In the morning beat the eggs till very light. Stir them in. Bake for twenty minutes in a quick oven in well greased muffin rings.

*American Muffins without Yeast

¹⁄₂ pint milk
¹⁄₂ pint cream
1 heaping pint of flour
3 eggs
1 table-spoon of melted lard and butter mixed

Beat the yolks and whites separately. Stir them together. Add the milk, salt, butter and flour. Bake at once in well-greased muffin tins in a quick oven. The tins should only be filled half full of the mixture. Serve hot.

Balloon Cakes

2 table-spoons yeast
4 table-spoons cream
6 table-spoons flour

Mix the yeast with the cream. Sift the flour. Work the yeast and cream into it. Set in a[Pg 114] warm place to rise. When risen roll out very thin. Cut into round cakes. Bake for four minutes.

*Breakfast Scones

1 quart milk
³⁄₄ cup lard and butter
³⁄₄ cup yeast
2 table-spoons white sugar
1 tea-spoon salt
Flour

Warm the milk. Melt the lard and butter. Add it to the milk. Stir in sufficient flour, sugar, salt and yeast to make a soft dough. Mix over night. Cover and leave to rise. Roll out lightly, in the morning, until about three-quarters of an inch thick. Cut into round scones. Let them rise twenty minutes. Bake for twenty minutes.

OR,

Mix the ingredients in the morning with half the quantity of flour. Set to rise for five hours. Work in the rest of the flour and let it rise another five hours. Cut into round cakes. Let them rise twenty minutes.

[Pg 115]

Cringles

¹⁄₄ lb. butter
1 lb. flour
2 ozs. sugar
2 table-spoons yeast
¹⁄₂ pint milk
2 eggs

Rub the butter into the flour. Add the sugar. Take half of this mixture. Add to it quarter of a pint of milk and the yeast. Cover over and set to rise in a warm place. When risen add the rest of the flour, etc., to it. Add also a quarter of a pint more milk and the two eggs. Mix into a light dough. Roll out to the thickness of a finger. Cut into fancy shapes. Set them on a baking tin in a warm place to rise. Bake when risen. When baked wash over with milk and sugar.

*Crumpets

³⁄₄ lb. of fine flour
³⁄₄ oz. German yeast
1 tea-spoonful powdered sugar
A pinch of salt
1 pint, bare measure, of milk
1 egg

Mix the salt and sugar with the flour. Dissolve the yeast in a little of the milk and stir it into the flour. Break the egg into it, and beat together[Pg 116] with a wooden spoon. Then add the remainder of the milk by degrees, making it into a nice batter.

Set it before the fire, covered with a cloth, to rise for two hours, and bake in tin rings, on a slab of stone or marble, heated on the top of an ordinary kitchen range or close stove. (This will take about two hours to heat. The stone must be not less than one and a half inches thick, or it is liable to crack with the heat. A discarded marble mantel-piece is excellent for this purpose.)

The crumpet rings should be slightly buttered. Place them on the stone when your batter is ready and pour into each a small tea-cupful of the batter. As soon as the crumpet has risen, remove the ring, and turn the crumpet over on the stone. They cook very quickly.

Dropped Scones

4 cups flour
2 cups milk
1 egg
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon carbonate of soda
¹⁄₄ tea-spoon tartaric acid
2 table-spoons powdered sugar

Beat the egg. Mix all together into a smooth batter. Fry in butter in a small frying pan a spoonful at a time.

[Pg 117]

Echaudés à Thé

¹⁄₂ lb. sifted flour
3 eggs
2 ozs. butter
2 lumps of sugar

Rub the sugar on a lemon and when dry crush it finely. Work all the ingredients together thoroughly with the hand. Set aside for an hour. Then roll out the paste on a floured board. Form into little balls the size of a walnut, rolling them with the hand which should be well floured. Throw them into boiling water. When they come to the surface take them out and throw them quickly into cold water. Leave them in the water for two hours. Drain them and put them on a baking tin in a hot oven. Bake for quarter of an hour.

*Golden Corn Cake

³⁄₄ cup corn meal
1¹⁄₄ cups flour
¹⁄₄ cup powdered sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 table-spoon butter
4 tea-spoons baking powder

Mix the meal, flour, sugar and baking powder thoroughly together and sift. Beat the egg well,[Pg 118] add it to the milk. Melt the butter and stir it into the milk. Mix all together. Bake for twenty minutes in a shallow buttered tin in a hot oven.

*Little Breakfast or Tea Rolls

³⁄₄ lb. flour
2 ozs. butter
1 oz. powdered sugar
A dessert-spoonful of baking-powder
A little milk

Stir the sugar and baking powder into the flour. Then rub the butter into it. Mix with the milk into rather a stiff paste. Form into little rolls, rolling them lightly on a paste-board with the hand to get them smooth, about three inches in length, and a good inch wide and thick. Bake on a floured tin in a hot oven.

Quickly-made Scones

1 pint sour milk
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda
2 tea-spoons melted butter
Flour

Add the butter to the milk. Dissolve the soda in it. Stir in sufficient flour to make a dough[Pg 119] that can be rolled out. Mix. Roll out lightly and quickly. Cut into round shapes. Bake in a quick oven.

*Scones

1 lb. flour
2 ozs. fresh butter
1 oz. white powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ oz. cream of tartar
¹⁄₄ oz. carbonate of soda
A little milk, or buttermilk

Put the flour in a large basin and add the sugar, soda and cream of tartar. Rub the butter thoroughly into the flour. Mix into a paste with the milk, as lightly as possible. Roll it out lightly to about half an inch in thickness. Cut in rounds the size of a large saucer, and divide each round into four quarters. Bake on floured tins in a hot oven.

Soda Scones

1 quart sifted flour
1 even tea-spoon salt
1 even tea-spoon carbonate of soda
2 tea-spoons cream of tartar
1 large table-spoon butter
Milk (about 1 pint)

Mix the soda, salt and cream of tartar with the flour. Sift twice. Rub in the butter with the[Pg 120] fingers. Add the milk gradually, mixing lightly with a knife until just stiff enough to be handled. Then turn the dough out on to a well floured board. Flour the rolling-pin, and roll, or rather dab out the mixture until about half an inch thick. Cut into rounds and bake at once on a floured tin for about ten minutes.

In making these scones, the mixture, once the butter has been rubbed into the flour, must be touched as little as possible with the hands.

Tea Buns

1 lb. flour
2 ozs. butter
1 table-spoon powdered sugar
¹⁄₄ lb. currants
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon bi-carbonate of soda
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon tartaric acid
1 egg
1 pint milk

Mix the soda and tartaric acid with the flour. Sift the flour. Rub in the butter, add the sugar and the currants. Beat up the egg in a large basin. Add the milk to it, and when well mixed, stir in the flour, etc., gradually. Bake in a quick oven, in small cakes, in a buttered baking tin.

[Pg 121]

*Tea Cakes—I

¹⁄₂ lb. fine flour
³⁄₄ oz. German yeast
1 oz. powdered sugar
1 egg
¹⁄₂ pint milk, very bare measure
2 ozs. fresh butter

Dissolve the yeast in a little of the milk and rub down smoothly. Put the flour and sugar into a pan and mix them together, then rub in the butter and add the egg, previously beaten. Next add the yeast by degrees, stirring it in with a wooden spoon, and then gradually add sufficient milk to make the mixture of the consistency of an ordinary cake or stiff batter. Beat it for five to ten minutes. Set it to rise before the fire, covered with a cloth and protected from the draught. Let it rise for an hour. Fill two or three buttered tins half full and bake in a very hot oven. Lay them on a sieve to cool when turned out of the tins.

[Pg 122]

Tea Cakes—II

2 lbs. flour
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon salt
¹⁄₄ lb. lard
1 egg
Yeast the size of a walnut
Milk

Mix the salt with the flour and then rub the lard thoroughly into it. Beat the egg well and stir the yeast into it. Add to the flour with enough milk to make a paste, knead well. Let it rise for a couple of hours in a warm place. Form it into round cakes on tins. Let them rise for twenty minutes and bake from quarter to half-an-hour.

Tea Cakes—III

1 lb. flour
1 pint milk
2 eggs
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
2 table-spoons baking powder

Mix and sift the dry ingredients together. Add the milk with which the well-beaten eggs have been mixed and a little salt. Bake in flat round tins.

[Pg 123]

*Tea Cakes made with Self-raising Flour

2 cups self-raising flour
1 table-spoon butter
Milk or cream

Rub the butter well into the flour, add a little salt. Make it into a dough with a little milk or sour cream. Roll out. Cut into small rounds. Bake in a quick oven. Split open, butter and serve at once.

*York Cakes

¹⁄₂ lb. fine flour
6 ozs. butter
1 oz. castor sugar
1 yolk
A little milk

Rub the butter into the flour. Add the yolk previously well beaten, and then sufficient milk to mix into a paste. Roll out about three-quarters of an inch thick, and cut into squares about two and a half inches square, and cut these again into triangles. Bake on a floured tin until a delicate brown.

[Pg 124]

Yorkshire Cakes

1 lb. flour
2 spoonfuls yeast
1 egg
3 ozs. butter
¹⁄₂ pint warm milk

Rub the butter into the flour. Add the yeast, egg and milk. Beat the whole well together. Set to rise in a warm place for three-quarters of an hour. Cut into round cakes. Set to rise again. Bake in a moderate oven. Wash over, when baked, with milk and sugar.

[Pg 126]

Fruit Cake without Eggs

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1¹⁄₂ pints sifted flour
1 lb. stoned and chopped raisins
1 tea-spoon grated nutmeg
1 tea-spoon powdered cinnamon
1 pint sour milk or cream
1 tea-spoon soda

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Beat again very thoroughly. Add one pint of flour. Mix the raisins and spices with half a pint of flour. Add them to the mixture. Mix thoroughly and beat five minutes. Dissolve the soda in the sour milk. Stir it in. Bake at once in buttered tins, one hour, in a moderate oven.

Gingerbread

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. treacle
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
2 table-spoons powdered ginger
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda
3 eggs

Melt the butter, sugar, and treacle in a saucepan, and pour them gradually when not too hot over the well-beaten eggs stirring continually. Add the soda and ginger, then the flour, stirring[Pg 127] it well in. Bake in a slow oven for an hour and half in a well-greased tin.

One Egg Cake

¹⁄₂ cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1 tea-spoon cream of tartar
1 tea-spoon vanilla, or the grated rind and juice of half a lemon

Cream the butter and add the sugar. Beat well together. Beat the egg till light and add it, and then the milk with the soda dissolved in it. Stir in the flour with which the cream of tartar should be mixed. Beat well together and add the vanilla. Bake in a shallow tin in a moderate oven for half-an-hour.

Plain Sultana Cake

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₄ lb. butter
¹⁄₄ lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. sultanas, currants, or raisins
2 ozs. peel
2 eggs
¹⁄₂ pint milk

Rub the butter into the flour. Add the sugar, then the peel cut into small pieces, and well-floured fruit. Beat the eggs till light and creamy. Add[Pg 128] them to the mixture. Dissolve the soda in the milk. Work all together thoroughly with the hands. Bake at once for an hour to an hour and a half.

OR,

Substitute one tea-spoon baking powder for the carbonate of soda. Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar, eggs, and fruit, beating all the time. Mix the baking powder with the flour. Add the flour to the mixture with the milk and beat well. Bake about one and a half hours in a moderate oven.

Seed Cake—Lunch

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₄ lb. dripping or butter
¹⁄₄ lb. moist sugar
1 tea-spoon ground carraway seed
1 egg
1 oz. candied peel
¹⁄₂ pint milk
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon carbonate of soda

Rub the butter into the flour. Add sugar, seed, candied peel, egg, and the milk in which the soda has been dissolved. Mix the whole thoroughly, working together with the hand. Bake at once for one and a quarter hours in a moderate oven.

THE END

• Almond Cake, 16.
• ” ” (Dutch), 19.
• ” Cakes, 91.
• ” Icing, 67.
• Almonds, How to Blanch, 4.
• American Hard Gingerbread, 73.
• American Soft Gingerbread, 72.
• American Sponge Cake, 11.
• Angel Cake, 17.

• Baking Powder, 2.
• Balloon Cakes, 113.
• Berwick Sponge Cake, 11.
• Black Cake, 51.
• Boiled Icing, 66.
• Bottle Cakes, 91.
• Bread Cake, 78.
• Breakfast Scones, 114.
• Brioche, 79.
• Buttercup Cake, 42.
• Butter Rings, 92.

• Californian Fig Cake, 35.
• Caraway Cakes, 93.
• Chocolate Cakes, 42-44.
• ” ” 93, 94.
• ” Icing, 67, 68.
• Cider Cake, 52.
• Cinnamon Biscuits, 94.
• ” Cakes, 85.
• Coburg Cakes, 95.
• Cocoanut Cake, 17.
• ” Cones, 96.
• ” Icing, 68.
• Cocoanut Pound Cake, 18.
• ” Rings, 96.
• Coffee Cake, 36.
• Cornflour Cakes, 97.
• Cringles, 115.
• Crullers, 85.
• Crumpets, 112, 115.
• Currant Cake, 52.

• Dough Cake, 80.
• Doughnuts, 86.
• ” with Yeast, 86.
• Dropped Scones, 116.
• Dutch Almond Cake, 19.

• Echaudés, 117.
• Eggs, How to Beat, 5.
• Eversley Cake, 19.

• Fillings for Layer Cakes, 31-34.
• Fluffy Cakes, 98.
• Fruit Cakes, 53, 54.
• ” Cake without Eggs, 126.
• ” Layer Cake, 37.

• Gateau de Savoie, 12.
• Gelatine Icing, 66.
• Genoa Cake, 55.
• German Biscuits, 99.
• Gingerbread, 126.
• ” hard, 73.
• ” loaf, 74.
• ” nuts, 99.
• ” soft, 72, 73.
• Ginger Snaps, 100.[Pg 130]
• Gold Cake, 44.
• Golden Corn Cake, 117.
• Ground Rice Biscuits, 100.

• Hazel Nut Biscuits, 101.

• Icing without Eggs, 66.
• Imperial Cake, 55.

• Jam Sandwich, 37, 38.

• Kletskoppen, 101.
• Kugelhupf, 80.

• Lady Cake, 20.
• Layer Cakes, 29, 30.
• ” ” Fillings for, 31-34.
• Lemon Layer Cake, 38.
• Little Biscuits, 102.
• Little Breakfast Rolls, 118.
• Little Dutch Cakes, 102.
• Louisa Cakes, 103.

• Macaroons, 103.
• Madeleines, 104.
• Marbled Cake, 45.
• Measures, Table of, 2.
• Measuring, 1.
• Milanese Cake, 13.
• Muffins, 111, 113.

• Nut Cake, 46.

• Oat Cakes, 105.
• One Egg Cake, 127.
• Orange Biscuits, 105.
• ” Wafers, 106.
• Oven, Management of, 6.

• Pitcaithley Bannock, 56.
• Plain Icing, 65.
• Plain Sultana Cake, 127.
• Portuguese Gingerbread, 74.
• Potato Flour Cake, 20.
• Pound Cakes, 21, 22.
• Puff-ball Doughnuts, 87.

• Raisins, How to Stone, 3.
• Ribbon Cake, 39.
• Rice Cake, 22, 23.
• ” Cakes, 107, 109.
• Rock Cakes, 107, 108.

• Scones, 118, 119.
• ” Soda, 119.
• Scotch Bun, 82.
• ” Gingerbread, 75.
• Seed Cake, 56.
• ” ”, 128.
• ” Dough Cake, 82.
• Shortbread, 46, 47.
• ”, 108.
• ” Biscuits, 109.
• Simnel Cake, 57.
• Snowballs, 87.
• Snow Cake, 24.
• ” Cakes, 109.
• Spice Cake, 59.
• Sponge Cake, 13.
• ” ” American, 11.
• ” ” Berwick, 11.
• ” Fingers, 110.
• Sugar Cakes, 110.
• Sultana Cakes, 59-61.
• Sultana or Seed Cake, 61.
• Swiss Roll, 40.

• Table of Measures, 2.
• Tea Buns, 120.
• ” Cakes, 121, 123.
• Tins, How to Grease, 6.
• Tutti Frutti Icing, 69.

• Walnut Cake, 47.
• Wedding Cake, 51.
• White Cakes, 24, 25.
• White Fruit Cake, 62.
• Whole Meal Biscuits, 110.

• Yellow Icing, 69.
• York Cakes, 123.
• Yorkshire Cake, 124.
• ” Parkin, 76.

PRINTED BY
TURNBULL AND SPEARS,
EDINBURGH