1/2 cup milk and water mixed.
1 1/2 cups sifted flour.
1 teaspoonful baking-powder.
Rub the b.u.t.ter and sugar to a cream. Beat the yolk of the egg stiff and put that in; then add part of the milk and water, and part of the flour and baking-powder, which has been sifted together; next the vanilla, and last the stiff whites of the eggs, not stirred in, but just lightly folded in. If you put them in heavily and roughly, cake will always be heavy. Bake this in a b.u.t.tered biscuit-tin, and cut in squares when cold. It is nice covered with caramel or chocolate frosting.
Domino Cake
Make this feather cake and pour it into two pans, so that the bottom shall be just covered, and bake it quickly. When it is done, take it out of the pans and frost it, and while the frosting is still a little soft, mark it off into dominoes. When it is entirely cold, cut these out, and with a clean paint-brush paint little round spots on them with a little melted chocolate, to exactly represent the real dominoes. It is fun to play a game with these at a tea-party and eat them up afterwards.
Margaret"s Own Cake
Margaret"s mother named this cake for her, because she liked it so much to make it and to eat it. It is a very nice cake for little girls.
5 eggs.
1 cup granulated sugar.
1 cup of flour.
1 pinch of salt.
1/2 teaspoonful of lemon-juice, or vanilla.
Separate the eggs, and beat the yolks very light and foamy; then put in the sugar which you have sifted, a little at a time, and the flour in the same way, but put them in in turn, first sugar, then flour, and so on. Then put in the flavoring, and last fold in the whites of the eggs, beaten very stiff. Bake in a b.u.t.tered pan.
Sponge Cake
4 eggs.
1 cup powdered sugar.
1 cup sifted flour.
1 level teaspoonful baking-powder.
Juice of half a lemon.
Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs and beat them both very light. Mix the sugar in the yolks and beat again till they are very foamy; then put in the stiff whites, and last the flour, sifted with baking-powder; then the lemon-juice. Bake in a b.u.t.tered biscuit-tin. You can frost and put walnut-halves on top.
Velvet Cake
This is a large cake, baked in a roasting-pan; it is very light and delicious, and none too large for two luncheons, or for a picnic.
6 eggs.
2 cups of sugar.
1 cup of boiling water.
2 1/2 cups of flour.
3 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
Put the yolks of the eggs in a deep bowl and beat two minutes; then put in the sugar, and beat ten minutes, or fifteen, if you want it perfect. Put in the water, a little at a time, and next the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs. Mix the baking-powder and flour, put these in next, and add the flavoring last. This is a queer way to mix the cake, but it is right.
Easy Fruit-cake
Margaret"s Other Aunt begged to have this in the book, because she said it was so simple any little girl could make it, and all the family could help eat it, as they were especially fond of fruit-cake.
1 cup b.u.t.ter.
1 cup sugar.
1 cup mola.s.ses.
1 cup milk.
1 cup currants.
1 cup raisins.
1 egg.
1 teaspoonful soda.
2 teaspoonfuls mixed spices.
3 cups flour.
Wash and dry the currants. Buy the seeded raisins and wash these, too, and then chop them. Cream the b.u.t.ter and sugar, add the egg beaten well without separating, then the mola.s.ses with the soda stirred in it, then the milk, then the cinnamon and cloves.
Measure the flour, and then take out a half-cup of it, and stir in the raisins and currants, to keep them from going to the bottom of the cake when it is baked. Stir these in, add the rest of the flour, and beat well. Bake in two b.u.t.tered bread-pans.
Layer Cake
1 cup sugar.
1/2 cup water.
2 eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder.
1/2 cup b.u.t.ter.
2 1/2 cups flour.
Teaspoonful vanilla.
Rub the b.u.t.ter to a cream in a deep bowl, and put in the sugar a little at a time, and rub this till it, too, creams. Then put in the beaten yolks of the eggs, and then the water. Beat the egg-whites well, and fold in half, then add the flour, in which you have mixed and sifted the baking-powder, and then put in the vanilla and the rest of the eggs.
Divide in two layers, or in three if the tins are small, and bake till a light brown.
FILLING FOR LAYER CAKES
Nut and Raisin Filling
Make the rule for plain icing, and add a half-cup of chopped raisins mixed with half a cup of chopped almonds or English walnuts.
Fig Filling
Mix a cup of chopped figs with the same icing.
Marshmallow Filling
Chop a quarter of a pound of marshmallows; put them over the teakettle to get soft; make a plain icing and beat them in.