Melt the b.u.t.ter and flour together, stir in the hot water, add the sugar and flavoring, cook until smooth and clear.
MOLa.s.sES SAUCE.
1/2 cup mola.s.ses.
1/2 cup water or 1/2 tbsp. vinegar.
2 (l.) tsps. flour.
1/2 cup sugar.
1 tbsp. lemon juice.
1 tbsp. b.u.t.ter.
1/2 ssp. salt.
Mix the flour and sugar together. Pour the boiling water upon it. Add the mola.s.ses and place on the range. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the other ingredients; boil up once and serve. (Omit lemon if vinegar is used.)
CREAM SAUCE.
1 egg.
1 tsp. b.u.t.ter.
1 tsp. cornstarch.
1/2 cup powdered sugar.
1 tsp. vanilla.
1 cup boiling milk.
Beat the white of the egg to a stiff froth; then gradually beat into it the powdered sugar and cornstarch. Next add the yolk of the egg and beat well. Pour upon this the cupful of boiling milk and place on the fire. Stir until it boils, then add the b.u.t.ter and vanilla.
LEMON SAUCE.
1 tbsp. cornstarch.
1/2 cup sugar.
1 pint boiling water.
1 tbsp. b.u.t.ter.
1 egg.
1 lemon.
Beat the egg, add the cornstarch and sugar, stir them well together; add the boiling water gradually and stir over the fire until thick; add the b.u.t.ter, juice and grated rind of one lemon. Serve hot.
VANILLA SAUCE.
1 cup milk.
2 (l.) tbsps. sugar.
2 eggs.
1/2 tsp. vanilla.
Put the milk on to boil, beat the yolks and sugar till very light; add them to the boiling milk; stir over the fire until creamy. Have the whites beaten, pour over them the boiling mixture; beat thoroughly and serve at once.
CAKE.
There are practically two kinds of cake, that made with b.u.t.ter, and cake made without b.u.t.ter. When these two methods are understood, cake making becomes easy. A few simple rules must govern all cake making.
1st. Regulate the heat. Cakes without b.u.t.ter require a quick oven; with b.u.t.ter, a moderate oven. 2nd. Beat whites and yolks separately.
3rd. Beat b.u.t.ter and sugar to a cream. 4th. Add the whites last. 5th.
Currants should be cleaned, washed and dried and floured (to which flour some of the baking powder should be added). 6th. Add the milk or water gradually. 7th. Sift the flour before measuring. 8th. 2 level tsps. of baking powder are equal to 1/2 tsp. soda and 1 tsp. cream of tartar. 9th. When looking at a cake while baking, do it quickly and without jarring the stove. 10th. To find out if it is baked, run a broom straw through the centre, if no dough adheres the cake is done.
11th. If browning too quickly, cover with brown paper and reduce the heat gradually. This is usually necessary in baking fruit cake. 12th.
Mix cake in an earthen bowl, never in tin. 13th. Soda, cream of tartar, and baking powder should be crushed and sifted with the flour.
Always attend to the fire before beginning to make cake. Coa.r.s.e granulated sugar makes a coa.r.s.e, heavy cake. If cake browns before rising the oven is too hot. When it rises in the centre and cracks open it is too stiff with flour. It should rise first round the edge, then in the middle and remain level.
GINGERBREAD.
1 cup mola.s.ses.
2 tbsps. b.u.t.ter.
1 tsp. ginger.
1 pint flour.
1/2 cup sour milk.
1 tsp. soda.
1 egg.
Put the mola.s.ses and b.u.t.ter in a pan and set on the stove. When the mixture boils up add the soda and ginger, and take from the fire immediately. Add the milk, the well-beaten egg and the flour, beat well. Bake in a shallow cake pan in a rather quick oven for 20 minutes.
SPICE CAKE.
1/4 cup b.u.t.ter.
1/2 cup mola.s.ses.
1/2 cup sour milk.
1/2 ssp. salt.
1/2 tsp. soda.
The juice and rind of 1/2 lemon.
1/2 cup sugar.
2-1/2 cups flour.
1/2 tsp. ginger.
1 tsp. cinnamon.
1/4 nutmeg, grated.
1 egg.
Beat the b.u.t.ter to a cream. Gradually beat into it the sugar, then the spice and lemon, next the mola.s.ses. Now dissolve the soda in one tbsp.
cold water and stir it into the sour milk; add this, and the egg well beaten, to the other ingredients. Lastly add the flour, and beat briskly for 1/2 minute. Pour into a well b.u.t.tered pan and bake in a moderate oven for about 50 minutes.
SPONGE CAKE.
3 eggs.