For Filling
1 teaspoonful Crisco 1 ounce chocolate 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract 1/2 cupful hot water 1/2 cupful brown sugar 1/2 cupful granulated sugar Pinch salt
_For cake_. Put granulated sugar into small pan and melt over fire till brown, remove from fire, add boiling water, stir quickly, return to stove, and stir until thick syrup; set aside to cool. Beat Crisco and sugar to a cream, add eggs well beaten, flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, three tablespoonfuls of the syrup and water. Mix and beat two minutes, then divide into two Criscoed and floured layer tins and bake in moderate oven twenty minutes.
_For filling_. Melt granulated sugar in small pan and stir until it becomes a light brown syrup, add the water gradually, then brown sugar, Crisco, salt, and chocolate stirring all the time. Cook until it forms a soft ball when tried in cold water, or 240 F. Remove from fire, add vanilla, beat until creamy, then spread between cakes.
Sufficient for one layer cake.
Chocolate Cake
For Cake
1 cupful sugar 3/4 teaspoonful salt 1/4 cupful grated chocolate 3/4 cupful Crisco 5 eggs 2 cupfuls flour 1 teaspoonful baking powder 1/2 cupful sultana raisins 1/2 cupful candied chopped citron peel
For Chocolate Frosting
2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 2 squares melted bitter chocolate 2 cupfuls powdered sugar 6 tablespoonfuls coffee 1/4 teaspoonful salt 1/2 teaspoonful vanilla extract
_For cake_. Cream Crisco; add sugar gradually, yolks of eggs well beaten, milk, flour, salt, baking powder, grated chocolate, citron, and raisins. Mix and beat two minutes, then fold in stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Turn into Criscoed and floured tin and bake for one and a quarter hours in a moderate oven. When cold cover with frosting.
_For chocolate frosting_. Knead Crisco into sugar. Melt chocolate, add coffee, sugar, salt, and Crisco, and stir until thick, then add vanilla and put away to cool. When cold spread on cake. This frosting may be used any time. It is just as good made one day and used the next by adding a little more hot coffee. It is always soft, creamy and delicious.
Sufficient for one cake.
Cocoanut Layer Cake
For Cake
1 cupful sugar 3 cupfuls flour 1/2 teaspoonful salt 4 eggs 1/2 cupful Crisco 1 cupful milk 2 teaspoonfuls vanilla extract 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder
For Filling
1 teaspoonful Crisco 1 cupful sugar 1 cupful water Pinch cream of tartar 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract 1 white of egg 1/2 cupful chopped cocoanut 1/4 teaspoonful salt
_For cake_. Cream Crisco and sugar together, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt, and add alternately with the beaten yolks of eggs and milk. Beat thoroughly, then add stiffly beaten whites of eggs and flavoring and mix gently. Grease layer tins with Crisco then flour them and divide mixture into three portions. Bake in a moderate oven twenty minutes.
_For filling_. Boil water and sugar together, add Crisco and cream of tartar, and boil until it forms a soft ball when tried in cold water, or 240 F. Beat white of egg to stiff froth, add salt, then pour in syrup gradually, add vanilla and beat until thick and cold. Spread on cake and sprinkle over with cocoanut.
Sufficient for three layers.
Coffee Layer Cake
Dark Part
1 cupful dark brown sugar 2/3 cupful cold strong coffee 3 yolks of eggs 1/2 cupful Crisco 1 tablespoonful mola.s.ses 1/4 cupful raisins 2 cupfuls flour 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 1/2 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon 1/2 teaspoonful powdered cloves 1/2 teaspoonful grated nutmeg 1/2 teaspoonful salt
White Part
1/2 cupful Crisco 1 cupful granulated sugar 3 whites of eggs 2/3 cupful milk 2 cupfuls flour 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoonful salt
_For dark part_. Cream Crisco and sugar, add yolks well beaten, coffee, mola.s.ses, flour, salt, baking powder, spices and raisins.
Mix and divide into two Criscoed and floured layer tins and bake in moderately hot oven twenty minutes.
_For white part_. Cream Crisco and sugar, add milk, vanilla, flour, salt, baking powder, then fold in stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Bake in two layers. Put layers together and ice with following frosting.
Put 2 cupfuls dark brown sugar and 3/4 cupful water into saucepan, add 1 tablespoonful Crisco and 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract. Boil till mixture forms soft ball when tried in cold water or 240 F., remove from stove, beat till it begins to cream, then add 1 cupful chopped raisins. Spread on cake and allow to dry.
Sufficient for one large layer cake.
Cream Puffs
1 cupful water 1 cupful flour 1/4 teaspoonful salt 5 tablespoonfuls Crisco 4 eggs
Put Crisco into small saucepan add water, bring to boiling point, add quickly flour and salt, stir well with wooden spoon until mixture leaves sides of pan, remove pan from fire, allow mixture to become cool, but not cold, add eggs, one at a time, and beat each one thoroughly in. Set in cool place one hour. Put mixture into forcing bag with tube and force it on to a tin greased with Crisco into small rounds; bake in hot oven forty minutes. When cold split them open on one side and fill with whipped cream sweetened and flavored to taste.
To make eclairs with this mixture press it on to tins in strips three and a half inches long, and a little distance apart. Brush over tops with beaten egg and bake in moderate oven thirty minutes. Cut open one side then fill and dip top into chocolate icing.
Sufficient for fifteen cream puffs.
Cream Puff b.a.l.l.s
1 cupful flour 1/2 cupful Crisco 1/2 teaspoonful salt 1/2 cupful water 4 eggs
Put Crisco and water into small saucepan, bring to boil, add quickly flour and salt, stir well with wooden spoon until mixture leaves sides of pan, remove from fire, allow to cool, but not become cold, add eggs, beating each one thoroughly in. Turn mixture on to well Criscoed plate and divide into small puffs or cakes. Put on Criscoed tins and bake a golden brown in hot oven, thirty minutes. These puffs may be filled with preserves, custard, or savory mixtures.
Sufficient for thirty puffs.
Crisco Fruit Cake
1-1/2 cupfuls Crisco 2 cupfuls sugar 4 cupfuls flour 6 eggs 1 winegla.s.sful brandy 1/2 lb. blanched and chopped almonds 1/2 lb. English walnut meats (broken in small pieces) 1/2 lb. stoned and chopped dates 1 lb. currants 1 lb. seeded raisins 1 lb. glace cherries 1 teaspoonful baking soda 1 teaspoonful salt 1/2 cupful New Orleans mola.s.ses 1/2 cupful cold black coffee 1 teaspoonful grated nutmeg 2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon 1 teaspoonful powdered cloves
Cream Crisco and sugar together, add eggs well beaten, beat five minutes, then add coffee, soda mixed with mola.s.ses, brandy, flour sifted with salt and spices. Now add raisins, currants, dates, cherries cut in halves, and nuts. Mix carefully and turn into Criscoed and papered tin and bake in moderate oven two and a half hours. Brandy may be omitted.