SWEET STRAWBERRY CAKE.
Three eggs, one cupful of sugar, two of flour, one tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, a teaspoonful, heaped, of baking powder. Beat the b.u.t.ter and sugar together and add the eggs well beaten. Stir in the flour and baking powder well sifted together. Bake in deep tin plate. This quant.i.ty will fill four plates. With three pints of strawberries mix a cupful of sugar and mash them a little. Spread the fruit between the layers of cake. The top layer of strawberries may be covered with a meringue made with the white of an egg and a tablespoonful of powdered sugar.
Save out the largest berries and arrange them around in circles on the top in the white frosting. Makes a very fancy dish, as well as a most delicious cake.
MOLa.s.sES CUP CAKES.
One cup of b.u.t.ter, one of sugar, six eggs, five cupfuls of sifted flour, one tablespoonful of cinnamon, two tablespoonfuls of ginger, three teacupfuls of cooking mola.s.ses and one heaping teaspoonful of soda. Stir the b.u.t.ter and sugar to a cream; beat the eggs very light, the yolks and whites separately, and add to it; after which put in the spices; then the mola.s.ses and flour in rotation, stirring the mixture all the time; beat the whole _well_ before adding the soda and but little afterwards. Put into well-b.u.t.tered patty-pan tins and bake in a _very moderate_ oven. A baker"s recipe.
BAKERS" GINGER SNAPS.
Boil all together the following ingredients: Two cups of brown sugar, two cups of cooking mola.s.ses, one cup of shortening, which should be part b.u.t.ter, one _large_ tablespoonful of ginger, one tablespoonful of ground cinnamon, one teaspoonful of cloves; remove from the fire and let it cool. In the meantime, sift four cups of flour and stir part of it into the above mixture. Now dissolve a teaspoonful of soda in a tablespoonful of warm water and beat into this mixture, stir in the remainder of the flour and make stiff enough to roll into long rolls about an inch in diameter, and cut off from the end into half-inch pieces. Place them on well-b.u.t.tered tins, giving plenty of room to spread. Bake in a moderate oven. Let them cool before taking out of the tins.
GINGER COOKIES.
One cup sugar, one cup mola.s.ses, one cup b.u.t.ter, one egg, one tablespoonful vinegar, one tablespoonful ginger, one teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water, mix like cooky dough, rather soft.
GINGER SNAPS.
One cup brown sugar, two cups mola.s.ses, one large cup b.u.t.ter, two teaspoonfuls soda, two teaspoonfuls ginger, three pints flour to commence with; rub shortening and sugar together into the flour; add enough more flour to roll very smooth, very thin, and bake in a quick oven. The dough can be kept for days by putting it in the flour barrel under the flour, and bake a few at a time The more flour that can be worked in and the smoother they can be rolled, the better and more brittle they will be. Should be rolled out to wafer-like thinness.
Bake quickly without burning. They should become perfectly cold before putting aside.
DOMINOES.
Have a plain cake baked in rather thin sheets and cut into small oblong pieces the size and shape of a domino, a trifle larger. Frost the top and sides. When the frosting is hard, draw the black lines and make the dots with a small brush dipped in melted chocolate. These are very nice for children"s parties.
FANCY CAKES.
These delicious little fancy cakes may be made by making a rich jumble-paste--rolling out in any desired shape; cut some paste in thick, narrow strips and lay around your cakes, so as to form a deep, cup-like edge; place on a well-b.u.t.tered tin and bake. When done, fill with iced fruit prepared as follows: Take rich, ripe peaches (canned ones will do if fine and well drained from all juice) cut in halves; plums, strawberries, pineapples cut in squares or small triangles, or any other available fruit, and dip in the white of an egg that has been very slightly beaten and then in pulverized sugar, and lay in the centre of your cakes.
WAFERS.
Dissolve four ounces of b.u.t.ter in half a teacup of milk; stir together four ounces of white sugar, eight ounces of sifted flour and the yolk of one egg, adding gradually the b.u.t.ter and milk, a tablespoonful of orange-flour water and a pinch of salt; mix it well. Heat the wafer-irons, b.u.t.ter their inner surfaces, put in a tablespoonful of the batter and close the irons immediately; put the irons over the fire, and turn them occasionally, until the wafer is cooked; when the wafers are all cooked roll them on a small round stick, stand them upon a sieve and dry them; serve with ices.
PEACH CAKES.
Take the yolks and whites of five eggs and beat them separately (the whites to a stiff froth.) Then mix the beaten yolks with half a pound of pulverized and sifted loaf or crushed sugar, and beat the two together thoroughly. Fifteen minutes will be none too long for the latter operation if you would have excellence with your cakes.
Now add half a pound of fine flour, dredging it in a little at a time, and then put in the whites of the eggs, beating the whole together for four or five minutes. Then with a large spoon, drop the batter upon a baking tin, which has been b.u.t.tered and floured, being careful to have the cakes as nearly the same size as possible and resembling in shape the half of a peach. Have a quick oven ready and bake the cakes about ten minutes, watching them closely so that they may only come to a light brown color. Then take them out, spread the flat side of each with peach jam, and stick them together in pairs, covering the outside with a thin coat of icing, which when dry can be brushed over on one side of the cake, with a little cochineal water.
CUP CAKES.
Two cups of sugar, one cup of b.u.t.ter, one cup of milk, three cups and a half of flour and four eggs, half a teaspoonful of soda, large spoon cream of tartar; stir b.u.t.ter and sugar together and add the beaten yolks of the eggs, then the milk, then flavoring and the whites. Put cream of tartar in flour and add last. Bake in b.u.t.tered gem-pans, or drop the batter, a teaspoonful at a time, in rows on flat b.u.t.tered tins.
To this recipe may be added a cup of English currants or chopped raisins; and also another variety of cake may be made by adding a half cup citron sliced and floured, a half cupful of chopped almonds and lemon extract.
VARIEGATED CAKES.
One cup powdered sugar, one-half cup of b.u.t.ter creamed with the sugar, one-half cup of milk, four eggs, the whites only, whipped light, two and one-half cups prepared flour. Bitter almond flavoring, spinach juice and cochineal. Cream the b.u.t.ter and sugar; add the milk, flavoring, the whites and flour. Divide the batter into three parts.
Bruise and pound a few leaves of spinach in a thin muslin bag until you can express the juice. Put a few drops of this into one portion of the batter, color another with cochineal, leaving the third white. Put a little of each into small, round pans or cups, giving a light stir to each color as you add the next. This will vein the cakes prettily.
Put the white between the pink and green, that the tints may show better. If you can get pistachio nuts to pound up for the green, the cakes will be much nicer. Ice on sides and top.
CORNSTARCH CAKES.
One cupful each of b.u.t.ter and sweet milk and half a cup of cornstarch, two cupfuls each of sugar and flour, the whites of five eggs beaten to a stiff froth, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and one of soda; flavor to taste. Bake in gem-tins or patty-pans.
SPONGE DROPS.
Beat to a froth three eggs and one teacup of sugar; stir into this one heaping coffeecup of flour, in which one teaspoonful of cream of tartar and half a teaspoonful of saleratus are thoroughly mixed.
Flavor with lemon. b.u.t.ter tin sheets with washed b.u.t.ter and drop in teaspoonfuls about three inches apart. Bake instantly in a very quick oven. Watch closely as they will burn easily. Serve with ice cream.
SAVORY BISCUITS OR LADY FINGERS.
Put nine tablespoonfuls of fine white sugar into a bowl and put the bowl into hot water to heat the sugar; when the sugar is thoroughly heated, break nine eggs into the bowl and beat them quickly until they become a little warm and rather thick; then take the bowl from the water and continue beating until it is nearly or quite cold; now stir in lightly nine tablespoonfuls of sifted flour; then with a paper funnel, or something of the kind, lay this mixture out upon papers, in biscuits three inches long and half an inch thick, in the form of fingers; sift sugar over the biscuits and bake them upon tins to a light brown; when they are done and cold, remove them from the papers, by wetting them on the back; dry them and they are ready for use. They are often used in making Charlotte Russe.
PASTRY SANDWICHES.
Puff paste, jam of any kind, the white of an egg, sifted sugar.
Roll the paste out thin; put half of it on a baking sheet or tin, and spread equally over it apricot, greengage, or any preserve that may be preferred. Lay over this preserve another thin paste, press the edges together all round, and mark the paste in lines with a knife on the surface, to show where to cut it when baked. Bake from twenty minutes to half an hour; and, a short time before being done, take the pastry out of the oven, brush it over with the white of an egg, sift over pounded sugar and put it back in the oven to color. When cold, cut it into strips; pile these on a dish pyramidically and serve.
This may be made of jelly-cake dough, and, after baking, allowed to cool before spreading with the preserve; either way is good, as well as fanciful.
NEAPOLITAINES.
One cup of powdered sugar, half a cup of b.u.t.ter, two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, three whole eggs and three yolks, beaten separately, three cups of sifted flour. Put this all together with half a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of milk. If it is too stiff to roll out, add just enough more milk. Roll it a quarter of an inch thick and cut it out with any tin cutter. Place the cakes in a pan slightly greased and color the tops with beaten egg and milk, with some chopped almonds over them. Bake in a rather quick oven.
BRUNSWICK JELLY CAKES.
Stir one cup of powdered white sugar and one-half cup of b.u.t.ter together, till perfectly light; beat the yolks of three eggs till very thick and smooth; sift three cups of flour and stir it into the beaten eggs with the b.u.t.ter and sugar; add a teaspoonful of mixed spice (nutmeg, mace and cinnamon) and half a gla.s.s of rose-water or wine; stir the whole well and lay it on your paste-board, which must first be sprinkled with flour; if you find it so moist as to be unmanageable, throw in a little more flour; spread the dough into a sheet about half an inch thick and cut it out in round cakes with a biscuit-cutter; lay them in b.u.t.tered pans and bake about five or six minutes; when cold, spread over the surface of each cake a liquor of fruit jelly or marmalade; then beat the whites of three or four eggs till they stand alone; beat into the froth, by degrees, a sufficiency of powdered loaf sugar to make it as thick as icing; flavor with a few drops of strong essence of lemon, and with a spoon heap it up on each cake, making it high in the centre; put the cakes into a cool oven, and as soon as the tops are colored a pale brown, take them out.