CAKES.
CAKES baked in paper bags will be as brown as if baked without the bag
and will retain their moisture infinitely better; therefore plain loaf
cakes and all fruit cakes are greatly improved by the paper bag cooking.
While drop cakes, oatmeal cookies and the like can be baked directly on
the bottom of the bag, better results as far as form is concerned, will
come from using very thin tin moulds or baking sheets or paper souffle
cases. Before putting a cake in the oven, particularly if it be a fruit
cake, it will be found advisable to set on the bottom of the oven, a
shallow pan with a little water in it. Put in the bag, close the oven
door and leave ten minutes with the gas on, then reduce the heat at
least one-half. Bag cooking prevents cake crusting over and thereby
permits it to rise to its full height. It also saves from burning.
Midway in the baking the position of cakes can be changed, those on the
grid itself set low on the broiler and vice versa so all will cook
evenly. To test whether the cake is done or no, make a hole in the bag
top and thrust in a clean straw or thin knife blade. If it comes out dry
with no stickiness, the cake is done.
=Cheese Cakes.=--These are a modern adaptation of the old "flawns," a
favorite Eastertide cake. As formerly made, there was a tedious
separation of curds and whey; but the housewife of today eliminates that
by taking a Neufchatel or cream cheese as the foundation. This is
crumbled fine and added to the other ingredients, allowing to each
Neufchatel cheese, one small cupful of sugar, the grated rind and half
the juice of one lemon, a half cupful each sifted cracker crumbs and
currants, one tablespoonful melted butter, half a nutmeg grated, half a
cupful of cream or rich milk, a saltspoonful of salt and four eggs.
Crumble the cheese and crackers together, beat the eggs and add,
together with sugar, salt and spices. Next add the butter and cream and
lastly the currants, lemon juice and rind. Mix thoroughly and fill patty
tins lined with puff paste. Ornament the top with currants and slender
strips of citron, put in buttered bag. Seal and bake in a quick oven.
=Cinnamon Cake.=--Cream one-quarter cup of butter and one cup of sugar,
add one-half cup of milk, one well beaten egg, one and three-quarters
cups of flour sifted twice with three even teaspoons of baking powder,
and pour in a shallow pan to make a sheet rather than a loaf. Just
before setting the cake into the oven sprinkle cinnamon and granulated
sugar over the top. Put into a bag. Seal and bake twenty minutes. Serve
fresh and cut in squares.
=English Fairy Cakes.=--Sift together six ounces of flour and a half
teaspoonful of baking powder. Grate a lemon rind and add to the sifted
flour together with three ounces chopped candied cherries. Beat to a
cream four ounces of butter and four of sugar, then add three eggs one
at a time, beating thoroughly. Add the flour and cherry mixture and stir
lightly. Have ready some buttered patty-tins, half fill with the batter,
bag, and bake in a moderate oven twenty minutes.
=Fruit Cookies.=--One cupful and one-half of sugar, either white or
brown, one cupful of butter and lard or vegetable shortening, (half and
half is good) three tablespoonfuls of molasses, the same amount of hot
water, three eggs, one cupful of raisins, one teaspoonful each of soda
(dissolved in hot water), ginger and cinnamon, a light sprinkling of
cloves, and flour to make very stiff. Half a cupful or more of chopped
nut meats makes a nice addition, but is not necessary.
Cream the sugar and shortening, as for cake, then add eggs well beaten,
molasses and water, spices and soda, then flour, and lastly fruit. When
the batter will take up no more flour, lift it up by teaspoonfuls, pat
it flat and in shape in the baking pan, which must be well-buttered, put
in bag, and bake in fairly hot oven, being careful not to scorch.
This will be found much easier than rolling the dough on a board, and
will make about forty cookies.
=Mrs. Godfrey's Soft Gingerbread.=--In a symposium on gingerbreads held
one Summer afternoon at Sunapee Inn, New Hampshire, this was given as an
example of a most delicate inexpensive cake. Add to one cupful molasses,
one cupful softened butter or lard, filling up the cup in which it is
measured with boiling water. Add two even teaspoonfuls soda, a small
teaspoonful of ginger, a pinch of salt, one beaten egg, and two heaping
cupfuls sifted flour. Beat lightly (not too much lest it make the ginger
bread light colored), put in bag and bake in a moderate oven.
=Good Friday Cake.=--This is a simple tea cake, not very sweet, and is
served hot or cold as preferred. To make it, beat to a cream a scant
cupful of butter and a quarter cupful of sugar. Add a teaspoonful of
the grated yellow rind of lemon, a half teaspoonful of lemon juice, a
pound of flour and enough water to make a stiff paste. Divide the dough
into two equal parts and roll into large, round cakes about the size of
an ordinary pie tin. Mark the edges with a "jigger" into some fancy
design, or simply pinch with the fingers. Cut each cake into quarters,
brush over with the white of an egg, lay a strip of candied lemon peel
on each, sprinkle with granulated sugar put in bag, and bake.
=German Honey Cakes.=--These are fine for luncheon or the kaffee klatch.
Put into a saucepan two cupfuls strained honey and one cupful sugar.
Warm, add a cupful of butter and a half tablespoonful soda dissolved in
a little warm water. Add a half cupful caraway seed and flour to roll.
Roll into a rather thick sheet, mark into squares, put in bag, and bake.
When done cut in small cakes.
=Pecan Kisses.=--Into the whites of six eggs put fourteen little more
than level tablespoonfuls white sugar and beat long and thoroughly until
stiff enough to stand alone. Have ready a small cup pecan kernels having
them in as perfect halves as possible. Beat in lightly, drop in greased
baking sheet, put in bag. Seal and bake in a moderate oven.
=Mrs. Kelder's Loaf Cake.=--Beat to a cream one and one-half cupfuls
sugar and one-half cupful of butter. Add the yolks of three eggs beaten
until light and thin. Add two and one-half cupfuls flour measured after
sifting with two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Lastly fold in
the stiffly whipped whites of three eggs and flavor to taste. Put in
light tin, set in paper bag. Seal and bake thirty-five minutes.
=Hickory Nut Macaroons.=--To one whole egg beaten light, add one cup
sugar and beat well. Add two tablespoonfuls flour and one cup nut meats
and lastly fold in the stiffly whipped whites of three eggs. Drop by
spoonfuls into a well-greased bag and bake in a moderate oven ten or
twelve minutes.
=Walnut Macaroons.=--One and one-half cupfuls of sugar, one-third cup of
butter, three eggs, three cups of flour, one teaspoonful of soda,
dissolved in water, one teaspoonful of cloves, one teaspoonful of
cinnamon, one cup of English walnut meats, one cup of chopped dates. Do
not roll the mixture as in ordinary cookies, but drop into a greased bag
with a spoon. Seal and bake slowly for thirty minutes.
=Maple Sugar Cake.=--Add to one cup maple syrup one beaten egg, a pinch
of salt, one cup of thick, sour cream, into which has been stirred a
teaspoonful (scant) of soda, a teaspoonful of ginger and flour to make a
thin batter. Bake in a bag and cut in squares.
=Molasses Coffee Cake.=--Then right here let me give you a recipe for a
fruit cake or gingerbread with fruit as you may elect to call it. Cream
together one cupful of sugar and three-fourths cup of butter. Add one
cupful black molasses, one cupful strong coffee with a teaspoonful of
soda dissolved in it, four beaten eggs, one teaspoonful each cinnamon
and nutmeg, three-fourths teaspoonful cloves, one half pound shredded
citron and three cupfuls sifted flour. Do not beat longer than
necessary. Put in tin, then in bag, and bake in a slow oven.
=Nut Cake.=--To make a light, delicious cake, cream together one cup of
sugar and five tablespoons of melted butter. Into this beat two well
beaten eggs, a pinch of salt and a cup of milk. Stir into this two
heaping cupfuls of flour, sifted with two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking
powder. After this is well beaten, stir in three-quarters of a cup of
chopped walnuts. Bake in square cake tin in bag. Ice when cold with
plain pulverized sugar icing. Cut in squares, placing a piece of walnut
meat on each square.
=Oatmeal Cakes.=--Beat to a cream three-fourths cupful vegetable
shortening or butter and a cupful and a half of brown sugar. Dissolve
one teaspoonful of soda in one cupful of boiling water and add to butter
and sugar mixture. Mix together two cupfuls of dry oatmeal, two cupfuls
of flour and a half teaspoonful of salt and add to the other
ingredients. Flavor to taste. Lastly add two well beaten eggs and drop
from spoon into greased bag or flat tin and place in bag. Seal and bake
in moderate oven about fifteen minutes.
=German Peach Cake.=--Make a rich baking powder biscuit dough and roll
out in sheets to fit a long biscuit pan. It should not be more than a
half-inch thick. Brush the top with butter and cover with slices of
peach arranged in symmetrical overlapping rows, or half peaches with the
rounded side up. Sprinkle generously with sugar, cover with another tin
to prevent the fruit from becoming mushy or hardened, put in bag and
bake about half an hour in a hot oven. This is a good substitute for
peach pie.
=Pork Cake.=--This is an old New England dish that has been relegated to
the background these many years, but is lately coming to the fore. A
gray haired New York physician, dining at my house the other night,
declared that his old Connecticut aunt's pork cake was one of the
dearest remembered gustatorial delights of his boyhood.
To make it chop one pound of fat pork fine. Pour over it a pint of
boiling water, then stir in three cupfuls brown sugar, one pound of
seeded raisins, eight cupfuls of flour and two rounding teaspoonfuls of
soda dissolved in a little water. Add a teaspoonful of cinnamon, a half
teaspoonful cloves and nutmeg, mix thoroughly and bake in a slow oven
like fruit cake. If preferred, two beaten eggs may be added in which
case less flour will be required.
=Potato Chocolate Cake.=--To two cupfuls of sugar and two-thirds cup
butter beaten to a cream, add yolks of four eggs beaten until lemon
colored and light and a half cupful of sweet milk. Next add a
teaspoonful of soda dissolved in two tablespoonfuls of hot water, one
cup mashed potato, two cups of flour, and four squares of chocolate
melted, one cup chopped walnuts, a teaspoonful of vanilla. Lastly fold
in the stiffly beaten whites of four eggs. This may be baked either in a
large loaf or in layers in a paper bag.
=Potato Caramel Cake.=--Beat to a cream two-thirds cup of butter and two
cups of sugar, add the yolks of four eggs beaten until light and mix
with a half cup of sweet milk and one cup mashed potato. Add two squares
of bitter chocolate melted, one-half teaspoonful nutmeg, and two cups
flour sifted with two teaspoonfuls baking powder. Fold in whites of four
eggs beaten stiff, a cupful of nut meats, preferably English walnuts,
chopped. Bake slowly for about an hour in a gingerbread tin in paper
bag, making the cake an inch and a half or two inches thick; or else in
layer tins together with white icing. This will make four layers.
=Auburn Pound Cake.=--Beat to a cream three-fourths pounds of butter and
one pound fine granulated sugar. Add the yolks of nine eggs beaten light
and one pound flour measured after sifting and then sifted again with a
teaspoonful and a half of baking powder. Fold in the stiffly whipped
whites and flavor with vanilla, almond or the grated rind and juice of a
lemon or a wine glass of sherry. Pour into well-buttered thin tin mould
and seal in bags. Bake an hour and a quarter or an hour and a half in a
moderate oven.
=Raisin Nut Cakes.=--For raisin nut cakes for afternoon tea, beat six
eggs lightly, beating the whites and with an even teaspoon of soda, one
teaspoon of sugar creamed with a cupful of butter, a cupful and a half
of milk and three cupfuls and a half of flour. Add a cupful of chopped
walnuts, two pounds of chopped raisins, a wineglass of brandy, two
teaspoonfuls of baking powder and spice to taste. Make into small cakes,
put on tin in bag and bake in a moderate oven.
=Sour Cream Cake.=--Beat together one cup of powdered sugar and one cup
of sour cream, add two eggs beaten light, one and one-half cups of flour
sifted twice with an even teaspoon of soda twice, one teaspoon of
vanilla and one cup of seeded and cut raisins rolled lightly in flour.
Beat to make the batter creamy and bake at once in a rather shallow pan
sealed in a paper bag.