NEVER undertake cake unless you are willing to give to the business the
amount of time and labor needed to make it _well_. Materials tossed
together “anyhow” may, once in a great while, come out right, but the
manufacturer has no right to expect this, or to be mortified when the
product is a failure.
Before breaking an egg, or putting butter and sugar together, collect
all your ingredients. Sift the flour and arrange close to your hand,
the bowls, egg-beater, cake-moulds, ready buttered, etc.
Begin by putting the measured sugar into a bowl, and working the
butter into it with a wooden spoon. Warm the butter slightly in cold
weather. Rub and stir until the mixture is as smooth and light, as
cream. Indeed, this process is called “creaming.”
Now, beat the yolks of your eggs light and thick in another bowl; wash
the egg-beater well, wipe dry and let it get cold before whipping the
whites to a standing heap in a third vessel. Keep the eggs cool before
and while you beat them. Add the yolks to the creamed butter and sugar,
beating hard one minute; put in the milk when milk is used, the spices
and flavoring; whip in the whites, and lastly, the sifted and prepared
flour.
Beat _from the bottom_ of the mixing-bowl with a wooden spoon, bringing
it up full and high with each stroke, and as soon as the ingredients
are fairly and smoothly mixed, stop beating, or your cake will be tough.
Let your first attempt be with cup-cake baked in small tins. Learn to
manage your oven well before risking pound or fruit-cake.
Should the dough or batter rise very fast lay white paper over the top,
that this may not harden into a crust before the middle is done. To
ascertain whether the cake is ready to leave the oven, thrust a clean
straw into the thickest part. If it comes out clean, take out the tins
and set them _gently_ on a table or shelf to cool before turning them
upside down on a clean, dry cloth or dish.
A Good Cup-cake.
One cup of butter.
Two cups of sugar—powdered.
Four eggs.
One cup of sweet milk.
One teaspoonful of vanilla.
One half-teaspoonful of mace.
Three cups of prepared flour, or the same quantity of
family-flour with one even teaspoonful of soda and
two of cream-tartar, sifted twice with it.
Two teaspoonfuls of baking powder will serve the same end. Mix as
directed in “Practical Preliminaries,” and bake in small tins.