This is not a cook book; but as it is intended principally for ladies,
we will include in it a few ideas we have in regard to cake baking, and
also a few recipes for refreshments to be served when entertaining.
We are not advertising any particular brand of baking powder, as we
use none, neither are we advertising any particular brand of flour.
In place of baking powder, we use cream of tartar and soda, and as
all pure baking powder is composed practically of nothing but these
two ingredients mixed with rice flour, they will, when used in the
following manner, give you the same results as baking powder, and also
prevent your cake from falling.
Always use winter wheat flour for cake baking. One pound of pure baking
powder is composed of one-half pound cream of tartar, one-fourth pound
of soda, and one-fourth pound of rice flour. In all recipes that call
for baking powder, use just one-half as much cream of tartar as it
calls for baking powder, and one-half as much soda as you use of cream
of tartar; that is, if a recipe calls for two teaspoonfuls baking
powder, you simply use one teaspoonful of cream of tartar and a scant
half teaspoonful soda. In measuring soda, =always level your spoon
off=, and in cream of tartar, have it slightly rounding. Always sift
your soda with the flour two or three times, and always put the cream
of tartar in the eggs. If you use only yolks, when beating them beat
the cream of tartar with them, but if your cake calls for the whites,
then put in the cream of tartar and beat them until they are stiff.
In order to tell when your whites are beaten sufficiently, lift your
whipper or beater, turn it over quickly, and the whites that lift with
it should stand up perfectly straight, and if they do this, your eggs
are beaten sufficiently.
The heat of your oven has everything to do with successful cake
baking and you must be careful and not allow it to get too hot. Your
cake should first =raise= in the oven, before it commences to brown
on the top, if you wish to make a success of it. If you follow the
directions exactly as written here, you need have no fear of your cake
falling, from opening the oven doors and looking at it at any time,
or from jarring the oven in any manner, as you may take any of these
cakes out of the oven when they are only =partially= done, shake them
around, then put them back in the oven, and they will raise perfectly,
providing your oven is not too hot, and you mix these cakes exactly
as we direct you. This may seem a rather broad assertion, and shatter
a great many ideas you now hold in regard to cake baking, but it will
only cost you the time and trouble of making one cake to find out that
this is correct. We have done this with cakes repeatedly in order to
convince people it would not hurt them, and they would come out of the
oven as light and as perfect as any cake ever baked.
It does not make a particle of difference which way you beat your cake,
or whether you put all of the flour or milk in at once or a little
at a time, as some cake makers direct you to, so long as you beat it
=thoroughly=, which is a very essential point. Always put all of the
flour and milk in at once, as it is much easier than adding a little
at a time. If your cake falls a particle, or fails to come out perfect
in any way, the fault =beyond a doubt= is with your oven, providing
you have followed the directions. A gas or gasoline oven is by far the
best for cake baking, as you are able to get the heat more regular with
them. If you will measure and sift your sugar on a plate, then set it
in the oven for just a few moments, until it gets warmed through, you
will find it will cream nicer with the butter, as the heat in the sugar
softens the butter.
You may take any cake recipe you have, and apply these same directions
in making it, using cream of tartar and soda in the proportions
directed, follow other directions carefully, and you will never
experience any trouble with your cakes.
If you are much of a cake baker, this article alone is worth a great
deal to you, and if you never had much success with your cakes, you
will find it a very easy branch of domestic science to learn, instead
of a difficult one, as some have led you to believe.