mixtures. Directions for use will be found on every packet and the only
thing that to my mind improves it is the addition of a tablespoonful
of cream after the beaten eggs are mixed to the cake-powder. Nothing
could be easier than the following, and I have never had a failure:
Break two eggs into a large pudding basin, beat well with a fork, then
stir the cake-powder into the eggs quite smoothly. Add the cream. Have
ready the buttered tin, pour the mixture into it. Place in a quick oven
and bake for about ten minutes. Turn on to a sheet of clean white paper
which has been lightly dusted with a little powdered sugar. One packet
of cake mixture and two eggs will make either one nice-sized Swiss Roll
or a complete sponge sandwich.
It will often be much easier to make a successful cake or light pastry
if the butter and lard are reduced to a cream before being added to
the other ingredients. Put your proportion of butter and lard (half
of each) into your pastry basin. Stir with the _hand_, one way only,
till it has become the consistency of a thick cream. Mix the rest of
the ingredients for your cake into it and moisten either with milk or
water. Cakes mixed by hand are much more satisfactory than those mixed
with a spoon. One is also much more sure of success if the mixture is
kept very stiff.
_185. Simple Recipe for a Chocolate Cake_
Take a quarter of a pound best white flour, a quarter of a pound
butter, the same of sifted fine white sugar, two ounces of grated
chocolate, and two eggs. Stir the butter in a pastry bowl with the
hand, one way as directed, till the butter is reduced to a smooth
cream. When this is done add the sugar (still stirring the one way).
Have the two eggs well beaten in a cup, stir them into the sugar
and flour, lastly the chocolate powder. Pour the mixture into a
well-buttered cake tin and bake in a moderate oven for an hour.
_186. Plain Christmas Cake_
Take one pound flour (household, not self-raising), half a pound of
currants which have been carefully washed and dried (this is best done
in a cullender under the tap and rubbed dry on a clean white cloth),
half a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar, two ounces of candied
lemon peel cut into thin strips, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder,
three eggs well beaten, whites and yolks together, and half a pint of
milk, sour will do.
Place the flour in the pastry bowl, thoroughly mix the baking-powder
into it, rub in the butter, add the sugar and currants and peel, stir
in the eggs, and mix all together with the milk. Butter your cake tin
and line it with a buttered sheet of white cooking paper, bake in a
steady but gentle oven for one and a half hours.
_187. Madeira Cake_
Take a quarter of a pound of household flour, one teaspoonful of
baking-powder, three ounces of butter, three ounces of fine white
sugar, and two eggs. Cream the butter, add first the sugar, then the
flour with the baking-powder, lastly the well-beaten eggs and half a
teacupful of milk. Care should be taken that the mixture is not mixed
too slack. Pour the mixture into a buttered cake tin and bake in a
gentle oven from thirty to forty minutes.
_188. Glengarry Cake_
Half a pound of best household white flour, two teaspoonfuls of
baking-powder, five ounces of butter, five ounces of powdered sugar, a
quarter of a pound of sultanas carefully washed and stalked. Reduce the
butter to cream in the bowl, add the sugar, flour, and baking-powder,
then the sultanas, mix well with the two beaten eggs, adding a little
milk if required. Place in a well-buttered cake tin, and bake in a
steady oven one and a half hours.
_Note._ Carraway seeds can be used instead of sultanas if a seed cake
is required and a little sliced candied peel always put on the top of
the cake if desired.
_189. Surrey Cake_
Take three eggs, their weight in flour, powdered sugar, and butter,
half a teaspoonful of essence of vanilla or almonds.
Reduce the butter to cream in the bowl, add the flour and sugar, keep
stirring and beating the mixture without ceasing till it is quite
smooth, add the eggs well beaten. Butter and paper a cake tin, which
should never be more than half full of the cake. Bake in a steady oven
from three-quarters of an hour to an hour.
_190. Gâteau de Milan_
Take half a pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter, quarter of
a pound of sugar, one whole egg, one yolk, a little salt, a grated rind
of lemon, and a teaspoonful of rum. Place the flour on a pastry board;
form it into a hillock with a hole in the centre; put into this the
butter, sugar, and eggs, lemon rind, beaten egg, and rum. Mix with the
hand with butter and sugar, then the flour and eggs and make all into
a ball. Roll it out to the thickness of little more than a quarter of
an inch, form into little cakes with a cake cutter; arrange them on a
baking-sheet of paper lightly buttered, brush them over lightly with
the yolk of the egg; bake in a steady oven for about fifteen to twenty
minutes. These cakes will keep well for some days if kept in a closed
tin.
* * * * *
_Note._ It is a golden rule worth remembering that all biscuits or
rusks (also cakes) will keep perfectly crisp if kept in a closed tin.
Cakes, of course, should not be placed under any cover till quite cold.
The same cake mixture as for Gâteau de Milan may be treated in the
following manner to make quite a different cake.
Instead of cutting the mixture into small cakes, make two rounds only
of the same size and thickness. Place them on a buttered baking tin,
but do not allow them to touch. From one of these pieces cut a round
out of the centre with a small cake cutter. Bake them in a steady oven
till they are a beautiful light brown colour; let them get cold. Upon
the piece that is not cut in the centre spread a layer of smooth jam,
place the other piece over it, trim the edges to have both exactly the
same size; on this border spread some more jam, then sprinkle with a
little sugar, not finely powdered but in grains. Arrange on a dish and
fill the hole in the centre with a little fruit jelly.
_191. Tea Cakes_
Take half a pound of flour, six ounces of butter, two yolks of eggs,
one whole egg, one and a half ounces of sugar, a quarter of a pint of
cream, and a little salt. Make the paste the same as for the Gâteau
de Milan, let it rest from ten to fifteen minutes. Roll out the paste
about an inch thick. Form into little cakes with a pastry cutter about
two inches round, brush lightly with the yolk of an egg and bake in a
good oven from twenty-five to thirty minutes.
THE END
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
WOODS AND SONS, LTD., LONDON, N.1
Transcriber’s Notes
In a few cases, obvious omissions or errors in punctuation were
corrected.
The recipe for roast lamb is not numbered in the original.
The recipe numbering in the original skips 91-99.
Page 110: “be to prepared” changed to “to be prepared”