and down-weight of every thing else"--and she was right, as the
excellence of her cakes sufficiently proved, during the thirty years
that she taught her art in Philadelphia, with unexampled success.
Therefore, allow for a pound cake a rather small pound of sifted flour;
a large pound of the best fresh butter, a large pound of powdered loaf
sugar, ten eggs, or eleven if they are small; a large glass of mixed
wine and brandy; a glass of rose-water; a grated nutmeg, and a heaped
tea-spoonful of mixed spice, powdered mace, and cinnamon. Put the sugar
into a _deep_ earthen pan, and cut up the butter among it. In cold
weather place it near the fire a few minutes, till the butter softens.
Next, stir it very hard with a spaddle till the mixture becomes very
light. Next, stir in, gradually, the spice, liquor, &c. Then beat the
eggs in a shallow pan with rods or a whisk, till light, thick, and
smooth. Add them gradually to the beaten batter and sugar, in turn with
the flour; and give the whole a hard stirring at the last. Have the oven
ready with a moderate heat. Transfer the mixture to a thick
straight-sided tin pan well greased with the best fresh butter, and
smooth the butter on the surface. Set it immediately into the oven, and
bake it with a steady heat two hours and a half, or more. Probe it to
the bottom with a twig from a corn broom. When it shrinks a little from
the pan it is done. When taken out, set it to cool on an inverted sieve.
When you ice it, flavor the icing with lemon or rose.
It should be eaten fresh, as it soon becomes very dry.
Pound cake is not so much in use as formerly, particularly for weddings
and large parties; lady cake and plum cake being now substituted. A
pound cake may be much improved by the addition of a pound of citron,
sliced, chopped well, dredged with flour to prevent its sinking, and
stirred gradually into the batter, in turn with the sifted flour and
beaten egg.
QUEEN CAKE--Is made in the same manner as pound cake, only with a less
proportion of flour, (fourteen ounces, or two ounces less than a pound)
as it must be baked in little tins; and small cakes require less flour
than large ones. Also, (besides a somewhat larger allowance of spice,
liquor, &c.) add the juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon or two, and
half a pound of sultana or seedless raisins, cut in half and dredged
with flour. Butter your small cake tins, and fill to the edge with the
batter. They will not run over the edge if well made, and baked with a
proper fire, but they will rise high and fine in the centre. Ice them
when beginning to cool, flavoring the icing with lemon or rose. Queen
cakes made _exactly_ as above are superlative.
ORANGE CAKES.--Make a mixture precisely as for queen cake, only omit the
wine, brandy, and rose-water, and substitute the grated yellow rind and
the juice of four large ripe oranges, stirred into the batter in turn
with the egg and flour. Flavor the icing with orange juice.
LEMON CAKES--Are also made as above, substituting for the oranges the
grated rind and juice of three lemons. To give a full taste, less lemon
is required than orange.
SPONGE CAKE.--Many persons suppose that sponge cake must be very easy to
make, because there is no butter in it. On the contrary, the want of
butter renders it difficult to get light. A really good sponge cake is a
very different thing from those numerous tough leathery compositions
that go by that name, and being flavored with nothing, are not worthy of
eating _as cake_, and are neither palatable nor wholesome as diet,
unless too fresh to have grown dry and hard. The best sponge cake we
know of is made as follows, and even that should be eaten the day it is
baked. Sift half a pound of flour, (arrow-root is still better,) in a
shallow pan; beat twelve eggs till very thick, light, and smooth. You
need not separate the yolks and whites, if you know the true way of
adding the flour. Beat a pound of powdered loaf sugar, gradually, (a
little at a time) into the beaten eggs, and add the juice and grated
yellow rinds of two large lemons or oranges. Lastly stir in the flour or
arrow root. It is all important that this should be done slowly and
lightly, and without stirring down to the bottom of the pan. Hold the
egg-beater perpendicularly or quite upright in one hand, and move it
round on the surface of the beaten egg, while with the other hand you
lightly and gradually sprinkle in the flour till all is in. If stirred
in hard and fast it will render the cake porous and tough, and dry and
hard when cold. Have ready either a large turban mould, or some small
oblong or square tins. Butter them nicely, transfer to them the cake
mixture, grate powdered sugar profusely over the surface to give it a
gloss like a very thin crust, and set it immediately into a brisk oven.
The small oblong cakes are called Naples biscuits, and require no icing.
A large turban cake may be iced plain, without ornament.
A _very light_ sponge cake, when sliced, will cut down rough and coarse
grained, and it is desirable to have it so.
_Lady Fingers_--Are mixed in the same manner, and of the same
ingredients as the foregoing receipt for the best sponge cake. When the
mixture is finished, form the cakes by shaping the batter with a
tea-spoon, upon sheets of soft white paper slightly damped, forming them
like double ovals joined in the centre. Sift powdered sugar over them,
and bake them in a quick oven till slightly browned. When cool, take
them off the papers. They are sometimes iced.
ALMOND SPONGE CAKE.--The addition of almonds makes this cake very
superior to the usual sponge cake. Sift half a pound of fine flour or
arrow root. Blanch in scalding water two ounces of shelled sweet
almonds, and two ounces of bitter ones, renewing the hot water when
expedient. When the skins are all off, wash the almonds in cold water,
(mixing the sweet and bitter) and wipe them dry. Pound them to a fine
smooth paste, (one at a time,) in a very clean marble mortar, adding, as
you proceed, plenty of rose-water to prevent their oiling. Then set them
in a cool place. Beat twelve eggs till very smooth and thick, and then
beat into them, gradually, a pound of powdered loaf sugar, in turn with
the pounded almonds. Lastly, add the flour, stirring it round slowly and
lightly on the surface of the mixture, as in common sponge cake. Have
ready a _deep_ square pan. Butter it nicely. Put the mixture carefully
into it, set it into the oven, and bake it till thoroughly done and
risen very high. When cool, cover it with plain white icing, flavored
with rose-water. With sweet almonds, always use a small portion of
bitter ones. Without them, _sweet_ almonds have little or no taste,
though they add to the richness of the cake.
SPANISH BUNS.--In a shallow pan put a half pint of rich unskimmed milk,
and cut up in it a half pound of the best fresh butter. Set it on the
stove, or near the fire, to warm and soften, but do not let it melt or
oil. When soft, stir it all through the milk with a broad knife, and
then set it away to cool. Sift into a broad pan half a pound of the
finest flour, and an additional quarter of a pound put on a plate by
itself. Beat four eggs in a shallow pan till very thick and smooth, and
mix them at once into the butter and sugar, adding the half pound of
flour. Stir in a powdered nutmeg, and two wine-glasses of strong yeast,
fresh from the brewer's, first removing the thin liquid or beer from the
top. Stir the mixture very hard with a knife, and then add,
_gradually_, half a pound of powdered white sugar. The buns will become
heavy if the sugar is thrown in all at once. It is important that it
should be added a little at a time. Then sprinkle in, by degrees, the
extra quarter of a pound of sifted flour, and lastly add a wine-glass of
strong rose-water. When all has been well stirred, butter (with fine
fresh butter,) an oblong iron or block-tin pan, and carefully put the
bun mixture into it. Cover it with a clean cloth, and set it near the
fire to rise. It may require five hours; therefore buns wanted for tea
should be made in the forenoon. When the batter has risen very high, and
is covered with bubbles, put the pan immediately into a moderate but
steady oven, and bake it. When cool, cut the buns into squares, and ice
each one separately, if for company; the icing being flavored with lemon
or orange juice. Otherwise, you may simply sift sugar over them. These
buns were first introduced by Mrs. Goodfellow; and in her school were
always excellently made, nothing being spared that was good, and the use
of soda and other alkalis being unknown in the establishment--hartshorn
in cakes would have horrified her.
LADY CAKE.--This cake must be flavored highly with bitter almonds;
without them, sweet almonds have little or no taste, and are useless in
lady cake. Blanch, in scalding water, three small ounces of shelled
bitter almonds, and then lay them in a bowl of very cold water.
Afterwards wipe them dry, and pound them (one at a time,) to a smooth
paste in a clean marble mortar; adding, as you proceed, a wine-glass of
rose-water to improve the flavor, and prevent their oiling, and becoming
heavy and dark. When done, set them away in a cool place, on a saucer.
Almonds are always lighter and better when blanched and pounded the day
before. Cut up three quarters of a pound of the best fresh butter in a
pound of powdered loaf sugar. Mix it in a deep earthen pan, and stir and
beat it with a spaddle till it becomes very light and creamy. Then,
gradually, stir in the pounded almonds. Take the _whites only_ of
seventeen or eighteen fresh eggs, and beat them in a shallow pan to a
stiff froth, till they stand alone. Then stir the beaten white of egg,
gradually, into the pan of creamed butter and sugar, in turn with three
small quarters of a pound (or a pint and a half,) of sifted flour of the
very best quality. Stir the whole very hard at the last, and transfer it
to a straight-sided tin pan, well greased with excellent fresh butter.
Set the pan immediately into an oven, and bake it with a moderate but
steady heat. When it has been baking rather more than two hours, probe
it by sticking down to the bottom a twig from a corn broom, or a very
narrow knife. If it comes out clean the cake is done; if clammy or
daubed, keep it longer in the oven. A cake when quite done generally
shrinks a little. When you take it out, set it to cool on an inverted
sieve. Ice a lady cake entirely with white, and ornament it with white
flowers. It is now much in use at weddings, and if well made, and quite
fresh, there is no cake better liked.
CINNAMON CAKE.--Cut up half a pound of fine fresh butter, and warm it
till soft in half a pint of rich milk. Sift a pound of fine flour into a
broad pan; make a hole in the centre, and pour into it the milk and
butter, having stirred them well together. Then, gradually, add a large
quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, and a heaped tea-spoonful of
powdered cinnamon. Beat three eggs very smooth and thick, and stir them
in, also a wine-glass and a half of strong fresh brewer's yeast, or two
glasses of fresh baker's yeast. Then mix, (having sprinkled some over
the top,) all the flour into the hole in the centre, so as to make a
soft dough. When all is well mixed cover it, and set it to rise in a
round straight-sided tin pan. Place it near the fire, and when quite
light and cracked all over the surface, flour your pasteboard well,
place the loaf upon it, and having prepared in a pint bowl a stiff
mixture of ground cinnamon, fresh butter, and brown sugar, beaten
together so as to stand alone, make numerous deep cuts or incisions all
over the surface on the sides and top of the cake; fill them with the
cinnamon mixture, and pinch each together so as to keep the seasoning
from coming out. Glaze it all over with beaten white of egg a little
sweetened. Then return the loaf to the pan, and bake it in a moderate
oven till thoroughly done. When cool, cut it down in slices like a pound
cake.
This dough may be divided into small round cakes, the size of a muffin,
and baked on tin or iron sheets, sifting sugar over them when cool. It
must have a high flavor of cinnamon.
WEST INDIA COCOA-NUT CAKE.--Cut up and peel some pieces of very ripe
cocoa-nut. Lay them for a while in cold water. Then take them out and
wipe them dry, and grate very fine as much as will weigh half a pound.
Beat eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth. Have ready half a
pound of powdered loaf sugar, and stir it into the pan of beaten egg,
alternately with the grated cocoa-nut; adding a handful of sifted flour,
a powdered nutmeg, and a large glass of madeira or sherry, stirring the
whole very hard. Butter an oblong tin pan. Put in the mixture, set it
immediately into a quick oven, and bake it well. Set it to cool on an
inverted sieve; cut it into squares, and ice each square, flavoring the
icing with rose.
You may bake it in a large loaf; adding double portions of all the
ingredients, and ornamenting the icing handsomely.
_Sweet Potato Cake_--Is made like the above cocoa-nut cake. The sweet
potatos must be pared and grated _raw_, till you have as much as weighs
half a pound. Then proceed as above, and with the same ingredients and
proportions. You may boil and mash the sweet potatos; but be sure,
afterwards, to pass them through a coarse sieve, or they may chance to
clod and become heavy. If well made, and well flavored, this cake is
very nice.
GOLDEN CAKE.--The best time for making this cake is when ripe oranges
are plenty. For one cake select four large deep-colored oranges, and
roll each one under your hand upon a table to soften them, and increase
the juice. Weigh a pound of the best loaf sugar. On some of the largest
pieces rub off the yellow or outer rind of the oranges, omitting the
white entirely. The white or inner rind of oranges or lemons should
never be used for any thing. Cut the oranges, and squeeze their juice
through a strainer into a large saucer or a small deep plate. Powder all
the sugar, including that which has the orange zest upon it, and put it
into a deep earthen pan, with a pound of the best fresh butter cut up
among it. With a wooden spaddle stir the butter and sugar together, till
very light and creamy. In a shallow pan beat twelve eggs, omitting the
_whites_ of three. Sift into a dish a small quart of the best and finest
flour, and stir it gradually into the pan of butter and sugar and
orange, in turn with the beaten egg, a little at a time of each. Stir
the whole very hard; and when done, immediately transfer the batter to
square tin pans, greased with the same fresh butter that was used for
the cake. Many a fine cake has been spoiled, at last, by the poor
economy of greasing the pans with salt butter. Fill the pans to the top.
If the cake has been well made, and well beaten, there is no danger of
the batter running over the edges. Put it, immediately, into a quick
oven and bake it well, not allowing the heat to be lessened till the
cake is quite done. When cool, cut it into squares. If you ice it,
flavor the icing with orange juice.
Do not attempt to make this cake with yolk of egg only, by way of
improving the yellow color. Without any whites, it will assuredly be
tough and heavy. Cakes may be made light with white of egg only, but
never with yellow of egg only.
If you use soda, saleratus, hartshorn, or any of the alkalis, they will
entirely destroy the orange flavor, and communicate a bad taste of their
own.
SILVER CAKE.--Scald in a bowl of boiling water two ounces of shelled
bitter almonds. As you peel off the skins throw each almond into a bowl
of ice-cold water. When all are blanched, take them out, and wipe them
dry on a clean napkin. Put them, one at a time, into a very clean marble
mortar, and pound each one separately to a smooth paste, adding, as you
pound them, a few drops of strong rose-water, till you have used up a
large wine-glass full. As you remove the pounded almonds from the
water, lay them lightly and loosely on a plate. When all are done, put
them into a very cool place. In a deep earthen pan cut up a pound of
fresh butter into a pound of powdered sugar, and with a wooden spaddle
stir the butter and sugar together till perfectly light. Into another
pan sift three quarters of a pound of fine flour, and in a broad shallow
pan beat with small rods the whites only of eighteen eggs till they are
stiff enough to stand alone. Then, gradually, and alternately, stir into
the pan of beaten butter and sugar the flour, the beaten white of eggs,
and the pounded almonds. Give the whole a hard stirring at the last.
Transfer it to square tin pans greased with the same butter, and bake it
well. When cool, cut it into square cakes, and send it to table on china
plates, piled alternately with pieces of golden cake, handsomely
arranged. If you ice silver cake, flavor the icing with strong
rose-water.
These cakes, (gold or silver) if made as above, will be found delicious.
The yolk of egg left from the silver cake may be used for soft custards.
But yolk of egg alone, will not raise a cake; though white of egg will.
APEES.--Cut up a pound of fresh butter into two pounds of sifted flour,
and rubbing the butter very fine, and mixing in a pound of powdered
sugar, with a heaped tea-spoonful of mixed spice, nutmeg, mace, and
cinnamon, and four tea-spoonfuls of carraway seeds. Moisten the whole
with a large glass of white wine; and barely sufficient cold water to
make a stiff dough. Mix it well with a broad knife, and roll it out into
a sheet less than half an inch thick; then with the edge of a tumbler,
or a tin cake-cutter, divide it into round small cakes. Bake them in
oblong pans, (tin or iron) slightly buttered; and do not place them so
closely as to touch. Bake them in a quick oven, till they are of a pale
brown. These cakes are soon prepared, requiring neither eggs nor yeast.
MARMALADE MERINGUES.--Make a mixture as for apees, omitting only the
carraway seeds. Roll out the sheet of dough quite thin; cut it into
round flat cakes with the edge of a tumbler, and bake them a few
minutes, till lightly colored. Take them out of the oven and spread them
thickly with very nice marmalade, or with ripe strawberries or
raspberries, sweetened, and mashed without cooking. Have ready a stiff
meringue of beaten white of egg and sugar. Pile it high over the
marmalade on each cake. Heap it on with a spoon, so as quite to conceal
the marmalade, and do not smooth it on the top. It should stand up
_uneven_ as the spoon left it. Set it again in the oven for a minute or
two, to harden it.
JUMBLES.--Mix together, all at once, in a deep pan, a pound of butter
cut up in a pound of powdered sugar, a pound of sifted flour, and six
eggs, previously beaten very light in a pan by themselves. Add a
table-spoonful of powdered spice, (mixed nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon) and
a glass of mixed wine and brandy; or else a glass of rose water; or the
juice and grated yellow rind of a large lemon. Stir the whole very hard
till all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, and become a soft dough.
Flour your hands and your pasteboard, and lay the dough upon it. Take
off equal portions from the lump, and with your hands form them into
round rolls, and make them into rings by joining together the two ends
of each. Place the jumbles (not so near as to touch,) in tin pans
slightly buttered, and bake them in a very brisk oven little more than
five or six minutes, or enough to color them a light brown. If the oven
is too cool, the jumbles will spread and run into each other. When cold,
sift sugar over them. _Jumbles_ may be made with yolks of eggs only, if
the whites are wanted for something else.
_Cocoa-nut Jumbles_--Are made as above, only with finely grated
cocoa-nut instead of flour, and with white of egg instead of yolk.
_Cocoa-nut Puffs._--Grate any quantity of cocoa-nut. Mix it with
powdered sugar and a little beaten white of egg, and lay it in small
heaps of equal size. On the top of each place a ripe strawberry,
raspberry, or any small preserved fruit, flattening a slight hollow, to
hold it without its rolling off.
SCOTCH CAKE.--Take a pound of fresh butter, a pound of powdered white
sugar, and two pounds of sifted flour. Mix the sugar with the flour, and
rub the butter into it, crumbled fine. Add a heaped table-spoonful of
mixed nutmeg and cinnamon. Put _no water_, but moisten it entirely with
butter. A small glass of brandy is an improvement. Roll it out into a
large thick sheet, and cut it into round cakes about the size of
saucers. Bake them on flat tins, slightly buttered. This cake is very
crumbly but very good, and of Scottish origin. It keeps well, and is
often sent from thence, packed in boxes.
JELLY CAKE.--For baking jelly cake you must have large flat tin pans
rather larger than a dinner plate. But a very clean soap-stone griddle
may be substituted, though more troublesome. Make a rich batter as for
pound cake, and bake it in single cakes, (in the manner of buckwheat, or
thicker) taking care to grease the tin or soap-stone with _excellent_
fresh butter. Have ready, enough of fruit jelly or marmalade, to spread
a thick layer all over each cake when it cools. Pile one on another very
evenly, till you have four, five, or half a dozen; and ice the surface
of the whole. Cut it down in triangular pieces like a pie. Jelly cake
is no longer made of sponge cake, which is going out of use for all
purposes, as being too often dry, tough, and insipid, and frequently not
so good as plain bread.
ALMOND MACAROONS.--The day before they are wanted, prepare three
quarters of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and a quarter of a pound
of shelled bitter almonds; by scalding, blanching, and pounding them to
a smooth paste in a marble mortar, (one or two at a time) adding, as you
proceed, rose-water to prevent their oiling, and becoming dark and
heavy. Having beaten to a stiff froth the whites of six eggs, and
prepared a pound of powdered loaf sugar, beat the sugar into the egg a
spoonful at a time. Then mix in gradually the pounded almonds, and add a
grated nutmeg. Stir the whole very hard, and form the mixture into small
round balls. Then flatten slightly the surface of each. Butter slightly
some shallow tin pans. Place the macaroons not so close as to be in
danger of touching; and glaze them lightly with a little beaten white of
egg. Put them into a brisk oven, and bake them a light brown.
Ground-nut macaroons are made in the same manner.
_Chocolate Macaroons._--Scrape down, very fine, half a pound of Baker's
prepared cocoa. Beat to a stiff froth the white of four eggs, and beat
into the white of egg a pound of powdered loaf sugar, in turn with the
chocolate, adding a little sifted flour if the mixture appears too thin.
Grease the bottom of some oblong tin pans, very slightly, with sweet
oil. Having formed the mixture into small thick cakes, lay them (not
close,) in the pan, and bake them a few minutes. Sift sugar over them
while warm.
KISSES.--Having beaten to a stiff froth, till it stands alone, the
whites of eight eggs, mix with it, gradually, three quarters of a pound
of finely powdered loaf sugar, beating it in very hard, a spoonful at a
time, and as you proceed flavoring it with extract of vanilla, rose, or
lemon juice. If the meringue is not thoroughly beaten and very stiff,
the kisses will lose their shape and run in baking. Try one first, and
if that runs, beat a while longer before you bake the whole. Pile
portions of the meringue on sheets of letter paper, placing each heap
far apart. Smooth and shape them with a broad knife dipped in cold
water. Make them about the size and form of half eggs, with the flat
part downwards. Arrange them on a smooth hickory board, and set it in a
quick oven, (leaving the door open) and watch them well. A few minutes
will color them a pale brown, and that is all they require. Then take
them out, and set them to cool. When cool, slip a knife carefully under
each, and remove them from the paper. Then with your knife hollow the
meringue from the base of each kiss and scrape upwards toward the top,
being careful not to break through the outside or crust. Fill up this
vacancy with any sort of stiff jelly. Then clap two halves together, and
unite them at the base, by moistening the edges with a little of the
meringue that was left. Handle them very carefully throughout.
Large kisses, of twice or thrice the usual size, are introduced at
parties, filled with ice cream, or flavored calf's foot jelly.