Mix a tea-cup full of powdered white sugar with a quart of rich
milk, and cut up in the milk two ounces of butter, adding a salt-spoonful
of salt. Put this mixture into a covered pan or skillet,
and set it on coals till it is scalding hot. Then take it off, and
scald with it as much yellow Indian meal (previously sifted) as
will make it of the consistence of thick boiled mush. Beat the
whole very hard for a quarter of an hour, and then set it away to
cool.
While it is cooling, beat three eggs very light, and stir them
gradually into the mixture when it is about as warm as new milk.
Add a tea-cup full of good strong yeast, and beat the whole
another quarter of an hour--for much of the goodness of this cake
depends on its being long and well beaten. Then have ready a
turban mould or earthen pan with a pipe in the centre, (to diffuse
the heat through the middle of the cake.) The pan must be very
well buttered, as Indian meal is apt to stick. Put in the mixture,
cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise. It should be light
in about four hours. Then bake it two hours in a moderate oven.
When done, turn it oat with the broad surface downwards, and send
it to table hot and whole. Cut it into slices, and eat it with
butter.
This will be found an excellent cake. If wanted for breakfast, mix
it, and set it to rise the night before. If properly made,
standing all night will not injure it. Like all Indian cakes, (of
which this is one of the best,) it should be eaten warm.
It will be much improved by adding to the mixture, a salt-spoon of
pearl-ash, or sal-aratus, dissolved in a little water.