Use pastry flour for all cakes; and since different brands even of
pastry flour differ, it is best to use the same brand when you find a
good one and become accustomed to it.
Sift flour once before measuring; and from 3-5 times for angel and
other sponge cakes after measuring. The best way to sift flour several
times is to lay down two pieces of large letter or Manila paper and to
sift the flour first on to one and then on to the other.
All measurements have the sifted flour laid lightly into the cup with a
spoon. If the cup is shaken or knocked on the side with the spoon there
will be too much flour.
Skimmed milk and oil may be used in cakes and the cream saved for other
purposes.
At great altitude, more flour and less shortening and sugar will be
required in cakes.
In recipes calling for cream of tarter, use lemon juice in the
proportion of 1 tablespn. or more to each teaspoon of cream of tartar.
A larger quantity of lemon juice makes the cake more tender.
2 whites of eggs are said to equal 1 rounded teaspn. of baking powder,
for lightness.
Boil molasses or syrup before using in cakes.
Half oil instead of all butter may be used in nearly all cakes, and in
some cases, all oil is better. Use salt with oil.
It is usually thought important to cream butter and sugar well
together, but one professional cake-maker told me that cakes were
lighter when the butter and sugar were just mixed.
Always add a little of the flour for cakes to the creamed butter or
sugar and butter, before adding eggs, milk or other liquids.
Saffron is used for both color and flavor: a very small quantity only,
is required of the imported for a deep color.
For variety, thin slices of sweet prunes or dates are nice in place of
other fruits in cakes.
Round tube pans bake cake the most evenly, Turk’s head molds being the
best of all.
Do not oil the tins, for cakes without shortening.
For cakes with shortening, oil the tins and sprinkle flour over,
shaking off all flour that is loose; or, line tins with well oiled
paper.
Some recommend dipping angel cake pans into cold water and filling
while wet; then the cake falls out white when cold, leaving the crust
sticking to the mold.
Always beat whites of eggs on a platter or in a large cake bowl or
“bombe” with a whip, not with a revolving beater.
Chop and fold, never stir, the whites into cake, the flour also.
Have all ingredients and utensils for sponge cake cold, and if
possible, put it together in a cold room.
For sponge cakes, follow directions for putting nut and citron cake
together, or the hot water way following sponge layer cake.
Bake sponge cakes very slowly and evenly in an oven that bakes well
from the bottom. They will retain their lightness better if carefully
inverted in the tin after baking and left in that position until cool.
Bake cakes with shortening in a moderate oven.
Cool all cakes slowly. One colored cook told me that she always set her
cakes on the stove hearth for a little while after taking them out of
the oven. Of course they should be handled carefully.
Set warm layer and other cakes on a cloth wrung out of cold water and
they will quickly loosen from the pan.
Loaf or layer cakes may be set in ice box in tins for 2 hrs. before
baking.
3 or 4 rose geranium leaves laid in the bottom of the tin before the
batter is poured in will flavor cake with rose, or the leaves may be
laid between layers after baking, while cooling. If the loaf is one
that will bear removing from the tin while warm, lay it on some of the
leaves.
Cakes may be steamed instead of baked--sponge cakes 1 hour, fruit
cakes longer. One recipe for fruit cake says, steam 4 hours and bake 1
hour. Use your judgment.
Sponge cakes--angel and others, are supposed to be broken apart with 2
forks, not cut.
If loaves of cake that are to be covered with whipped cream are cut
before the cream is put on, the cake will look smooth and nice and the
pieces will come out more neatly.
Cakes made with yeast require to be kept a little warmer than bread
(unless you keep bread too warm), and flour, fruit and all ingredients
should be warm when added.
=★ Nut and Citron Cake=
3 large or 4 small eggs
1 scant cup granulated sugar
1 tablespn. lemon juice
1 tablespn. ice water
⅔-¾ cup Brazil nut, almond, pecan or shell-bark meal
½ cup (¼ lb.) fine chopped or ground citron
1 cup pastry flour
salt
Have all the ingredients as nearly ice cold as possible; sift the
sugar, sift the flour twice and leave it in the sifter; beat the yolks
of the eggs in a cake bowl with a revolving egg-beater (a large one if
you have it), adding sugar gradually. When stiff, add part of the water
and more sugar; beat, add more water, sugar and half the lemon juice,
beating, until all the sugar is in.
Stir into this mixture half the nut meal, a pinch of salt and the
citron. Rest the egg beater on a quart measure (or some dish of the
required height) by the side of the bowl, and let it drain into the
bowl while beating the whites of the eggs. It will drain much cleaner
than it could be scraped, besides saving the time. Beat the whites of
the eggs to a moderately stiff froth, add the remaining half tablespn.
of lemon juice and whip till dry and feathery; let them stand a moment,
then slide onto the yolk mixture; sprinkle part of the nut meal over
them and sift on a little flour; chop in lightly, dipping from the
bottom with a large thin spoon three times; add more meal and flour;
chop; continue this until the flour is all in. Take care not to mix
too much; the mixture must not get soft. Put into pan at once and bake
slowly until the cake stops singing, or does not stick to a broom
splint. Bake 1½ hours, according to the heat of the oven. The fine
particles of citron give an unusually delightful flavor to the cake.
Preserved orange peel, ground, may be used sometimes; or fine cut
raisins or dried blueberries.
=★ Julia’s Birthday Cake=
2 cups sugar
½-1 cup butter
8 eggs
2 cups flour
flavoring
Cream butter and sugar; add flavoring and a little of the flour, then
the beaten yolks; beat well. Slide the stiffly-beaten whites on to this
mixture, sift flour over gradually and chop together as for nut and
citron cake; bake in moderate oven in 3 medium sized layers; sift a
little sugar over one layer before baking, sometimes, to make a crust
for the top. If possible, set in ice box for an hour before baking.
=Patty Cakes=
Use ⅓-½ cup of milk and 2½-2¾ cups of flour in preceding recipe, and
bake in patty pans.
=Cocoanut Loaf or Layer Cake=
2 cups sugar
4 level tablespns. butter
8 eggs
2 cups fine grated or ground cocoanut
2 teaspns. lemon juice
1-2 teaspns. vanilla if desired
2 cups flour
Put together the same as “Julia’s Birthday Cake,” let stand on ice for
2 hours, or bake at once in loaf or layers.
If baked in layers, use Washington pie filling with it.
=Rich Loaf Cake=
1 cup butter
1⅔ cup granulated sugar
5 eggs
2-2¼ cups flour
Cream butter, add sugar and work very light; add 1 egg at a time
and stir only until no yolk can be seen; mix in flour, turn into
paper-lined pan and set in ice box for 2 hours. Bake in slow oven about
an hour, or until the cake stops singing.
=Rice Flour Cake=
¾ cup butter
2 scant cups sugar
2¼ cups rice flour
6 eggs
2-3 tablespns. lemon juice with grated rind
Cream butter, add sugar, a little of the flour and beaten yolks with
half the juice and all the rind of lemon.
Beat whites of eggs with a little salt, adding the remainder of the
lemon juice when half beaten; slip on to cake batter, sift flour over
gradually, and fold all lightly together. Put into pan to depth of not
over 2 in. Bake in moderate oven.
=Fruit and Nut Cake. Unsurpassed=
1⅓ cup sugar
⅔ cup butter
1⅓ cup flour
6 eggs
4 cups (1⅓ lb.) seeded raisins
3 cups (1 lb.) currants
1½ cup (½ lb.) ground citron
large ¾ cup blanched almonds, ground
¼-½ teaspn. extract rose, according to strength
(rose leaves in their season)
Mix fruit with part of the flour, add nuts; cream butter with a little
of the flour; beat together the sugar and yolks of eggs until very
light and add with extract to creamed butter; beat well; whip whites
of eggs with pinch of salt to stiff froth, add fruit and nuts to yolk
mixture, chop in beaten whites and remainder of flour; bake in well
oiled tin 1½-2½ hrs. in moderate and slow oven; cover when necessary.
The cake may be steamed 3-4 hrs. and baked ½-1 hr.
This cake will keep a long time with care and is unusually desirable. 3
times the quantity given will make 4 medium sized loaves.
=Corn Starch Cake=
6 eggs
½ cup butter (part oil)
1⅓ cup sugar
1½ cup flour
3 tablespns. corn starch
flavoring
Beat yolks with half the sugar and cream butter with the other
half; mix, beat. (Part of the flour and corn starch may be added to
the butter and sugar.) Beat whites of eggs stiff, slide on to the
mixture, add flour and corn starch (which have been sifted together)
gradually, chopping and folding in with the whites; bake in moderate
oven. Two thick round layers.
[Illustration: THE MISSES LISK CAKE TINS]
=★ Silver Cake=
1 lb. (2 cups and 3 tablespns.) sugar
¾ lb. (3⅛-3½ cups) flour
6 oz. (¾ cup soft) butter
rose flavor
1½ cup citron or prunes in slices
whites of 14 eggs
Cream butter and sugar, add flavoring, beaten whites and flour, lay
slices of fruit in and on top of cake. One very large square, or two
rather small round loaves.
=★ Scotch Short Bread--no eggs=
½ cup butter
½ cup granulated or brown, or slightly rounded ½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspn. caraway seed or not
2 cups flour
Cream butter, add sugar and flour mixed, seeds also if used. A little
of the flour may be saved for rolling.
Roll to about 1 in. thick, of the shape to fit your tin; crinkle the
edges, press them with a fork or cut with pastry jagger, slide on to
tin, prick lightly with fork and bake in a slow oven for 1 hour; or,
roll ½ in. thick and bake ½ hour only. The cake is sometimes creased in
squares before baking, or the dough may be cut in round cakes and the
edges crinkled.
The cake is better with oil and ¼ teaspn. of salt in place of butter.
One cup of sugar is sometimes used with ½ cup of butter or oil, and
again, 1 cup of butter or oil with ½ cup of sugar, but the cake is very
nice with the proportions given. By some, brown sugar is considered
most suitable.
=German Light Cake=
1⅛ cup butter or 1¼ cup oil
1¼ cup granulated sugar
2½-2¾ cups flour
⅞ cup almonds, blanched and chopped
4 eggs
grated orange rind
ground coriander seed
Cream butter with a little flour, add eggs, one at a time, beating,
add sugar (except a little for the top), rind and flour; spread thin
in oiled pans, sprinkle with almonds, coriander and sugar, bake in
moderate oven, cut in squares while hot, leave in pan to cool.
=★ Sister Elliott’s Plain Loaf Cake and Cookies=
½ cup oil
1½ cup sugar
yolks 2 eggs
4½ cups flour
1 cup milk
salt, flavoring
whites 3 eggs
Cream oil and sugar, add a little flour, yolks of eggs, salt and
flavoring, then milk and flour alternately; beat well and fold in the
stiff whites of eggs. Chill, or bake at once thoroughly, in 1 large or
2 small loaves in moderate oven that bakes well from the bottom.
For cookies, use 2 whites of eggs only and make dough stiff enough to
roll.
=Molasses Cake=
4 large eggs
3 level tablespns. butter
½ cup molasses
½ cup sugar, brown or white
1 teaspn. lemon juice
1½ teaspn. grated orange peel
1½ tablespn. browned flour
1 cup pastry flour
Beat eggs and lemon juice in bowl set in boiling water, add sugar, then
boiling molasses, with butter and orange peel, and lastly the flour.
=Molasses Sugar Cakes=
4 eggs
⅓ cup (4½ level tablespns.) butter
⅞ cup molasses sugar
⅓ teaspn. lemon extract
1 cup pastry flour
1½ tablespn. browned flour
1 teaspn. lemon juice
Mix butter and sugar and add to beaten yolks, beating well; slide on
to this the whites beaten with salt and lemon juice, then sift over
gradually the two flours mixed, chopping and folding them in with the
whites. Bake in small cakes in moderate oven 15-20 m. Use grated maple
sugar for maple cakes.
=★ Molasses Bread or Hard Molasses Cake--no eggs=
1¾ qt. (7 cups) flour
1 cup butter (part oil)
1¼ cup pressed down, medium brown sugar
1 cup molasses
1 teaspn. ground anise seed
salt
Cream butter and sugar, add anise and molasses, beat well and add
flour; turn mixture out on floured board, mold up and put into flat
tins about 1 in. deep, wash over with milk and bake in a very slow oven.
When done, wrap or cover with damp cloths and keep at least 4 days
before using. If necessary, moisten the cloths again, and perhaps
again. The cakes will be hard and dry when taken from the oven, but
keeping them for a few days in damp (not wet) cloths makes them nice
and tender. Grated orange peel and vanilla, together or separate, may
be used for flavoring; but the delicate flavor of anise is especially
agreeable.
By weight, the ingredients are 1½ lb. pastry flour, ½ lb. butter, ½ lb.
brown sugar, ⅞ lb. molasses.