A VARIETY OF CAKES EVOLVED FROM ONE
"Aunt Sarah," questioned Mary one day, "will you tell me how it is
possible to evolve a number of cakes from one recipe?"
"Certainly I will, my dear," said her Aunt. "For instance, take the
simple recipe from which I have for years baked layer cake. You may
have other recipes given you, equally as good, but I feel positive
none better. The cake made from this recipe is not rich enough to be
unwholesome, but a good, reliable, inexpensive, easily-made cake, with
which I have never had a failure.
"The recipe, as you know, consists of 1-1/4 cups of granulated sugar,
1/2 cup of a mixture of butter and sweet lard (or use all butter), 1/2
cup sweet milk, 2 cups flour and 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder. 3 eggs.
"The simplest manner of baking this cake is in two square cake pans.
When baked, take from pans and ice each cake with a boiled chocolate
icing and put together as a layer cake, or ice each cake with a plain,
boiled white icing and, when this is cold, you may spread over top of
each cake unsweetened chocolate, which has been melted over steam
after being grated. When cake is to be served, cut in diamonds or
squares. Or add to the batter 1 cup of chopped hickory nut meats, bake
in 2 layers and cut in squares.
"For a chocolate loaf cake, add two generous tablespoonfuls of
unsweetened melted chocolate to the batter just before baking. If you
wish a chocolate layer cake, use the same batter as for the chocolate
loaf cake, bake in two layer pans and put together with white boiled
icing.
"Or, add to this same batter one scant teaspoonful of cinnamon,
ginger, 1/2 teaspoonful of grated nutmeg and cloves, a cup of raisins
or dried currants, and you have a small fruit cake.
"Or, add a small quantity of thinly-shaved citron to the original
recipe, flavor with lemon, bake in a loaf and spread a white icing
flavored with lemon extract over top of cake, and you have a lemon
cake.
"Or, add chocolate and spices to one-half the batter (about one-half
as much chocolate and spices as were used in batter for fruit cake)
and place spoonfuls of the light and dark batter alternately in a cake
pan, until all batter has been used, and you will have a cheap,
old-fashioned Marble cake.
"Or, bake cake over original recipe, in two-layer pans, placing
between layers either tart jelly, a creamy cornstarch filling, grated
cocoanut, apple cream filling, or you might even use half the recipe
given for the delicious icing or filling for Lady Baltimore cake.
"Lastly, bake small cakes from this same recipe. Mary, you should have
small pans for baking these delicious little cakes, similar to those I
possess, which I ordered made at the tinsmith's. I took for a pattern
one Frau Schmidt loaned me. They are the exact size of one-quarter
pound boxes of Royal baking powder. Cut the box in three pieces of
equal height, and your cakes will be equally as large in diameter as
the baking powder box, but only one-third as high. I think I improved
on Frau Schmidt's cake tins, as hers were all separate, I ordered
twelve tins, similar to hers, to be fastened to a piece of sheet iron.
I had two of these iron sheets made, containing twenty-four little
pans. I place a generous tablespoonful of the batter in each of the
twenty-four small pans, and cakes rise to the top of pans. Usually I
have batter remaining after these are filled. Ice all the cake except
the top with a white boiled icing or chocolate icing. These small
cakes keep exceedingly well, and are always liked by young folks and
are particularly nice for children's parties".
"Speaking of cakes, Aunt Sarah," said Mary, "have you ever used
Swansdown cake flour? I have a friend in the city who uses it for
making the most delicious Angel cake, and she gave me a piece of Gold
cake made over a recipe in 'Cake Secrets,' which comes with the flour,
and it was fine. I'll get a package of the flour for you the first
time I go to the city. The flour resembles a mixture of ordinary flour
and cornstarch. It is not a prepared flour, to be used without baking
powder, and you use it principally for baking cakes. I have the recipe
for both the Gold and Angel cakes, with the instructions for baking
same. They are as follows:"
ANGEL CAKE.
"For the Angel cake, use one even cupful of the whites of egg (whites
of either eight large or nine small eggs); a pinch of salt, if added
when beating eggs, hastens the work. One and one-quarter cups
granulated sugar, 1 cup of Iglehart's Swansdown cake flour. Sift flour
once, then measure and sift three times. Beat whites of eggs about
half, add 1/2 teaspoonful of cream of tartar then beat whites of eggs
until they will stand of their own weight. Add sugar, then flour, not
by stirring, but by folding over and over, until thoroughly mixed.
Flavor with 1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla or a few drops of almond
extract. As much care should be taken in baking an Angel Food cake as
in mixing. Bake in an ungreased patent pan. Place the cake in an oven
that is just warm enough to know there is a fire inside the range. Let
the oven stay just warm through until the batter has raised to the top
of the cake pan, then increase the heat gradually until the cake is
well browned over. If by pressing the top of the cake with the finger
it will spring back without leaving the impression of the finger, the
cake is done through. Great care should be taken that the oven is not
too hot to begin with, as the cake will rise too fast and settle or
fall in the baking. It should bake in from 35 to 40 minutes' time.
When done, invert the pan and let stand until cold before removing it.
Should you see cake browning before it rises to top of pan, throw your
oven door open and let cold air rush in and cool your oven instantly.
Be not afraid. The cold air will not hurt the cake. Two minutes will
cool any oven. Watch cake closely. Don't be afraid to open oven door
every three or four minutes. This is the only way to properly bake
this cake. When cake has raised above top of pan, increase your heat
and finish baking rapidly. Baking too long dries out the moisture,
makes it tough and dry. When cake is done it begins to shrink. Let it
shrink back to level of pan. Watch carefully at this stage and take
out of oven and invert immediately. Rest on centre tube of pan. Let
hang until perfectly cold, then take cake carefully from pan. When
baking Angel cake always be sure the oven bakes good brown under
bottom of cake. If cake does not crust under bottom it will fall out
when inverted and shrink in the fall."
"I never invert my pans of Angel cake on taking them from oven," said
Mary's Aunt, "as the cakes are liable to fall out even if the pan is
not greased. I think it safer to allow the pans containing the cakes
to stand on a rack and cool without inverting the pan.
"Suppose, Mary, we bake a Gold cake over the recipe from 'Cake
Secrets,' as eggs are plentiful; but we haven't any Swansdown flour. I
think we will wait until we get it from the city."
GOLD CAKE.
Yolks of 8 eggs; 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar, 3/4 cup of butter, 3/4
cup water, 2-1/2 cups of Swansdown cake flour, 2 heaping teaspoonfuls
of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoonful lemon extract. Sift flour once, then
measure. Add baking powder and sift three times. Cream butter and
sugar thoroughly; beat yolks to a stiff froth; add this to creamed
butter and sugar, and stir thoroughly through. Add flavor, add water,
then flour. Stir very hard. Place in a slow oven at once. Will bake in
from 30 to 40 minutes. Invert pan immediately it is taken from oven.
Mary, this batter may also be baked in layers with any kind of filling
desired. The Angel cake receipt is very similar to an original recipe
Frau Schmidt gave me; she uses cornstarch instead of Swansdown flour
and she measures the eggs in a cup instead of taking a certain number;
she thinks it more exact.
"Aunt Sarah, did you know Frau Schmidt, instead of using flour alone
when baking cakes, frequently uses a mixture of flour and cornstarch?
She sifts together, several times, six cups of flour and one cup of
cornstarch, and uses this instead of using flour alone.
"I dearly love the Professor's wife--she's been so very good to me,"
exclaimed Mary.
"Yes," replied her Aunt, "she has very many lovable qualities."
Mary's liking for bright, energetic Frau Schmidt was not greater than
the affection bestowed on Mary by the Professor's wife, who frequently
entertained Mary with tales of her life when a girl in Germany, to all
of which Mary never tired listening. One Aunt, a most estimable woman,
held the position of valued and respected housekeeper and cook for the
Lord Mayor of the city wherein she resided. Another relative, known as
"Schone Anna," for many years kept an inn named "The Four Seasons,"
noted for the excellent fare served by the fair chatelaine to her
patrons. The inn was made famous by members of the King's household
stopping there while in the town during the Summer months, which was
certainly a compliment to her good cooking. One of the things in which
she particularly excelled was potato cakes raised with yeast. Frau
Schmidt had been given a number of these valuable recipes by her
mother, all of which she offered to Mary. One recipe she particularly
liked was "Fast Nacht Cakes," which the Professor's wife baked always
without fail on Shrove Tuesday (or "Fast Nacht" day), the day before
the beginning of Lent. This rule was as "unchangeable as the law of
Medes and Persians," and it would have been a very important event,
indeed, which would have prevented the baking of these toothsome
delicacies on that day.