CAKES

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There are five principal ways of making cakes.

The first method is used for plain cakes. The shortening is rubbed

into the flour in the same way as for short pastry; then the dry

ingredients, such as sugar, fruit, and spice, are added, and lastly

the eggs and milk. Then all are mixed well together.

The second way is used for fruit, pound, and seed cakes. The

shortening and sugar are creamed together, the eggs beaten in one at

a time, and the fruit and flour stirred in lightly and quickly at the

last.

In the third way the eggs and sugar are beaten together until thick

and creamy, then the flour is stirred in lightly and quickly. This is

used chiefly for sponge cakes and cakes of that texture.

For the fourth way the sugar, shortening, milk, and syrup or molasses

are melted together, then cooled slightly and added to the dry

ingredients. This method is used for ginger-breads.

In the fifth way the sugar and eggs are beaten thoroughly over boiling

water, then cooled before the melted shortening and dry ingredients

are added. This method is used for Gennoise cake and some kinds of

layer cakes. Care must be taken to insure the right consistency of

cakes. The mixture should be fairly stiff. If too moist the fruit

will sink to the bottom. For rich cakes the tins should be lined with

paper, the paper coming a short distance above the tins, so that the

cake is protected as it rises. For very rich fruit cakes, experience

has shown that it is best not to grease the paper or tin. The cake is

not so liable to burn, and the paper can be removed easily when the

cake is done without injuring it. On the other hand, if tins are lined

for sponge cakes or jelly-rolls, the paper should be greased.

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When making cakes in which baking powder, carbonate of soda, cream of

tartar or tartaric acid are used, almost everything depends upon the

handling, which should be as light and as little as possible. The more

rapidly such cakes are made the better they will be. Two cooks working

from the same recipe will often produce entirely different results, if

one kneads her mixture as if it were household bread, while the other

handles it with due lightness of touch. As soon as the baking powder

or other rising medium is added to the mixture, the cake should be put

into the oven as quickly as possible. Soda alone is never good in a

cake where there is shortening, unless some substance containing acid

is used along with it. Molasses is one of the substances containing

acid.

The greatest care and cleanliness must be exercised in all cake

making; and accuracy in proportioning the materials to be used is

indispensable. The flour should be thoroughly dried and sifted, and

lightly stirred in. Always sift flour before measuring, then sift it

again with the baking powder to insure a thorough blending.

Good cakes never can be made with indifferent materials. Eggs are used

both as an aerating agent and as one of the "wetting" materials. It

is not economy to buy cheap eggs, for such eggs are small, weak,

colorless, and often very stale. Eggs should be well beaten, yolks and

whites separately, unless other directions are given. The yolks must

be beaten to a thick cream and the whites until they are a solid

froth. Sugar tends to improve the texture of cakes, and when cheap

cakes are made, plenty should be used, provided that the cake is not

made too sweet. It should be dissolved before being added to the fat

and the flour.

For best cakes, and all that are required of a light color,

fine-grained sugar should be used. With coarse-grained sugar there

is danger of producing specks which show on the cakes after baking,

unless they have been made by the method of beating up the eggs and

sugar together with a beater over hot water. This method will dissolve

the grains of sugar.

Always buy the best fruits for cake making, as they are sweetest and

cleanest. Currants and sultana raisins for cakes should not be too

large, but of medium size, sweet and fleshy. Cheap dry sultanas should

not be used. Though there is no need to wash sultanas, yet if the

fruit is inclined to be very dry, it will be better to do so than

to put them in to spoil the appearance and the flavor of the cake.

Currants always should be washed, cleaned, and dried before using.

Orange, lemon, and citron peel should be of good color and flavor.

They should not be added to cake mixture in chunks, as often is

done, but should be in long shredded pieces. Large pieces of peel are

sometimes the cause of a cake cutting badly. In making fruit cakes

add the fruit before the flour, as this will prevent it falling to the

bottom.

If a cake cracks open while baking, the recipe contains too much

flour. There are two kinds of thick crusts which some cakes have. The

first of these is caused by the cake being overbaked in a very hot

oven. Where this is so, the cake, if a very rich one, has a huge crack

in the top caused by the heat of the oven forming a crust before the

inside has finished aerating; then as the interior air or gas expands,

it cracks the crust to escape. This crack spoils the appearance of the

cake, and when cut it generally will be found to be close and heavy

in texture. To guard against this it is necessary to bake them at a

suitable temperature, noting that the richer the cake the longer the

fruit takes to bake.

The second kind of thick crust referred to may only be on top of the

cake, and in this case may be caused by an excess of fat and sugar

being mixed together, or otherwise insufficient flour. In this case

the mixture will not bake, but only forms a kind of syrup in the oven,

and the cake sinks in the center. A cake made under such conditions

would have a thick shiny crust, and be liable to crumble when touched.

The inside of the cake would be heavy, having more the appearance of

pudding than cake.

Successful cake making means constant care. In recipes in which milk

is used as one ingredient, either sweet or buttermilk may be used

but not a mixture of both. Buttermilk makes a light, spongy cake,

and sweet milk makes a cake which cuts like pound cake. _In creaming

shortening and sugar, when the shortening is too hard to blend easily

warm the bowl slightly, but do not heat the shortening, as this will

change both the flavor and texture of the cake._ For small cakes have

a quick oven, so that they set right through, and the inside is baked

by the time the outside is browned. For all large cakes have a quick

oven at first, to raise them nicely and prevent the fruit sinking to

the bottom. The oven then should be allowed to become slower to fire

the cakes thoroughly.

Cake must not be hurried. Keep the oven steady though slow, and after

putting a large cake into it do not open the door for at least twenty

minutes. During baking, do not open the door unnecessarily, or in

fact do anything to jar the cake lest the little bubbles formed by the

action of the baking powder burst, causing the gas to escape and the

cake to sink. This produces what is known as a "sad" cake, but refers

probably to the state of mind of the cook. A very light cake put into

a quick oven' rises rapidly round the sides, but leaves a hollow in

the middle.

If a cake is made too light with eggs or powder and an insufficient

quantity of flour is added it will drop in the center. Another

frequent cause is the moving of cakes while in the oven before the

mixture has set properly. The same defect is produced if the cakes

are removed from the oven before being baked sufficiently. When a cake

batter curdles, the texture will not be so even as if the curdling had

not taken place. Sometimes the mixture will curdle through the eggs

being added too quickly, or if the shortening contains too much water.

This forms a syrup with the sugar, and after a certain quantity of

eggs have been added the batter will slip and slide about, and will

not unite with the other ingredients. Weak, watery eggs are another

cause of this happening; and although this may be checked by adding

a little flour at the right time, yet the cake would be better if it

were unnecessary to add any flour until all the eggs had been beaten

in, that is, if the batter had not curdled. Before turning out a cake

allow it to remain in the tin for a few minutes. It is best to lay it

on a wire cake stand, or lay it on a sieve; but if you do not possess

these, a loosely made basket turned upside down will do. If the cake

will not turn out of the tin easily, rest it on its side, turning it

round in a couple of minutes and it may loosen, if not, pass a knife

round the edge, turn the cake over on a clean cloth, and let it stand

a few minutes.

Do not place cakes in a cold place or at an open window, or the steam

will condense and make them heavy. A rich cake improves in flavor and

becomes softer with keeping (from 2 to 6 weeks, according to quality)

before cutting. Wrap, when cold, first in a clean towel, then in

paper. After a week remove the paper and put the cake into a tin

wrapped in the towel. Small cakes may be baked in tiny molds or tins,

or baked in a flat sheet, and then cut out into squares, diamonds or

rounds. Then they can be frosted or coated with cream and decorated

with cherries or other crystallized fruits. If a real distinction is

desired, they may be placed in tiny crinkled paper cases, bought by

the hundred at a trifling cost.

Cake tins should be greased with Crisco and dredged with flour, the

superfluous flour shaken out, or they can be fitted with paper which

has been greased with Crisco. When creaming Crisco and sugar, do not

grudge hard work; at this stage of manufacture the tendency is to give

insufficient work, with the result that the lightness of the cake is

impaired.