dissolved yeast cake. Stir in enough flour to make a batter; beat
well, then add more flour, a little at a time to make stiff dough,
mixing with a knife. Turn on a floured board; knead until it is smooth,
elastic and does not stick to the board. Put into a bowl greased with
Crisco, cover closely and let stand in a warm place over night. The
first thing in the morning knead again until fine grained; shape into
loaves and place in a warm pan greased with Crisco. Cover and put in a
warm place. When double in bulk, bake in a hot oven. Bake one hour.
[Illustration: CAKES]
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 gingerbreads.
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.
[Illustration]
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.
Apple Sauce Fruit Cake without Milk
1 cupful brown sugar
1½ cupfuls apple sauce
2½ cupfuls flour
½ cupful Crisco
1 lb. raisins
1 teaspoonful powdered cloves
1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoonful grated nutmeg
2 teaspoonfuls baking soda
½ teaspoonful salt
3 tablespoonfuls vinegar
Cream Crisco and sugar thoroughly together, add apple sauce, flour,
raisins, spices, salt, and soda mixed with vinegar. Mix and pour into
greased and floured cake tin and bake in moderate oven one and a half
hours.
Sufficient for one cake.
Black Cake with Prune Filling
1½ cupfuls sugar
½ teaspoonful salt
3 eggs
½ cupful Crisco
1 cupful milk
½ teaspoonful baking soda
2 cupfuls flour
1 teaspoonful baking powder
½ teaspoonful vanilla extract
⅓ cake chocolate
For Filling
1 cupful sugar
⅓ cupful boiling water
1 white of egg
½ cupful stoned stewed prunes
⅓ cupful blanched chopped almonds
_For cake._ Beat 1 egg in double boiler, add ½ cupful milk, ½ cupful
sugar and chocolate; mix well and cook until it thickens. Cool and
set aside. Cream Crisco with remainder of sugar, add salt, eggs well
beaten, soda mixed with remainder of milk, flour, baking powder and
vanilla. Mix well and add chocolate paste, and divide into two Criscoed
and floured layer cake tins. Bake twenty minutes in moderate oven.
_For filling._ Boil sugar and water together without stirring until it
forms a soft ball when tried in cold water, or 240° F., then pour it
over the beaten white of egg, beating all the time. Now add chopped
prunes and almonds and beat well. Put between layers of cake.
Sufficient for one good-sized layer cake.
Pound Cake
2 cupfuls sugar
2 cupfuls Crisco
2 teaspoonfuls salt
12 eggs
4 cupfuls flour
½ teaspoonful powdered mace
3 tablespoonfuls brandy
Cream Crisco and sugar thoroughly together, add yolks of eggs well
beaten, fold in whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth, add brandy,
flour, salt and mace, and mix lightly and quickly. Turn into a papered
cake pan and bake in a slow oven for one hour and twenty minutes.
Sufficient for one large cake.
Boiling Water Cake
1 cupful boiling water
1 cupful sugar
½ cupful Crisco
1 egg
¼ cupful chopped candied citron peel
1 cupful sultana raisins
2½ cupfuls flour
½ teaspoonful salt
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
¼ teaspoonful grated nutmeg
½ teaspoonful lemon extract
Put Crisco and sugar into basin, pour boiling water over them; let
stand till cold, then add egg well beaten, sift in flour, salt, baking
powder, and nutmeg, add peel, raisins, and lemon extract, and mix well.
Turn into greased and floured small square tin and bake in moderate
oven half hour. Cool and cover with boiled frosting.
Sufficient for one small cake.
Butterless-Milkless-Eggless Cake
2 cupfuls brown sugar
⅔ cupful Crisco
2 cupfuls water
2 cupfuls sultana raisins
2 cupfuls seeded raisins
1 teaspoonful salt
2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoonful powdered cloves
½ teaspoonful powdered mace
½ teaspoonful grated nutmeg
2 teaspoonfuls baking soda
4 cupfuls flour
1 teaspoonful baking powder
1½ cupfuls chopped nut meats
3 tablespoonfuls warm water
Put Crisco into saucepan, add sugar, water, raisins, salt, and spices,
and boil three minutes. Cool, and when cold add flour, baking powder,
soda dissolved in warm water and nut meats. Mix and turn into Criscoed
and floured cake tin and bake in slow oven one and a half hours.
Sufficient for one medium-sized cake.
Caramel Cake
For Cake
1¼ cupfuls sifted sugar
2 eggs
½ cupful Crisco
1 cupful cold water
3 cupfuls flour
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
½ cupful granulated sugar
½ teaspoonful salt
¼ cupful boiling water
For Filling
1 teaspoonful Crisco
1 ounce chocolate
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
½ cupful hot water
½ cupful brown sugar
½ cupful granulated sugar
Pinch salt
_For cake._ Put granulated sugar into small pan and melt over fire till
brown, remove from fire, add boiling water, stir quickly, return to
stove, and stir until thick syrup; set aside to cool. Beat Crisco and
sugar to a cream, add eggs well beaten, flour, baking powder, salt,
vanilla, three tablespoonfuls of the syrup and water. Mix and beat two
minutes, then divide into two Criscoed and floured layer tins and bake
in moderate oven twenty minutes.
_For filling._ Melt granulated sugar in small pan and stir until it
becomes a light brown syrup, add the water gradually, then brown sugar,
Crisco, salt, and chocolate, stirring all the time. Cook until it forms
a soft ball when tried in cold water, or 240° F. Remove from fire, add
vanilla, beat until creamy, then spread between cakes.
Sufficient for one layer cake.
Chocolate Cake
For Cake
1 cupful sugar
¾ teaspoonful salt
¼ cupful grated chocolate
¾ cupful Crisco
5 eggs
2 cupfuls flour
1 teaspoonful baking powder
½ cupful sultana raisins
½ cupful candied chopped citron peel
For Chocolate Frosting
2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
2 squares melted bitter chocolate
2 cupfuls powdered sugar
6 tablespoonfuls coffee
¼ teaspoonful salt
½ teaspoonful vanilla extract
_For cake._ Cream Crisco; add sugar gradually, yolks of eggs well
beaten, milk, flour, salt, baking powder, grated chocolate, citron, and
raisins. Mix and beat two minutes, then fold in stiffly beaten whites
of eggs. Turn into Criscoed and floured tin and bake for one and a
quarter hours in a moderate oven. When cold cover with frosting.
_For chocolate frosting._ Knead Crisco into sugar. Melt chocolate,
add coffee, sugar, salt, and Crisco, and stir until thick, then add
vanilla and put away to cool. When cold spread on cake. This frosting
may be used any time. It is just as good made one day and used the
next by adding a little more hot coffee. It is always soft, creamy and
delicious.
Sufficient for one cake.
Cocoanut Layer Cake
For Cake
1 cupful sugar
3 cupfuls flour
½ teaspoonful salt
4 eggs
½ cupful Crisco
1 cupful milk
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla extract
3 teaspoonfuls baking powder
For Filling
1 teaspoonful Crisco
1 cupful sugar
1 cupful water
Pinch cream of tartar
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
1 white of egg
½ cupful chopped cocoanut
¼ teaspoonful salt
_For cake._ Cream Crisco and sugar together, sift the flour, baking
powder, and salt, and add alternately with the beaten yolks of eggs
and milk. Beat thoroughly, then add stiffly beaten whites of eggs and
flavoring and mix gently. Grease layer tins with Crisco, then flour
them and divide mixture into three portions. Bake in a moderate oven
twenty minutes.
_For filling._ Boil water and sugar together, add Crisco and cream of
tartar, and boil until it forms a soft ball when tried in cold water,
or 240° F. Beat white of egg to stiff froth, add salt, then pour in
syrup gradually, add vanilla and beat until thick and cold. Spread on
cake and sprinkle over with cocoanut.
Sufficient for three layers.
Coffee Layer Cake
Dark Part
1 cupful dark brown sugar
⅔ cupful cold strong coffee
3 yolks of eggs
½ cupful Crisco
1 tablespoonful molasses
¼ cupful raisins
2 cupfuls flour
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
½ teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
½ teaspoonful powdered cloves
½ teaspoonful grated nutmeg
½ teaspoonful salt
White Part
½ cupful Crisco
1 cupful granulated sugar
3 whites of eggs
⅔ cupful milk
2 cupfuls flour
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
½ teaspoonful salt
_For dark part._ Cream Crisco and sugar, add yolks well beaten, coffee,
molasses, flour, salt, baking powder, spices and raisins. Mix and
divide into two Criscoed and floured layer tins and bake in moderately
hot oven twenty minutes.
_For white part._ Cream Crisco and sugar, add milk, vanilla, flour,
salt, baking powder, then fold in stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Bake
in two layers. Put layers together and ice with following frosting.
Put 2 cupfuls dark brown sugar and ¾ cupful water into saucepan, add
1 tablespoonful Crisco and 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract. Boil till
mixture forms soft ball when tried in cold water, or 240° F., remove
from stove, beat till it begins to cream, then add 1 cupful chopped
raisins. Spread on cake and allow to dry.
Sufficient for one large layer cake.
Cream Puffs
1 cupful water
1 cupful flour
5 tablespoonfuls Crisco
4 eggs
¼ teaspoonful salt
Put Crisco into small saucepan, add water, bring to boiling point,
add quickly flour and salt, stir well with wooden spoon until mixture
leaves sides of pan, remove pan from fire, allow mixture to become
cool, but not cold, add eggs, one at a time, and beat each one
thoroughly in. Set in cool place one hour. Put mixture into forcing
bag with tube and force it on to a tin greased with Crisco into small
rounds; bake in hot oven forty minutes. When cold split them open on
one side and fill with whipped cream sweetened and flavored to taste.
To make eclairs with this mixture press it on to tins in strips three
and a half inches long, and a little distance apart. Brush over tops
with beaten egg and bake in moderate oven thirty minutes. Cut open one
side, then fill and dip top into chocolate icing.
Sufficient for fifteen cream puffs.
Cream Puff Balls
1 cupful flour
½ cupful Crisco
½ cupful water
4 eggs
½ teaspoonful salt
Put Crisco and water into small saucepan, bring to boil, add quickly
flour and salt, stir well with wooden spoon until mixture leaves sides
of pan, remove from fire, allow to cool, but not become cold, add eggs,
beating each one thoroughly in. Turn mixture on to well Criscoed plate
and divide into small puffs or cakes. Put on Criscoed tins and bake a
golden brown in hot oven, thirty minutes. These puffs may be filled
with preserves, custard, or savory mixtures.
Sufficient for thirty puffs.
Crisco Fruit Cake
1½ cupfuls Crisco
2 cupfuls sugar
4 cupfuls flour
6 eggs
1 wineglassful brandy
½ lb. blanched and chopped almonds
½ lb. English walnut meats (broken in small pieces)
½ lb. stoned and chopped dates
1 lb. currants
1 lb. seeded raisins
1 lb. glace cherries
1 teaspoonful baking soda
1 teaspoonful salt
½ cupful New Orleans molasses
½ cupful cold black coffee
1 teaspoonful grated nutmeg
2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoonful powdered cloves
Cream Crisco and sugar together, add eggs well beaten, beat five
minutes, then add coffee, soda mixed with molasses, brandy, flour
sifted with salt and spices. Now add raisins, currants, dates,
cherries cut in halves, and nuts. Mix carefully and turn into Criscoed
and papered tin and bake in moderate oven two and a half hours. Brandy
may be omitted.
Sufficient for one large cake.
Devils Food Cake
1½ cupfuls sugar
1½ cupfuls milk
½ cake chocolate
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cupfuls flour
½ cupful Crisco
1 teaspoonful baking soda
3 tablespoonfuls boiling water
Boiled frosting
½ teaspoonful salt
Put ½ cupful of sugar into small saucepan, add chocolate and 1 cupful
milk. Put on stove and stir till it boils five minutes, stirring now
and then. Remove from fire, add vanilla and set aside to cool. Beat
Crisco and remainder of sugar to light cream, then add eggs well
beaten and beat two minutes. Now add remainder of milk, soda dissolved
in boiling water, flour, salt, and chocolate mixture. Mix carefully
and divide into two large greased and floured layer tins and bake in
moderate oven twenty-five minutes. Turn to cool and put together with
boiled frosting.
Sufficient for two large layers.
Peach Shortcake
2 cupfuls sugar
1 cupful milk
5 eggs
3 cupfuls flour
¾ cupful Crisco
1 teaspoonful baking powder
½ teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful almond extract
Quartered peaches
Cream Crisco and sugar together, then add milk, eggs one by one, always
beating well between each one, flour sifted with baking powder and
salt, then add extract. Mix and divide into two layer tins that have
been greased with Crisco and bake twenty minutes in moderate oven. Turn
out and spread with butter. Put together with quartered and sweetened
peaches and pile some peaches on top.
Sufficient for one cake.
Strawberry Shortcake
3 cupfuls flour
½ cupful Crisco
½ teaspoonful salt
3 teaspoonfuls baking powder
1 egg
2 tablespoonfuls sugar
1 cupful milk
1½ pints strawberries
1 cupful whipped cream
Sift the flour with the baking powder, salt and sugar, then cut in the
Crisco with a knife, add egg well beaten, and milk. The dough should be
a soft one. Roll in two layers, spread in two Criscoed pans and bake
in a hot oven until a light brown color. Mash and sweeten one cupful
of the strawberries, put on one layer, then place second layer on top.
Sweeten remainder of strawberries, spread on top layer, and cover with
the whipped cream. Decorate with whole ripe strawberries.
Fig Cake
1 cupful sugar
3 eggs
1 cupful milk
2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon
3 cupfuls flour
½ cupful Crisco
3 teaspoonfuls baking powder
½ teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
½ teaspoonful grated nutmeg
1 cupful shredded figs
Wash and dry figs then shred them. Cream Crisco and sugar together, add
eggs well beaten, and beat five minutes. Sift dry ingredients, and add
to first mixture alternately with milk. Add figs and flavorings and
turn into Criscoed and floured cake tin. Bake one hour in moderate oven.
Sufficient for one small cake.
Gennoise Cake
¾ cupful flour
6 tablespoonfuls sugar
6 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
4 eggs
1 teaspoonful baking powder
½ teaspoonful almond extract
Boiled frosting
Preserved cherries or cocoanut
¼ teaspoonful salt
Break eggs into bowl, add sugar and beat for ten minutes over a pan
of boiling water. Remove from water and beat till mixture is thick
and cold; remove beater, sift in flour, salt, and baking powder; mix
carefully, add melted Crisco and almond extract. Turn at once into
small square greased and papered tin and bake in a moderate oven twenty
minutes. Turn out and remove paper. Cool and cut in eight square
pieces. Cover with boiled frosting and decorate with cherries or
cocoanut.
Sufficient for eight small cakes.
Gingerbread
½ cupful sugar
1 egg
½ cupful molasses
½ cupful milk
1⅓ cupfuls flour
¼ cupful Crisco
1 teaspoonful salt
2 teaspoonfuls powdered ginger
1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
½ teaspoonful powdered cloves
½ teaspoonful baking soda or 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
Sauce
1 teaspoonful Crisco
1 cupful (½ lb.) maple sugar
1 tablespoonful flour
1 egg
1 cupful boiling water