Johnny cake

“ When the cakes are cool, spread every one thickly over with grape jelly, peach marmalade, or any other sweetmeat that is smooth and thick; currant jelly will be found too thin, and is liable to run off. Lay the cakes smoothly one on another, (each having a layer of jelly or marmalade between,) and either grate loaf-sugar over the top one, or ice it smoothly; marking the icing with cross lines of coloured sugar-sand, all the lines meeting at the centre so as to divide the cake, when cut, into triangular or wedge-shaped slices. If you ice it, add the juice of a lemon to the icing. ”

“ As it was the custom for the more intimate friends to bring a cake, a pan of cookies, or a great jug of strong lemonade to such an affair, there was more food than twice this surging group of men, women, and children could possibly consume, so that the boys and girls could keep their mouths full of oily, nutty, walnut wafers and broken bits of layer cake without any conscientious scruples. One of the large kitchen tables was entirely covered with plates bearing layer cakes, with chocolate, maple, shining white, and streaky orange icings, or topped with a deadly coating of fluffy cocoa-nut. ”

“ Rub together the butter and sugar till perfectly light; beat the eggs till very 355 thick, leaving out the whites of six eggs for the icing. Sift the flour into the eggs, butter and sugar, one teaspoonful of mixed spices (cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg) , half a glass of rose water. Stir the whole well together, and roll it on your paste-board about half an inch thick; then cut out the cakes and bake them a few minutes. When cold, spread the surface of each cake with marmalade or jam. Beat the whites, left out, very light, and add enough powdered sugar to make them as thick as icing. ”

“ Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar. Add the well beaten yolks and beat all together thoroughly. Add the flour (with which the baking powder has been thoroughly mixed) and [Pg 40] the milk. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Stir them lightly into the mixture. Add the vanilla.
Divide the mixture into three parts. To one part add the spice, raisins, currants, molasses and brandy. Mix thoroughly.
Bake the three parts on separate shallow, round or oblong tins for half-an-hour in a moderate oven. When cold spread a layer of light cake with plain icing or red-currant jelly. ”

“ Stir as stiff as you can stir it with a large spoon, cover, set in a warm place to rise until morning, when roll out some of the dough into cakes about one inch thick, put in pie tins to rise, and when light, make half a dozen deep impressions on top of each cake with the forefinger, spread with melted butter and strew light-brown sugar thickly over top, or mix together 1 cup sugar, butter size of an egg, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons boiling water, beat well and spread the mixture on cakes just before placing in oven. ”

“ Place in a bowl one cupful of molasses, half a cupful of sour cream, one tablespoonful (level) of ginger, one teaspoonful of cinnamon and mix well together, then stir in one-fourth cupful of melted butter. Dissolve a teaspoonful of soda in a little [180] water and add to the other ingredients. Add enough sifted flour to make a drop batter. Drop from spoon on greased pan, far enough not to touch each other when baked. Dip each little drop cake into melted chocolate fondant. The dough should be stiff enough so that the batter will not run over the pan but keep its shape when baked. ”

“ When cream or sour milk is to be put in, half of it should be added when half the flour is mixed in; then the remainder of the flour, and then the saleratus dissolved in the other half of the cream or milk. Lastly, add the spice, wine, lemon-juice, or fruit.
In summer do not stir cake with the hand; the warmth of it makes it less light. A wooden spoon, kept on purpose, is the best thing. In winter, soften, but do not melt the butter, before using it. Cake not raised with yeast, should be baked as soon as it is made, except such as is hard enough to be rolled. ”

“ Grated peel of half a lemon.
1⁄2 cup powdered sugar.
1 teaspoonful mingled nutmeg and cinnamon.
A little salt.
Beat up the whipped and strained yolks with the sugar; add the seasoning and cream; the whites, at last the flour, worked in quickly and lightly. It should be a soft paste, just stiff enough to roll out. Pass the rolling-pin once or twice over it until it is about three-quarters of an inch thick. Cut into small, circular cakes with a tumbler or cake-cutter; drop into the hot lard and fry. They ought to puff up like crullers. Drain on clean, hot paper. ”

“ The cup used in measuring ingredients for cakes holds exactly one-half pint. All cakes are improved by the addition of a pinch of salt. When lard is used instead of butter, beat to a cream and salt well. In mixing cakes, beat butter and sugar together until light and creamy, then add the beaten yolks of eggs, unless stated otherwise as for angel cake, etc., then the flavoring, then mix in the flour and liquid alternately. The baking powder, flour and salt should have been sifted together three or four times before being added. Lastly, fold in lightly the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. ”

“ Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, and cut butter or lard through the flour. Add 1 beaten egg to about 1 cup of sweet milk, and add gradually to the flour, cutting through it with a knife until a soft dough is formed, mixing and handling as little as possible. Divide the dough into two portions, roll out one portion quickly and place on a large pie tin; spread the top of cake with softened (not melted) butter, lay the other cake on top and bake in a quick oven. When baked and still hot, the cakes may be easily separated without cutting ”

“ Sixthly—Do not be disheartened if your first attempt to make a new cake is a failure. We too often forget that success is frequently the outcome of many failures.
Before giving any recipes for fancy cakes, let me advise you to give the following recipes for “Sally Lunns” and “Tea Cakes made with yeast,” a trial.
For the former, mix half a teaspoonful of salt in a pound of flour, and add three tablespoonfuls of sugar. Melt half an ounce of butter in half a pint of new milk, and when milk-warm pour it over half an ounce of German yeast. Add a well-beaten egg and a little grated nutmeg. ”

“ It is a miracle of beauty to look at—and, to eat! Who made it? I ask, because the cooker of that cake has the soul of an artist. I wish to spend my days in the shadow of her wing.”
“I made it.” She blushed, happily, under the royal praise.
“You? Put a raisin in your diadem, as its central jewel!”
“You will not mock at the ‘museum’ any more when I tell you that I found the recipe for that cake in an old parchment. The Countess of Mountjoye invented the cake first in 1715 for the Prince of Paradis: and history says she was the only one of his sweethearts who never lost his affection. ”

“ Put in oven to bake in a heat of 400 degrees F. When baked and while still hot put a little chocolate icing on top. Sold at one cent each, or 6 for five cents. These cakes will keep moist for six or seven weeks, without getting mouldy. The longer they lay the better they taste and the softer they keep.
Sa Voy Jumble No. 2.
One and one-half pounds brown sugar, 7 ounces of lard or butter, 8 eggs, 1⁄3 ounce soda, 2⁄3 ounce cream of tartar, 2 pounds of cake flour. Put sugar, lard and eggs into the bowl together and mix very lightly to a smooth paste. Next add the soda with a little mace. ”

“ A very speedy and effective decoration is to sprinkle white grated cocoanut on your pink cakes, and a mixture of pink (coloured with cochineal) and pale green (coloured with spinach juice) on white icing, using a mixture of all three colours on the chocolate. The study of the cakes in some high-class confectioner’s will help you here. When the cake is baked lift it by the paper on to a clean pastry-board, remove the paper, divide each slab of cake across, and then split it open. ”

“ After bringing to the table, when ready to begin, the sugar can, the butter jar, the egg dish, the milk, the vanilla and the baking powder, so that everything will be convenient, and having well greased a pan for the gold cake (which will be baked in a loaf) and the two jelly tins for the white cake, she can then separate three eggs, and to the three yolks add one whole egg. On account of the baking it is best to make the white cake first, and then it can be iced and the dishes cleaned away while the loaf cake bakes. ”

“ Should the cakes stick, they cannot be got out without breaking.
For queen-cakes, &c. the small tins of a round or oval shape are most convenient. Fill them but little more than half.
After the mixture is completed, set it in a cool place till all the cakes are baked.
In rolling oat cakes made of dough, use as little flour as possible. When you lay them in the pans, do not place them too close together, lest they run into each other.
When you are cutting them out, dip the cutter frequently in flour, to prevent its sticking.
QUEEN CAKE.
One pound of powdered white sugar. ”

“ Rind and juice of a lemon.
Beat the eggs separately and very light. Do not beat the batter much after adding the flour, which must be done last of all. Get a square baking-pan, butter it, and pour one-half the batter in, reserving the rest for a second layer. Have ready a nice damp towel, lay the cake on it when taken out of the pan; spread over the cake, jam or currant jelly; roll it up whilst damp, and when firmly set put it in a place to dry. It is good eaten with sauce, when for a dinner dish, or it can be cut in slices and eaten as small cakes.—Mrs. ”

“ Add 3 cups flour (good measure) , sifted with three scant teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Add a half cup of raisins, seeded and cut in several pieces, if liked, but the cakes are very good without. Spread in two pans and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top and press about five small dabs of butter on top of each cake. Put in oven and bake at once. These are a very good substitute for "raised Dutch cakes," and are much more quickly and easily-made and, as no eggs are used, are quite cheap and very good.
A RELIABLE LAYER CAKE
11⁄4 cups granulated sugar. ”

“ This accomplished, the quicker the cake is transferred from the griddle to the mouth the better. Eaten hot it is delicious, but once allowed to settle, becomes heavy and “stodgy” to an inedible degree. These cakes may be eaten with butter and sugar, with molasses, honey, or maple syrup, and are in any way excellent—when hot.
Cheese Biscuits.—Take 4 oz. grated cheese, 3 oz. finely grated breadcrumbs, 2 oz. butter, 1 teaspoonful flour of mustard, 1 saltspoonful cayenne, 1 of white pepper, and 2 beaten-up eggs; melt the butter and mix all the ingredients together, and let them stand an hour. ”

“ Add a few drops of cochineal and a few drops of vanilla flavouring, and spread the icing evenly over the top of the cake{586} with a paper knife or dessert knife; a steel one must not be used. Take off any drops that may run over the sides of the cake and divide it in two pieces while the icing is wet, then dry at the mouth of the oven.
For Orange Cake take the weight of three eggs in butter, sugar and flour, the grated rind and strained juice of an orange, or two, if small, and a teaspoonful of baking-powder. ”

“ Beat the yolks with the sugar for thirty minutes, using wooden spoon. This continued beating and stirring dissolves the sugar and incorporates the needed air. Add cracker crumbs and spices. Beat egg whites stiff with whisk or whip type of beater. Fold in whites and vanilla. Butter a deep, square cake pan and pour in the batter. Bake in a slow oven for thirty minutes. Increase the heat to moderate for about twenty-five minutes more. Should be light and delicate in texture. Requires no icing, though melted sweet chocolate is sometimes spread over top. ”

“ Place all together in a stew-pan on range, allow it to come to boil, stirring constantly, and when cool stir in one tablespoonful of saleratus dissolved in a very little vinegar, and about 3 pounds of flour. Do not have cake dough too stiff. Dough should stand until the following day. Roll out at least 1⁄2 inch thick. Cut cakes as large around as an ordinary coffee cup or cut with a knife into small, oblong pieces, a little larger than half a common soda cracker. Bake in a moderate oven. Should too much flour be used, cakes will be hard and dry instead of soft and spongy. ”

“ Two cups sugar, three cups flour, three teaspoons baking powder, two-thirds cup butter, one cup milk, three eggs. Flavor with vanilla. To half the cake add one tablespoon molasses, one tablespoon brandy, one tablespoon cinnamon, one teaspoon cloves, one-half teaspoon allspice, one-half nutmeg, one cup chopped raisins, one-half pound citron. Bake in jelly tins, two layers of light and two of fruit cake. Spread jelly between the layers, when slightly cool, putting a light one on top. Over all spread white frosting. ”

“ Finally, came the crowning event of the feast,—the cutting of the wedding cake, which had been the conspicuous decoration of one end of the flower-trimmed table. It was a real old-fashioned bride cake, with tiers and tiers of corrugated frosting, surmounted by a pagoda-like structure, within which was the tiny effigy of a bride with a flowing veil. At the corners of the cake were groups of cupids and doves, and, altogether, it is doubtful if the North Shore had ever seen a more elaborate and tempting wedding cake. ”