Cake

“ Put a stale sponge cake into a deep china or glass dish, pour round it some raisin wine or Marsala, and brandy to your taste, but enough to saturate the cake: when it is soaked up, strew sifted sugar over, and pour in the dish a rich custard. Ornament the top of the cake by sticking a light flower in the centre, or bits of clear currant jelly ”

“ This is only a plain ‘one, two, three, four’ cake, Marta, but it will be made nicer by the flavoring. When you know how to make this cake, always remember to vary the flavor, and the cake will seem much better than ordinary cup cake; sometimes you can add, the last thing, a cup of candied lemon and orange peel, cut fine,—I will show you how to candy them when we have collected enough,—or a cup of currants; either of these must be made warm, flour shaken through them, and the cake stirred only just enough, after they are in, to mix them, or they will all go to the bottom. ”

“ The charmed cake may also be used by a person alone, in which case the manner of proceeding is as follows. The cake, which should be composed of equal quantities of flour, salt, and soot, must be made and baked in secret and in silence. On retiring to rest it must be divided into two equal portions, one of which must be eaten by the person who tries the charm, but no water or other liquid is to be drunk with it. ”

“ When a large number of eggs are used in a cake, very little liquid is employed. Sometimes the liquid consists of molasses and sour milk used together, separately, or with some other liquid.
12. FLOUR FOR CAKES.--The flour used in the preparation of cakes may be bread, pastry, or blend flour, depending on the kind of cake desired. While a blend, or an all-purpose, flour makes a satisfactory cake, pastry flour, which is milled from soft winter wheat, or better still, cake flour, is more nearly ideal as the excess gluten is removed, and it is much finer milled ”

“ She must get that fruit dug out and on the ice at once.
She turned her attention to cake next, and when it was in the oven went at the mayonnaise dressing. She had made a chocolate layer cake, rich and dark, with a transparent chocolate filling and thick, white icing, and was just taking a sponge cake, light as a feather, out of the oven when the mistress arrived, fine and cool in a light [178] crêpe de chine, her hair marcelled and her face powdered to the last degree, leaving a perfume of luxury in her wake as she moved. ”

“ When a cake is toasted, pile the slices one on the top of the other, cut them into quarters, put them on a very hot plate, and send the cakes immediately to table. As they are wanted, send them in hot, one or two at a time, as, if allowed to stand, they spoil, unless kept in a muffin-plate over a basin of boiling water. ”

“ One mix or dough from which can be derived a large benefit and satisfaction is the ordinary wine cake or layer cake mix, from which you can make layers for layer cakes, ten and five cent wine cakes, loaf cakes; adding chopped nuts and nut flavor to part of the mix, you can make nut cakes. By adding melted chocolate to a certain part of the mix, you can make devil’s food cakes, lemon cakes, Boston squares, chocolate and maple squares, raspberry and chocolate drops, cup and currant cakes, and other cakes like nut and cocoanut slices, penny golden-rod squares, etc., can also be made. ”

“ When all are mixed, and the cake looks very light, add the spice, with half a pint of brandy, the currants and almonds; butter the mould well, pour in part of the cake, strew over it some raisins and citron—do this until all is in; set it in a well heated oven; when it has risen, and the top is coloured, cover it with paper ”

“ They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions all over with charcoal, until it be perfectly black. They put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet. Every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet, is entitled to the last bit. ”

“ Cut sponge cake in-slices, and, in a glass dish, put alternately a layer of cake and a layer of bananas sliced. Make a soft custard, flavor with a little wine, and pour over it. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth and heap over the whole. ”

“ Spread between the layers of any cake. This recipe makes enough filling for two thin layers, or one thick one—which I prefer. It can be doubled, tripled, and so on—ad infinitum—depending entirely upon the number of layers in the cake.
Editor’s Note:—This is a good, and unusual, recipe for layer cake. To two eggs, well beaten, add gradually one cup of granulated sugar. To one cup of unsifted flour add one [182] teaspoonful cream of tartar and one half teaspoonful of soda. Sift. Then add one half cup of boiling milk with one teaspoonful of melted butter in it, and one teaspoonful of vanilla. ”

“ The Royal Baking Power also invariably insures perfectly light, sweet and handsome cake, or when used for griddle cakes, to be eaten hot, enables their production in the shortest possible space of time, and makes them most tender and delicious, as well as entirely wholesome. ”

“ Very fine common cake is also easily made, at every baking, by taking some of the dough of bread and working in sugar, butter, and eggs, by the receipt given for Bread Cake and Child’s Feather Cake. These can be made more or less sweet and rich at pleasure. ”

“ Snow-flake Cake.—Half a cup of butter, two cups of sugar, four of flour, one of sweet milk, three eggs well beaten, one table-spoonful cream of tartar, half a teaspoonful of soda; or, if you use prepared flour, use no soda or cream of tartar. Bake the cake in shallow jelly-cake pans; while baking, grate two fresh cocoa-nuts carefully, and spread over each cake, as it comes from the oven, a thin frosting, and then sprinkle thickly with the grated nut. Three layers of cake make one cake. ”

“ Another time, if you make this cake, you may put rose-water or peach-water instead of the wine, and chopped candied lemon-peel instead of the grated peel. You see the batter is much thicker than for the cup cake you made, but if at any time you use flour that absorbs more moisture, you must add another egg; this is, as it should be, as thick as pound-cake batter,—which means, as thick as can be stirred. It is more a paste than a batter. Will you remember that, when you have a recipe which says ‘thick as pound-cake batter’? Any cake with baking-powder made as thick as this would be spoiled. ”

“ For instance, the batter used for cup cakes is as thin as that for layer cake; that for drop cakes must be stiff enough to hold its shape when it is dropped on a flat sheet; while cookies require a dough that is stiff enough to be rolled out in a thin layer and then cut into various shapes with cutters. The mixing of cakes of this kind differs in no way from that of large cakes, the greater thickness being obtained merely by the addition of flour.
3. BAKING SMALL CAKES.--Small cakes bake more quickly than large ones; consequently, a hotter oven is required for them. ”

“ Split, and remove a small portion of cake from the centre of each piece. Fill cavities of one-half the pieces with whipped cream sweetened and flavored, cover with remaining pieces, and press firmly together. Nuts or glacé fruits cut in pieces may be added to cream. Melt fondant, color, and flavor to taste. Dip cakes in fondant, decorate tops with pistachio nuts, violets, or glacé cherries, and place each in a paper case. ”

“ Study the moods and tenses of your oven carefully before essaying a loaf of cake. Confine your early efforts to tea-cakes and the like. Jelly-cake, baked in shallow flat tins, is good practice during the novitiate. Keep the heat steady, and as good at bottom as top.
Streaks in cake are caused by unskilful mixing, too rapid or unequal baking, or a sudden decrease in heat before the cake is quite done. [300]
Don’t delude yourself, and maltreat those who are to eat your cake, by trying to make soda do the whole or most of the duty of eggs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ BREAD CAKE. To make a common bread cake, separate from the dough, when making white bread, as much as is sufficient for a quartern loaf, and knead well into it two ounces of butter, two of Lisbon sugar, and eight of currants. Warm the butter in a tea-cupful of good milk. By adding another ounce of butter or sugar, or an egg or two, the cake may be improved, especially by putting in a tea-cupful of raw cream. It is best to bake it in a pan, rather than as a loaf, the outside being less hard. ”

“ Always sift your flour, for neither bread nor cake should be made with unsifted flour, not merely because there may be dirt in it, but because packing injures its lightness, and sifting restores it, and makes bread and cake lighter.
The day before you wish to make cake, stone your raisins, and blanch your almonds, by pouring hot water131 on them, to take off the skins, and then throwing them into cold water to whiten them. When ready to make your cake, grate your lemon or orange peel. Next weigh your butter and cut it in pieces, and put it where it will soften, but not melt. ”

“ Cakes may be divided into two classes—those that contain fruit and those that do not. Plum cakes can be made very rich indeed, like a wedding cake, or so plain that it can scarcely be distinguished from a loaf of bread with a few currants in it. ”

“ Five full-sized eggs, the weight of four in sugar, and of nearly three in flour, will make an exceedingly good cake: it may be flavoured, like the preceding one, with lemon-rind, or with bitter almonds, vanilla, or confected orange-blossoms reduced to powder. An hour will bake it thoroughly. All the ingredients for sponge cakes should be of good quality, and the sugar and flour should be dry; they should also be passed through a fine sieve kept expressly for such purposes. ”

“ In cake making (1) the best ingredients are essential; (2) great care must be taken in measuring and combining ingredients; (3) pans must be properly prepared; (4) oven heat must be regulated, and cake watched during baking.
Best tub butter, fine granulated sugar, fresh eggs, and pastry flour are essentials for good cake. Coarse granulated sugar, bought by so many, if used in cake making, gives a coarse texture and hard crust. Pastry flour contains more starch and less gluten than bread flour, therefore makes a lighter, more tender cake. ”

“ There’s three cakes in one—in token of the trinity (I do hope th’ won’t nobody think it’s wicked t’ mention r’ligion in connection with a cake) ; the bottom cake was baked in a milk-pan, an’ it’s a bride’s cake, being made with the whites of fourteen perfec’ly fresh eggs; the next layer is fruit and spice, as rich as wedding cake ought to be; the top cake is best of all; and can be lifted right off and given to Rever’nd an’ Mrs. Wesley Elliot.... I guess they’ll like to keep the wedding couple for a souvenir. ”

“ All this shows that she regards the quality of her cake as of very great importance, and considers it not only perfectly respectable but highly genteel, for a young lady to be employed in making cake. ”

“ SEED CAKE (2) .
1-1/2 lbs. of wholemeal, 1/2 lb. of butter, 3/4 lb. of castor sugar, 1 oz. of ground carraway seeds, the yolks of 10 eggs, and the whites of 5 beaten to a stiff froth. Cream the butter, mix all the ingredients well together, adding the whites of the eggs last; line one or more tins with buttered paper, turn the mixture into them, and bake the cake or cakes from 1 to 1-1/2 hours, according to the size of the cakes and the heat of the oven. If a bright knitting needle passed through the cake comes out clean, the cake is done. ”

“ Put the cake in a dry place.
CAKES. Observations on making and baking Cakes. Currants should be very nicely washed, dried in a cloth, and then set before the fire. If damp they will make cakes or puddings heavy. Before they are added, a dust of dry flour should be thrown among them, and a shake given to them, which causes the thing that they are put to, to be lighter.
Eggs should be very long beaten, whites and yelks apart, and always strained.
Sugar should be rubbed to a powder on a clean board, and sifted through a very fine hair or lawn sieve. ”

“ Beat butter and sugar together, stir in the grated chocolate and the yolks of the eggs, the chopped almonds, and the flour and baking powder, then the whites beaten stiff, and the essence of vanilla. Line a cake tin with buttered paper, pour in the cake, and bake in a moderate oven. ”

“ Butter and sugar should be stirred till it looks like thick cream and till it stands up in the pan.
It should be kept cool. If too warm, it will make the cakes heavy.
Large cakes should be baked in tin or earthen pans, with straight sides, that are as nearly perpendicular as possible. They cut into handsomer slices, and if they are to be iced, it will be found very inconvenient to put on the icing, if the cake slopes in much towards the bottom.
Before you ice a cake, dredge it all over with flour, and then wipe the flour off. This will enable you to spread on the icing more evenly. ”