Cheesecake

“ A tea-spoonful of mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg, mixed.
A quarter of a pound of currants.
Pick the currants very clean. Wash them through a cullender, wipe them in a towel, and then dry them on a dish before the fire.
When dry take out a few to scatter over the top of the cheesecake, lay them aside, and sprinkle the remainder of the currants with the flour.
Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Grate the bread, and prepare the spice. Beat the eggs very light. ”

“ When the vizier, Schemseddin Mohammed, heard his sister-in-law say, that it was Bedreddin Hassan who had made the cheesecake brought by the eunuch, he felt inexpressible joy; but then reflecting that this joy was without foundation, and that according to all appearance, the conjecture of the widow of Noureddin Ali was false, he said to her, “But, madam, what makes you think this? Cannot there be a pastry-cook in the world who is able to make cheesecakes as well as your son?”—“I allow,” replied she, “that there may be pastry-cooks capable of making them as good ”

“ Slack heat when it is a very light brown, and cook until a straw thrust to the bottom comes out clean. Turn out upon a thick, folded cloth, cover with another thinner cloth, and let cool. Frost when cool, either with the boiled frosting directed for cheesecakes (See Chapter on Paste, Pies and Puddings) or with plain frosting made thus. Beat three egg-whites well chilled to the stiffest possible froth with a pinch of salt, and a very little cold water. Add to them gradually when thus beaten a pound of sugar sifted with a teaspoonful of cream of tartar. ”

“ When you have company, and want a variety, you can make a mould of curd and cream, by putting the curd in a mould full of holes, instead of the colander: let it stand for six hours, then turn it out very carefully on a dish, and pour over it half a pint of good cream sweetened with loaf sugar, and a little nutmeg. What there is left, if set in a cool place, will make excellent cheesecakes the next day. ”

“ Then add the potatoes, beaten, and four ounces of butter melted in a little cream. When well mixed, let it stand to grow cold. Put crust in pattipans, and rather more than half fill them. This quantity will make a dozen cheesecakes, which are to be baked half an hour in a quick oven, with some fine powdered sugar sifted over them.
POTATOE FRITTERS. Boil two large potatoes, scrape them fine; beat up four yolks and three whites of eggs, and add a large spoonful of cream, another of sweet wine, a squeeze of lemon, and a little nutmeg. ”

“ Long after he had had enough.
"I shan't take any more," said Dick,
"Dear me, I feel extremely sick:
I cannot eat this other bit;
I wish I had not tasted it."
Then slowly rising from his seat,
He threw the cheesecake in the street,
And left the tempting pastry-cook's
With very discontented looks.
Jane Taylor
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Page 65—Greediness Land
The Plum Cake
"Oh! ”

“ They mingle well with honey.
A. If a man
Should bring you honied cheesecakes?
B. I should eat them,
And swallow down an egg or two besides.
And in his Things resembling one another, he says,—
Then he introduced a dance, and after that he served up
A second course, provided well with every kind of dainty.
And Amphis,in his Gynæcomania, says,—
A. Did you e'er hear of what they call a ground [93] life?
. . . . . . . . . . . 'tis clearly
Cheesecakes, sweet wine, eggs, cakes of sesame,
Perfumes, and crowns, and female flute-players. ”

“ Pancakes should be made of half a pint of milk, three great spoonfuls of sugar, one or two eggs, a tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash, spiced with cinnamon, or cloves, a little salt, rose-water, or lemon-brandy, just as you happen to have it. Flour should be stirred in till the spoon moves round with difficulty. If they are thin, they are apt to soak fat. Have the fat in your skillet boiling hot, and drop them in with a spoon. Let them cook till thoroughly brown. The fat which is left is good to shorten other cakes. The more fat they are cooked in, the less they soak. ”

“ Hard, sandy and dry cheese is as good as useless, for you never get the “grit” out of it, and it will absorb the milk or moisture. All cheese cakes when baked are sprinkled over with powdered sugar.
Cup Cake, No. 1.
Two and one-half pounds of sugar, 11⁄2 pounds lard or butter, 15 eggs, 1 quart milk, 1 ounce soda, 41⁄2 pounds flour, 2 ounces cream of tartar, flavor with vanilla.
Take sugar and lard, rub to a cream. Next add the eggs, mix. Take the milk. Dissolve the soda in the milk, mix together. Take your sieve, put over the bowl. Put your flour in and cream of tartar. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Cream together 1 cup sugar and 1 egg, then add one cup of milk alternately with 2 cups of flour, sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Add 1⁄2 teaspoonful of vanilla and enough flour to make a stiff batter.
Take about 1⁄2 a teaspoonful of the batter at a time and drop into boiling hot fat, and brown on both sides; then drain on coarse, brown paper and, when cool, dust with pulverized sugar. These cakes are cheap and good, and as no shortening is used are not rich. Do not make cakes too large, as they then will not cook through readily. ”

“ Cream the butter, stir in the sugar gradually, add the eggs unbeaten, and continue beating. Add the molasses, milk, and flour with which the soda and spices have been sifted, and then fold the fruits, which have been prepared, into this mixture. Another way of adding the fruit is to pour a layer of the cake mixture into the cake pan, sprinkle this generously with the fruit, then another layer of dough and another layer of fruit, and finally a layer of dough with just a little fruit sprinkled on top. ”

“ A lardy-cake is an oblong, flat cake, crossed with lines, and rounded at the corners, made of dough, lard, sugar, and spice. Our ancestors liked something to gnaw at, and did not go in for lightness in their pastry; they liked something to stick to their teeth, and after that to their ribs. The lardy-cake eminently fulfilled these conditions; they put a trifle of sugar and spice in it, to set it going as it were, and the rest depended on the strength of the digestion. But if a ploughboy could get a new, warm lardy-cake, fresh from the oven, he thought himself blessed. ”

“ SUSSEX CAKE.
1 lb. flour, 6 ozs. nutter, 1/4 lb. sultanas, 1/4 lb. castor sugar, grated lemon rind.
This cake is included especially for the non-users of milk and eggs. Of course it does not turn out quite like the orthodox cake; some people might even call it "puddeny," but it is not by any means unlike the substantial household cake if the directions are minutely followed and the baking well done. But if any attempt is made to make it rich, disaster follows, and it becomes as heavy as the proverbial lead. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If only you could see the things we made!--apple and lemon tarts, and mince and cranberry 'turnovers,' and doughnuts all twisted into a sort of French bow-knot such as Gabrielle used to make of her back hair, and a queer kind of cake they call 'marble,' all streaky with chocolate and white, and butternut candy made with maple sugar, and an Indian pudding, and little bits of nut-cakes with a small piece of currant jelly inside and all powdered sugar out ”

“ 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. ”

“ It will often be much easier to make a successful cake or light pastry if the butter and lard are reduced to a cream before being added to the other ingredients. Put your proportion of butter and lard (half of each) into your pastry basin. Stir with the hand, one way only, till it has become the consistency of a thick cream. Mix the rest of the ingredients for your cake into it and moisten either with milk or water. Cakes mixed by hand are much more satisfactory than those mixed with a spoon. One is also much more sure of success if the mixture is kept very stiff. ”

“ Lightly butter a frying-pan, then place it on the hot range; and when the pan is hot, drop into it half a gill of the preparation; cook for two minutes, turn it over with a cake-turner, and cook the other side for two minutes. Take the cake from off the pan, and dip each side into melted butter, and then dip again in four ounces of powdered sugar mixed with a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon; gently roll it into a French-pancake shape, lay it on a hot dessert-dish with a folded napkin over it ”

“ Curd Cheese Cake.—Warm 1 pint new milk; stir in a little rennet; keep warm till a nice curd appears; break and strain the whey through a hair-sieve; put mixture prepared as for cheese-cakes, but without any currants, into sieve with curd; rub all through together; mix in currants; fill out, and bake in a good heat.
Derby Cake.—Rub 1 lb. butter in 21⁄2 lb. flour; in a hole put 1 lb. powdered loaf sugar; beat 2 eggs with 3 tablespoonfuls honey-water, and milk to make up 1⁄2 pint; add 1⁄2 lb. currants; mix; bake in a steady oven. ”