Wedding cake

“ To dream of sweet cakes, is gain for the laboring and a favorable opportunity for the enterprising. Those in love will prosper.
Pound cake is significant of much pleasure either from society or business. For a young woman to dream of her wedding cake is the only bad luck cake in the category. Baking them is not so good an omen as seeing them or eating them. ”

“ I had the usual congratulations from the guests and the single men's congratulations was the privilege of kissing the bride. We had the wedding feast. Mrs. Walker came over to make the cake. She was the best cake maker in the neighborhood. She couldn't manage the cake on our stove as well as on her own, so she carried the batter in a bucket, four miles on horseback, baked it in her own stove, and brought back a fine wedding cake with green cedar laid on the plate and the cake set on that. ”

“ The groom’s men are expected to make presents to the bride, and to be among the earliest friends, who call at her new abode. The wedding cake is usually much decorated with flowers, and sugar-work of various kinds. ”

“ He said at another time that she had no heart; and he added in a moment that she had given it all away—in small pieces, like a frosted wedding-cake. ”

“ A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-coloured rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Butter these paper plates, and lay them on baking tins. Spread over each a layer of the above mixture not thicker than a thin pancake. Bake them in a moderate oven a nice yellow, but do not let them tinge brown. When cold cut away the paper round, turn the cakes over, and peel off the bottom paper, but take great care not to break the cakes. Lay one cake over the other, with preserve between each, till all are piled up. It may be all of one sort of preserve, or varied, one layer of marmalade if liked. Dissolve powdered sugar with a little lemon juice. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Wash the salt from a pound of butter, and beat it with a pound of loaf sugar till it is as soft as cream; have a pound of flour sifted, and beat ten eggs, the whites and yelks separately; put alternately into the butter and sugar the flour and eggs, continue to beat till they are all in, and the cake looks light; add some grated lemon peel, a nutmeg, and half a wine-glass of brandy; butter the pan, and bake it an hour; when it is nearly cold, ice it. If you want a very large cake, double the quantity. You can tell when a cake is done by running in a broom-straw, or the blade of a bright knife ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then we decided it would be better to cut the cake up into pieces for the boxes first and frost each one separately and—”
“We didn’t any such thing!” interrupted Hester. “That was Julie’s brilliant inspiration and she worked out all the frosting designs too. The big loaf and the bride’s cake are perfect beauties. Did you know the bride’s cake always had a ring and a thimble and a coin hidden in it for luck? Just look at the cakes over there,” waving her hand toward a side table, “aren’t they distinctly professional? ”

“ Also, (besides a somewhat larger allowance of spice, liquor, &c.) add the juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon or two, and half a pound of sultana or seedless raisins, cut in half and dredged with flour. Butter your small cake tins, and fill to the edge with the batter. They will not run over the edge if well made, and baked with a proper fire, but they will rise high and fine in the centre. Ice them when beginning to cool, flavoring the icing with lemon or rose. Queen cakes made exactly as above are superlative. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When the dough is proved, make it into cakes about 2 in. thick; put them into buttered hoops; lay the hoops on iron plates, and when they are lightly risen, bake them in a warm oven; cut into slices 1⁄2 in. thick and butter each.
Bride Cake.—Cleanse and dry 21⁄2 lb. currants; stone 1⁄2 lb. muscatel raisins; pound 1⁄4 oz. mace, 1⁄8 oz. cinnamon; scald 1⁄4 lb. sweet almonds, remove skins, and shred; slice up 2 oz. each candied citron, lemon, and orange peel; break 8 new eggs into a basin; sift 1 lb. powdered loaf sugar into 11⁄4 lb. flour; in a warmed pan beat 1 lb. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To test it put some on a piece of dry bread, and if it does not run it is a sign it is ready. Keep out a spoonful or two if you desire decorations. Next place the rest of the mixture on top of the almond icing, using the blade of a knife dipped frequently in cold water to make it smooth. The icing should be allowed to harden before decorating. The cake may be placed in a cool oven or warm room for a short time. Have your forcers ready for making the decorations. They may either be bought or a baker may lend them. You must have them if you want to decorate the cake with knobs and wavy lines. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Rub together, till white, a tea-cup of butter, two of sugar—then stir in a couple of beaten eggs, a little flour, grate in a nutmeg—dissolve a tea-spoonful of saleratus in a tea-cup of milk or water, strain it on to the cake, then add flour till stiff enough to roll out easily. If you cannot roll out the cake without its sticking to the board and rolling-pin, (which should be previously floured,) work in more flour, stamp and cut it into cakes—bake them in a moderately warm oven. ”

“ 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 the flour in the sieve and cream of tartar, sieve through. Mix and bake in lunch cake pans. Grease heavy. Bake in good heat, 600 degrees F. When baked and cool, ice with chocolate icing. Sold for one cent each, or six for five cents.
Tutti Frutti Cake.
Tutti Frutti Cake is made with ordinary cake mixture, any price you may wish, usually baked in pound moulds, covered on top with assorted fruit glace, including Almonds, Figs, Cherries, Apricots, etc., chopped fine and mixed with water icing. Some use whipped cream and as layer cake.
Velvet Cake. 11⁄2 lbs. Sugar. 3⁄4 lb. Butter. 9 Eggs. ”

“ Cream one-third a cup of butter; beat in one cup of brown sugar, one tablespoonful of milk, and two eggs, beaten light. Add the raisins, and one cup of flour, sifted with one-half a teaspoonful, each, of nutmeg and cinnamon and two teaspoonfuls and one-half of baking powder. When thoroughly mixed, add one-half a cup of graham flour, unsifted, and one-half a cup of bran, unsifted.
Pyramid Birthday Cake
Bake any good layer cake or other simple cake mixture in one or two thin sheets, in a large pan. When done cut into as many graduated circles as the child is years old. ”