CAKE
Next after the ices in her book, Margaret found the cake to eat with them, and first of all there was a recipe for some little cakes which the smallest girl in the neighbourhood used to make all alone.
CHOCOLATE ICING FOR CAKES
Whites of 2 eggs.
¼ pound icing sugar.
3 oz. grated chocolate.
Melt the chocolate in a stewpan with a tablespoonful of milk, and mix it with the sugar. When cool, stir in the whites, which have been well beaten, and use.
ELEANOR’S CAKES
¼ cup of butter.
½ cup of sugar.
¼ cup of milk.
1 egg.
1 cup of flour.
1 teaspoonful of baking-powder.
½ teaspoonful of vanilla.
Rub the butter and sugar to a cream, beat the egg light without separating, and put it in next; then the milk, a little at a time; mix the baking-powder with the flour and stir in, and last the vanilla. Bake in small scalloped tins, and fill each one only half-full.
GRANDMOTHER’S LITTLE FEATHER CAKE
1 cup sugar.
2 tablespoonfuls soft butter.
1 egg.
½ cup milk and water mixed.
1½ cups sifted flour.
1 teaspoonful baking-powder.
Rub the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the yolk of the egg stiff and put that in; then add part of the milk and water, and part of the flour and baking-powder, which has been sifted together; next the vanilla, and last the stiff whites of the eggs, not stirred in, but just lightly folded in. If you put them in heavily and roughly, the cake will always be heavy. Bake this in a buttered biscuit-tin, and cut in squares when cold. It is nice covered with caramel or chocolate icing.
DOMINO CAKE
Make this feather cake and pour it into two pans, so that the bottom shall be just covered, and bake it quickly. When it is done, take it out of the pans and ice it, and while the icing is still a little soft, mark it off into dominoes. When it is entirely cold, cut these out, and with a clean paint-brush paint little round spots on them with a little melted chocolate, to exactly represent the real dominoes. It is fun to play a game with these at a tea-party, and eat them up afterwards.
MARGARET’S OWN CAKE
Margaret’s mother named this cake for her, because she liked so much to make it and to eat it. It is very nice cake for little girls.
5 eggs.
1 cup of granulated sugar.
1 cup of flour.
1 pinch of salt.
½ teaspoonful of lemon juice, or vanilla.
Separate the eggs, and beat the yolks very light and foamy; then put in the sugar, which you have sifted, a little at a time, and the flour in the same way; but put them in in turn—first sugar, then flour, and so on. Then put in the flavouring, and last fold in the whites of the eggs, beaten very stiff. Bake in a buttered pan.
SPONGE CAKE
Take four eggs, their weight in castor sugar, and the weight of two in flour.
Separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the yolks lightly, gradually add sugar, then add the whites, which have been beaten stiffly, and lastly the flour and a few drops of essence of lemon.
Bake in a moderate oven for one hour.
BRANDY SNAPS
¼ lb. flour.
¼ lb. butter.
½ lb. castor sugar.
3 oz. best treacle.
1 teaspoonful ground ginger.
Little juice of lemon.
The butter and the treacle to be made warm in the oven; then put the sugar and flour, ground ginger and lemon to it, and stir till smooth.
Spread very thin on the baking-sheet. When done, take off in squares; let them get a little cool, and then roll them round the handle of a wooden spoon; don’t let them get too stiff or they will not roll.
LAYER CAKE
1 cup sugar.
½ cup water.
2 eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder.
½ cup butter.
2½ cups flour.
Teaspoonful vanilla.
Rub the butter to a cream in a deep bowl, and put in the sugar a little at a time, and rub this till it, too, creams. Then put in the beaten yolks of the eggs, and then the water. Beat the egg-whites well, and fold in half, then add the flour, in which you have mixed and sifted the baking-powder, and then put in the vanilla and the rest of the eggs.
Divide in two layers, or in three if the tins are small, and bake till a light brown.
DANISH CAKES
5 oz. flour.
¼ lb. butter.
2 oz. brown sugar.
A few drops of vanilla.
1 egg.
1 oz. cocoanut.
Rub butter in flour, add sugar and vanilla, mix with yolk of egg, roll out and cut out with round cutter, brush tops over with the white of egg, sprinkle over with cocoanut, and bake in moderate oven about quarter of an hour.
COCOANUT CAKES
¼ lb. cocoanut.
Whites of 2 eggs.
2 oz. castor sugar.
Beat whites to a stiff froth, then add the sugar and cocoanut, drop on a greased tin, and bake in a quick oven.
DUNDEE CAKE
Cream together six ounces of butter and six ounces of castor sugar; well whisk four eggs.
Sieve together eight ounces of flour with half-teaspoonful of baking-powder, add to the flour the grated rind of one lemon. Next add the eggs and flour alternately to the butter and sugar; stir in well; mix together quarter-pound currants, quarter-pound sultanas, three ounces chopped peel, and one ounce shredded almonds. Add these to the other ingredients, mixing well. Put mixture into a lined tin, sprinkle almonds on the top, and bake one and a half hours.
JOU CAKE
6 oz. of butter.
½ lb. of castor sugar.
¾ lb. of flour.
4 eggs.
Cup of milk.
¼ lb. of sultanas.
¼ lb. of glacé cherries, cut in half.
2 oz. of citron.
A little essence of vanilla.
2 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
First prepare a deep Yorkshire pudding-tin, grease it well, and line it with white paper, and cut. Make it fit the tin; then grease the inside paper well and dust over with sugar. Put the butter into a deep basin and beat well to a cream, then add the sugar and work that in well, then the eggs, one at a time, and beat thoroughly. Add the fruit and the essence, mix the baking-powder with the flour, and stir in gradually to the other ingredients; lastly, stir in a teacupful of milk and pour into the tin, and bake three-quarters of an hour without opening the oven door if possible. If the oven is very hot, put some paper over the top to prevent it getting too brown. The cake can be cut up into any shapes, as it is two and a half inches high when cut.
A NICE RICH CAKE
¾ lb. butter.
½ lb. Demerara sugar.
½ lb. flour.
6 eggs.
1 lb. currants.
1 lb. sultanas.
½ lb. candied peel.
¼ lb. sweet almonds, blanched and sliced.
½ teaspoonful mixed spice.
¼ pint rum or brandy.
Beat butter to a cream; then add sugar and beat well; next the eggs (which must have been well beaten for twenty minutes), then the fruit, peel, and spice. Add the rum and then the flour. Beat all well together; bake in a lined tin, with buttered paper, in a moderate oven three and half hours.
QUEEN CAKES
The weight of two eggs in flour, sugar, and butter. Beat butter to a cream, add the sugar, and well work that in. Next, add one egg—allow five minutes for each egg—then the other, and lastly the flour, in which has been put half-teaspoonful of baking-powder. Stir lightly, add a few cleaned currants, and half fill the moulds. These must be prepared before you begin the mixture. Bake in a moderate oven a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes; let them stand a few minutes when done, and turn out on a wire sieve. It is sufficient for twelve or fourteen cakes.
SHORTBREAD
½ lb. flour.
5 oz. butter.
3 oz. sugar.
Put in a basin and knead all well together; roll out and cut out with plain or fancy cutters. Bake in a quick oven a quarter of an hour. They must not be baked brown.
NOAH’S BUN
1 lb. flour.
½ lb. Demerara sugar.
½ lb. sultanas.
¼ lb. currants.
1 teaspoonful ground ginger.
1 teaspoonful mixed spice.
1 dessertspoonful carbonate of soda.
6 oz. butter, warmed in a breakfast-cup of milk.
Stir the butter and milk into the other ingredients with a wooden spoon, and bake in a buttered and lined tin two hours; it is a very dark cake.
A NICE CHOCOLATE CAKE
½ lb. butter.
2 oz. ground rice.
½ lb. grated chocolate.
¼ lb. flour.
6 oz. castor sugar.
1 teaspoonful baking-powder.
4 eggs.
A few drops essence of vanilla.
Beat butter and sugar together for twenty minutes, add the chocolate—previously dissolved in a tablespoonful of milk, not too hot—add yolks one at a time, mixing each carefully. Mix flour, rice, and powder together, and sift through a sieve to the yolks, and stir gently. Beat whites to a stiff broth, stir in lightly, add the essence, and bake in a papered tin in a good oven an hour and half. The oven door must not be opened, at least, for half an hour, and closed gently. Try with an iron skewer at the end of one and a half hours.
SWISS ROLL
3 eggs.
6 oz. of castor sugar.
Grated rind of half a lemon.
4 oz. of flour.
½ teaspoonful of baking-powder.
Put yolks and sugar into a basin, whip together for twenty minutes, mix lemon peel and flour gradually. Whip whites to a stiff froth and mix in lightly. Turn the mixture into a well-greased tin, bake twenty minutes in quick oven. Have ready a sheet of paper, well sprinkled with castor; turn the cake on to this; spread two tablespoonfuls of warm raspberry jam, then roll up as lightly as possible, and put on a sieve to cool.