A little cook book for a little girl

by Caroline French Benton

FILLING FOR LAYER CAKES

Nut and Raisin Filling

Make the rule for plain icing, and add a half-cup of chopped raisins mixed with half a cup of chopped almonds or English walnuts.

Fig Filling

Mix a cup of chopped figs with the same icing.

Marshmallow Filling

Chop a quarter of a pound of marshmallows; put them over the teakettle to get soft; make a plain icing and beat them in.

Maple Filling

2 cups maple syrup. Whites of 2 eggs.

Boil the syrup slowly till it makes a thread when you hold it up; then add it slowly to your beaten egg-whites, beating till cold.

Orange Filling

1 cup powdered sugar. 1 tablespoonful boiling water. Grated rind of 1 orange. 1 tablespoonful orange-juice.

Put the sugar in a bowl, add the rind, then the water and juice, and spread at once on the cake. This icing must be very thick when made, and if is seems thin put in more sugar.

Caramel Filling

2 cups brown sugar. 1/2 cup cream or milk. Butter the size of an egg. 1/2 teaspoonful vanilla.

Mix all together and cook till it is smooth and thick.

Plain Icing

Put the white of one egg into a bowl with a half-teaspoonful of water, and beat till light. Then stir in a cup of sifted powdered sugar, and put on the cake while that is still warm, and smooth it over with a wet knife.

Chocolate Icing

Melt one square of Baker's chocolate in a saucer over the teakettle, and put in two tablespoonfuls of milk and stir till smooth. Add two tablespoonfuls of sugar and a small half-teaspoonful of butter, and stir again. Take it off the stove and put it on the cake while both are warm.

Caramel Icing

1/2 cup of milk. 2 cups brown sugar. Butter the size of an egg. 1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Mix the butter, sugar, and milk, and cook till it is smooth and thick, stirring all the time and watching it carefully to see that it does not burn; take it off and put in the vanilla, and spread while warm on a warm cake.

Doughnuts

Margaret's mother did not approve of putting this rule in her cook-book, because she did not want Margaret ever to eat rich things; but her grandmother said it really must go in, for once in awhile very nice doughnuts would not hurt anybody.

1 1/2 cups of sugar. 1/2 cup of butter. 3 eggs. 1 1/2 cups of milk. 2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder. Pinch of salt.

Put in flour enough to make a very soft dough, just as soft as you can handle it. Mix, and put on a slightly floured board and make into round balls, or roll out and cut with a cooky cutter with a hole in the centre. Heat two cups of lard with one cup of beef suet which you have melted and strained, and heat till it browns a bit of bread instantly. Then drop in three doughnuts,—not more, or you will chill the fat, —and when you take them out dry on brown paper. It is much better to use part suet than all lard, yet that will do if you have no suet in the house.

Oatmeal Macaroons

These little cakes are so like real macaroons that no one who had not seen the recipe would guess how they were made.

2 1/2 cups rolled oats. 2 1/2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder. 1/2 teaspoonful salt. 3 even tablespoonfuls butter. 1 cup sugar. 3 eggs, beaten separately. 1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Cream the butter, add the sugar and well beaten egg-yolks, then the oatmeal, salt, and baking-powder, then the vanilla, and last the whites of the eggs. Drop in small bits, no larger than the end of your finger, on a shallow pan, three inches apart. Bake in a very slow oven till brown, and take from the pan while hot.

Peanut Wafers

1 cup of sugar. 1/2 cup of butter. 1/2 cup of milk. 1/2 teaspoonful soda. 2 cups of flour. 1 cup chopped peanuts.

Cream the butter and sugar, put the soda in the milk and stir well, and put this in next; add the flour and beat well. Butter a baking-pan and spread this evenly over the bottom, and then spread the peanuts over all. Bake till a light brown.

Tea-party Cakes

2 squares of Baker's chocolate. 1 teaspoonful of sugar. Bit of butter the size of a pea.

Melt the chocolate over the teakettle and stir in the sugar and butter and a couple of drops of vanilla, if you like. Take little round crackers, and with a fork roll them quickly in this till they are covered; dry on buttered paper. You can also take saltines, or any long, thin cracker, and spread one side with the chocolate.

Almond Strips

White of 1 egg. 1 cup chopped almonds. 2 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar.

Beat the egg just a little and put in the sugar and almonds; spread on thin crackers, and brown in the oven with the door open.