Suggestions for making and baking Cake
1st. Get all materials needed together.
2d. Attend to fire, making sure, if it is a coal fire, that there is sufficient coal to last through the baking.
3d. Measure all ingredients with same cup, dry ones first.
4th. Mix and sift all dry ingredients except sugar; if soda is used, sift through a very fine sieve before sifting with other ingredients.
Mixing Butter Cakes
Cream Butter.—Cream butter, that is, beat it with a spoon until it is of a creamy consistency; then add sugar very gradually; when well blended, add yolks of eggs which have been beaten with a Dover egg beater until lemon-colored and thick.
When the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, add sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk. When all milk and flour have been used, beat well; then cut and fold in the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Pour into buttered and papered pan, having mixture a little higher on the sides than in the middle.
Cutting and Folding.—Cut through and through the mixture with a knife or side of a wooden spoon, fold by turning the spoon completely over, thereby blending the materials without breaking the air bubbles. Never stir or beat after cutting and folding.
Mixing Sponge Cake
Beat yolks of eggs until lemon-colored and thick; add sugar and continue beating; add flour; when well blended, cut and fold in the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Pour into buttered and papered pan; bake in a round pan with a tube in the center.
Baking Cake
For baking both sponge and butter cakes divide the time into quarters. The first quarter, the cake should rise; the second quarter, form a crust and begin to brown; third quarter, continue browning; and fourth quarter, finish browning and shrink from the pan. When baked, this may be determined by pressing crust with the finger; if a depression is left the cake is not done; if the cake springs back and leaves no depression, it is done. Take from oven, invert on a cake cooler, remove paper, turn right-side up and cool. When cold, frost.