A handbook of invalid cooking

by Mary A. Boland

CAKE

Cake of the simpler kinds, especially sponge cake, is frequently given to the sick. Good sponge cake, served with sweet cream or a glass of milk, is an excellent lunch for an invalid. Some of the plain kinds of butter cakes—those made with a little butter—such as white, feather, and similar varieties, are excellent food.

Consider for a moment what they contain: eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and flour—five of the most valuable of all our food products. Yet there are those who pride themselves upon not eating cake, which idiosyncrasy can only be explained in one of two ways: either the cake which they have had has not been properly made, or else it has been so good that, during a lapse of judgment, they have eaten too much.

The dark fruit cakes should be avoided by both sick and well, on account of the indigestible nature of the dried fruits used in them, and also because they are often compact and close-grained, not light.

There is a custom prevalent in many kitchens of using what is called "cooking" butter—that is, butter which is off taste or rancid—for cake. It is but poor economy, even if it can merit that name at all. If you have no other butter for cake, don't make any. Sweet butter and fresh—not "store"—eggs are absolutely necessary. Also, a dainty worker to mix the ingredients with accuracy and care, and to oil the pan in which the cake is to be baked, so that the outside shall not taste of fat. Many an otherwise nice cake has been spoiled by oiling the pan in which it was baked with dirty or rancid grease. Use a very little sweet butter or olive-oil.

THE PROCESS OF CAKE MAKING

All ordinary cakes are made in much the same way as to the order in which their ingredients are mixed. First the butter and sugar are creamed together, then the yolks of the eggs are beaten and added, with the milk, to the butter and sugar; then the flour, into which the cream of tartar and soda have been well mixed by sifting them together several times, is put in; and last, the beaten whites of the eggs.

Care in Baking. For sponge cake made with baking-powder, or soda and cream of tartar, an oven moderately heated will be required—that is, one of 300° Fahr., or one which will slightly brown a loaf in twenty minutes.

For sponge cake made without raising material, such as the old-fashioned kind, in which only eggs, sugar, and flour are used, a slow oven is necessary.

For butter cakes a temperature somewhere between 350° and 380° will not fail.

The baking of cake is the most difficult part of the process, on account of the constantly variable condition of ovens in common iron stoves, and because it is more easily spoiled than bread and other foods usually cooked in an oven. One is obliged to exercise a new judgment every time cake is made. Even thermometers are only a partial help, for if an oven has a temperature of 300° Fahr. at a certain time, there is no means of being sure what the temperature will be half an hour from then. However, by giving attention and some practice to it, one may gain considerable skill in managing fires. Should the cake be cooking too fast, and arranging the stove dampers does not lessen the heat, a piece of buttered paper laid over the top will protect it, and will not stick. Layer, or thin cakes, require a hotter oven than loaves.

Pans for baking cake should be lined with buttered paper (the buttered side up), letting it overlap the sides for about an inch to assist in lifting out the cake. An earthenware bowl and a wooden spoon should be used for mixing.

Get everything ready before beginning to mix cake, the oven first of all. Bake as soon as possible after the flour is in, for carbonic acid begins to be formed as soon as the soda and cream of tartar come in contact with the liquid, and some of it will escape unless the mixture is baked at once. Do not stop to scrape every bit from the bowl; that can be attended to afterward, and a little patty-cake made of what is left.

INVALID'S SPONGE CAKE

2 Cups of pastry flour measured after sifting.
1 Teaspoon of cream of tartar.
½ Teaspoon of soda (slightly scanted).
4 Eggs.
1½ Cups of powdered sugar.
½ Cup of water.
2 Tablespoons of lemon-juice.

Get everything ready before beginning to make the cake; oil the pan, or oil paper and line the pan with it; measure the flour, cream of tartar, and soda, and sift them together four times; measure the sugar, water, and lemon-juice, and separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Beat the whites of the eggs with half the sugar until they are very light. Then beat the yolks very light, or until they become lemon-colored, add the remaining half of the sugar and beat again, and then a little of the water if it is difficult to turn the egg-beater. When the sugar is well mixed, add the remainder of the water, the lemon-juice, and the flour. Beat for a few seconds, but not long, as all mixtures that have cream of tartar and soda should be baked as quickly as possible. Last of all fold in (not beat) the whites of the eggs lightly, so as not to break out the air which has been entangled by the beating, as it helps to make the cake light.

Bake in a moderate oven from forty-five to fifty minutes, or until the cake shrinks a little from the pan.

FEATHER CAKE

¼ Cup of butter.
1 Cup of sugar.
2 Eggs.
1½ Cups of pastry flour.
½ Teaspoon of soda (slightly scanted).
1 Teaspoon of cream of tartar.
A little grated nutmeg.
1 Teaspoon of vanilla.

See first of all that you have a proper fire. Measure the ingredients, and get everything ready before beginning—mixing-bowl, pans, etc. Use a wooden cake spoon, with slits in the bowl, for mixing. Line the pans with buttered paper. Then cream the butter, adding to it half the sugar and half the milk, the latter very slowly; separate the yolks of the eggs from the whites, and beat them with the remaining sugar; when they are very light add the rest of the milk. Beat the whites until stiff. Now mix the creamed butter and yolks together with the flavoring, then stir in the flour, and last the whites, which are to be cut and folded in, not beaten. Bake it in shallow pans in a moderate oven forty minutes, or about that time. When the cake begins to shrink a little from the sides of the pan, there is no doubt that it is cooked enough. This recipe may be used for a variety of plain cakes.

For Chocolate Cake. Melt and stir into the above mixture two ounces of Baker's chocolate, or two teaspoons of cocoa wet in a little warm water.

For Rose Cake. Color the feather cake mixture with six drops of carmine.

LAYER CAKE

Oil three layer cake pans, or pie-plates. Make the feather cake mixture, and divide it into three portions. Bake one white, color another pink with three or four drops of carmine, and the third brown with an ounce of melted chocolate. Bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes. When cool, join the layers with White Mountain frosting, and frost the top of the last layer. Any of the fillings given under the head of "Cake Filling" may also be used.

When chocolate is used in cake, it is not necessary to grate it or even to break it into small pieces. It contains a large proportion of fat which liquefies at a low temperature, consequently it is necessary only to heat it slowly to reduce it to the liquid state.

CARMINE FOR COLORING

The following rule for making liquid carmine for coloring cake, ice-cream, blanc-mange, etc., will be found useful:

1 Ounce of No. 40 carmine.
3 Ounces of boiling water.
1 Ounce of ammonia.

Bottle for use. It will keep indefinitely.

WHITE CAKE

1 Tablespoon of butter.
1 Cup of sugar (powdered).
1¼ Cups of pastry flour.
½ Teaspoon of soda.
1 Teaspoon of cream of tartar.
Whites of four eggs.
¼ Teaspoon of almond extract, or
1 Teaspoon of rose-water.

Proceed, as with all cake mixtures, by getting everything ready before beginning to mix any of the ingredients, not forgetting the fire. Then cream the butter with the sugar, and add the milk to it slowly, so that the cream shall not break. Beat the whites of the eggs very stiff. Then to the butter, sugar, etc., add the flour, with which the cream of tartar and soda have been sifted at least four times, and the flavoring; last, fold in the whites of the eggs, and bake in a round loaf for an hour and a quarter or an hour and a half in a slow oven.

DREAM CAKE

Make a white cake mixture. Bake it in shallow layer-cake pans, in a moderate, not slow, oven. Join them with a caramel filling, and frost the top with the same, or use White Mountain frosting instead of the caramel, flavored with rose-water, and left either white, or colored a delicate shell pink with carmine.

CAKE FILLING AND FROSTING

WHITE MOUNTAIN FROSTING

Boil together, without stirring, one cup of granulated sugar with one third of a cup of boiling water, for eight or ten minutes. When the sugar has been boiling five minutes, beat the white of one egg until it is very light. Then test the sugar mixture by letting a little run off the side of a spoon. If in falling it forms a delicate thread, it is just at the point to stop the boiling. When it has reached this point, pour it at once into the beaten egg in a small stream, stirring the egg constantly to keep it smooth. Continue stirring for two or three minutes until it begins to thicken, then spread it either between layer cakes for filling, or use it for frosting.

CARAMEL FILLING

1 Cup of brown sugar.
¼ Cup of sweet cream.
1 Teaspoon of butter.

Boil all together until it threads, stirring it slowly as it boils. It will take about eight minutes. Use either for frosting or filling.

CHOCOLATE ICING

½ Cup of sugar.
4 Tablespoons of water.
2 Eggs.
1 Ounce of chocolate, or
1 Tablespoon of Dutch cocoa.
1 Teaspoon of vanilla.

Boil the sugar, water, and chocolate together, two minutes, to render the chocolate smooth. Then add the beaten eggs. Cook two minutes more, stirring slowly and gently. Add the vanilla just as it is taken from the fire, and use at once, as it becomes firm quickly. It is good either for icing cakes or for filling.

CREAM FILLING

Make a cream sauce with one cup of milk, a tablespoon of butter, and a tablespoon of flour. Beat one egg with half a cup of sugar, and stir it into the sauce slowly. Cook for two minutes, or until the egg is done. It should look like a thick smooth cream. Flavor it with a piece of cinnamon bark boiled in the milk, or with vanilla or almond. Use this cream for filling, for layer cakes, or split a thin sponge cake in two, and spread it between the halves.

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