Book of American Baking / A Practical Guide Covering Various Branches of the Baking Industry, Including Cakes, Buns, and Pastry, Bread Making, Pie Baking, Etc.

by Various

Sugar.

Sugar is, next to flour, used most extensively in cake making. Standard powdered sugar is familiar to every baker. For a fine powder order XXXX, and a coarser one, fruit or a coarse powdered—also called non-caking powder. This sugar is the best to use for most purposes, as it will cream up easily with butter or with butter and lard. It is much better than standard powder to use for meringue, as it will mix more readily and therefore avoid a tendency of the meringues to get smeary, as is often the case when fine powder is used, which often contains starch. By the necessary sifting it needs, flour and other injurious matters are often mixed in. Although this is the best sugar for cake bakers to use, it is known to but very few bakers. It will not cake like standard powdered, and therefore does away with the annoyance of sifting lumpy standard powdered and saves time and waste of sugar. Light “C” and “A” sugar is sometimes good and profitable to use in cakes, as it imparts a nice color and bloom to the cakes and has a tendency to keep them moister and fresher.