Next fold in the stiffly beaten whites, add flavoring if desired, and beat for a few moments. If fruit is used, fold it in, well floured, the last thing, or it will sink to the bottom of the cake.
The baking is an important part of cake-making. The oven should be at a proper temperature; if too hot at first, the cake browns too quickly, and a crust is formed over the top before the cake has sufficient time to rise; if not hot enough, the air that has been beaten in escapes before the heat has time to expand it; the result is that the cake is coarse-grained and heavy.
Have the oven less hot for cake than for bread, but hotter for thin cake than for loaf cake. It is about right for loaf cake made with butter when it turns a piece of writing-paper a light brown in five minutes. About an hour will be required to bake a loaf cake: from fifteen to twenty minutes for small cakes and layer cakes.
Cake Pan
A tube cake pan, as shown in the accompanying cut, is very good for baking ordinary cakes, as the tube causes the cake to bake more evenly, and renders it less liable to fall.
If it is necessary to move the cake after putting it in the oven, it should be done carefully, as jarring is liable to make it fall. A cake is done when a clean broom straw passed through the thickest part comes out clean.
If a cake rises up, cracks open, and remains that way, it has baked too fast, or too much flour has been used. To bake properly, it should rise first on the edges, then in the middle, crack open slightly, then settle till level, when it will have closed nearly together again. The outside should be a golden brown, the inside slightly moist, and fine grained.
In beating the yolks of eggs where both eggs and milk are used, first rinse the bowl in which the yolks are to be beaten with a little of the milk.
In beating the whites of the eggs, do not stop until they are stiff, as they can not be beaten stiff after standing till they have become liquid again. Eggs will beat stiffer if cold, and beaten in a cold dish and in a cool room.