A Cake without Butter.
Take the weight of 5 eggs (in their shells), in sifted sugar, and the weight of 3 in flour: beat the eggs, add first, the sugar, then the flour, the rinds of 2 large lemons grated, and a wine-glassful of sherry or brandy. Bake in a tin mould in a quick oven.—Another: to a quartern of dough add ½ lb. butter, 4 eggs, ½ lb. currants, and ½ lb. sugar, beat all well together more than half an hour, and bake in a buttered tin.
A Rich Seed Cake.
Mix 1 lb. sifted sugar into 1 lb. flour, and stir in, by degrees, 8 eggs, beaten, whisk well together, and add 3 oz. sweet almonds blanched and cut, some candied citron, lemon, and orange peel, and 12 oz. butter, beaten to a cream; a little pounded cinnamon, mace, and carraway seeds. Pour it into a papered hoop, and strew carraways on the top.—Or: put 2 lbs. flour into a deep pan, and mix in ¼ lb. sifted white sugar. Make a hole in the centre, pour in ½ pint of lukewarm milk and 2 table-spoonsful good yeast; stir a little of the flour in, cover a cloth lightly over, and let it stand an hour and a half to rise. Then work it up, with ½ lb. melted butter, a little allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and 1 oz. carraway seeds; adding warm milk sufficient to work it to a proper stiffness. Butter a hoop or dish, and pour in the cake; let it stand in a warm place another half hour to rise, then bake it. You may add 2 table-spoonsful of brandy.
A Rice Cake.
Mix 6 oz. ground rice, 4 oz. sugar, the grated peel of ½ a lemon, the yolks of 5 and whites of 3 eggs, and 1 table-spoonful orange flower water; break the eggs into a deep pan, and put the rice flour to them at once, mix it with a wooden spoon, then add the sugar and the other ingredients; beat well for twenty minutes, and it will be a fine light sponge; then immediately half fill the moulds, put them into a moderate oven, and bake three quarters of an hour, of a light brown colour. Little Rice Cakes—1 lb. ground rice, 1 lb. 2 oz. sugar, ¾ lb. butter, 8 eggs, and flour to make it into a stiff paste.—Or: 1 lb. sugar, ½ lb. flour, ½ lb. ground rice, 6 oz. butter, 8 yolks and 2 whites of eggs. Both these require long beating. Roll the paste out, cut it in shapes, and bake on buttered tins. Some persons add a few drops of the essence of lemon, and of almond flavour.
Harvest Cake.
Mix into 3 lbs. flour ¼ oz. of powdered allspice; in another bowl put ¾ lb. sugar, either moist or lump, 2 oz. butter, 2 eggs, 3 table-spoonsful of yeast; beat well, then mix in the flour, with ¾ lb. currants, and warm milk and water, to make up the cake; set it by the fire an hour to rise.
Temperance Cake.
Rub ¼ lb. butter into 1 lb. flour, add ½ lb. moist sugar, ½ lb. currants, and a tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda, dissolved in a ¼ pint of warm milk; mix well, and bake it in a tin.