Sponge Cake.
The weight of 12 eggs in sifted sugar, and the weight of 6 in fine flour; beat the eggs separately, stir the sugar into the yolks, and beat well, then put in the whites and beat again, add a little nutmeg and rose-water, and just before you put the cake into the oven, stir the flour lightly into the eggs and sugar. This cake must be beaten with a whisk. Bake, in rather a quick oven, three quarters, or nearly an hour.—Or: beat, separately, the yolks and whites of 5 eggs, put them together, add grated lemon peel, and 5 oz. fine sugar, beat again an hour and a half, then stir in as lightly as possible 4 oz. flour, previously dried before the fire.—Or: boil ¾ lb. lump sugar in ½ pint of water to a syrup; beat 7 eggs well, and pour the syrup, boiling hot, into them, stirring all the time; then beat it three quarters of an hour, and just before it is put in the oven, stir in lightly 10 oz. of fine flour, pour it in a mould, and bake in a slow oven. Lemon peel may be added. Some persons put in a dessert-spoonful of essence of lemon.
Marlborough Cake.
Beat 8 eggs, strain, and put to them 1 lb. finely sifted sugar, and beat the mixture well half an hour; then put in ½ lb. well dried flour, and 2 oz. carraway seeds, beat well five minutes, pour it into shallow tin pins, and bake in a quick oven.
Gingerbread.
Put 1¼ lb. treacle on the fire, and as it gets hot, take off the scum; stir in ¼ lb. of fresh butter, and let it cool; then mix it into a paste with 1½ lb. flour, 4 oz. brown sugar, a little ginger, and allspice; cut it into shapes, and bake on tins. More butter, or a little cream may be added. Candied orange, lemon peel, or carraway seeds, may be added.—Another: mix 1 lb. flour, ½ lb. butter (rubbed in), ½ lb. brown sugar, lemon, ginger, and ½ lb. treacle; let it stand all night, and bake it the next day. Soft Gingerbread—Six tea-cupfuls of flour, 3 of treacle, 1 of cream, and 1 of butter, 2 eggs, a table-spoonful of pearl-ash, dissolved in cold water, a table-spoonful of ginger, 1 tea-spoonful of pounded cloves, and a few raisins, stoned; mix well, and bake in a rather slow oven. Gingerbread Nuts—They may be made the same way as the receipt before the last, adding more spice. Cut in small cakes, or drop them from a spoon, and bake on paper. Parliament—Melt ¾ lb. butter with 2 lbs. treacle, and 1 lb. sugar, add ½ oz. ginger, the juice and grated rind of a lemon, and sufficient flour to make it into a paste: roll out thin, cut it into cakes, and bake it.
Parkin.
Mix 4 lbs. of meal with 2 lbs. treacle, 1 lb. sugar, 1 lb. butter, and ½ oz. ginger, with a tumbler full of brandy and rum; add nutmeg and mace if you like, and bake in large cakes.
Volatile Cakes.
Melt ½ lb. butter, and stir in 4 eggs, 1 tea-spoonful of powdered volatile salts, dissolved in a tea-spoonful of milk, ½ lb. flour, ¼ lb. finely powdered loaf sugar, a few currants and carraway seeds. Mix well, and drop the cakes on tins. They will rise very much. Bake in a quick oven.