Half a pound of sugar, a quarter of a pound of butter, a couple of eggs, half a nutmeg, a tea-spoonful of saleratus, half a tea-cup of milk. Stir the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs and a little flour, stir in the milk and saleratus, which should be previously strained, then add enough flour to make it stiff enough to roll out—roll it out half an inch thick, in pounded white sugar, cut it with a tumbler into cakes, and bake them on flat buttered tins.
Stir gradually into a pint of lukewarm milk a pound of sifted wheat flour, add a small tea-cup of yeast, and set it where it will rise quick. When of a spongy lightness, weigh out a pound of butter, a pound and a quarter of nice sugar—stir them to a cream, then work them with the hand into the sponge. Beat four eggs to a froth, the whites and yelks separately—mix the eggs with the cake, together with a wine glass of wine, one of brandy, a quarter of an ounce of mace, or one nutmeg. Cinnamon is good spice for loaf cake, but it turns it a dark color. Add another pound of flour, and work it with the hand for fifteen or twenty minutes. (The longer it is worked, the more delicate will be the cake.) Let it remain till risen again—when perfectly light, beat it a few minutes with the hand, then add a couple of pounds of seeded raisins, a quarter of a pound of citron, or almonds blanched, and pounded fine. Butter three common sized cake pans, and put the cake into them—let them remain half an hour in a warm place, before setting them in the oven. Bake the cake in a quick, but not a furious oven, from an hour and fifteen to thirty minutes, according to the heat of the oven. If it browns too fast, cover it, while baking, with thick paper.
Mix together a pint of lukewarm milk, two quarts of sifted flour, a small tea-cup of yeast. Set the batter where it will rise quick. When perfectly light, work in with the hand four beaten eggs, a tea-spoonful of salt, two of cinnamon, a wine glass of brandy or wine. Stir a pound of sugar with three-quarters of a pound of butter—when white, work it into the cake, add another quart of sifted flour, and beat the whole well with the hand ten or fifteen minutes, then set it where it will rise again. When of a spongy lightness, put it into buttered cake pans, and let them stand fifteen or twenty minutes before baking. Add if you like a pound and a half of raisins, just before putting the cake into the pans.
200. Shelah, or Quick Loaf Cake.
Melt half a pound of butter—when cool, work it into a pound and a half of raised dough. Beat four eggs with three-quarters of a pound of rolled sugar, mix it with the dough, together with a wine glass of wine, or brandy, a tea-spoonful of cinnamon, and a grated nutmeg. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of saleratus in a small tea-cup of milk, strain it on to the dough, work the whole well together for a quarter of an hour, then add a pound of seeded raisins, and put it into cake pans. Let them remain twenty minutes before setting them in the oven.
Mix ten ounces of ground rice, three of wheat flour, eight ounces of powdered white sugar. Sift the whole by degrees into the beaten yelks of eight eggs. Add the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and half a grated nutmeg. Bake the cake in deep pans as soon as the ingredients are well mixed in. The cake will bake sufficiently in the course of twenty minutes, if the oven is hot.