Mix a quart of milk with a tea cup of boiled rice, and a pint and a half of rice or wheat flour. Beat three eggs to a froth, and stir in, together with a tea spoonful of salt.
[138.] Rice Wafers.
Rub a pound of rice flour, with quarter of a pound of butter, put in a little salt, a wine glass of wine, two eggs, and milk sufficient to enable you to roll them out. When rolled thin, cut them with a wine glass into small cakes and bake them.
[139.] Observations respecting Sweet Cakes.
If you wish your cake to be good, it must be made of nice materials. The butter, eggs, and flour should not be stale, and the sugar should be dry, and of a light color. Brown sugar answers for most kinds of cakes, if rolled free from lumps, and stirred with the butter, until it is a very light color. The flour should be sifted and if damp, it should be dried perfectly, or it will make the cake heavy. Where sifted flour for cake is measured, it should be shaken down in the measure to be accurate; if there is not flour enough in cake, it will not be light. The eggs should be beaten to a froth, on a shallow plate, and for very nice cake the whites and yolks, should be beaten separately. Where saleratus is used, it should be thoroughly dissolved and strained. Raisins for cake, should have the seeds taken out, and Zante currants should be carefully washed and rubbed in a cloth, to get out the sticks; they should be perfectly dried before they are put into the cake. All kinds of cake that has not yeast in it, should be stirred till it goes into the oven. It should not be moved while in the oven, if it can be avoided. The quicker most kinds of cake are baked, without burning, the better they will be. It is impossible to give any exact rules as to the time for baking cake, as so much depends on the heat of the oven; it should be narrowly watched and if likely to burn covered with a thick paper. To ascertain when rich cake is sufficiently baked, stick a clean broom splinter through the thickest part, and if none of the cake adheres to it, it is baked enough. When cake that is baked on flat tins, moves easily on them it is sufficiently done.
[140.] Gingerbread.
Melt a piece of butter, of the size of a hen's egg and put it with a pint of molasses, stir in a little flour, and a heaping table spoonful of ginger. Dissolve a large table spoonful of saleratus, in half a pint of water, strain and mix it with the rest of the ingredients, together with flour enough to enable you to roll it out easily. Roll it about half an inch thick, and lay it on flat buttered tins; bake it as soon as rolled out in a quick oven a few moments. Gingerbread to be very nice, should be made of good molasses, and baked very quick. Some people use only a tea spoonful of saleratus, to a pint of molasses, but it is much better with more, appearing in point of lightness like sponge cake.
[141.] Soft Gingerbread.
Melt a cup of butter and mix it with a pint of molasses, a table spoonful of ginger and a little flour, dissolve three tea spoonsful of saleratus, in a tea cup of water, and stir it into the cake, together with flour enough to render it of the consistency of pound cake. Bake it in deep cake pans, about thirty minutes. A couple of eggs improve the cake.