[CHAPTER XIV.]
PLAIN CAKES.
General Directions for Making Cake.
Tie up your hair so that none can fall, put on a long-sleeved apron, have the kitchen put in order, and then arrange all the articles and utensils you will have occasion to use.
If you are a systematic and thrifty housekeeper, you will have your sugar pounded, all your spices ready prepared in boxes, or bottles, your saleratus sifted, your currants washed and dried, your ginger sifted, and your weights, measures, and utensils all in their place and in order.
Butter your tins before beginning to make the cake, so as not to stop for the purpose. It saves much trouble to have your receipt book so arranged that you can measure instead of weighing. This can be done by weighing the first time, and then have a small measure cup, and fill it with each ingredient you have weighed. Then note it down in your receipt book, and ever after use the same measure cup.
Always sift your flour, for neither bread nor cake should be made with unsifted flour, not merely because there may be dirt in it, but because packing injures its lightness, and sifting restores it, and makes bread and cake lighter.
The day before you wish to make cake, stone your raisins, and blanch your almonds, by pouring hot water on them, to take off the skins, and then throwing them into cold water to whiten them. When ready to make your cake, grate your lemon or orange peel. Next weigh your butter and cut it in pieces, and put it where it will soften, but not melt. Then butter your tins. Next, stir the butter to a cream, and then add the sugar, and work till white. Next, beat the yolks of the eggs, strain them, and put them to the sugar and butter. Meantime another person should beat the whites to a stiff froth, and put them in. Then add the spices and flour, and last of all the fruit, as directed below.
Do not use the hand to make cake, but a wood spoon or spad. Earthen is best to make cake in.
In receipts where milk is used, never mix sweet and sour milk, as it makes cake heavy, even when either alone would not do it.