Butter in the least degree strong, spoils cake.
Try whether cake is done by piercing it with a broom splinter, and if nothing adheres it is done.
An oven, to bake cake well, must have a good heat at bottom, and not be too hot on the top, or the cake will be heavy. As these receipts have all been proved, if they fail to make good cake, the fault is probably in the baking.
Cake that is to be frosted, should be baked in pans with perpendicular instead of slanting sides. Line them with buttered paper, the salt soaked out of the butter. If the oven proves too hot, cover the top with paper before it hardens, or the cake will be heavy.
The best way to put in fruit is to sprinkle flour over it, then put in a layer of cake at the bottom, half an inch thick, then a layer of fruit, taking care that it does not touch the sides of the pan, and thus dry up; then a little more cake, then another layer of fruit, and thus till the cake is three inches thick (not more), and let the top layer be cake.
Always dissolve saleratus, or sal volatile, in hot water, as milk does not perfectly dissolve it, and thus there will be yellow specks made.
Make your eggs cold, and whisk till they will stand in a heap.
Volatile alkali the size of a hickory-nut, and a bit of alum of equal size, powdered and dissolved in cold water, will ensure light bread or cake.
A quick oven is so hot that you can count moderately only twenty; and a slow one allows you to count thirty, while you hold your hand in it.
All cake without yeast should have the flour put in quickly, just as it goes into the oven.