The best way to keep cake is in a tin box or stone jar.
Do not wrap cake or bread in a cloth.
In baking, move cake gently if you change its place, or it will fall in streaks. Cake is more nicely baked when the pan is lined with oiled paper, especially in old pans, which often give a bad taste to the bottom and sides of the cake.
CAKE RAISED WITH POWDERS.
Although it is unhealthful to use powders in bread for daily food, the small quantity used for cake will do no harm.
The cake most easily made is raised with soda and cream tartar or other baking powders, and many varieties can be made by the following recipes:
One, Two, Three, Four Cake.—Take one cup of butter, (half a cup is better,) two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs. Mix butter, sugar, and yelks. Then add the flour very thoroughly, and lastly the whites in a stiff froth. Bake immediately, and the cake will be light, with nothing added. But it is equally light to omit the eggs and work two tea-spoonfuls of cream tartar into the flour, and then mix well first the butter and sugar, and then the flour. When ready to bake, mix very thoroughly and quickly a tea-spoonful of soda, or a bit of sal volatile dissolved in a cup of warm (not hot) water. This makes two loaves. The following are varieties made by this recipe, using raising either with eggs or powders:
Chocolate-Cake.—Bake the above in thin layers, only a little thicker than carpeting. When nearly cool, spread over the cake a paste made of equal parts of scraped chocolate and sugar wet with water. Place the cake in layers one over another, frost the top, and then cut in oblong pieces for the cake-basket.
Jelly-Cake.—Proceed as above, only using jelly instead of chocolate.
Orange-Cake.—Proceed as for jelly-cake, having flavored the cake when making with a little grated orange-peel. The oranges must be peeled, chopped fine, and sweetened.
Almond and Cocoa-nut Cake.—Blanch three ounces of almonds, (that is, pour on boiling water and take off the skins.) Chop or pound them with an equal quantity of sugar, make a thin paste with water, and use this instead of the jelly. Cocoa-nut, chopped fine, can be used instead of almonds. Strawberries, Peaches, Cranberries, and Quinces, and any other fruit, mashed or cooked, can be used in place of the jelly, being first sweetened.
This cake can be made richer by adding spices and fruit before baking. Cream can be used in place of butter. Chopped almonds, citron, or cocoa-nut may be put in the cake for baking, making still another variety.
CAKES RAISED WITH EGGS.
Pound-Cake, (very rich.)—One pound of flour, one pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, nine eggs, a glass of brandy, one nutmeg, one tea-spoonful of pounded cinnamon. Mix half the flour with the butter, brandy, and spice; add the yelks of eggs beaten well into the sugar. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, and add them in alternate spoonfuls with the rest of the flour: then beat a long time, and bake as soon as done.
Plain Cake raised with Eggs.—Take a pound or quart of flour, half as much sugar, half as much butter as sugar, four or five eggs, one nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of cinnamon. Mix well the sugar, butter, yelks, and spice; then the flour, and last the whites as stiff froth.
These two cakes are varied by adding citron, fruit, or other spices, making them more or less rich.
Fruit-Cake.—This to be made either like pound-cake, with fruit added; or like plain cake, raised with eggs or yeast, adding fruit.
Walnut-meats or Almonds may be chopped and put in the cake instead of fruit, making another variety.
Huckleberry-Cake.—One quart of huckleberries, three cups of sugar, three cups of flour, six eggs, one cup of sweet milk, and one tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water. Cream the butter and sugar, and add the beaten yelks. Then add the milk, flour, and two grated nutmegs. Then add the whites, whipped to a stiff froth, and the berries, gently, so as not to mash them. An excellent cake.
Currants and other berries may be used in the same way. If very sour, add more sugar. If doubtful of raising it enough, add a tea-spoonful of soda; or, more surely, a bit of sal volatile the size of a hickory-nut.
Gold and Silver Cake.—This makes a pretty variety when cut and placed together in a cake-dish. For each, take one cup of sugar (for the silver, white; and for the gold, brown), half a cup of butter, half a cup of milk, two cups of flour, one tea-spoonful of cream tartar, and half as much soda. For the one, use the yelk of three eggs; and the white, as stiff froth, for the other. Mix the cream tartar very thoroughly in the flour, and put in the soda last. Bake immediately. This makes one loaf of each kind, in flat pans, and is to be frosted. If more is wanted, double the quantity of each ingredient.
Rich Sponge-Cake.—Take twelve eggs, and the weight of ten in sugar, and six in flour. Beat the sugar into the yelks, add the juice and grated peel of one lemon, then the flour, and then the whites cut to a stiff froth, and bake as soon as possible. Bake in brick-shaped pans, and line them with buttered paper.
Plain Sponge-Cake, (easily made.)—Mix thoroughly two cups of sifted flour and two cups of white sugar with one tea-spoonful of cream tartar. Beat four eggs to a froth, not separating the whites, and add some grated lemon-peel, or nutmeg, or rose-water. Just before baking, add half a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in three great-spoonfuls of warm water. Beat quick, and set in the oven immediately.