After dinner Mrs. Lennox came in for a chat, as she occasionally did, leaving Mr. Lennox at home with the children. She wanted to tell Molly that she expected her new maid by the next Inman steamer. Her sister was going to meet her on its arrival and bring her right out.
“Make up your mind to possess yourself in patience for the first few days,” said Molly, “for you will no doubt need it, and then you may have real comfort.”
“Oh yes, I think I am patient. To-morrow I am going to make a cake; can you give me a good recipe? Better than the one I have, I mean.”
“That depends on what it is. Do you want a cup cake?”
“Yes, the one I have is what they call feather cake, and very light and nice, but I would like a change, I confess. The recipe is one table-spoonful of butter, one cup of sugar, one cup and a half of flour, half a cup of milk, one quarter tea-spoonful of soda, half one of cream of tartar, two eggs and a pinch of salt. Then I stir butter, sugar and eggs together, beating them hard, then add flour in which the cream of tartar is mixed and milk by degrees, and I dissolve the soda in the least drop of boiling water, and bake it in a good steady oven. I use the same recipe for jelly cake.”
“I know that cake,” said Molly; “it is an old favorite, and for a quite plain one it is very good indeed, and for children or where it is quickly eaten up I should use it; but I have to make a richer cup cake, using very much more butter or butter and lard, because for one thing I like a cake that is more like pound than sponge, and, for another, I want it to keep fresh. One loaf made with a cup and a half of flour lasts us a fortnight, and by using nearly half as much butter as flour it is better the last day than the first.”
“I thought so much butter would make it heavy.”
“No, if properly made you may use equal quantities of butter and flour as in pound cake, or half a pound of butter to one of flour as in queen cake; but a cake with much butter needs more care in baking, and it takes longer than one with less—pound cake takes from two to three hours.”
“I am fond of pound cake, but I never aspire to make one.”
“It is easy enough to make, but not so easy to bake; While eggs and butter keep fairly cheap, I think I shall make one to keep, so that it will be always on hand, for the minute eggs and butter get more expensive I shall use as few as possible and make only fruit cake.”