“Why don’t you get eggs now while they are cheap? I get eggs from a farmer at twenty-two cents, but he tells me they will be twenty-five by the end of the month.”
“I pay that now at the store, but if I can get a few dozen at twenty-two cents, it will be an economy to take them. I will put them down in lime.”
“That is what I have wanted to do, but I tried once, and put ten dozen down when they were fifteen cents, and they did not keep at all.”
“We’ll do them together if you like; but to return to the cake, I don’t believe you can improve on feather cake for your purpose, but you can vary it ad infinitum. By leaving out a good table-spoonful flour and adding grated chocolate and flavoring with vanilla you have a very nice chocolate cake, or by stirring in it a cup of grated cocoanut or one of walnut meats it is delicious, or even by grating the peel of an orange and part of the juice, or lemon-peel. If you add fruit you need more butter, say two table-spoonfuls, or it will be crumbly and dry.”
“Thank you; I never thought of chocolate cake. I shall try it to-morrow.”
CHAPTER XXVII.
CANDIED LEMON-PEEL—TO WHIP CREAM SOLID—ICED CREAM COFFEE—MADELEINE CAKE—POTATO BALLS.
The next day not being a very busy one for Marta, Molly proposed to candy the lemon-peels, that had been lying in brine until enough had been collected. There were now the peels of nearly a dozen. These were put on in cold water, and when they had boiled an hour this was thrown away and fresh cold water put on them, the object being simply to freshen them. When they began to get tender Molly tasted them to see if any salt remained in them, but she found them quite fresh; had they not been, she would have changed the water once more. When they were tender enough to run a straw through them, which was when they had boiled nearly three hours, they were poured off, and a pint and a half of water and a pound and a half of sugar were put to boil to syrup, while Molly and Marta cut the peels into chips less than an inch long and a quarter inch wide. To accomplish this quickly Molly told Marta to cut each half lemon-peel into three equal sizes, then to lay one on the other, and cut across all three; the chips were about the right size thus cut.
When the syrup boiled the chips were dropped in; it was allowed to boil again, and to keep boiling slowly till the peels were clear, then more rapidly till there was so little liquid that they were in danger of burning; then they were drawn to the back of the range for the remaining syrup to dry away without burning. When they were at this point Molly sprinkled half a pound of sugar through them and spread them out on plates, telling Marta to put them in the oven with the door open, and let them remain all night to dry.