In the mean time let another mixture be prepared as follows. Sift half a pound of fine flour, cut up half a pound of fresh butter in a pint of rich milk, and set it on a stove or near the fire till the butter is soft but not melted. Then stir it well and take it off. Beat eight whole eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk and butter, in turn with the flour. Take care to have this batter very smooth, and quite free from lumps. Having beaten and stirred it thoroughly, put it in equal portions into deep pattypans with plain unscolloped sides, filling them but little more than half, so as to allow space for the cakes to rise in baking. The pattypans must be previously buttered. When the mixture is in, sprinkle powdered loaf-sugar over the top of each. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them about a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes. They must be well browned. When done, take them out, and open in the side of each (while quite hot) a slit or cut, large enough to admit a portion of the custard that has been made for them. Put in with a spoon as much of this custard as will amply fill the cavity or hollow in the middle of each cake. Then close the slit nicely, by pinching and smoothing it with your thumb and finger, and set the cakes to cool. They should be eaten fresh. In summer they will not keep till next day unless they are set on ice. If properly made, they will be found delicious.
CONNECTICUT LOAF CAKE.—
For this cake you must prepare, the day before, three pounds of sifted flour, two pounds of powdered white sugar, four nutmegs, and a quarter of an ounce of mace powdered fine; two pounds of stoned raisins, two pounds of currants, picked, washed, and dried (or you may substitute for the currants two additional pounds of raisins), and half a pound of citron cut large. The raisins, currants, and citron must be spread on a large dish, and dredged thickly over with flour, which must be mixed well among them with your hands, so as to coat them all completely. This is to prevent their sinking in a clod to the bottom while the cake is baking, and should always be done with whatever fruit is used in either cakes or puddings. Put the spice into half a pint of white wine, cover it, and let it infuse all night. Next morning, have ready two pounds of the best fresh butter, cut small; six eggs well beaten; a pint of warm new milk; and half a pint of fresh strong yeast, procured, if possible, from a brewer or baker. Rub half the butter into the flour, adding half the sugar; wet it with the milk, and add half of the eggs, and the wine, and the yeast. Stir and mix it thoroughly. Then cover it and set it to rise. It should be perfectly light by evening. Then add the remainder of the butter and the sugar, and the rest of the egg. Mix it well, and set it again to rise till early next morning. Then add gradually the fruit, setting it again to rise for two or three hours. When it is perfectly light for the last time, butter a large deep pan, and put in the mixture. The oven must first be made very hot, and then allowed to cool down so as to bake rather slowly. If too hot, it will scorch and crust the cake on the outside, so as to prevent the heat from penetrating any farther, and the inside will then be soddened and heavy. A common-sized loaf-cake may remain in the oven from three to four hours.
CLOVE CAKES.—
Rub a pound of fresh butter (cut up) into three pounds of sifted flour; adding, by degrees, a pound of fine brown sugar, half an ounce of cloves ground or powdered, and sufficient West India molasses to wet the whole into a stiff dough, mixing in at the last a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus dissolved in tepid water. Roll the dough out into a sheet of paste, and cut out the cakes with a tin stamp, or with the edge of a tumbler. Put them in buttered pans, and bake them a quarter of an hour or more. They will continue good a long time, if kept dry, and are excellent to take to sea.
SOFT GINGERBREAD.—
Beat to a cream half a pound of fresh butter cut up in a deep pan, among half a pound of brown sugar, and at the beginning set near the fire to soften it a little, but not to melt it. Add two large table-spoonfuls of ginger, a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cloves. Then stir into it, alternately, a pint of West India molasses, and three pints of sifted flour, and six well-beaten eggs. Lastly, dissolve a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in a pint of sour milk, and stir it, while foaming, into the mixture. Put it immediately into shallow square tin pans, well buttered, and place it in an oven not too hot, or it will burn the outside, and leave the inside raw and heavy. This cake requires long beating, and much baking.
FINE COOKIES.—
Sift into a pan five large tea-cupsful of flour, and rub into it one tea-cup of fresh butter; add two cups of powdered white sugar, and a handful or two of carraway seeds; wet it with an egg well beaten, and a little rose-water. Add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus dissolved in a very little lukewarm water. Knead the whole well. Roll it out into a sheet. Cut it into cakes with a stamp or a tumbler edge; put them into a buttered pan, and bake them about fifteen minutes. Instead of carraway seeds, you may use currants, picked, washed, and dried.