Never put allspice into gingerbread or any other cake. It communicates a disagreeably bitter taste. Allspice is now rarely used for any purpose; cloves being far better. Either of them will considerably darken the colour of the cake.
WARM ICING FOR CAKES.—Beat to a stiff froth the whites of four eggs; then beat into them, gradually, (a spoonful at a time,) a pound of finely-powdered loaf-sugar. Next put the beaten white of egg and sugar into a very clean porcelain-lined kettle, (or something that will not discolour it,) and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Then remove it from the fire; and while it is warm, stir in the juice of two large lemons or oranges, or a tea-spoonful of extract of roses, or a wine-glass of rose-water, or a large table-spoonful of extract of vanilla. Have ready your cake, which must first be dredged with flour all over, and the flour wiped off with a clean cloth. This will make the icing stick. With a spoon, place a large portion of the warm icing on the centre of the top of the cake; and then with a broad-bladed knife, (dipped now and then into a bowl of cold water) spread it thick and evenly all over the surface. When done, let it dry gradually. It is best that the cake, when iced, should be warm from the oven.
This warm icing is now much in use. It spreads easily; rises up high and thick in cooling; and has a fine gloss on the surface.
To give it a fine red or pink colour, use cochineal. For green colouring, pound in a mortar some raw spinach till you have extracted a tea-cup full of green juice. Put the juice into a very clean porcelain or earthen pan, set it over the fire, and give it one boil up, (not more,) and when cold it will be fit for use. This is the best way of preparing green colouring for all culinary purposes.
CINNAMON BREAD.—On a bread-baking day, (having made more than your usual quantity of wheat bread,) when the dough has risen quite light, so as to be cracked all over the surface, take out as much as would suffice for a moderate-sized loaf, (for instance, a twelve-cent one,) and make it into a large round cake. Having dissolved a yeast-powder in two separate cups in a little lukewarm water, the carbonate of soda in one cup, and the tartaric acid in another, mix the first with the dough of the cake, and then mix in the second. Have ready a half-pint of brown sugar, moistened with fresh butter, so as to make it a thick stiff paste, and flavoured with a heaping table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Make deep cuts or incisions, at equal spaces, over the cake, and fill them with the above mixture, pressed in hard; and pinch the dough with your thumb and finger, so as to close up each cut, to prevent the seasoning from running out. Set it immediately into the oven with the other bread, and bake it thoroughly. When cool, brush it over with white of egg, in which some sugar has been melted.
This is an excellent plain cake for children, and can be prepared any bread-baking day.
It is much improved by mixing with the dough two large heaped table-spoonfuls of butter that has been melted in a teacup of warm milk, and also one or two beaten eggs. Do this before you add the yeast-powder.