INDIAN LIGHT BISCUIT.—A quart of sifted Indian meal.—A pint of sifted wheat flour.—A very small tea-spoonful of salt.—Three pints of milk.—Four eggs. Sift the Indian and wheat meal into a pan, and add the salt. Mix them well. Beat the whites and the yolks of the eggs separately in two pans. The yolks must be beaten till very thick and smooth; the whites to a stiff froth that will stand alone of itself. Then stir the yolks gradually, (a little at a time,) into the milk. Add by degrees the meal. Lastly, stir in the beaten white of egg, and give the whole a long and hard stirring. Butter a sufficient number of cups, or small, deep tins—nearly fill them with the batter. Set them immediately into a hot oven, and bake them fast. Turn them out of the cups. Send them warm to table, pull them open, and eat them with butter.
They will puff up finely if, at the last, you stir in a level tea-spoonful of soda, melted in a little warm water.
INDIAN CUPCAKES.—A pint and a half of yellow Indian meal.—Half a pint of wheat flour.—A pint and a half of sour milk; buttermilk is best.—A small tea-spoonful of sal-eratus or soda, dissolved in warm water.—Two eggs.—A level tea-spoonful of salt. Sift the Indian and wheat meal into a pan and mix them well, adding the salt. If you have no butter-milk or other sour milk at hand, turn some sweet milk sour by setting a pan of it in the sun, or stirring in a spoonful of vinegar. Take out a small teacupful of the sour milk, and reserve it to be put in at the last. Beat the eggs very light, and then stir them, gradually, into the milk, alternately with the meal, a little at a time of each. Lastly, dissolve the soda or sal-eratus, and stir it into the cup of sour milk that has been reserved for the purpose. It will effervesce; stir it while foaming into the mixture, which should be a thick batter. Have ready some teacups, or little deep tins. Butter them well; nearly fill them with the batter, and set them immediately into a rather brisk oven. The cakes must be thoroughly baked all through. When done, turn them out on large plates, and send them hot to the breakfast or tea-table. Split them into three pieces, and eat them with butter.
The soda will entirely remove the acidity of the milk, which will effervesce the better for being sour at first, adding therefore to the lightness of the cake. Taste the milk, and if you find that the slightest sourness remains, add a little more dissolved soda.
All the alkalies, pearlash, sal-eratus, soda, and sal-volatile, will remove acidity, and increase lightness; but if too much is used they will impart a disagreeable taste. It is useless to put lemon or orange juice into any mixture that is afterwards to have one of these alkalies, as they will entirely destroy the flavour of the fruit.
KENTUCKY SWEET CAKE.—A pint of fine yellow Indian meal, sifted.—Half a pint of wheat flour.—Half a pound of powdered white sugar.—Half a pound of fresh butter.—Eight eggs.—A powdered nutmeg.—A large tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon.—A glass of white wine.—A glass of brandy. Having powdered the spice, and mixed together the wine and brandy, put the spice to steep in the liquor. Mix well the Indian meal and the wheat flour, putting them into a broad pan. In another pan, stir together the butter and sugar (as for a pound cake) till they are very light and creamy. Break the eggs into a shallow earthen pan, and beat them till very thick and light. Then, by degrees, stir into the beaten butter and sugar, the spice and the liquor, a little at a time of each. Afterwards, add alternately the meal and the beaten egg, also a little of each at a time. Stir the whole very hard when all the ingredients are in. Butter a straight-sided tin pan, put the mixture into it; set it immediately into a rather brisk oven; and bake it well for three or four hours or more, in proportion to its thickness.
This is a very nice cake. It should be eaten the same day that it is baked; as when stale (even one day old) all Indian cakes become dry, hard, and rough.