You may make common short cake for very healthy people, with two quarts of flour, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and a quarter of a pound of lard, mixed into the pan of meal with a very little cold water, and a second quarter of lard spread all over the sheet of paste, after rolling it out. Fold, sprinkle, and roll it out again into one round griddle cake, or two if you have enough of dough. Take care, in baking, not to have it smoked or blackened at the edge. When done, cut it into "pie pieces," and send it to table to be split and buttered.
HALF MOONS.—
Of this paste you may make half-moon pies. Cut the paste into round cakes. On half the circle, lay plenty of stewed fruit well sweetened, (for instance, stewed dried peach,) fold over it the other half, pinch the two edges together, and crimp them. Bake them in an oven, and eat them fresh. If you have fruit in the house ready stewed, half-moon pies can be got up for a plain dessert on an emergency. Either mince meat, or sausage meat, may be baked in half-moons. They will bake very nicely, laid side by side, in large square tin pans, first dredged slightly with flour.
SOFT MUFFINS.—
Warm a quart of milk, and melt in it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, cut into bits. When melted, stir it about, and set it away to cool. Beat four eggs till very thick and light, and stir them gradually into a pan of milk, and butter when it is quite cold. Then, by degrees, stir in enough of sifted flour to make a batter as thick as you can well beat it. Then, at the last, stir in three table-spoonfuls of baker's or brewer's yeast. Cover the pan of batter with a double cloth, and set it on the hearth (or some other warm place) to rise, but it must not be allowed to get hot. It should have risen nearly to the top of the pan, and be covered with bubbles in about three hours. The griddle being heated, grease it with nice butter tied in a rag; take a ladleful of batter out of the pan, pour it into the ring, and bake the muffins. Send them hot to table, and split and butter them. These are superior to all muffins. Those who have eaten them will never desire any others, if this receipt has been faithfully followed. Try it.
SALLY LUNN CAKE.—
This is a favorite tea cake, and so universally liked that it is well to make a liberal quantity of the mixture, and bake it in two loaves. Sift into a large pan three pounds of fine flour. Warm in a quart of milk half a pound of fresh butter, and add a small tea-spoonful of salt, six eggs well beaten, and add, gradually, two wine glasses of excellent fresh yeast. Mix the flour well into the pan, (a little at a time) and beat the whole very hard. Divide this quantity into two equal portions, and set it to rise in two pans. Cover it with thick cloths, and set it on the hearth to rise. When quite light, grease two loaf-pans with the same butter used for the cakes, and bake it in a moderate oven, keeping up the heat steadily to the last. It should be thoroughly done all through. Send it to table hot, cut in slices, but the slices left standing as in a pound cake at a party.