Clayton's Quaker Cook-Book / Being a Practical Treatise on the Culinary Art Adapted to the Tastes and Wants of All Classes

by H. J. Clayton

Five eggs, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, ¹⁄₂ teacup cold water; mix well and bake quickly.

Ginger Snaps.

Into 1 pint of molasses put 1 cup lard, 1 tablespoonful of ginger, 1 teaspoonful of soda, and a little salt; boil for a few minutes, and when quite cool, add sufficient flour to make a stiff dough; roll very thin and bake.

A Nice Cake.

One quart flour, 4 eggs, ¹⁄₂ cup butter, ¹⁄₂ cup sweet lard, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and 1 of salt. Beat the whites and yolks of the eggs separately, until light. Sift the baking powder into the flour. Melt the shortening in a cup of milk with the yolks of the eggs—putting the whites in last. Work into a thick batter, and bake steadily for three-quarters of an hour; to be eaten hot.

Icing for Cake.

There are a number of formulas for the preparation of icings for cake, but the following will invariably be found the simplest, easiest prepared, and the best:

Take the whites of 4 eggs, and 1 pound of best pulverized white sugar, and any flavoring extract most agreeable to the taste. Break the whites of the eggs into a broad, cool dish, and after throwing a small handful of sugar upon them, begin whipping it in with long even strokes of the beater. Beat until the icing is of a smooth, fine and firm texture. If not stiff enough, put in more sugar, using at least a quarter of a pound to each egg. Pour the icing by the spoonful on top of the cake, and near the centre of the surface to be covered. If the loaf is so shaped that the liquid will naturally settle to its place, it is best left to do so. To spread it, use a broad-bladed knife, dipped in cold water; if as thick with sugar as should be, one coat will be amply sufficient. Leave in a moderate oven for three minutes. To color icing yellow, use the rind of a lemon or orange, tied in a thin muslin bag, straining a little of the juice through it and squeezing hard into the ice and sugar; for red, use extract of cochineal.

Chocolate Icing.

Quarter of a cake of chocolate grated, ¹⁄₂ cup of sweet milk, 1 tablespoonful corn-starch; flavor with extract of vanilla. Mix these ingredients, with the exception of the vanilla; boil two minutes, and after it has fairly commenced to boil, flavor, and then sweeten to taste with powdered sugar, taking care to have it sweet enough.