VANILLA CAKE.
573. Half a pound of pulverized white sugar,
The whites of four eggs,
One small vanilla bean, or half of a large one.
Pound the vanilla bean in a mortar until it is completely pulverized. Beat the eggs to a dry froth, add the sugar very gradually; when all the sugar is in stir in the vanilla. Drop a tea spoonful of the mixture on thick white paper to form each cake, they must not be near enough to touch each other. Place them in a cool oven, and as soon as they are sufficiently dry take them out, as soon as they are cold slip the blade of a case-knife under each one to loosen it from the paper. The oven should not be hot enough to brown them.
GINGER POUND CAKE.
574. Three-quarters of a pound of butter,
Three-quarters of a pound of sugar,
Six eggs,
One pound and a half of flour,
One pint of molasses,
The grated rind of two large oranges,
Three table spoonsful of ginger,
Two table spoonsful of cinnamon,
One table spoonful of dissolved salæratus, or
One large tea spoonful of dissolved carbonate of ammonia.
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the eggs very light and add to it, then stir in all the other ingredients except the salæratus or ammonia. Beat the mixture very hard for several minutes, then stir in the salæratus or ammonia. Butter an earthen cake mould or thick iron pan, pour in the mixture and bake it in a moderate oven. If you bake it in an iron pan line the pan with several thicknesses of stout paper well buttered.
CURRANT BISCUITS.
575. One pound of sugar,
One pound of butter,
One pound and a half of flour,
Four eggs,
One tea spoonful of cinnamon,
One tea spoonful of nutmeg,
One pound of currants.
Beat the butter and sugar together; whisk the eggs, and add to it with the other ingredients. Roll the dough out in sheets, cut it into cakes, place them on tins, sift white sugar over the top, and bake them in a moderate oven.
The currants must first be picked, washed and dried, before they are put in the cakes.