If a cake is made too light with eggs or powder and an insufficient quantity of flour is added it will drop in the center. Another frequent cause is the moving of cakes while in the oven before the mixture has set properly. The same defect is produced if the cakes are removed from the oven before being baked sufficiently. When a cake batter curdles, the texture will not be so even as if the curdling had not taken place. Sometimes the mixture will curdle through the eggs being added too quickly, or if the shortening contains too much water. This forms a syrup with the sugar, and after a certain quantity of eggs have been added the batter will slip and slide about, and will not unite with the other ingredients. Weak, watery eggs are another cause of this happening; and although this may be checked by adding a little flour at the right time, yet the cake would be better if it were unnecessary to add any flour until all the eggs had been beaten in, that is, if the batter had not curdled. Before turning out a cake allow it to remain in the tin for a few minutes. It is best to lay it on a wire cake stand, or lay it on a sieve; but if you do not possess these, a loosely made basket turned upside down will do. If the cake will not turn out of the tin easily, rest it on its side, turning it round in a couple of minutes and it may loosen, if not, pass a knife round the edge, turn the cake over on a clean cloth, and let it stand a few minutes.
Do not place cakes in a cold place or at an open window, or the steam will condense and make them heavy. A rich cake improves in flavor and becomes softer with keeping (from 2 to 6 weeks, according to quality) before cutting. Wrap, when cold, first in a clean towel, then in paper. After a week remove the paper and put the cake into a tin wrapped in the towel. Small cakes may be baked in tiny molds or tins, or baked in a flat sheet, and then cut out into squares, diamonds or rounds. Then they can be frosted or coated with cream and decorated with cherries or other crystallized fruits. If a real distinction is desired, they may be placed in tiny crinkled paper cases, bought by the hundred at a trifling cost.
Cake tins should be greased with Crisco and dredged with flour, the superfluous flour shaken out, or they can be fitted with paper which has been greased with Crisco. When creaming Crisco and sugar, do not grudge hard work; at this stage of manufacture the tendency is to give insufficient work, with the result that the lightness of the cake is impaired.
Apple Sauce Fruit Cake without Milk
| 1 cupful brown sugar 1-1/2 cupfuls apple sauce 2-1/2 cupfuls flour 1/2 cupful Crisco 1 lb. raisins 1 teaspoonful powdered cloves | 1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon 1 teaspoonful grated nutmeg 2 teaspoonfuls baking soda 1/2 teaspoonful salt 3 tablespoonfuls vinegar |
Cream Crisco and sugar thoroughly together, add apple sauce, flour, raisins, spices, salt, and soda mixed with vinegar. Mix and pour into greased and floured cake tin and bake in moderate oven one and a half hours.
Sufficient for one cake.
Black Cake with Prune Filling
| 1-1/2 cupfuls sugar 1/2 teaspoonful salt 3 eggs 1/2 cupful Crisco 1 cupful milk | 1/2 teaspoonful baking soda 2 cupfuls flour 1 teaspoonful baking powder 1/2 teaspoonful vanilla extract 1/3 cake chocolate |
| For Filling | |
| 1 cupful sugar 1/3 cupful boiling water 1 white of egg | 1/2 cupful stoned stewed prunes 1/3 cupful blanched chopped almonds |