A handbook of invalid cooking

by Mary A. Boland

Get everything ready before beginning to make the cake; oil the pan, or oil paper and line the pan with it; measure the flour, cream of tartar, and soda, and sift them together four times; measure the sugar, water, and lemon-juice, and separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Beat the whites of the eggs with half the sugar until they are very light. Then beat the yolks very light, or until they become lemon-colored, add the remaining half of the sugar and beat again, and then a little of the water if it is difficult to turn the egg-beater. When the sugar is well mixed, add the remainder of the water, the lemon-juice, and the flour. Beat for a few seconds, but not long, as all mixtures that have cream of tartar and soda should be baked as quickly as possible. Last of all fold in (not beat) the whites of the eggs lightly, so as not to break out the air which has been entangled by the beating, as it helps to make the cake light.

Bake in a moderate oven from forty-five to fifty minutes, or until the cake shrinks a little from the pan.

FEATHER CAKE

¼ Cup of butter.
1 Cup of sugar.
2 Eggs.
1½ Cups of pastry flour.
½ Teaspoon of soda (slightly scanted).
1 Teaspoon of cream of tartar.
A little grated nutmeg.
1 Teaspoon of vanilla.

See first of all that you have a proper fire. Measure the ingredients, and get everything ready before beginning—mixing-bowl, pans, etc. Use a wooden cake spoon, with slits in the bowl, for mixing. Line the pans with buttered paper. Then cream the butter, adding to it half the sugar and half the milk, the latter very slowly; separate the yolks of the eggs from the whites, and beat them with the remaining sugar; when they are very light add the rest of the milk. Beat the whites until stiff. Now mix the creamed butter and yolks together with the flavoring, then stir in the flour, and last the whites, which are to be cut and folded in, not beaten. Bake it in shallow pans in a moderate oven forty minutes, or about that time. When the cake begins to shrink a little from the sides of the pan, there is no doubt that it is cooked enough. This recipe may be used for a variety of plain cakes.

For Chocolate Cake. Melt and stir into the above mixture two ounces of Baker's chocolate, or two teaspoons of cocoa wet in a little warm water.

For Rose Cake. Color the feather cake mixture with six drops of carmine.

LAYER CAKE

Oil three layer cake pans, or pie-plates. Make the feather cake mixture, and divide it into three portions. Bake one white, color another pink with three or four drops of carmine, and the third brown with an ounce of melted chocolate. Bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes. When cool, join the layers with White Mountain frosting, and frost the top of the last layer. Any of the fillings given under the head of "Cake Filling" may also be used.

When chocolate is used in cake, it is not necessary to grate it or even to break it into small pieces. It contains a large proportion of fat which liquefies at a low temperature, consequently it is necessary only to heat it slowly to reduce it to the liquid state.