SPONGE-CAKE.
SPONGE-CAKE.
Ingredients.—½ lb. of loaf sugar, not quite ¼ pint of water, 5 eggs, 1 lemon, ½ lb. of flour, ¼ teaspoonful of carbonate of soda. Mode.—Boil the sugar and water together until they form a thick syrup; let it cool a little, then pour it to the eggs, which should be previously well whisked; and after the eggs and syrup are mixed together, continue beating them for a few minutes. Grate the lemon-rind, mix the carbonate of soda with the flour, and stir these lightly to the other ingredients; then add the lemon-juice, and, when the whole is thoroughly mixed, pour it into a buttered mould, and bake in rather a quick oven for rather more than 1 hour. The remains of sponge or Savoy cakes answer very well for trifles, light puddings, &c.; and a very stale one (if not mouldy) makes an excellent tipsy cake. Time.—Rather more than 1 hour. Average cost, 10d. Sufficient to make 1 cake. Seasonable at any time.
SPONGE-CAKES, Small.
Ingredients.—The weight of 5 eggs in flour, the weight of 8 in pounded loaf sugar; flavouring to taste. Mode.—Let the flour be perfectly dry, and the sugar well pounded and sifted. Separate the whites from the yolks of the eggs, and beat the latter up with the sugar; then whisk the whites until they become rather stiff, and mix them with the yolks, but do not stir them more than is just necessary to mingle the ingredients well together. Dredge in the flour by degrees, add the flavouring; butter the tins well, pour in the batter, sift a little sugar over the cakes, and bake them in rather a quick oven, but do not allow them to take too much colour, as they should be rather pale. Remove them from the tins before they get cold, and turn them on their faces, where let them remain until quite cold, when store them away in a closed tin canister or wide-mouthed glass bottle. Time.—10 to 15 minutes in a quick oven. Average cost, 1d. each. Seasonable at any time.
SPRATS.
Sprats should be cooked very fresh, which can be ascertained by their bright and sparkling eyes. Wipe them dry; fasten them in rows by a skewer run through the eyes; dredge with flour, and broil them on a gridiron over a nice clear fire. The gridiron should be rubbed with suet. Serve very hot. Time.—3 or 4 minutes. Average cost, 1d. per lb. Seasonable from November to March.
To Choose Sprats.—Choose these from their silvery appearance, as the brighter they are, so are they the fresher.