Fresh eggs are needed for nice white cake. Those kept in lime-water will do for raised cake and cookies.
New Orleans, or other good brown sugar, is best for raised, fruit, and wedding cake, but it should be coarse-grained and clean. It will answer also for cup cake, especially if fruit is used. White sugar must be used for sponge and other white cake.
The fruit should be added to raised cake when it is ready for the oven. Spread it equally over the top, and press it only a little below the surface, else it will sink to the bottom.
Cask raisins should be washed before being stoned, and box raisins also, unless fresh. In stoning them, cut them in two or three pieces, or chop them.
Keep currants ready prepared for use. To do this, wash them in warm water, rubbing them between the hands, and then pour off the water. Repeat this till the water is clear, then drain them in a sieve, spread them on a cloth on a table, and rub them dry with the ends of the cloth. Then brush the good ones into a dish in your lap, putting aside the bad ones on the table. Dry them in a gentle warmth, and set them away for use.
Buttered white paper in the bottom and sides of pans for cake requiring long baking, is needful; and paper not buttered is good for other kinds of cake, as it prevents burning. It will readily peel off when the cake is taken from the pans.
Attention and practice will teach when cake is well baked. When it is done enough, it settles a little away from the pan. Even well made cake becomes heavy by being taken out of the oven before it is perfectly baked. Moving it carelessly while it is baking will also make light cake fall. If you have occasion to change the position of the pans, do it gently.
A tin chest or a stone jar is good to keep cake in, and it is a good way to let that which is not to be kept long, remain in the tins in which it was baked.
Directions for beating the Whites of Eggs.