TO BOIL POTATOES.
Great care should be taken in boiling potatoes. This is a vegetable that is often neglected. When the potatoes boil, see that they do not boil too fast. A handful of salt should be put into the water. Try with a fork to see if ready. They must not boil too soft. Drain and shake over the fire, and place a napkin over them and steam. Boil a small bit of mint with them, when new.
CAKES, AND ICINGS FOR CAKES.
POUND CAKES.
Take one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, a few drops of lemon. Place the butter in a basin, and warm it in cold weather before the fire. Then beat with the hand. Have the eight eggs broken in a basin, and drop one at a time till the eight are added. Have a tin hoop lined with buttered paper; add one pound of sifted flour. Currants or raisins or lemon-peel can be added. Bake for one hour and a-quarter, in not too hot an oven.
CREAM CAKE.
Take three ounces of butter, three ounces of sugar, one egg, three glasses of milk, and a tea-spoonful of cinnamon; rub the butter and sugar to a cream, then add the egg and milk. Put two tea-spoonfuls of baking-powder with half-a-pound of flour, and knead it to a stiff dough. If this quantity of flour seems too soft, take a little more, as there is great difference in the strength of flour, and some flour takes more moisture in baking. Cooks must therefore be guided by its appearance. Roll the dough into a round cake; half cut through the centre with a smaller cutter. Bake for twenty minutes. When cooked, fill the centre with switched cream, and ice the top of it the same as ordinary cakes.