Cookery for Little Girls

by Olive Hyde Foster

Before beginning the work, the child should read over her recipe and lay out all ingredients needed. She should have the mixing bowl on the table with the mixing spoon, the teaspoon and tablespoon for measurements, and the measuring cup. The cake pan, wiped off, warmed and greased lightly with lard, is next set aside, ready for use.

Then the fire must be in good condition. If a gas stove is used it will take only a few moments to heat the oven properly, but if wood or coal is the fuel, the mother must show the child how to prepare the fire, so as to have the oven the right temperature and on time. The old way of having it as hot as one can stand the hand while counting twenty, is a fair test.

As small cakes bake more evenly and quickly for the inexperienced cook, it is a good idea to let the child put her cake dough in muffin tins. A mixture that might fall and seem a failure if put in a loaf and not properly baked, will often come up very nicely in gem pans; and, besides, the small cakes appeal more to the childish fancy. A nice one-egg cake is made as follows:

Icing the Cake

TEA CAKES

One-third of a cup of butter, one cup of sugar, one egg, one cup of milk, two cups of sifted flour, two level teaspoonfuls of baking powder, half a teaspoonful of vanilla, and half a cup of currants.

DIRECTIONS FOR MIXING

First the child should measure her flour while her cup is dry, and adding the baking-powder, sift it on to a paper or in an extra bowl, and set it aside, ready for use. Next she can measure the even cupful of sugar into the mixing bowl, add an even one-third cupful of butter, and rub together to a creamy mass. If the butter has been standing a while in the kitchen, it will be warm enough to work up nicely. Then she must separate the egg, beating the white stiff and the yolk until it is foaming. Adding the beaten yolk to the butter and sugar, she again stirs thoroughly, and then begins adding—a little at a time—first the milk and then the sifted flour, stirring evenly all the while. Put in the vanilla, the stiffly beaten white of egg, with the currants, mixing as little as possible, and pour out into the greased gem pans. If the oven is right, the baking will take from fifteen to twenty minutes, but if the oven seems too hot, leave the door slightly open for about five minutes. An old-fashioned way of finding out when the cakes are well baked is to try with a new wooden toothpick. If it comes out clean and dry the cakes are done.