Apple Bread.—After having boiled 1 lb. peeled apples, bruise them while quite warm into 2 lb. flour, including the proper quantity of leaven, and knead the whole without water, the juice of the fruit being quite sufficient. When this mixture has acquired the consistency of paste, put it into a vessel, in which allow it to rise for about 12 hours. By this process you obtain a very sweet bread, extremely light.
Banbury Cake.—(a) 1½ lb. flour, 1 lb. butter; roll the butter in sheets in part of the flour; wet up the rest of the flour in nearly ½ pint water and a little German or brewers’ yeast; make into a smooth paste, roll in a large sheet, and lay on the butter; double up, and roll out again; do this 5 times; cut into square pieces, about 1½ oz. each. Mix together currants, candied peel chopped fine, moist sugar, and a little brandy; put 2 teaspoonfuls of this mixture on each piece of paste; bring the two corners together in the middle, and close them up of an oval shape; turn the closing downwards; sift finely powdered loaf sugar over the tops; put on a cold tin; let stand awhile in the cold to prove; bake in rather a cool oven.
(b) 2 lb. currants, ½ oz. each ground allspice and powdered cinnamon; 4 oz. each candied orange and lemon peel; 8 oz. butter, 1 lb. moist sugar, 12 oz. flour; mix the whole well together; roll out a piece of puff paste; cut into oval shape; put a small quantity of composition into each, and double up in the shape of a puff; put on a board, flatten down with rolling-pin, and sift powdered sugar over; do not put too close together; bake on iron plates in a hot oven.
Bath Buns.—1 lb. flour, peel of 2 lemons grated fine, ½ lb. butter melted in teacup of cream, 1 teaspoonful yeast, 3 eggs; mix; add ½ lb. powdered loaf sugar; mix well; let stand to rise; quantities will make about 3 dozen buns.
Bath Cake.—Roll 1¾ lb. moist sugar till fine; add ¾ pint water; let stand all night; into 4½ lb. flour rub 3 oz. butter; make a hole in it, and pour in the sugar and water with ½ pint honey water; roll thin; cut out, place on buttered tin, wash over with water, bake in quick oven.
Biscuit Powder.—Dry the biscuits in a slow oven; grind with a rolling-pin on a clean board till the powder is fine; sift through a fine hair-sieve, and it is fit for use.
Bordeaux Cake.—Make a mixture as for pound-cakes, leaving out the fruit, peel, and spices; bake in a round or oval hoop. When baked and cold, cut into slices ½ in. thick; spread each slice with jam or marmalade. The outside of the cake may be cut round, or fluted to form a star; and the centre of the cake is occasionally cut out to about 1½ in. from the edge, leaving the bottom slice whole: this may be filled with preserved wet or dry fruits, creams, or a trifle. The top is ornamented with piping, wet or dry fruits, and peels, or piped with jam and icing.
Brandy Snaps.—(a) Rub ¼ lb. butter into ½ lb. flour, add ½ lb. moist sugar, ½ oz. ground ginger, and the grated rind and juice of a lemon. Mix with a little treacle to a paste thin enough to spread on tins. Bake in a moderate oven, and when done enough cut it into strips whilst still on the tins, and then roll it round the fingers. When cold put in a tin at once, or they will lose their crispness. (b) Take 1 lb. flour, ½ lb. coarse brown sugar, ¼ lb. butter, 1 dessertspoonful allspice, 2 of ground ginger, the grated peel of half, and the juice of a whole lemon; mix altogether, adding ½ lb. treacle; beat it well; butter some sheet tins, and spread the paste thinly over them, bake in rather a slow oven. When done cut it into squares, and roll each square round the finger as it is raised from the tin. (c) ½ lb. salt butter, ½ lb. moist sugar, ½ lb. treacle and flour (more treacle than flour), 1½ oz. finely-powdered ginger. The butter, treacle, and part of the sugar to be made boiling hot, and poured on the remainder of the ingredients well mixed. Spread it very thinly with a knife on a sheet tin which has been buttered, and bake. When done, to be taken off with a knife.
Breakfast Cake.—Mix ½ oz. German yeast with ½ pint warm milk in a pan; weigh 2 lb. flour and take sufficient of it to make the milk the consistence of batter. When this sponge has risen, take a little milk—melt in it 3 oz. butter; add a teaspoonful of salt, and the yolks of 8 eggs; mix well with the sponge, and make into a dough with the remaining portion of flour. Do not use more milk with the eggs than will make ½ pint, or the dough will be too soft. When the dough is proved, make it into cakes about 2 in. thick; put them into buttered hoops; lay the hoops on iron plates, and when they are lightly risen, bake them in a warm oven; cut into slices ½ in. thick and butter each.
Bride Cake.—Cleanse and dry 2½ lb. currants; stone ½ lb. muscatel raisins; pound ¼ oz. mace, ⅛ oz. cinnamon; scald ¼ lb. sweet almonds, remove skins, and shred; slice up 2 oz. each candied citron, lemon, and orange peel; break 8 new eggs into a basin; sift 1 lb. powdered loaf sugar into 1¼ lb. flour; in a warmed pan beat 1 lb. butter by hand till it melts, then add the sugar and beat again; add ⅕ of the flour, stir, and add nearly half the eggs; beat up, add more flour and remainder of eggs; beat again and stir in rest of flour and currants; next add the raisins, almonds, candied peel, spices, and ½ gill brandy; thoroughly mix; double paper the tin, and bake in a very slow oven.