Ingredients.—1½ lb. flour, 1 lb. dripping, ¾ lb. currants, ¾ lb. raisins, 1 lb. sugar, 1 dessertspoonful of baking powder, 5 eggs, ½ gill of milk.
Method.—Work the dripping to a cream; work in the sugar and cream that; beat in the eggs one by one, putting a little flour with each to prevent their curdling; stir in the currants, washed, dried and floured, and the raisins, stoned and chopped; mix in the flour and baking powder, and lastly the milk. Bake about two hours.
This cake was baked in a good hot oven, in a tin lined with greased paper and standing on a baking-sheet spread with a thick layer of sand.
Jane left it in her class-room on a sieve all night, and brought it home the next day when it was cold; and she and Ada packed it up and sent it to Basil at Oundle, where it was received with much rejoicing, and where it soon disappeared.
“It is just this, you know,” said Jane meditatively, as she curled herself up in the armchair, one evening after dinner. “It is just this. I expect people are making jokes about our housekeeping and wondering how we are getting on.”
“I daresay they are, my dear,” remarked Marion with equanimity, as she looked up from her lace-work.
“No doubt many of our acquaintances are quite confident that we live chiefly on bread and dripping, with cold porridge as an occasional variation,” said Ada, “but don’t let that fact worry you, Jane. Think of the delicious soup we have just had and be thankful.”
“Oh, I would not care if they did say so, of course. But don’t you think it would be quite delicious to give a little luncheon party and ask——”
“A very good idea, Jennie,” broke in Marion. “Certainly we will have a luncheon party, but it must be on a Saturday, so that you can help me to cook.”
“We will ask Julia and Mary Holmes, then,” said Ada, “I have not seen them for an age, and I know they would like to know how we are getting on.”