CAKES

Old Style

The very queen among cake makers sums her secret of success in a sentence: "The best of everything." Cake will never be better than the things whereof it is made, no matter how skilled the maker. But it can be, and too often is, dismally worse, thus involving a waste of heaven's good gifts of sugar, butter, eggs, flour and flavors. Having the best at hand, use it well. Isaac Walton's direction for the bait, "Use them as though you loved them," applies here as many otherwheres. Unless you love cake-making, not perhaps the work, but the results, you will never excell greatly in the fine art. Better buy your cake, or hire the making thereof, else swap work with some other person better gifted in this special branch.

Here are a few cardinal helps. Have the eggs very cold, butter soft but not oily, flour dry and light - sun or oven-dry it in muggy weather. Sift it three times for ordinary cakes, twice for tea cakes, and so on, four to five times for very light things, sponge cake, angel's food, and measure it before sifting, and don't forget the needed amount - then you will be in no danger of putting in too much or too little. Always put a pinch of fine salt in the bottom of the mixing bowl, which ought to be freshly scalded and wiped very dry. A damp bowl clogs with either sugar or flour, making the stirring much harder. Unless specifically directed otherwise, separate the eggs, set the whites on ice till time to whip them, beat the yolks very, very light - to a pale, frothy yellow, add the sugar, free of lumps, a cupful at a time, then the butter washed and beaten to a creamy froth, beat hard together for five minutes, then add alternately the flour and the egg-whites beaten to the stiffest possible froth. Add a pinch of salt as beating begins, and if the egg supply is scant, a teaspoonful of cold water to each white. This will increase the quantity, and help to make the cake lighter, as it is the air-bubbles imprisoned in the froth which give it its raising virtue. Add fruit and flavoring last thing. Fruit should be well floured but never clotted. If batter appears to be too stiff a little whiskey thins it excellently, and helps to make it lighter. Put in two tablespoonfuls to six eggs, using more in proportion. Rose water or a liqueur have the same effect but give their own flavor - which whiskey does not.

If strong butter needs must be used, it can be mitigated to a degree, by washing and kneading well in cold water barely dashed with chloride of lime solution, then rinsing well in cold water, and afterward in sweet milk. The milk may be half water. Rinse it out clean. Let the butter soften well before undertaking to cream it. A stout, blunt wooden spoon is the best for creaming, along with a deep bowl very narrow at the bottom. Grease deep cake tins plentifully, with either lard or butter - using only the best. For heavy cakes such as fruit, spice and marble cake, line them with double thicknesses of buttered paper and either set shallow pans of water in the oven while baking or stand the pans themselves in other pans with a quarter inch of water in the bottoms. If cakes brown too fast, open the oven door, a trifle, and lay over the pan a thick, well buttered paper until the oven cools. Never jar the oven while cake is baking in it - neither by banging the doors, nor dumping heavy vessels on top of it. Beware likewise slamming kitchen doors, or bumping things about in the room. Fine cake demands as many virtues of omission as of commission. Indeed the don'ts are as essential as the doings.

Layer cakes need to be mixed thinner than deep ones. The batter must run freely. Half fill the tins and set in a hot oven, taking care not to scorch before rising is finished. Butter tins very freely - it is economy in the end. Be sure the tins sit level in the oven - thus you escape an ungainly final loaf. Get filling ready as baking goes forward so as to put your layers together while still warm and pliable. Let cool before frosting, so as to trim sides smooth. Take care fillings are not too watery, also that they are mixed smooth. Spread evenly, and press down a layer firmly all over, before putting filling on top. Layers simplify greatly the problem of baking, but to my mind, no layer cake, not even the famous Lady Baltimore, is equal to a fine deep loaf, well frosted, and meltingly rich throughout.

Fruit Cake

Most ladies think fruit cake quite incomplete without wine or brandy, but it can be made equally good on strictly temperance principles, by substituting one-third of a cup of molasses for a wine-glass of brandy.
To facilitate the operation of seeding raisins, pour boiling-water on a few at a time. This will not injure the fruit or cake. To seed, clip with the scissors, or cut with a sharp knife. Do not chop too fine; if for light fruit cake, seeding is all that is necessary. Slice the citron thin, and do not have the pieces too large, or they will cause the cake to break apart in cutting.

Currants should be kept prepared for use as follows: Wash in warm water, rubbing well, pour off water, and repeat until the water is clear; drain them in a sieve, spread on a cloth and rub dry; pick out bad ones, dry carefully in a cool oven, and set away for use. When the fruit is all mixed, cream the butter and sugar - this is very important in all cakes - add the spices, molasses, or liquors, then the milk (if any is used), next the eggs well beaten, adding whites with the flour as previously directed. Always beat whites and yolks separately if many eggs are used, but if only a few, it is just as well to beat both together. Next add the flour (which in making black fruit cake may be browned), prepared with baking-powder or soda and cream tartar, then the flavoring (if any is used), and lastly the fruit dredged with a very little flour.
Some prefer to mix the fruit with all the flour.

In making very large cakes that require three or four hours to bake, an excellent way for lining the pan is the following: Fit three papers carefully, grease thoroughly, make a paste of equal parts Graham and fine flour wet with water just stiff enough to spread easily with a spoon, place the first paper in the pan with the greased side down, and spread the paste evenly over the paper about as thick as pie-crust. In covering the sides of the pan, use a little paste to stick a portion of the paper to the top of the pan to keep it from slipping out of place, press the second paper carefully into its place with the greased side up, and next put in the third paper as you would into any baking-pan, and pour in the cake. Earthen pans are used by some, as they do not heat so quickly, and are less liable to burn the cake.

All except layer cakes should be covered with a paper cap when first put into the oven. Take a square of brown paper large enough to cover well the cake-pan, cut off the corners, and lay a plait on four sides, fastening each with a pin so as to fit nicely over the pan. This will throw it up in the center, so that the cover will not touch the cake. Save the cap, as it can be used several times.

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