A text-book of cooking

The Ingredients of a Cake Containing Fat. — Materials of the best quality should be used for cakes. Pastry flour and the finest granulated sugar are necessary ingredients. In determining the kind of fat to use in a cake, one should consider all of the ingredients in a recipe, and then decide which one will give the most pronounced flavor to the combined materials. If the butter is the predominating flavoring ingredient in cakes containing fat (as in Pound Cake) the best quality of table butter should be used. Oleomargarine, tried-out chicken fat, suet, lard, or vegetable fat, in combination with butter or other fats, may be used for spice cakes or highly flavored cakes. Cake is one of the foods whose ingredients require the greatest accuracy and care in measuring. The fat for cake can be more easily and accurately weighed than measured. Preparing the Pans for Cakes Containing Fat. — The pans for cakes that contain fat should be well oiled. It is well to line the pans with paper and to oil the paper thoroughly, or to oil the pans well and to sprinkle a little flour over them before adding the cake batter. Baking Layer and Loaf Cakes. — If a bit of flour or white paper is delicately browned after being placed for 2 minutes in the oven, the oven is of proper temperature for layer cakes containing fat. For a loaf cake the oven should be cooler, since a longer time for baking is required. It is especially important that a crust does not form over the top of a cake before the cake has risen, or before it has been in the oven one fourth of the time required. (See Baking Sponge Cakes, p. 240.) To avoid this, the temperature of the oven should be quite low when a thick loaf cake is first placed in it. Some housekeepers find it most satisfactory to cover the top of a pan containing loaf cake with paper until the cake has risen. In general, layer cakes require 15 to 20 minutes for baking and loaf cakes from 40 minutes to 1\ hours. In 1 minute after taking from the oven, cake containing fat should be removed from the pan, and placed on a wire cake cooler until cold. The cake may be placed on a towel or cloth instead of on a cake cooler. Score Card for Cake, — Determining its Quality Flavor 40 Lightness 20 Grain and texture 16 Baking (crust and color) 16 Appearance (shape and icing) _10 Total 100 How should cake batter be spread in the pan to prevent it from rising higher in the center than at the edges ? What is the purpose of placing the warm cake on a cake cooler or on a cloth ? Mention some substitute other than a cloth for a wire cake cooler. Why not place the warm cake inverted on the cake cooler ? Explain why a hot cake should not be placed in a cool place or in a draft. Why store a cake in a tightly covered tin box ? Give two reasons for the cracking of the crust of a cake. What is the effect of using too much fat in a cake ? Too much sugar ? Too much moisture ? LESSON LXXXIII Cake Containing Fat: Modifications op Plain Cake, — White Cake The " Conventional " method of mixing cake is as follows : Cream the butter; then gradually add the sugar. Cream the mixture. Add egg yolks that have been beaten until light. Add the flavoring. Then add some of the milk and part of the dry ingredients. Repeat until all the milk and dry ingredients have been added. Beat the mixture thoroughly. Cut and fold in the whites of the eggs quickly ; then turn into oiled pans. STANDARD CAKE RECIPE 4 to 6 ounces fat 3 cupf uls flour 1 cupful milk or water 4 eggs 2 cupfuls sugar 4 teaspoonf uls baking powder ' 2 teaspoonfuls spice or 1 teaspoonful flavoring Mix according to general directions. (See Method of Mixing Cake Containing Fat, p. 242.) This is an adaptation of an old cake recipe, — " 1, 2, 3, 4 cake." WHITE CAKE