Original White House Cookbook

Cream together two cups of sugar and half a cup of butter ; add half a cup of sweet milk in which is dissolved half a teaspoonful of soda. Beat the whites of six eggs to a stiff froth and add to the mixture. Have one heaping teaspoonful of cream of tartar stirred thoroughly into three cups of sifted flour and add quickly. Bake in a moderate oven in layers like jelly cake, and, when done, spread custard between. For the Custard. — Take two cups of sweet milk, put it into a clean suitable dish, set it in a dish of boiling water on the range or stove. When . 19 the milk comes to a boil add two tablespoonfuls of cornstarch or flour stirred into half a cup of sugar, adding the yolks of four eggs and a little cold milk. Stir this into the boiling milk and when cooked thick enough set aside to cool; afterwards add the flavoring, either vanilla or lemon. It is best to make the custard first, before making the cake part. HICKORY NUT OR WALNUT CAKE. Two CUPS of fine white sugar creamed with half a cup of butter, three eggs, two-thirds of a cup of sweet milk, three cups of sifted flour, one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder sifted through the flour; a tablespoonful (level) of powdered mace, a coffeecup of hickory nut or walnut meats chopped a little. Fill the cake-pans with a layer of the cake, then a layer of raisins upon that, then strew over these a handful of nuts, and so on until the pan is two-thirds full. Line the tins with well-buttered paper and bake in a steady, but not quick, oven. This is most excellent. CHEAP CREAM CAKE. _ One cup of sugar, one egg, one cup sweet milk, two cups flour, one tablespoonful butter, two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder; flavor to taste. Divide into three parts and bake in round shallow pans. Cream. — Beat one egg and one-half cup sugar together, then add onequarter cup flour, wet with a very little milk and stir this mixture into one-half pint of boiling milk, until thick; flavor to taste. Spread the cream when cool between the cakes. SOFT GINGER CAKE. Stir to a cream one cupful of butter and half a cupful of brown sugar; add to this two cupfuls of cooking molasses, a cupful of sweet milk, a tablespoonful of ginger, a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon; beat all thoroughly together, then add three eggs, the whites and yolks beaten separately; beat into this two cups of sifted flour, then a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a spoonful of water and last, two more cupfuls of sifted flour. Butter and paper two common square bread-pans, divide the mixture and pour half into each. Bake in a moderate oven. This cake requires long and slow baking, from forty to sixty minutes. I find that if sour milk is used the cakes are much lighter, but either sweet or sour is most excellent. HARD GINGERBREAD. Made the same as “Soft Gingerbread,” omitting the eggs and mixing hard enough to roll out like biscuit; rolled nearly half an inch thick and cut out like small biscuits, or it can be baked in a sheet or on a biscuittin; cut slits a quarter of an inch deep across the top of the tin from side to side. When baked and while hot, rub over the top with molasses and let it dry on. These two recipes are the best I have ever found among a large variety that I have tried, the ingredients giving the best proportion for flavor and excellence. PLAIN GINGERBREAD.