Original White House Cookbook

Three eggs, one cupful of sugar, two of flour, one tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful, heaped, of baking powder. Beat the butter and sugar together and add the eggs well beaten. Stir in the flour and baking powder well sifted together. Bake in deep tin plate. This quantity will fill four plates. With three pints of strawberries mix a cupful of sugar and mash them a little. Spread the fruit between the layers of cake. The top layer of strawberries may be covered with a meringue made with the white of an egg and a tablespoonful of powdered sugar. Save out the largest berries and arrange them around in circles on the top in the white frosting. Makes a very fancy dish, as well as a most delicious cake. MOLASSES CUP CAKES. One cupful of butter, one of sugar, six eggs, five cupfuls of sifted flour, one tablespoonful of cinnamon, two tablespoonfuls of ginger, three teacupfuls of cooking molasses and one heaping teaspoonful of soda. Stir the butter and sugar to a cream; beat the eggs very light, the yolks and whites separately, and add to it; after which put in the spices; then the molasses and flour in rotation, stirring the mixture all the time; beat the whole well before adding the soda and but little afterwards. Put into well-buttered patty-pan tins and bake in a very moderate oven. A baker’s recipe. BAKERS’ GINGER SNAPS. Boil all together the following ingredients: Two cups of brown sugar, two cups of cooking molasses, one cup of shortening, which should be part butter, one large tablespoonful of ginger, one tablespoonful of ground cinnamon, one teaspoonful of cloves; remove from the fire and let it cool. In the meantime, sift four cups of flour and stir part of it into the above mixture. Now dissolve a teaspoonful of soda in a tablespoonful of warm water and beat into this mixture, stir in the remainder of the flour and make stiff enough to roll into long rolls about an inch in diameter, and cut off from the end into half-inch pieces. Place them on well-buttered tins, giving plenty of room to spread. Bake in a moderate oven. Let them cool before taking out of the tins. GINGER COOKIES. One cup sugar, one cup molasses, one cup butter, one egg, one tablespoonful vinegar, one tablespoonful ginger, one teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water, mix like cooky dough, rather soft. GINGER SNAPS. One cup brown sugar, two cups molasses, one large cup butter, two teaspoonfuls soda, two teaspoonfuls ginger, three pints flour to commence with ; rub shortening and sugar together into the flour ; add enough more flour to roll very smooth, very thin, and bake in a quick oven. The dough can be kept for days by putting it in the flour barrel under the flour, and bake a few at a time. The more flour that can be worked in and the smoother they can be rolled, the better and more brittle they will be. Should be rolled out to wafer-like thinness. Bake quickly without burning. They should become perfectly cold before putting aside. DOMINOES. Have a plain cake baked in rather thin sheets and cut into small oblong pieces the size and shape of a domino, a trifle larger. Frost the top and sides. When the frosting is hard, draw the black lines and make the dots with a small brush dipped in melted chocolate. These are very nice for children’s parties. FANCY CAKES.