The royal baker and pastry cook

CAKE BAKING. — For a plain cake made with one pound of flour. Royal Baking Powder, etc., the time to be allowed in baking would be from 40 to 50 minutes ; at the outside not more than 1 hour. Very rich cakes, in which butter and eggs predominate, take, of course, very much longer time to bake, a pound cake taking from IMj to 2 hours, and a bride’s cake 3Mi. On no account should an oven be too hot when the cake is put in — that is, hot enough to brown at once ; if so, in 5 minutes the whole outside will be burned and the interior will stand little chance of being baked. The old plan of feeling the handle of the oven door to test the heat is not always successful ; it is better to sprinkle a little flour inside and shut the door for about 3 minutes ; if at the end of that time it is of a rich light brown, the cake may be put in, but if burned the heat must be lessened. In baking loaf cake, remember that unless you place a piece of paper over for protection at flrst, a top crust will be formed at once that prevents the raising. When cake is well raised, remove the paper for browning on top. ADVICE TO THE COOK. — Great cleanliness, as well as care and attention, are required from a cook. Keep your hands very clean ; try to prevent your nails from getting black or discolored; don’t “scatter” in your kitchen; clean up as you go; put cold water into each saucepan or stewpan as you flnish using it. Dry your saucepans before you put them on the shelf. Scour tins with good mineral soap and rinse thoroughly in hot water. In cleaning a frying-pan, scour the outside as well as the inside. In cleaning greasy utensils, such as the soup- pot and frying-pan, wipe off the worst of the grease with soft paper (which can be burned), then soak in warm water to which soap-powder or a little ammonia has been added, flnishing with mineral soap. Wash your pudding-cloths, scald, and hang them to dry directly after using them ; air them before you put them away, or they will be musty : keep in dry place. Be careful not to use a knife that has cut onions till it has been cleaned. Keep sink and sink-brush very clean ; be careful never to throw anything but water down sink. Do not throw cabbage water down it ; throw it away out of doors ; its smell is very bad. Never have sticky plates or dishes ; use very hot water for washing them ; when greasy, change it. Take care that you look at the meat the butcher brings, to see that it is good. Let there be no waste in the kitchen. Bread and Rolls Bread was first made without leaven, heavy and soUd. Then yeast was dis- covered, and yeast-risen bread came into use throughout the civilized world. Finally baking powder was devised, the most health- fid, economical, and convenient of all leavening or lightening agents. Yeast is a living plant. Mixed with the dough it causes fermentation and destruction of a part of the flour, and this produces car- bonic-acid gas. The bubbles of this gas become entangled in the dough, swelling it up and making it spongy. In this process, however, a part of the most nutritious elements of the flour (estimated at ten per cent.) is destroyed in producing the leavening gas ; there is al- ways danger of sour dough, and there is a delay of many hours for the sponge to rise. Perfect bread is that in which wheat is trans- posed into an available food without loss of any of its valuable properties.