Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

Macaroni Cheese. — This is a very nice savoury dish (Miss Le Sueur’s recipe). Pour boiling water on 2 ozs. macaroni. Let it soak for half-an-hour. Set a pint of milk to boil, and stir into it gently the soaked macaroni, letting it boil till the macaroni is soft and all the milk is absorbed. Then stir in 3 ozs. grated cheese, some cayenne pepper, mustard, and oz. or more of butter. Put it into a piedish, sprinkle grated cheese over all, and bake a light brown. Serve very hot. Scones. — Take lb. self-raising flour, ^ tablespoonful of sugar, 2 ozs. or less of butter, and a pinch of salt. Rub the flour and butter well together, then mix with a knife into half a cup of cold water. If you can spare milk use that instead, and in that case you will want less butter. Beat well with a knife for a few minutes, and roll out and stamp into round shape with a wineglass. Put them on to baking-tins and bake in a warm oven as for pastry. (The proper thing for baking scones is a “ girdle,” i. e. a round, flat sheet of iron with a handle from side to side like a kettle’s to hang over an open fire.) Swiss Roll, No. 1. — As we had promised two Swiss rolls, we took a different recipe for each. No. i (Mrs. Brook- Smith’s) was as follows. Ingredients — I tumbler flour. 1 tumbler white rolled sugar, tumbler milk, 2 eggs. ^ teaspoonful soda. I teaspoonful cream of tartar. Beat up the sugar and eggs together, then add the flour, SWISS ROLL. LADY CAKE A^^g. mix the soda and cream of tartar in the milk and add it quickly to the flour. Bake in a buttered tin fifteen minutes. Sugar the baking-board. Then turn it out, spread it quickly with jam and roll up quickly. It keeps its shape if rolled up when hot. Swiss Roll, No. 2. — hor the other one you want 3 eggs, 3 ozs. flour, and the same of rolled sugar, i teaspoonful baking-powder. Beat the eggs and sugar together, then mix the flour with the baking-powder and add to it. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking-dish and bake eight or ten minutes. Turn out on a sugared board, spread with any kind of jam and roll quickly into shape. August 10. Lady Cake. — Lady cake is an American recipe (Mrs. Mitchell’s) for a very excellent cake, and requires lb. butter, f lb. rolled white sugar, i lb. selfraising flour, the whites of 4 eggs, and i cup of lukewarm water ; a lemon. (But if you are out of self-raising flour use ordinary flour, but add 2 teaspoonfuls Royal bakingpowder, this latter to be added just before the last whites of eggs are put in.) Beat the butter to a cream and gradually add the sugar, then, slowly beating all the time, add the cup of lukewarm water ; then take half the quantity of flour and stir it in, beating vigorously. Meanwhile the whites of the 4 eggs have been beaten to a stiff froth, and half of them is now added to the butter, after that the remaining half of the flour, the juice and grated rind of a lemon, and lastly the rest of the whites of the eggs. Stir all well and bake in a moderately warm oven. Atigust 13.— Orange Jelly.— This and the following orange recipe were both German (Mrs. Carl Becker’s recipes) ; and Aug. ORANGE JELLY. FAIRY CREAM as oranges are still too acid to be really enjoyable uncooked, one is very glad to have both these recipes.