Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

Mix dry ingredients first. Then beat up the egg, but do not mix with it all the milk at once, but add as you require it. Put in a pan pieces the size of a walnut ; bake in a quick oven. 25.— Christmas Day.— A happy, bright Christmas to friends near and far ! To some of my dear friends in England I shall send by post a bouquet of our Cape wild flowers dried. Dried Flowers.— Heaths and other Cape flowers are most successfully dried by flattening the flower between the pages of an old folio, putting silver- or tissue-paper over the flowers you are pressing, and over that small pieces of absorbent cotton-wool ■ this prevents the flower from being pressed out of shape, and absorbs all the moisture, and so drying it in a few days, the colours are preserved and it is much less trouble, there being no need of changing the flowers more than once. Tie the folio or volume, in which you are pressing your flowers, with a string, and put them under a slight weight, or press. The flowers dry sooner if the books are put out into the sun, and, in winter, before the fire. Where the flowers grow in a cluster, carefully take them from the stalks and press singly, and when you arrange on cardboard the flowers you have taken off to dry, put on the stalk again with “ stickfast,’' which we find the best adhesive for gumming on the dried flowers. Pommes a la Russe. — Take any kind of stewing or dessert apple, peel and core well * fill the hollow with mince-meat, made as for mince-pies ; have ready a syrup made of a cup of sugar to a cup of water. When boiling, put in the apples, Dec. TWO PUDDINGS. RAISIN BREAD and boil till clear ; take care that the syrup only comes up to the apples and does not cover. May be eaten hot or cold. December 27. — I find I have six or seven good recipes waiting to be entered in my Diary, and we shall be glad of all for our Christmas gatherings, so I must write them down as fast as possible. Ginger Pudding (Mrs. Eksteen’s). — ^ lb. chopped suet. I lb. sugar. 1 lb. flour. I large teaspoonful of ground ginger. Half a cup of milk. 1 egg. Stir all well together ; boil for two hours in a mould. Serve with any fruit sauce or custard. Cold Water Pudding (Miss Cartwright’s). — 2 ozs. fresh butter. 1 lb. sifted sugar. 3 oi‘ 4 eggs. 1 lemon. 8 tablespoonfuls of cold water. Beat the butter to a cream ; add the yolks of the eggs, then the sugar and water, the juice of the lemon and grated rind; beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth to add last, and beat all well together, and bake in a small pudding-dish, in a slow oven, for half-an-hour or more, and serve quickly. Raisin Bread (Miss Cartwright’s). — 2 lbs. flour. I lb. sugar. f lb. raisins. Some cinnamon, ground. TEA CAKES. COCOANUT BISCUITS Dec. Grated nutmeg, and a spoonful of crushed anise-seed. A tablespoonful of baking-powder (self-raising flour may be used). 3 ozs. butter (or 2 ozs. butter and i oz. ox-marrow). Mix as you would scones or bread with milk ; if wanted very nice, add two or three eggs. Roll into loaves, and bake in a quick oven for an hour. This quantity will make two good loaves. Very nice for luncheon or tea with butter. Tea Cakes (Miss Becker’s, a German recipe). — f lb. butter, stirred to a cream. 6 ozs. fine sugar. I egg. I lb. flour. Vanilla or lemon flavouring.