Bread, cakes, and biscuits

Millefeuilles, Gateau (also known as Gateau Milfras). — From some good puff-paste, not too thinly rolled out, cut some rounds, the first the size of a plate, the rest decreasing in size ; place these separately on papered baking tins and bake till lightly coloured and cooked. Now lift out the tins, lay white paper over the rounds, and a lightly weighted iron baking sheet on this and leave till quite cold, when you spread each round with any icing to taste, arranging each on top of the other till you have built them up into a kind of pyramid, put a glace fruit on the apex, and serve when firm. If preferred the rounds may be cut of equal size, and all but the top one spread with a sheet of bavaroise, jelly, Vienna icing, or any filling to taste ; they are then built up as before, the whole cake being iced with any icing you please, and garnished to taste with fruit, nuts, and rosettes of pink and white Vienna icing. Minnehaha Cake (American). — Cream 4oz. of butter with 12oz. caster sugar, then mix in, in alternate spoonfuls, ^lb. of Eureka flour and the stiffly-whipped whites of six eggs ; make it into a light dough with a gill of new milk, and bake in layer tins. When cooked, spread one layer with filling, press the other cake lightly on the top of it, and brush them over with a little sugar syrup into which you have stirred some shredded and blanched nuts. For the filling, boil to a candy £lb. of caster sugar and three tablespoonfuls of water, then mix it with ooz. or 6oz. finely chopped hazel nuts (or almonds) and the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Pain de bière (Swiss). — Put into a pan about lib. of flour, work into this one tablespoonful of brewer’s yeast, previously stirred in a tumblerful of lukewarm milk, one teaspoonful of salt, three eggs, a good ^lb. of butter, 2oz. of currants, loz. of sugar, and 2oz. of coarsely chopped almonds. Knead this dough till all the ingredients are thoroughly well mixed, and stand it in a -warm place to rise. The pan should be covered with a small blanket. When the dough has risen work it again diligently till bubbles appear, and it detaches itself from the sides of the pan ; butter a mould carefully, fill it half full of the dough, and set it to rise till within half an inch of the edge, then put it into an evenly heated oven to bake for at least an hour. When the dough has been put into the mould the latter should be moved about very carefully, as its contents would sink if they were shaken, and would not rise again. The very finest flour should be used for this sort of cake. — Tourtelettes au levain ; Dissolve a teaspoonful of brewer’s yeast in a little warm cream, mix Jib- of butter with a pinch of salt, six eggs, and a tumblerful of cream ; into this work some flour, then add the yeast, and knead in more flour until the paste is of a sufficient consistency to break into small lumps; let it stand a little while only to rise; butter some small moulds, fill them with the paste nearly up to the edge, brush them over with egg, and bake them in a hot oven.