Bread, cakes, and biscuits

When baking powder is used, be sure to have the best. There are many kinds in the market, and unfortunately there are many qualities. Choose a good maker, such as Borwick, Cowan, &c., and stick to that. Only remember it must be kept in an airtight tin, in a dry place, for if it once gets damp it is done for. If you do not feel sure of getting good fresh baking powder, make it yourself. The proportions are lOoz. finest ground rice, 9oz. bicarbonate of soda, and 8oz. tartaric acid. Buy these ingredients and keep them separate, in tightly stoppered bottles, and mix as required. They keep much better separate than when mixed. To test baking powder, mix a little with a drop or two of water ; if it effervesces it is good, but is spoilt if it does not bubble up. With regard to the oven, it must be remembered that it should be hot at first and allowed to get cooler later on, when the cakes have risen. An oven that is too hot is better than one that is too cold certainly ; still, it is best to try and get it right before trusting the cake to it. Ovens require study, for they vary greatly from all sorts of causes, and, unless watched, this varying will spoil the cake. Large ovens, brick ones especially, are the most reliable, small iron ones vary most. Remember, with these latter the very putting in of a large cake will alter the temperature of the oven perceptibly, and so will the mere opening of the door. Sponge cake and gingerbread are especially liable to suffer from this. Indeed, the former resents the very shutting of the door, and, if it is slammed, the cake inside is pretty sure to be deteriorated. Again, some ovens are apt to burn at the bottom, in which case stand your cake tin on two pieces of firewood, or even a little trivet, being careful to paper the mould well. Others, again, burn at the top, in which case a covering of buttered paper is indispensable to the cake. By the bye, one way in which cooks sometimes spoil their cakes is this : In their anxiety to have the oven right they overheat it ; then the cake begins to burn ; they rush to the oven, lift out the cake, and set it on the floor, when the sudden change of temperature at once causes the cake to fall, never to rise properly again. It is wonderful on what minutiae success in cake-making depends — almost enough to make one share most cooks’ belief that the oven is possessed by a spirit, on whose whims the baking depends. The real spirit, however, is the cook’s temperament and the state of the weather. It is not always easy, or even advisable, in many cases to give the exact time cakes will take to bake, as this will vary from many causes ; therefore, the best way is always to test your cake before removing it from the oven. For this purpose take a long thin wooden skewer, and run it down right to the centre of the cake. If it comes out dry and clean the cake is done ; if, on the contrary, it sticks and is wet, the cake needs longer baking. Some people use a knife for this purpose, but this is not to be recommended, as with some cakes the mere touch of the knife is sufficient to “ sadden ” them.