Bread, cakes, and biscuits

Cake, French. — Whip ten eggs to a good froth, then stir in carefully ½lb. sugar, 1oz. finely shred orange peel, 4oz. fine sifted flour, and half a gill of rose or orange flower water ; put it into a well buttered flan tin or mould, and bake in a cool oven. When cold ice with chocolate glace, edge with rosettes of pink and white Vienna icing, and sprinkle lightly with crystallised rose or orange flowers. Fruit Shortcake. — Sift together three heaped teaspoonfuls of baking powder with one quart of flour (or the Eureka flour may be used instead with capital results), and rub into it 1oz. of butter. Work this to a paste with one pint of milk, but do not attempt to roll it (it should be softer than ordinary pie-crust) with a rolling pin, just pat it out with the palm of your hands on the baking tins, to the depth of about an inch. Bake slowly till the cakes begin to rise, then increase the heat. When cooked split the cakes, and butter them generously while hot, and cover with fresh or canned fruit previously marinaded for an hour in a little lemon juice and sugar ; put the cakes together again, and serve at once. If preferred, omit the butter and spread the cakes with the fruit mashed with thick cream. Strawberries bottled in syrup, or canned apricots or peaches, are particularly good prepared in the latter way. Cake, Genoa. — Work 1lb. of butter to a cream with 1lb. of caster sugar ; then work in lightly, but thoroughly, 1lb. and 2oz. of eggs (weigh these, as this ensures greater certainty as to the proportions), mixing in one or two at a time, for if you add too many at a time they would very probably go thin suddenly and curdle as you beat them up. When the eggs, butter, and sugar are thoroughly mixed, work in gradually 1lb. 2oz. of flour, 1½lb. currants, ½lb. sultanas, and about 10oz. of shred lemon peel. Put the mixture into an ordinary round cake tin, and just before putting it into the oven strew 4oz. of shred almonds on the top. Bake in a slow oven. This will make about 61b. of cake. Bakers often use long oblong tins for this cake when they sell it by the pound, but for ordinary rase the common round tin is the best. Cake, Gingerbread. — 1lb. flour, one teaspoonful ground ginger, and one teaspoonful of baking powder, well sifted together ; warm together 1lb. golden syrup and 4oz. clarified dripping, and work it into the flour, &c., adding one egg and about a tablespoonful of milk at the end. Bake in two flat tins for about one hour in a moderate oven. Ormskirk. — ½lb. of flour, 4oz. each of butter, caster sugar, and golden syrup, 4oz. shred candied peel, ½oz. powdered ginger, quarter of a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, the same of essence of lemon ; mix together all the dry ingredients, then rub in the butter, and make it to a stiff paste with the golden syrup, previously warmed and flavoured with the essence of lemon. Boll it out very thin, cut it out with an oval cutter, place the biscuits on a floured tin, and bake to a nice pale brown in a moderate oven. Or : Rub 1½oz. of butter into 4lb. of flour, then stir in 1lb. of treacle, 3lb. of sugar, four well-beaten eggs, and ginger and shred candied peel to taste. Boll this out thin, and cut into fingers with a knife. Ginger, without Treacle. — Use any plain recipe