Bread, cakes, and biscuits

made thus : Mix lib. 4oz. of finely chopped or ground almonds with 2lb. finest icing sugar, and mix it to a smooth paste with the whites of four eggs and a wineglassful of rum ; if preferred, a spoonful of essence of vanilla or of lemon, and two or three more whites of egg, may be used instead of the rum. Roll this out, dusting the board and the rolling pin with rice flour or crème de riz. Place this mixture on the cake, pressing it into position, and, when set and firm, cover it and the sides of the cake thickly with royal icing, made thus: Put the whites of four or five eggs to lib. 4oz. of finest icing sugar and a little lemon juice, and work it to a smooth thick paste with a clean wooden spoon (it will take fully twenty minutes to mix), then spread it evenly over the cake with a palette knife dipped occasionally into cold water. Ornament to taste with flowers, figures, &c. Cake, An Excellent Yeast. — (To be made a fortnight before required for use, and kept wrapped in paper in airtight tins.) 61b. of flour, l|lb. of butter and beef dripping, 2£lb. of currants and raisins, or stoned raisins alone, 141b. of brown sugar, lib. of candied peel sliced very finely, a few carraway seeds, two nutmegs grated, a teaspoonful of mixed spice, one of ginger, and one of salt, four eggs, a quart of lukewarm milk, and 2oz. best German yeast. Rub the butter and the dry ingredients, spices, &c., into the flour ; make a well in the centre, in which set a sponge of the yeast and a gill of the milk. When the sponge has risen make up the cake with the rest of the milk and the eggs, and knead the dough vigorously for twenty minutes ; set it to rise in a warm place for three or four hours, in which time it should have become trebled in amount, then make up into loaves and bake in buttered tins. The oven should be rather hot to begin with, lowering the heat when the cakes have risen up and taken colour. They will require very thorough baking — towards an hour and a half. This should yield 14lb. or 15lb of cake. Cakes, Yule. — Dissolve Aoz. of German yeast in a pint of warm water, work it into 21b. of sifted flour till it is a smooth paste. Let this stand covered up for an hour or two to rise. Then work into it lib of creamed butter, lib. of sugar, a grated nutmeg, 8oz. finely shred mixed candied peel, l£lb. carefully stoned muscatel raisins, some shred almonds, and four eggs. Butter a large tin mould, half fill it with the mixture, and bake about three and a half hours. Turn it out of the mould to cool. This cake should be tested with the wooden skewex-, as one cannot always depend on the time it will take to bake. CHAPTER V.