Bread, cakes, and biscuits

It may be served hot but is prettier cold, when a little rose of stiffly whipped cream is forced out on to every alternate square between the pastry strips, a little cube of currant jelly or a halved crystallised cherry being set on each heap of cream. Apostel Kuchen. — This is an essentially German cake, and, indeed, mostly confined to certain parts of that country. Mix together 6oz. of fine sifted flour with four tablespoonfuls of yeast and about a gill of tepid water. Get this to a fairly firm dough, then cover the pan and set it in a warm place to rise. When it has risen well, work into it lib. 2oz. more flour, 31b. fresh butter (slightly warmed if the weather is cold), the yolks of six eggs, and six whole eggs, with two tablespoonfuls of sugar and a teaspoonful of salt; then knead well, moistening the dough as it stiffens with a little fresh cream. Now turn this dough out on to a pastry board and pull it to pieces, gathering these pieces together again and reworking it, kneading it well till it forms a smooth dough free from any lumps. Roll this dough then into a ball, wrap it in a floured cloth, and leave it all night in a cool place or in the cellar. It should have risen to nearly twice its original size before it is used. Now put it on the board, nip off a small piece to form a kind of central knob or flower, and shape the rest of the dough with your hands, giving it a sort of twist as you do so, into a round and fix the knob in the centre. This cake should rise slightly towards the centre in the outer twist. Now put the cake on a well-buttered tin, draw some lines or patterns on it with the point of a knife from the sides to the centre, brush it well over with yolk of egg, and bake in a sharp oven. These cakes require quick, sharp baking, and the least slackness in the oven will make them heavy and sad. Baba. — Prepare a dough for this with lib. of flour, lOoz. of butter, 2oz. of caster sugar, loz. German yeast, eight eggs, and a teaspoonful of salt, setting a sponge and working it up precisely as for brioche paste, until the dough and the sponge are thoroughly mixed together. Then work into it ooz. carefully stoned Muscatel raisins, loz. finely shredded candied peel (citron is best), half a gill of either brandy or rum, and a pinch of saffron previously infused in half a gill of boiling water. Mix all these ingredients thoroughly into the dough ; then butter a mould well, half fill it with the dough, and set it in a moderately warm place to rise till it reaches fully up to the top of the mould, baking it to a nice golden colour in a moderately hot oven. Turn it out and serve. If preferred, the spirit may be omitted altogether or replaced by liqueur syrup. Abroad, a baba is usually served as a dinner sweet, and is sent to table hot with a rich jam sauce, or a fruit or liqueur syrup poured over it. It is of Polish origin, and is the same class of cake as a savarin, or brioche.