The Landmarks club cook book

Cake is a mixture of part or all of the following materials : Eggs, sugar or molasses, flour, butter or cream, milk or water, fruit, soda, cream of tartar, spices, etc. An analysis of the hundreds of receipts given in the books would show that the general principles involved may be included under two divisions, namely, receipts for sponge cakes, made without butter; and receipts for pound or cup cakes, made with butter. Sponge cakes are made rich with eggs, the lightness depending wholly upon the amount of air beaten into the egg; or an inferior quality is made by substituting soda and cream of tartar (or baking powder) for part of the eggs, and adding more flour and milk or water. They vary in color according as the white or yolk of the egg is used. Butter cakes are varied in the same way, and also by the addition of fruit, or spices, or various coloring and flavoring materials. There is no one department in cooking where so much depends upon the baking as in making cake. The fire should be steady and not too strong. In many coal stoves it is exceedingly difficult to bake cake by a morning fire, as so much coal is put on that the fire is too hot, and cannot be checked sufficiently. The oven should be less hot than for bread. Thin cakes require a hotter oven than those baked in thick loaves. If the oven be not hot enough at first, or be cooled too suddenly during the baking, the cake will not be light. Cakes with molasses in them burn more quickly than others. Thin cakes should bake from fifteen to twenty minutes ; thicker cakes from thirty to forty minutes ; very thick loaves about an hour, and fruit cake from two to three hours. Whichever kind you are baking, divide the time into quarters. During the first quarter the heat is not manifested in appearance, except by the rising; during the second the cake should continue to rise and begin to brown ; then it should become all over a rich golden brown; and in the last quarter it should settle a little; brown in the cracks, and shrink from the pan. Be careful not to take it out too soon. If necessary to move it, do it very gently, and never move it when it has risen to the full height, but is not yet browned or fixed in its shape. If cake brown before rising, the oven is too hot. When it rises more in the center, cracks open, and stays up, it is too stiff with flour. It should rise first on the edges, then in the middle, crack slightly, settle to a level again, when the cracks usually come together. Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book. TEST FOR OVEN. The following test for heating the oven is given by Miss Parloa : Put in a piece of white paper. If at the end of five minutes the paper is a rich yellow color, the oven is right for sponge cake ; if light yellow, it is too cool ; if dark brown, it is too hot. For pound or butter cakes it should be light yellow at the end of five minutes. For gingerbreads and thin rolled cakes it should be dark brown. CELIA THAXTER CAKE.