Cooking and castle-building

of butter on each cake, and when turned, press it gently in the centre to flatten the rounded surface, and bring the cake close to the griddle at the edges. These cakes should be an inch thick ; and they require half an hour to bake, The heat must, of course, be moderate, and the cakes may be turned several times if necessary. After being turned .on the griddle and browned on both sides, they can be transferred to a pan and a hot oven, to finish baking ; or they can be baked altogether in a hot oven, if desirable. Although these dodgers are very good baked in this manner for only thirty or forty minutes, they are much better when baked a longer time. An hour's baking in a moderate oven gives them a crisp sweetness, quite irresistible to lovers of corn-bread; and when properly made and baked, they are such delicious breakfast-cakes that I do not wonder one accustomed to them, turns in disgust from the messes often presented under the name of cornbread, in which grease and soda bear so prominent a part, that the stuff smells and tastes like soap, " Corn-muffins are very fine, made in this way : To a quart of corn meal add an ounce of butter, a teaspoonful of sugar, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Scald with boiling water, pouring the water on slowly, and stirring the mixture until all the meal is moistened. When cool, add the yolks of three eggs, and beat well through the dough ; then add cold, sweet milk, a small portion at a time, beating thoroughly, until the batter is of proper thickness. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, and add half at a time, alternating with a measure of baking-powder mixed with a small quantity of meal. Bake in muffin-rings, gem cups, or shallow pans, in a quick oven. Made a little thinner, this batter may be baked upon the griddle as thin griddlecakes, — although the Southern griddle-cakes, or *slappers,' as the colored people call them, are made in a somewhat different manner. I stood by Aunt Nancy, a colored woman, who made them deliciously, and saw just how she did it. She put a quart of meal in a bowl, and in the centre made a nest or hole, into which she dropped a lump of lard as large as a hickory nut, a pinch of salt, and a small teaspoonful of sugar. Then she poured boiling water on slowly stirring the meal until all was moistened, when, pressing it compactly together in the bottom of the bowl, she * lef it to swell, honey,' while she brought out the griddle and greaser, and got things ready for the baking. This done, she returned to the cakes, and having ascertained that the dough was not too warm, she broke into it three eggs, stirring them briskly, with a spoonful or two of cold milk, through the dough. From time to time she added cold milk in small quantities, continuing the stirring until the batter was quite thin, when she announced, — " 'Dem's done ready, now, miss.' " " * But you've forgotten the soda, Aunt Nancy,'" I said. "'Forgot de sody,' she repeated, with infinite disgust, ' what for should I go spile dem slappers with sody?'"