Foods and home making

What is the conventional method of mixing cake ? For many years, housekeepers have believed that a cake should be mixed in a very different way from muffins. It has been proved that cake of finer and more even grain can be made by first creaming the fat, then adding the sugar and continuing the creaming. 556 Hospitality The method of cake mixing in which the fat and sugar are creamed is known as the conventional method of mixing cake. This method requires about twice as much time as the muffin method. In the conventional method of mixing cake, all the sugar is mixed with the shortening. Some recent experiments have shown that the volume of a cake is increased by reserving \ cup of sugar 1 to fold into the beaten egg whites and mixing the re- maining sugar with the shortening. This method has two ad- vantages: (i) mixing sugar with egg whites makes the egg-white mixture more stable, and less air is lost when the mixture is folded into the other ingredients; (2) since the quantity of sugar mixed with the shortening is reduced, the mixture can be creamed more thoroughly in less time. The revised conventional method of mixing cake is: Cream the fat by working it and beating it with a wooden spoon until it is very soft and pliable. Reserve * cup sugar to mix with egg whites. Add the remainder of sugar to the shortening. Continue the beating until the sugar and fat are so thoroughly blended that you cannot see the sugar grains. Separate the eggs and beat each part separately. (Let the egg whites stand at room temperature before beating so they will beat better.) Add the beaten egg yolks to the creamed sugar and fat. Beat until well blended. Mix the flour and other dry ingredients. Sift a part of this mixture into the sugar mixture. Then add some milk. Continue adding alter- nately dry ingredients and moisture until all are added. Add the flavor- ing. Beat after each addition until all ingredients are well blended. Beat the egg whites stiff, but not dry. Add the reserved sugar. Beat until blended. Fold this into the flour mixture. Pour at once into greased pans, and bake. How can different kinds of cake be made? If you can make a plain, standard, butter cake well, there is no reason why you can- not make many other kinds of cakes. 1 One-fourth cup of sugar reserved for beaten egg whites is satisfactory for cakes containing no more than 4 or 5 eggs. If a recipe requires more eggs, reserve ap- proximately 2 tablespoons sugar for each egg white. Cakes 557 Here are recipes for a standard cake and cakes based on the standard cake. | cup shortening lj cups sugar 2 eggs 1 cup milk STANDARD CAKE 2\ cups sifted cake flour 1 2 or 3 teaspoons baking powder 2 § teaspoon salt 1| teaspoons vanilla extract WHITE CAKE \ cup butter 1\ cups sugar | cup water 2| cups sifted cake flour 1 2 or 2f teaspoons baking powder 2 \ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract \ teaspoon almond extract 4 egg whites \ teaspoon cream of tartar White cake is made by using only egg whites instead of whole eggs. The other ingredients are mixed in the same way as when whole eggs are used. The cream of tartar should be beaten with the egg whites. After beating the latter, add \ cup sugar reserved for the whites. The stiffly beaten whites are always folded into the mixture after all the other ingredients are mixed. SPICE CAKE