Handbook of practical cookery

Place the sugar in a large bowl, add to it the butter, and beat both to a cream. Stir into this cream the flour and the beaten eggs, pouring each in in alternate small portions, until all is well beaten together. Add to the mixture the grated lemon rind, the salt and brandy, stir these until thoroughly blended, when, greasing a cake tin, pour into it the cake batter, and placing this in a moderate oven, bake the cake for one hour and threequarters. When done, place the cake immediately upon a sieve to cool. Sponge Cake. — Three tea-cupfuls of sugar, three tea-cupfuls of flour, ten eggs, rind of one lemon, one tablespoonful of lemon-juice. Put the sugar into a mixing-bowl, and separating the yolks from the whites of the eggs, place the whites upon a plate and drop the yolks one by one into the sugar, and beat these together for half an hour. Whip the whites of eggs to a stiff froth, and stir this in with the contents of the mixing-bowl. Add to the mixture, by degrees, the flour, beating all constantly, and as the ROCK CAKE — YORKSHIRE TEA CAKES. 211 flour is being beaten in, sprinkle in from time to time the lemon-juice and the grated rind of lemon. Pour the batter without any delay into a baking-tin that has been greased with butter, and placing the tin in a moderate oven, let the cake bake therein for an hour and a half. [illustration: ROCK CAKE — YORKSHIRE TEA CAKES. 211] Rock Cake.— One pound of flour, three ounces of butter, three ounces of sugar, three ounces of sultana raisins, two eggs, one tea-spoonful of powdered ginger, one half gill of milk, two tea-spoonfuls of baking-powder. Put the flour into a mixing-bowl, add to it the butter, and rub these thoroughly together with the hands. When this is done, add to the mixture the sugar, ginger, and baking-powder, and rub these also until well mixed. Place the raisins in a towel, and rubbing from them the stems, pick them out and throw them into the mixture, stirring lightly while doing so. Put the eggs into a small bowl, beat them until very light, add to them the milk, and stir this into the dry ingredients in the mixing-bowl, which should bring the mixture to a dough stiff enough to hold the spoon perpendicular in the centre. Grease with butter a flat baking-tin, take two forks and lift with them rough pieces of the dough, and place them upon the tin. Place the tin in a very hot oven, and bake the cake for fifteen minutes. Serve when cool. Yorkshire Tea Cakes. — Three eggs, one pint of milk, one half tea-spoonful of salt, one piece of sal volatile, the size of a pea, one pound of flour. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them until very light. Add to them the milk, and dissolving the sal volatile and salt in sufficient water to cover them, add this to the milk and eggs, and add to the liquids the flour, by degrees, and beat all well together. Grease some shallow tins the size of breakfast saucers, fill them half full with the batter, and placing them in a quick oven, bake them for fifteen minutes. NOTES. — If tins of the given size are not available, delf saucers may be used for baking these cakes. These cakes make also a delicious breakfast dish. Fruit Cake. — Two pounds of raisins, one pound of currants, one pound of citron, one pound of flour, four eggs, one half pint of milk, one pound of sugar, one quarter pound of butter.