Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Bake in pans lined with buttered paper, nearly filling them; smooth with a wet knife-blade, and bake in a moderate oven about three hours. Leave in the pan until cold, then rub it with flour, wipe with a cloth, and ice with white-of-egg icing, finishing with chocolate or orange icing. Fruit Cake, Fine. — Twenty-four eggs, 2 lbs. of butter, 2 lbs. of brown sugar, 2 lbs. of flour, browned, four teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, 4 lbs. of stoned raisins, 4 lbs. of currants, 2 lbs. of citron, three nutmegs, one teaspoonful of mace or half a teaspoonful of allspice, half a teaspoonful of Fruit Cake, Leavened Honey Cake cloves. Mix the batter as in making pound cake ; then stir in all the fruits, excepting the raisins and citron; reserve these, after flouring them well, until you are filling the mould; put in a two-inch layer of the dough, then strew over a layer of raisins and citron ; repeat this until the mould is twothirds full ; let the heat be gradually applied to it. FruitCake, Leavened. — One pound and a half of flour, one gill of yeast, six eggs, I lb. of butter, I % lbs. of brown sugar, three teaspoonfuls of mace and nutmeg mixed, I lb. of raisins or currants, half a pint of cream. Let half the materials be set to rise with the quantity of yeast named. Give it ample time to rise, and when well raised put in the second half of the materials, and give it another good rise. It will require a part of two days to complete the whole process, but rewards by being a cake of peculiarly nice flavor. Gems. See Bread. Ginger-snaps. — One cupful and a half of molasses, two-thirds of a cupful of butter or lard, one teaspoonful of soda, one-half a cupful of water, two table-spoonfuls of ginger. Mix soft, and roll very thin ; bake in a quick oven. Put in the pan so they will not touch each other. Gingerbread. — One cup of brown sugar, one cup of butter, one cup of molasses, three eggs, I cupful of sour milk, four teaspoonfuls of ginger, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, half - teaspoonful of cloves, three cupfuls of flour. The spices are measured after being ground. Be sure that the molasses is not syrup, but of the plainer sort. Sift the flour twice, beat the eggs separately and very light, cream the butter and sugar together, and add the spice and soda last, after they are well mixed with the heated molasses. Bake carefully, because gingerbread is the easiest to burn of all cakes. Bake either in a mould or shallow pan, as fancy may direct. Gold Cake. — Four cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of milk, one and a half cupfuls of butter, yolks of twelve eggs, two lemons, six cupfuls of flour, three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Cream the butter and sugar together till very light; add the milk, the eggs — very thoroughly beaten — the lemons, and, lastly, the flour, twice sifted. One-half the quantity given in this recipe would probably be ample for ordinary requirements. Another way : — The ingredients for this are one and a half cupfuls of sugar, half a cupful of butter, two and a half cupfuls of flour, one whole egg and the yolks of four more, half a cupful of milk, half a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, and one-quarter of a teaspoonful of soda. Flavor with a table-spoonful of vanilla, added just before baking. Mix the cake according to the directions given in the preceding recipes.