Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Molasses Fruit Cake. — This will keep for weeks in a stone jar and the last piece be as good as the first. A square of this cake, steamed and served with creamy or hard sauce, is almost equal to plum pudding. Two-thirds of a teacupful of butter, one cupful of brown sugar, two cupfuls of cooking molasses, one cupful of milk, four eggs, one teaspoonful of soda, one tablespoonful each of ginger and cinnamon, one tablespoonful of grated nutmeg, four and a half cupfuls of sifted flour, one cupful each of raisins and currants. Cream butter and sugar well, add molasses, eggs well beaten, the milk, salt, and spices. Muffins Orange Cake Stir in the flour by degrees. Dissolve soda in a tablespoonful of hot water and add to the mixture ; flour the fruit and add it last. Bake in a moderate oven one hour. Muffins. See Bread. Neapolitans. — Half a pound of sugar, x/\ lb. of butter, the grated rind of a lemon, io ozs. of flour, yolks of three eggs, well beaten, and io ozs. of almond paste. Mix the batter to a smooth consistency with white of egg, and add the lemon, butter, sugar, and flour. When thoroughly mixed, beat in the eggs and stir until quite smooth. Then roll out a quarter of an inch thick and cut into small cakes of any shape, and bake on a buttered tin. When cold, ice in various colors with bitter-almond flavor. To use the whites of egg, some other cake requiring them could be made at the same time, such as cocoanut snowballs, silver cake, etc. New-year’s Cake. — Cream i x/z lbs. of butter and I /4 lbs. of powdered sugar; beat well together. Beat fifteen eggs, and add, with i lbs. of sifted flour and three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder ; grate two lemons in half a teacupful of molasses and add to the batter, with 2 lbs. of finely chopped almonds, 2 lbs. of seeded raisins, and i lb. of sliced citron. Turn in a cake mould, and bake two hours in a moderate oven. Nut Cakes. — Beat i lb. and i oz. of sugar with six eggs for an hour, add I lb. and I oz. of flour, 2^4 ozs. of grated almonds — a few bitter ones should be added — a little whole cinnamon, a few whole cloves, the grated rind of a lemon, a teaspoonful of coarsely chopped, candied lemon-peel, a teaspoonful of extract of vanilla, a teaspoonful of rum. When the whole has been thoroughly kneaded, shape it with the hand into little round or oblong cakes ; rub a sheet of tin over with a bit of wax, place the cakes on it, and bake in a moderate oven. Nut Fruit Cake. — One cupful of butter is creamed with two of sugar, and four eggs added, yolks and whites beaten separately. One grated nutmeg and I lb. of flour stirred in gradually, keeping out about 2 ozs. of flour to dredge the nuts and raisins. A large coffee-cupful of raisins, stoned and split, and the same amount of hickory-nuts, chopped as fine as possible, are stirred in last. A cool breadoven is the best for this cake, and when finished add a thick pink icing flavored with rose-water, and decorated with an edging of home-made burnt almonds.