Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

This cake is made of four colors, — white and pink, yellow arid brown. For the white and pink cake use half a cupful of butter, one of sugar, two cupfuls of flour, half a cupful of milk, the whites of four eggs, one teaspoonful of baking-powder, half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, and about one teaspoonful of liquid cochineal. Beat the butter to a cream ; gradually beat in the sugar. Add the flavor. Beat in the milk, a little at a time. Add the flour, in which the baking-powder has been well mixed ; and last of all, add the whites of the eggs, well beaten. Spread one-half of this batter in a shallow cake-pan ; to the other half add the cochineal, a few drops at a time, until the mixture is colored pink. Spread this in a second pan, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. For the yellow and brown cake use half a cupful of butter, one of sugar, half a cupful of milk, one and threefourths cupfuls of flour, the yolks of four eggs and one whole egg, one teaspoonful of baking-powder, one ounce of chocolate, three additional table-spoonfuls of sugar, one table-spoonful of water, and half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Make the cake the same as the white and pink. Put the scraped chocolate, the three tablespoonfuls of sugar, and the water in a small frying-pan ; stir over a hot fire until smooth and glossy. Add this to one-half of the cake batter. Bake the yellow and brown cake in two pans, like those in which the white and pink were baked, in a moderate oven for about twenty-two minutes. Beat three table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar into the unbeaten white of one egg ; add a table-spoonful of orange juice to this. Spread a thin layer of this icing on the pink cake; place the white cake on it, and spread over this a thin layer of the icing. Add the yellow cake, and spread the remainder of the icing on it, and place the brown cake on this. Put a sheet of tin on top of the last layer, and on the tin place two bricks. Let the cake stand for an hour or two, and then take off the weights. This cake may be frosted or not, as one pleases. October Cake. Make half of the rule for rich cup cake. Spread it in three Washington-pie plates, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Make half the rule for boiled icing, but boil the sugar and water for ten minutes. Add to it a generous half-cupful of cocoanut, freshly grated, or about one-third of a cupful of the desiccated cocoanut. Make the rule for chocolate icing, using, however, only two-thirds of a cupful of sugar. Beat half a tumbler of currant jelly until so smooth that it will spread easily. Put one cake on a large plate, and spread the cocoanut icing on it ; place a cake on top of this, and spread the chocolate icing on it. Now put the third cake on top of the others, and spread the jelly over it. The icings and jellies are to be spread so that they shall run over the edges of the cake, the mingled colors giving the autumnal effect. Cocoanut Cake. Half a cupful of butter, one cupful of sugar, two cupf uls of flour, half a cupful of milk, half a cupful of desiccated cocoanut, or one cupful of freshly grated fruit, the whites of three eggs, the juice of one lemon, one teaspoonful of cream-of-tartar, and one level teaspoonful of soda.