The Pocumtuc Housewife, a Guide to Domestic Cookery as it is Practised in ...

The production of good cake requires particular care and every careful housewife will take pains to perfect herself in this necessary art. Every well-regulated family will keep a sufficient quantity of rich fruit cake on hand for chance visitors or other occasions. This can be made before Thanksgiving, of a richness to ensure its keeping six or even twelve months. Should it become mouldy on the outside the mould can be removed with a damp cloth and the cake set into a hot oven for a few moments when it will become as good as new. Gingerbread, seedcakes and doughnuts will suffice for daily needs. In all cases where spices are named it is supposed they be pounded fine and sifted, sugar must be dried and rolled fine, flour dried in an oven, eggs well beat or whipped to a raging foam. Pearlash is a necessary ingredient in all cakes made with sour or butter-milk. Thrifty housekeepers are wont to gather the whitest and lightest of applewood ashes as they fall in the fireplace. These should be leached with water and put into bottles. A manufactured article called soda is used in conjunction with cream tartar and sweet milk to make light delicious cakes. Wedding Cake. Mrs. Kate Hoyt Three pounds of raisins, two pounds of currants, one half pound citron, a pound of flour, same of butter and sugar; one tablespoon mace or nutmeg, one ounce of cinnamon and one of cloves, a little molasses, a wine glass of wine, eleven eggs. Stir sugar and butter to a cream then add eggs beaten separately, next flour then the other things. Honeymoon Cake. Three fourths of a cup of butter, one and a fourth cups sugar, one-half cup of milk, two eggs, spice, one teaspoon cream tartar, one-half teaspoon soda, two and a half cups flour. Six Months Cake. Two cups sugar, one and a half cups butter, four eggs, one cup molasses, one cup sweet milk, spices to taste, two cups raisins, one cup citron, one cup currants, one teaspoon saleratus, four and half cups flour. Election Cake. Four pounds flour, two and a half pounds sugar, two pounds butter, one scant quart of milk, eight eggs, one half pint wine, two nutmegs, two teaspoonfuls of cinnamon, one teaspoon of cloves, two gills yeast. Make up flour, yeast and milk exactly like bread; when light add other ingredients. When again light add one pound of currants, two pounds of raisins. Bake two hours. Raised Cake. One and a half cups of bread dough, one cup of sugar, one half cup of butter, one egg, a little soda, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste, a cup full of chopped raisins. Bake as soon as made. Pound Cake. A pound of butter and the same of sugar and flour ten eggs, two pounds raisins, one pound currants, half a pound of citron one teaspoon soda, spices if one likes. One Two Three Four Cake. A cup of butter, two of sugar, three of flour, four eggs. Beat well together and bake in cups or pans for twenty minutes. Hoosac Loaf Cake. One and three fourths pounds of flour and the same of sugar, three-fourths of a pound of butter, threefourths of a pound of raisins a pint of milk, four eggi, a glass of wine, one nutmeg, a teaspoon of soda. Aunt Emily^s Cake. A cup of butter, two cups of sugar, one cup of milk, four cups of flour, three eggs, a teaspoon of soda, two teaspoons cream tartar, extract lemon, a little nutmeg, a dash of brandy, on^ cup of raisins and a cup of citron sliced fine. Bake fifty-five minutes. Little Plum Cakes to Keep Long. A coffee cup of sugar, a cup of butter, a little less than a quart of flour. Beat the butter to a cream, add three eggs well beaten, a quarter of a pound of currants, the same of citron, the sugar and flour, and a little brandy. Beat all for some time then dredge flour on tin plates and drop the batter on them the size of a walnut. Bake in a brisk oven. Shrewsbury Cakes.