Principles of cookery

Few doughs require a smaller number of ingredients than pastry; flour, salt, shortening, and liquid are the essentials, and air is incorporated in the process of mixing. When the flour and shortening are warm they stick together so that less air is mixed into the dough. Pastry APPLE PIE IN DEEP PLATE. The process of rolling and folding is a device for catching more air in the dough. This air, when heated, expands and puffs the layers apart. The colder the air mixed in the dough the greater its expansion in baking. In cake-making a single, well proportioned formula may be made the basis for a great number of varieties. Therefore, it is essential that the fundamental principles be understood, then the variations can be accomplished easily. Cake Making CAKE. The principles underlying sponge cake were explained in the section on eggs. The main points in such cakes, which contain no butter and are made light by eggs only, are to mix carefully that sufficient air may be entangled in the dough to make it light, and then to bake slowly but thoroughly. The shape in which cake is to be baked should decide the proportion of flour to be used. Layer cakes or small cakes require less flour than large loaves. This is probably because the small cake is stiffened more quickly by the heat, while the large mass must be stiffened with flour to hold up the air cells until the heat can penetrate the whole. Variations in cake are easily obtained through changes in flavoring ingredients. To mix chocolate in the cake melt it and mix with the sugar and butter. Such a cake might have a white frosting flavored with vanilla. A cake flavored with almond may have a few shredded almonds sprinkled over the top just before the cake is put in the oven. Almond paste can be rubbed into the butter and . sugar in making cookies ; it is rather rich and heavy for a cake. Desiccated cocoanut, chopped nuts, raisins, currants, dates, citron, candied orange and lemon peel, singly or in various combinations, serve to give us many cakes from a single recipe. The ingredients mentioned for pastry are common to all cakes as well, but further variety is gained by the addition of sweetening and seasoning. Air or gas to make the cake light is obtained by the use of Sponge Cake Flavoring Ingredients n8 Sweetening beaten eggs and of baking powders, etc., as well as by creaming butter and beating the blended ingredients. The shortening for this class of dishes may be lard, dripping, nut oil, cottolene, butter, or cream, each hav-. *ing its own special characteristic. When these are known, combinations and substitutions are possible to adapt a given formula to the available materials. The range of sweetening is limited to sugar and molasses, but the quantity to be used in a cake should be Relative Proportions in Cake SPONGE CAKE STUFFED WITH CREAM. reduced if a frosting or sweet filling is to be added later. When we consider the long list of spices and extracts and fruits and nuts available for seasoning the cake, we can see how it is possible to make many varieties of the same cake. There is a certain relative proportion to be followed in the use of these ingredients which, once learned, COOKING OF DOUGHS. 1IQ