Lady Cake

Ingredients

• ½ lb. butter
• ½ lb. rolled white sugar
• 1 lb. self-raising flour
• the whites of 4 eggs
• 1 cup of lukewarm water
• a lemon

Method

1. 1

   Mix butter, sugar, and flour, adding the egg whites and water.

2. 2

   If using ordinary flour, add baking powder before the egg whites.

3. 3

   Bake until done.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper (1902) by Hildagonda J. Duckitt, page 72. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

lady cake, an orange jelly, a fairy cream, a lemon sago, and a sago and pontac shape. The cousins bargained that if they helped us we should give them scones for tea, and modestly added that for luncheon they should like a beefsteak pie, a German tart, and macaroni cheese, a somewhat odd combination, but their own selection. I give the recipes for all below. All preliminaries having been settled, they arrived early, and having donned their pretty, if not very business-like aprons, tucked up their sleeves and set to work — and a very merry day we had, and some very successful cooking, of which I will record the recipes. I insisted that all the cleaning up of pots and pans, as well as the more interesting preparations, and cooking itself, should be done by my amateur kitchen-maids, for I think people do not always realize how long all the cleaning and tidily putting away takes, when the real cooking is over. The scones were greatly appreciated when tea-time came, and the only regret was that more had not been made; while at luncheon the beefsteak pie and German tart and the macaroni cheese disappeared like magic. 178 BEEFSTEAK PIE. GEEMAN TART Beefsteak Pie. The crust for this was the same as we used for the German tart, so we made the double quantity at once. The ingredients are as follows — 4 tablespoonfuls of flour. I spoonful of butter. I spoonful of ox-marrow or lard. I teaspoonful of Royal baking-powder. A little salt. I egg- Rub the butter and marrow into the flour, beat up well with a knife after adding the egg and a few spoonfuls of water. If eggs are scarce, mix with water and milk instead. The meat for the pie, if for three or four people, is i lb. Australian steak. I find that washing this meat with warm water, and then wiping quickly, thaws it nicely. Cut the steak in pieces four inches square and hammer it well, or beat with the blunt side of the kitchen knife, then lay it for half-mi-hour in some milk — this seems to give back to the meat all the flavour it had lost, and makes it very tender. Roll the pieces of meat in flour, pepper, and salt mixed, and a few slices of onion. Stew it in the pie-dish on the stove for a quarter of an hour— now put over it the crust prepared as above, and bake for an hour on the floor of the oven. German Tart.— For the German tart— Mrs. Smith’s from Graaf Reinet — after the crust, made as above, but with sugar, was rolled out, we lined an open tart-tin with it, and then it was filled with jam and baked on the floor of the stove oven for half-an-hour or more so that the crust got thoroughly done. I am told a treacle tart is good 179 ^Jug. MACARONI CHEESE. SCONES this way, and with strips or stars of pastry laid in the treacle. Macaroni Cheese. — This is a very nice savoury dish (Miss Le Sueur’s recipe). Pour boiling water on 2 ozs. maca- roni. Let it soak for half-an-hour. Set a pint of milk to boil, and stir into it gently the soaked macaroni, letting it boil till the macaroni is soft and all the milk is absorbed. Then stir in 3 ozs. grated cheese, some cayenne pepper, mustard, and oz. or more of butter. Put it into a pie- dish, sprinkle grated cheese over all, and bake a light brown. Serve ve7y hot. Scones. — Take lb. self-raising flour, ^ tablespoonful of sugar, 2 ozs. or less of butter, and a pinch of salt. Rub the flour and butter well together, then mix with a knife into half a cup of cold water. If you can spare milk use that instead, and in that case you will want less butter. Beat well with a knife for a few minutes, and roll out and stamp into round shape with a wineglass. Put them on to baking-tins and bake in a warm oven as for pastry. (The proper thing for baking scones is a “ girdle,” i. e. a round, flat sheet of iron with a handle from side to side like a kettle’s to hang over an open fire.) Swiss Roll, No. 1. — As we had promised two Swiss rolls, we took a different recipe for each. No. i (Mrs. Brook- Smith’s) was as follows. Ingredients — I tumbler flour. 1 tumbler white rolled sugar, tumbler milk, 2 eggs. ^ teaspoonful soda. I teaspoonful cream of tartar. Beat up the sugar and eggs together, then add the flour, 180 SWISS ROLL. LADY CAKE A^^g. mix the soda and cream of tartar in the milk and add it quickly to the flour. Bake in a buttered tin fifteen minutes. Sugar the baking-board. Then turn it out, spread it quickly with jam and roll up quickly. It keeps its shape if rolled up when hot. Swiss Roll, No. 2. — hor the other one you want 3 eggs, 3 ozs. flour, and the same of rolled sugar, i teaspoonful baking-powder. Beat the eggs and sugar together, then mix the flour with the baking-powder and add to it. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking-dish and bake eight or ten minutes. Turn out on a sugared board, spread with any kind of jam and roll quickly into shape. August 10. Lady Cake. — Lady cake is an American recipe (Mrs. Mitchell’s) for a very excellent cake, and requires lb. butter, f lb. rolled white sugar, i lb. self- raising flour, the whites of 4 eggs, and i cup of lukewarm water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.