Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 48

Mix smooth with a very little boiling water. Spread over cake.

CAKE ICING FOR VARIOUS CAKES

Cook together 2 cups of granulated sugar, 1-1/4 cups of water a little less than 12 minutes. Just before it reaches the soft ball stage, beat in quickly 25 marshmallows; when dissolved and a thick, creamy ma.s.s, spread between layers and on top of cake.

This is a delicious creamy icing when made according to directions. If sugar and water be cooked one minute too long, the icing becomes sugary instead of creamy. One-half the above quant.i.ty will ice the top of a cake nicely.

MARY'S RECIPE FOR "HOT MILK" SPONGE CAKE

For this cake was used:

2 cups granulated sugar.

4 eggs.

2-1/8 cups flour.

1-1/2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder.

1 cup boiling hot milk.

Separate the eggs, place yolks in a bowl, add the sugar and beat until creamy.

Add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs alternately with the sifted flour and baking powder; lastly add the cup of boiling hot milk; should the milk not be rich, add one teaspoon of b.u.t.ter to the hot milk. The cake batter should be thin as griddle cake batter, pour into a tube pan and place at once in a _very moderate_ oven; in about 15 minutes increase the heat and in about 25 minutes more the cake, risen to the top of pan, should have commenced to brown on top.

Bake from 15 to 20 minutes more in a moderately hot oven with steady heat; when baked the top of the cake should be a light fawn color and texture of cake light and fine grained.

Mary was told by her Aunt that any sponge cake was improved by the addition of a teaspoon of b.u.t.ter, causing the sponge cake to resemble pound cake in texture.

CHEAP "MOLa.s.sES GINGER BREAD"

1 cup New Orleans mola.s.ses.

1 cup sugar.

1/2 cup shortening (lard and b.u.t.ter mixed).

1 cup hot water.

1 large teaspoonful soda dissolved in the one cup of hot water.

1 teaspoonful of ginger.

1/2 teaspoonful of cinnamon.

1 quart of flour.

Stir sugar and shortening together. Add mola.s.ses, beat all thoroughly, then add hot water and flour. Stir hard. Bake in two layer pans in quick oven about 30 minutes. Use cake while fresh.

AUNT SARAH'S EXTRA FINE LARGE SPONGE CAKE

2 cups granulated sugar.

2-1/4 cups of flour.

3/4 cup of boiling water.

4 large eggs.

2 even teaspoonfuls baking powder.

1 teaspoonful lemon juice.

Put whites of eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat very stiff. Add sugar (sifted 3 times), then add the well-beaten yolks, flour (sifted 3 times with baking powder), add lemon juice. Lastly, add the hot water. Bake about 50 minutes in a tube pan in a moderately hot oven with a steady heat. Stand a pan of hot water in the upper rack of oven if the oven is quite hot. It improves the cake and causes it to be more moist. This is an excellent sponge cake and easily made, although the ingredients are put together the opposite way cakes are usually mixed, with the exception of angel cake. When this cake was taken from oven, powdered sugar was sifted thickly over the top. Use cup holding 1/2 pint, as in all other cake recipes.

ANGEL CAKE--AUNT SARAH'S RECIPE

Mary was taught by her Aunt, when preparing a dish calling for yolks of eggs only, to place the white of eggs not used in a gla.s.s jar which she stood in a cold place or on ice. When she had saved one even cupful she baked an angel cake over the following recipe:

One heaping cup of pulverized sugar (all the cup will hold), was sifted 8 times. One cup of a mixture of pastry flour and corn starch (equal parts) was also sifted 8 times. The whole was then sifted together 4 times. The one cupful of white of eggs was beaten very stiff. When about half beaten, sprinkle over the partly-beaten eggs one scant teaspoonful of cream of tartar, then finish beating the whites of eggs. Flavor with almond or vanilla. Then carefully sift into the stiffly beaten whites of eggs sugar, flour and corn starch.

Fold into the whites of eggs rather than stir. Aunt Sarah always baked this cake in a small, oblong bread pan. This cake should be baked in a _very_ moderate oven, one in which the hand might be held without inconvenience while counting one hundred; the oven should be just hot enough for one to know there was fire in the range. Do not open the oven door for 15 minutes, then increase the heat a little; if not too hot, open the oven door a moment to cool and bake slowly for about 55 minutes.

AUNT SARAH'S GOOD AND CHEAP "COUNTRY FRUIT CAKE"

1 cup b.u.t.ter and lard, mixed.

4 eggs.

1 cup New Orleans mola.s.ses.

1 cup sour milk.

1 pound dried currants.

1/4 pound thinly sliced citron.

2 teaspoonfuls baking soda.

4 cups flour.

2 pounds raisins, seeded.

A little grated nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and a very small quant.i.ty of cloves.

Bake in one large fruit cake pan or in two good sized pans about 1-3/4 hours. This cake should not be kept as long a time as a more expensive fruit cake, but may be kept several weeks. This was Aunt Sarah's best recipe for an excellent, inexpensive fruit cake.

A "SPONGE CUSTARD" CAKE

4 eggs.

2 cups granulated sugar.

3 cups flour.

1 teaspoonful baking soda.

1 cup cold water.

Juice of 1 lemon.

2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and pinch of salt.

Beat eggs well, then sift in sugar and half of flour in which cream of tartar has been mixed. Dissolve the soda in a little water and add also the lemon juice and lastly add the balance of flour. Bake in layer cake pans two inches deep.

CUSTARD

Boil 1 pint of sweet milk and add to it, stirring constantly, the following mixture: Two tablespoonfuls corn starch, mixed with a little water before boiling, 1 cup of sugar and 1 well-beaten egg. Allow all to cook a few minutes in a double boiler about 15 minutes. Split the sponge cakes when baked and put custard between when cooled.

GRANDMOTHER'S EXCELLENT "OLD RECIPE" FOR MARBLE CAKE