Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 53

One-quarter cup grated, unsweetened chocolate, 1/4 cup milk, half a cup sugar. Boil all together until thick and creamy. This quant.i.ty will be sufficient to ice the top of one ordinary cake. Spread icing on cake before icing cools. When this icing is used for layer cake, double the recipe.

TIP-TOP CAKE

1 lb. granulated sugar.

1 cup b.u.t.ter.

1 cup milk.

4 eggs.

1 lb. chopped raisins. (Citron may be used instead of raisins.) 1/2 a nutmeg, grated.

5 scant cups of flour.

5 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Mix together same as ordinary cake and bake in a loaf. This Aunt Sarah considered one of her finest cake recipes. She had used it for years in her family. The friend who gave this recipe to Aunt Sarah said: "A couple of tablespoonfuls of brandy will improve the cake."

ORANGE CAKE

Grate the yellow outside rind of 1 orange into a bowl. Add 1-1/2 cups sugar and 3/4 cups b.u.t.ter and beat to a cream. Then add yolks of 3 eggs. Then stir in 1 cup milk, 2-1/2 cups flour with 2 heaping teaspoonfuls baking powder. Lastly, add the stiffly beaten whites of 3 eggs. Bake in three layers.

FILLING.

Use the white of one egg, the grated rind and juice of large orange and enough pulverized sugar to stiffen. Spread between layers.

CHEAP SPONGE CAKE

1-1/4 cups granulated sugar.

4 eggs.

1-1/2 cups flour.

4 tablespoonfuls boiling water.

1-1/4 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Pinch of salt; flavor to suit taste.

Cream yolks and sugar thoroughly, then add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs, then flour, then boiling water. Bake in a tube pan about 40 minutes. This is a very easily made cake, which seldom fails and was bought with a set of "Van Dusen cake pans," which Aunt Sarah said: "She'd used for many years and found invaluable."

CARAMEL CAKE AND ICING

1-1/2 cups pulverized sugar, 1 cup of b.u.t.ter, 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup of corn starch, 2 teaspoons of baking powder sifted through flour and corn starch, 1 cup of milk, the whites of 4 eggs. Mix like ordinary cake. Bake as a loaf cake. Ice top the following: 1 cup of light brown sugar, 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, 1/4 teaspoonful of vanilla. Cook all together until a soft ball is formed when dropped in water. Beat until creamy and spread on top of cake.

A WHITE CAKE

Sift together, three times, the following:

1 cup of flour.

1 cup of sugar (granulated).

3 even teaspoonfuls of baking powder.

Scald one cup of milk and pour hot over the above mixture. Beat well.

Fold into the mixture, carefully, the stiffly beaten whites of 2 eggs.

Flavor with a few drops of almond extract. Bake in a _moderate oven_, exactly as you would bake an angel cake.

This is a delicious, light, flaky cake, if directions are closely followed, but a little difficult to get just right.

"DUTCH" CURRANT CAKE (NO YEAST USED)

4 eggs.

2 cups sugar.

1 cup b.u.t.ter.

1 cup milk.

1/2 teaspoonful baking soda.

1 teaspoonful cream of tartar.

1 teaspoonful cinnamon.

1/4 teaspoonful grated nutmeg.

1 cup dried currants.

4 to 4-1/2 cups flour.

Make about as stiff as ordinary cake mixture. The b.u.t.ter, sugar and yolks of eggs were creamed together. Cinnamon and nutmeg were added.

Milk and flour added alternately, stirring flour in lightly; sift cream of tartar in with the flour. Add the baking soda dissolved in a very little water, then add the well-floured currants, and lastly add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Bake in a large cake pan, generally used for fruit cake or bake two medium-sized cakes. Bake slowly in a moderately hot oven. These cakes keep well, as do most German cakes.

AN "OLD RECIPE" FOR COFFEE CAKE

5 cups flour.

1 cup sugar.

1 cup raisins.

1 cup of liquid coffee.

1 cup lard.

1 cup mola.s.ses.

1 tablespoonful saleratus.

Spices to taste.

Mix like any ordinary cake. This is a very old recipe of Aunt Sarah's mother. The cup used may have been a little larger than the one holding a half pint, used for measuring ingredients in all other cake recipes.

A CHEAP BROWN SUGAR CAKE

1 cup brown sugar.

I tablespoonful lard.

1 cup cold water.

Pinch of salt.

2 cups raisins.

1/2 teaspoonful cloves.

1 teaspoonful cinnamon.