The encyclopædia of practical cookery

Sultana Cake. — Before making the Cake a tin should be lined with greased paper and the oven should be ready, so that there may be no delay in baking the Cako as soon as it is mixed. Put 1lb. of flour into a basin, and with the hands rub into it ½lb. of butter, add the grated rinds of two lemons and 2oz. of candied citron cut small. Rub ½lb. of sultana raisins in a cloth till they are quite clean and perfectly free from stems, then mix them also into the flour in the basin, mixing in at the same time 2 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Put four eggs and ½lb. of powdered white sugar into a basin and beat them until they are very light ; mix with them 1 teacupful of milk, and with this mix the flour, &c., in the other basin, beating it well together ; then, as quickly as possible, pour it into the paper-lined tin, put it into not too hot an oven, and bake for an-hour-and-a-quarter. Sunshine Cake. — (1) Make the same as for Angel Cake, but using 1 teaspoonful of essence of orange-peel instead of vanilla, and adding the well-beaten yolks of six eggs to the beaten whites and sugar before adding the flour. (2) Have ready the whites of eleven eggs and yolks of six, If breakfast-cupfuls of caster sugar, 1 breakfast-cupful of flour, and 1 toaspoonful each of cream of tartar and essence of orange. Whip the whites to a stiff froth, and gradually beat in the sugar. Beat the yolks in a similar manner, and add to them the whites, sugar, and flavouring. Finally stir in the flour. Mix quickly and well. Put into a shallow baking-dish and bake for fifty minutes in a slow oven. Surprise Cygnet Cake. — To the great Soyer we are indebted for many marvellous dishes, but the following is not less worthy of attention than others : Make a large sponge Cake, using forty eggs, and bake about two-hours-and-a-half in a large shallow tin dish or dish-cover ; the next day shape it with a knife to resemble the body of a swan, leaving a space down the front of the breast for the neck. Cut out the interior from the bottom to within lin. of the surface; Ice it over with white royal icing, and when the icing is almost set mark it in imitation feathers with the prongs of a fork. Shape the neck and head out of confectioners’ paste, cut the neck in halves lengthwise and lay it, the cut sides down, on a buttered baking-sheet. Model each half of tho head separately, and lay it the same way as the neck, that is the flat side downwards. Bake these in a moderate oven. When done, join them together with a paste made of white of egg and flour, scrape the bottom of the neck quite flat, ice it over with white icing, and, when on the verge of setting, ruffle it to look like feathers with the prongs of a fork, and keep it in a warm temperature till dry. Mix with lqt. of jelly, 4 wineglassfuls of maraschino, and four ripe peaches For details respecting Culinary Processes, Utensils, Cakes — continued.