Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

To make a large loaf of baba, use three cupfuls of the paste, half a cupful of dried currants, one cupful of raisins, and one gill of wine. Soak the fruit in the wine over night. In the morning work the fruit and wine into the paste. Butter a deep mould, and put the paste into it. Cover, and put in a warm place to rise to twice the original size. It will take about an hour and a half. Bake in a moderate oven for forty minutes. On taking from the oven, turn from the mould on a deep plate or dish, the top of the cake being down. Let it cool in this position. While the cake is cooling, make a syrup by boiling together for twelve minutes one cupful of sugar and three-fourths of a cupful of water. At the end of the twelve minutes add four table-spoonfuls of rum to the syrup, and pour the liquid over the cake, being careful to wet the sides with it. Let the dish get perfectly cold, and serve it as dessert. Savarin. For this cake use four cupfuls of the paste, one cupful of chopped almonds, half a cupful of candied orange peel, cut very fine, and a syrup made like that for baba ; substituting, however, two table-spoonfuls of anisette (a cordial) for the rum mentioned in the preceding receipt. Work the candied orange peel into the paste. Butter a round cake-pan thickly with washed butter, and sprinkle the bottom and sides with the chopped almonds. Put the paste into this pan, and after letting it rise to double its original size, bake it in a moderate oven for threequarters of an hour. On taking from the oven, turn out on a dish, and pour the syrup over it. Serve either hot or cold for dessert. Wine Cakes. Put three cupfuls of the paste into a deep mould, and let it rise to double its original size. Bake for forty -five minutes. Boil one cupful and a half of sugar with one cupful of water for twelve minutes ; then add a gill of sherry. When the cake is done, turn it out on a deep plate or dish, and pour the hot syrup over it. Serve hot or cold. Wine Cakes. Small cakes are made by letting one gill of the paste rise to a little more than double its first height in either dariole moulds or individual charlotte-russe moulds. Bake for twenty minutes ; then turn out, and pour hot syrup over them. The syrup may be flavored with wine, rum, orange or lemon juice, or with any kind of cordial. Brioche Fritters. Roll some brioche paste down to the thickness of half an inch, and with a jagging-iron or a sharp knife cut it into strips four inches long and two wide. Drop these into boiling fat, and cook for six minutes. Drain on brown paper ; then arrange on a warm dish, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve at once with a plentiful quantity of hot syrup flavored with fruit juice or wine. Another kind of fritter is made by rolling the paste until it is only a quarter of an inch thick, and cutting it into large rounds with a plain or fancy cutter ; next putting half a teaspoonful of apricot or some other kind of jam in the centre of each round ; then folding the edges over and sticking them with the beaten white of an egg, and finally frying in fat for five minutes. Serve with hot syrup,