The following rule of putting a cake together, never fails. Work the
butter and sugar to a cream, beat the whites and yolks of eggs separately
(the whites to a stiff froth, the yolks to a cream), then add yolks to the
creamed butter and sugar, afterwards add the milk, then the flavoring,
next the whites of the eggs, and lastly the flour, by degrees. If fruit is
added, dredge flour over it, stirring it in slowly and thoroughly before the
flour. Where the recipe calls for baking-powder and you are out of it,
use soda and cream of tartar in the proportion of one level teaspoonful of
soda to two heaping teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar. Sift the cream of
tartar into the flour, dissolve the soda in a teaspoonful of boiling water,
adding it to the cake before adding the whites of the eggs. When sour
milk is used, always use soda, not baking-powder. If soda and sour milk
are called for — sweet milk and baking-powder can be substituted by using
two and one-half teaspoonfuls of baking-powder to a quart of flour.
Avoid stirring cake after the sugar and butter are creamed, but beat from
the bottom, up and over.
HOW TO BAKE A CAKE.
Cake pans should be lined with buttered writing paper. To test the
cake when baking, insert a broom straw — if not sticky, the cake is done.
Do not open the oven door often. It reduces the temperature and causes
the cake to fall. A small dish of water in the oven will prevent scorching.
This is particularly necessary in gas-range ovens. Another good way to
avoid burning is to lay a thin sheet of tin on the bottom of the oven and
a piece of buttered brown oaoer over the top of the cake.
215
216 CAKES.
PLAIN FROSTING OR ICINQ FOR CAKES.
The quickest way of beating eggs to a stiff froth is to put them in a
large cup and use the "dover beater." Some still prefer to use a platter
and a silver fork. Either way is good. Above all things the eggs should
be cold, and the dish on which, or in which, they are to be beaten should
also be cold. Allow, for the white of one ^gg, one small teacupful of
powdered sugar. Break the eggs, putting on them a small pinch of salt,
then throw a small handful of sugar on them and begin beating at once;
keep adding sugar at intervals until it is all used up. The eggs must not
be beaten until the sugar has been added in this way, which gives a
smooth, tender frosting and one that will dry readily.
Spread with a broad knife evenly over the cake. If it seems too thin,
beat in a little more sugar. If desired the cake can be covered with two
coats, the second after the first has become dry. If the icing gets too
dry before the last coat is added it can be thinned with a little water,
enough to make it work smoothly.
The flavors mostly used for icing are strawberry, lemon, vanilla,
almond, rose, chocolate, pineapple and orange. To ornament with figures
or flowers, make up extra icing, keep about one-third out until that on the
cake is dried; then, with a clean glass syringe, apply it in such forms as
desired and dry as before; what is kept out to ornament with may
be tinted pink with strawberry, blue with huckleberry juice, yellow with
orange (using the grated rind of an orange strained through a cloth),
green with'spinach juice and brown with chocolate, purple with grape juice.
Currant, raspberry and cranberry juices color a delicate pink. ✪ Maple Sugar Cake
Page 156 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1917. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The following rule of putting a cake together, never fails. Work the butter and sugar to a cream, beat the whites and yolks of eggs separately (the whites to a stiff froth, the yolks to a cream), then add yolks to the creamed butter and sugar, afterwards add the milk, then the flavoring, next the whites of the eggs, and lastly the flour, by degrees. If fruit is added, dredge flour over it, stirring it in slowly and thoroughly before the flour. Where the recipe calls for baking-powder and you are out of it, use soda and cream of tartar in the proportion of one level teaspoonful of soda to two heaping teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar. Sift the cream of tartar into the flour, dissolve the soda in a teaspoonful of boiling water, adding it to the cake before adding the whites of the eggs. When sour milk is used, always use soda, not baking-powder. If soda and sour milk are called for — sweet milk and baking-powder can be substituted by using two and one-half teaspoonfuls of baking-powder to a quart of flour. Avoid stirring cake after the sugar and butter are creamed, but beat from the bottom, up and over.
HOW TO BAKE A CAKE.
Cake pans should be lined with buttered writing paper. To test the cake when baking, insert a broom straw — if not sticky, the cake is done. Do not open the oven door often. It reduces the temperature and causes the cake to fall. A small dish of water in the oven will prevent scorching. This is particularly necessary in gas-range ovens. Another good way to avoid burning is to lay a thin sheet of tin on the bottom of the oven and a piece of buttered brown paper over the top of the cake.
PLAIN FROSTING OR ICINQ FOR CAKES.
The quickest way of beating eggs to a stiff froth is to put them in a large cup and use the "dover beater." Some still prefer to use a platter and a silver fork. Either way is good. Above all things the eggs should be cold, and the dish on which, or in which, they are to be beaten should also be cold. Allow, for the white of one egg, one small teacupful of powdered sugar. Break the eggs, putting on them a small pinch of salt, then throw a small handful of sugar on them and begin beating at once; keep adding sugar at intervals until it is all used up. The eggs must not be beaten until the sugar has been added in this way, which gives a smooth, tender frosting and one that will dry readily.
Spread with a broad knife evenly over the cake. If it seems too thin, beat in a little more sugar. If desired the cake can be covered with two coats, the second after the first has become dry. If the icing gets too dry before the last coat is added it can be thinned with a little water, enough to make it work smoothly.
The flavors mostly used for icing are strawberry, lemon, vanilla, almond, rose, chocolate, pineapple and orange. To ornament with figures or flowers, make up extra icing, keep about one-third out until that on the cake is dried; then, with a clean glass syringe, apply it in such forms as desired and dry as before; what is kept out to ornament with may be tinted pink with strawberry, blue with huckleberry juice, yellow with orange (using the grated rind of an orange strained through a cloth), green with'spinach juice and brown with chocolate, purple with grape juice. Currant, raspberry and cranberry juices color a delicate pink.
Records on this page
Maple Sugar Cake