The Pattern cook-book

Five eggs (all the yolks and one white). Two tea-spoonfuls of baking-powder. Two tea-spoonfuls of vanilla. Beat the yolks and the one white until very light, and add them to the creamed butter and sugar. Then add the milk, the flour into which the baking powder has been stirred, and lastly the vanilla. Bake for forty-five minutes in a moderate oven. BUTTERMILK CAKE. One-half cupful of butter. One and a-half cupful of sugar. Two and a-half cupfuls of flour. One cupful of buttermilk. One-half tea-spoonful of soda. Two eggs. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, and add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten. Mash the soda, dissolve it in the buttermilk, and add the latter to the butter, eggs and sugar. Stir in the flour, beat until smooth, and then stir in quickly the beaten whites of the eggs. Bake in a well buttered tin for forty-five minutes. LAYER CAKES. These cakes require a very hot oven. They should cook in five minutes at the longest, and are not disturbed by being turned if one side is browning too fast for the other. Many people bake these cakes on the grate of the oven with good success, as the heat is stronger there. In making a layer cake that is to have a rich, sweet filling, like chocolate, half a cupful of sugar will be found sufficient, unless a very sweet cake is desired, PLAIN LAYER CAKE. One-half cupful of butter. One cupful of sugar. One cupful of milk. One egg. One and a-half tea-spoonful of baking-powder. Flour to thicken. Rub the butter * and sugar together, and add the egg, well beaten, and then the milk. Stir the powder into a little of the flour, and add it, stirring it in quickly ; then add enough more flour to make a not too thin batter. Place the batter in three well buttered tins, and bake. The batter for all layer cake should be so thick that the track made by the spoon in stirring it will not at once sink, back into the mixture. This is a good test. This quantity will make three medium-sized layers of cake. Place any of the fillings given (see page 544) between the layers. QUICKLY MADE LAYER CAKE. One-half cupful of butter. One-half cupful of sugar. Two eggs. One-half cupful of milk. Two tea-spoonfuls of baking-powder. Flour to thicken. The writer has often found this way of making layer cake more successful than when "more time and pains are devoted to its making. Butter the three tins for the cake first, and be sure the heat of the oven is strong and steady. Rub the butter into the sugar, break into this the eggs, stir them in quickly without previously beating them, add the milk, and stir until smooth. Scatter the baking-powder over the top of the mixture, sprinkle some of the flour over it, and stir thoroughly, adding enough more flour to thicken ; then pour the batter into the tins. Cake made in this way does not require more than five minutes' work after the materials are gotten together. Bake quickly, and spread any of the fiUings given between the layers. WHITE MOUNTAIN LAYER CAKE. The following will make four large layers, thus forming a good-sized cake: One cupful of butter. Three cupfuls of sugar. One cupful of milk. Six eggs (whites). One and a-half tea-spoonful of baking-powder. One pint of flour (sifted). Twenty drops of extract of bitter ahnond.