Virginia Cookery-book

Home Gingerbread, No. 2. Take seven teacupfuls of flour, one pint of molasses, one cup of sour cream, one cup of butter, one table-spoonful of ginger, one table-spoonful of soda dissolved in part of the cream or a little milk ; add three-quarters of a pound of light-brown sugar ; also other spices, if you like a higher flavoring. Lady Cake. One pound of flour, one pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, whites of eleven eggs, a teaspoonful of soda, two of cream of tartar, nearly half a pint of sweet milk; cream the butter and add the sugar to it, beating diligently; sift the cream of tartar into the flour, so that it will diffuse itself throughout the mass ; add the soda to the milk last of all; season with a teaspoonful of extract of bitter-almonds, and put to bake without delay. Preston Ginger Cake. One quart of flour, four ounces of butter, one tablespoonful of ginger, one table-spoonful of sugar, half a nutmeg ; mix into a moderately stiff paste with a pint of molasses ; roll out thin, cut into fancy shapes, and bake in a quick oven. Little Molasses Cake. To one quart of molasses add one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in half a teacupful of buttermilk or sour cream; let the molasses get warm, then stir in the soda, putting into it three-quarters of a pound of butter and lard mixed, and buttermilk ; add two table-spoonfuls of ginger, and any other seasoning that you like. This quantity will make up about two quarts of flour. Allow some for the rolling out on the board. Mrs. J. Randolph Page's Ginger Cake. Two quarts of flour, one teacupful of sugar, one pint of molasses, half a pound of lard, four table-spoonfuls of ground ginger, one table-spoonful of ground cloves, and one teaspoonful of salt. Let any one try this recipe who wants to be convinced that the best things are not always the most expensive. The dough must be just as stiff as it can be to handle well, and rolled out to wafer-like thinness. Stick as you do biscuits, and bake quickly, without burning. Cut out also with a plain round biscuit-cutter. Mrs. Ritchie's Marmalade Cake. Rub together one pound of sugar and one pound of butter until perfectly light ; beat the yolks and whites of six eggs weU; sift one pound and a half of flour into the butter, sugar, and eggs; a teaspoonful of mixed spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace) ; half a glass of rose-water; stir the whole well and roll it on your pasteboard about half an inch thick ; then cut out your cakes and bake them a few minutes ; when cold spread the surface of each cake with peach, quince, or raspberry marmalade ; beat the whites of eight eggs very light ; add enough powdered sugar to make it thick as icing ; flavor it with lemon, and with a spoon put it on each cake, high in the centre; put the cakes in an oven, and as soon as they are a pale brown take them out. Ginger Snaps. Four quarts of flour, one quart of molasses, one pound of sugar (brown), one pound of lard, one ounce of soda or pearlash, and three ounces of ginger. Jew's Cake. To one pint of flour put four ounces of brown sugar, a little nutmeg and lemon-peel, or mace or cinnamon, according to taste ; Mix the dough up with the yolk of an egg; roll it out thin, and cut into any shape you please. Just as they are to be put into the oven throw a little pounded white sugar over them (not pounded very fine). The brown sugar must be rolled fine and smooth with the rolling-pin before it is mixed with the flour. Good Gingeb Cake. One pound of butter, three-quarters of a pound of brown sugar, one quart of molasses, one ounce of cinnamon, three dozen cloves, six dozen allspice, two tablespoonfuls of ground ginger, and about three quarts of flour, or enough to make a tolerably stiff dough. Mrs. Garrett's Ten-minute Cakb.