Cakes need a hot oven for the first half-hour.

If possible, they should not be moved from one shelf to another, but the oven should be cooled gradually by opening the ventilators or lowering the gas.  A moderate oven is needed to finish the cooking.

All fruit cakes (unless weighing less than 1 lb.) need to be baked from 1-1/2 to 2 hours.  The larger the cake the slower should be the baking.

The cake tins should be lined with greased paper.

If a gas oven is used, stand the cake tin on a sand tin (see Cold Water
Bread).

If the cake becomes sufficiently brown on top before it is cooked through, cover with a greased paper to prevent burning.

To test if done, dip a clean knife into hot water.  Thrust it gently down the centre of cake.  If done, the knife will come out clean and bright.

1.  CAKE MIXTURE.

1/4 lb. butter, 1/4 lb. castor sugar, 6 ozs. flour, 2 eggs.

Half butter and half nutter gives just as good results and is more economical.

Beat together the butter and sugar to a cream.  Whisk the eggs to a stiff froth and add.  Stir in the flour gently.  Mix well.  Add a little milk if mixture is too stiff.  This makes a Madeira Cake.

For other varieties, mix with the flour 1 dessertspoon caraway seeds for Seed Cake; 2 tablespoons desiccated cocoanut for Cocoanut Cake; 6 ozs. candied cherries chopped in halves for Cherry Cake; 6 ozs. sultanas and the grated rind of 1 lemon for Sultana Cake; the grated yellow part of 2 lemon rinds for Lemon Cake.

2.  SMALL CAKES.

Take 2 small eggs and half quantities of the ingredients given for the cake mixture.  Add the grated rind of half a lemon for flavouring.  Grease a tin for small cakes with 9 depressions.  Put a spoonful of the mixture in each depression.  Bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven.

3.  COCOANUT BISCUITS.

1/2 lb. desiccated cocoanut, 1/4 lb. sugar, 2 small eggs.

Proceed as for Macaroons, but make the cakes smaller.  Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour.

4.  “CORN WINE AND OIL” CAKES.

1 lb. wholemeal flour, 3/4 lb. raisins, 4 tablespoons walnut oil, 1/4 pint water.

This recipe was especially concocted for non-users of milk and eggs.  Stir the oil well into the flour.  Add the washed and stoned raisins (or seedless raisins, or sultanas).  Mix to a dough with the water.  Divide dough into two portions.  Roll out, form into rounds, and cut each round into 6 small scones.  Bake in a hot oven for half an hour.

5.  CURRANT SANDWICH.

8 ozs. butter, 1 lb. flour, 1/4 lb. cane sugar, currants.

Mix flour and sugar, and rub in the butter.  Mix with water to plastic dough.  Divide dough into two cakes, 1 inch in thickness.  Cover one evenly with currants, lay the other on top, and roll out to the thickness of one-third of an inch.  Cut into sections, and bake in a hot oven for about 30 minutes.