The American Frugal Housewife eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 162 pages of information about The American Frugal Housewife.

The American Frugal Housewife eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 162 pages of information about The American Frugal Housewife.

WEDDING CAKE.

Good common wedding cake may be made thus:  Four pounds of flour, three pounds of butter, three pounds of sugar, four pounds of currants, two pounds of raisins, twenty-four eggs, half a pint of brandy, or lemon-brandy, one ounce of mace, and three nutmegs.  A little molasses makes it dark colored, which is desirable.  Half a pound of citron improves it; but it is not necessary.  To be baked two hours and a half, or three hours.  After the oven is cleared, it is well to shut the door for eight or ten minutes, to let the violence of the heat subside, before cake or bread is put in.

To make icing for your wedding cake, beat the whites of eggs to an entire froth, and to each egg add five teaspoonfuls of sifted loaf sugar, gradually; beat it a great while.  Put it on when your cake is hot, or cold, as is most convenient.  It will dry in a warm room, a short distance from a gentle fire, or in a warm oven.

LOAF CAKE.

Very good loaf cake is made with two pounds of flour, half a pound of sugar, quarter of a pound of butter, two eggs, a gill of sweet emptings, half an ounce of cinnamon, or cloves, a large spoonful of lemon-brandy, or rose-water; if it is not about as thin as goad white bread dough, add a little milk.  A common sized loaf is made by these proportions.  Bake about three quarters of an hour.

A handy way to make loaf cake is, to take about as much of your white bread dough, or sponge, as you think your pan will hold, and put it into a pan in which you have already beat up three or four eggs, six ounces of butter warmed, and half a pound of sugar, a spoonful of rose-water, little sifted cinnamon, or cloves.  The materials should be well mixed and beat before the dough is put in; and then it should be all kneaded well together, about as stiff as white bread.  Put in half a pound of currants, or raisins, with the butter, if you choose.  It should Stand in the pan two or three hours to rise; and be baked about three quarters of an hour, if the pan is a common sized bread-pan.

If you have loaf cake slightly injured by time, or by being kept in the cellar, cut off all appearance of mould from the outside, wipe it with a clean cloth, and wet it well with strong brandy and water sweetened with sugar; then put it in your oven, and let the heat strike through it, for fifteen or twenty minutes.  Unless very bad, this will restore the sweetness.

CARAWAY CAKES.

Take one pound of flour, three quarters of a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, a glass of rose-water, four eggs, and half a tea-cup of caraway seed,—­the materials well rubbed together and beat up.  Drop them from a spoon on tin sheets, and bake them brown in rather a slow oven.  Twenty minutes, or half an hour, is enough to bake them.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The American Frugal Housewife from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.