The cake and biscuit book

General Directions

Fried cakes are best cooked in a mixture of lard and clarified beef-dripping which has not been used before. It should be made very hot, and be quite still. Test it by throwing in a small piece of the mixture. If it rises at once, swells, and begins to brown on the under side, the temperature is right for frying.

Doughnuts should take from 8 to 10 minutes to fry, and should be a golden brown when finished. Directly they are ready, take them out, allowing all the fat to drip off, and putting them on soft brown paper to drain.

Cinnamon Cakes

1 cup sugar
1 cup of butter
3 eggs
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon cinnamon
2 table-spoons milk
Flour

Beat the butter and sugar together until light. Beat the eggs together and add to the butter and sugar with the cinnamon, milk and sufficient flour to make the mixture stiff enough to roll out. Roll the mixture out on a floured pastry board until very thin. Cut into narrow strips. Twist or braid them. Drop them into boiling fat, boil till a golden brown. Dust with powdered sugar while hot.

Crullers

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
³⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar
6 eggs
Nutmeg
Flour

Beat the butter to a cream with the sugar. Flavour with nutmeg. Add the well beaten eggs and sufficient flour to make the mixture stiff enough to roll out. Cut in their proper shapes and fry in a large pan of boiling lard until a rich yellow. Keep for a day before eating.

Doughnuts

1 cup sugar
2¹⁄₂ table-spoons butter
3 eggs
1 cup milk
4 tea-spoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon grated nutmeg and cinnamon
Salt
3¹⁄₂ cups flour

Cream the butter. Add half of the sugar. Beat the eggs until very light. Add them with the rest of the sugar to the butter. Add the salt, spices, and baking powder to the flour. Sift them and add to the mixture. Beat well. Add more flour, if necessary, and roll out until quarter of an inch thick. Cut into rings and fry.

Doughnuts made with Yeast

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
³⁄₄ lb. sugar
1 pint sweet milk
2 eggs
¹⁄₂ cup yeast
1 dessert-spoon spices (mace or nutmeg and cinnamon)
Flour
Salt

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Add the milk, yeast, and about a pint and a half of sifted flour. Set to rise over night. Add the well beaten eggs, spices, and sufficient flour to make a stiff dough in the morning. Roll out. Cut into rounds and fry. Sift sugar over them while hot.

Puff-ball Doughnuts

3 eggs
1 cup powdered sugar
1 pint sweet milk
Flour
2 heaping tea-spoons baking powder

Beat the eggs. Add the sugar and milk. Add flour (with which the baking powder should be mixed) until the batter is stiff enough for the spoon to stand upright in. Beat until very light. Drop by dessert-spoonfuls into boiling lard.

Snowballs

1 cup powdered sugar
4 table-spoons milk
¹⁄₃ tea-spoon soda
³⁄₄ tea-spoon cream of tartar
2 eggs
Flour

Mix the soda with the milk and the cream of tartar with the flour (sufficient to make a stiff batter). Beat the egg, add the rest of the ingredients, and beat until light. Make into small balls. Fry in lard. When cold, dip in the beaten white of an egg and roll in powdered sugar.