Little Cakes and Sweet Biscuits
Almond Cakes
¹⁄₂ lb. sweet almonds
1 white of egg
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
³⁄₄ lb. flour
2 eggs
1 tea-spoon ground cinnamon
Blanch and pound the almonds, adding the beaten whites and mixing well together. Add them to the rest of the ingredients and knead well together with the hands. Roll out and cut into round cakes. Brush over with the beaten yolk of an egg, and dust with powdered sugar. Bake on a well greased tin in a slow oven until they are a rich yellow.
*Bottle Cakes
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. sifted sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
Juice and grated rind of half a lemon
2 eggs
Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat the eggs and add with the rest of the ingredients, beating all thoroughly. Grease a baking tin and drop the mixture on it by tea-spoonfuls. Bake about five minutes in a moderate oven. Slip the cakes off the tin with a knife. Lay a number of bottles on their sides on a table. Lay the cakes on them to cool, and press gently down on the bottles in order to give them a rounded shape. These cakes should be very thin and richly coloured round the edges.
*Butter Rings
3 ozs. butter
2 eggs
4 yolks
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
Grated rind of a lemon
Beat the butter to a cream. Add one egg and five yolks (which should have been well beaten together) and the sugar. Then add the flour and the lemon rind. Beat until smooth and light. Roll out the mixture lightly and cut it into ring-shaped biscuits. Brush over each with the white of an egg, and sprinkle crystallised sugar over them. Bake in a slow oven on a well greased tin.
Caraway Cakes
3 lbs. sugar
1 lb. butter
¹⁄₂ pint cold water
3 eggs
3 lbs. flour
1 tea-spoon soda
4 table-spoons caraway seeds
Cut the butter up in the flour as finely as possible. Dissolve the sugar in the water. Add it to the butter and flour. Beat the eggs till very light and add them to the mixture. Dissolve the soda in a very little hot water and stir it in. Roll the caraway seeds in a little flour, and add them, mixing thoroughly. Roll out lightly and cut in round shapes. Bake quickly on a greased tin.
*Chocolate Cakes—I
6 ozs. sifted sugar
¹⁄₄ lb. sifted chocolate powder
2 ozs. sifted flour
4 whites of eggs
Beat the whites until very stiff. Mix quickly but thoroughly with the other ingredients.
Form into cone-like shapes on a baking sheet or tin and bake in a moderate oven.
*Chocolate Cakes—II
2 ozs. powdered chocolate
2 ozs. castor sugar
2 ozs. butter
2 eggs
1¹⁄₂ ozs. flour
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon baking powder
Put the chocolate in the oven to warm. Beat the butter to a cream and add the sugar gradually, beating continually. Then stir in the well beaten eggs and the warmed chocolate. When thoroughly well beaten, add the flour, with which the baking powder should be mixed. Bake in patty pans in a quick oven. When baked, split open and spread with Devonshire cream.
*Cinnamon Biscuits
¹⁄₄ lb. sugar
3 eggs
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon cinnamon
1 oz. potato flour
1 oz. Vienna flour
Mix the sugar and the yolks of the eggs with the cinnamon and beat hard for ten minutes. Add the whites, which should have been beaten until they are stiff, and the potato flour and Vienna flour. Divide into small tins. Sprinkle with a little white sugar. Bake in a moderate oven until light brown.
Coburg Cake
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
¹⁄₂ cup syrup
¹⁄₂ cup water
1 cup butter milk (or sour milk)
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
3 eggs
2 tea-spoons soda
2 tea-spoons ground ginger
2 tea-spoons ground cinnamon
1 tea-spoon allspice
2 ozs. sweet almonds
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Whisk the eggs till light and creamy and mix with the butter. Add the syrup, water, spices and flour, mixing thoroughly, and lastly the soda dissolved in a little boiling water.
Blanch and chop the almonds, and sprinkle them in the bottom of the patty pans. Pour in the mixture and bake in a quick oven for about twenty minutes.
Cocoanut Cones
1 lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ a grated cocoanut
5 whites of eggs
1 tea-spoon arrowroot or flour
Beat the eggs till firm. Add the sugar gradually. Beat in the cocoanut and arrowroot. Form into small cone-shaped cakes. Set on buttered paper in a tin and bake in a very moderate oven.
Cocoanut Rings
¹⁄₂ cup grated cocoanut
¹⁄₂ cup butter
³⁄₄ cups powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 table-spoon milk
2¹⁄₂ cups sifted flour
Cream the butter. Add the sugar to it and beat well. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately. Stir them in. Add the milk and flour, and then gradually add the cocoanut, beating constantly. Roll out thin on a board, and cut with two different sized cutters into rings. Bake in a quick oven five to ten minutes.
Cornflour Cakes—I
¹⁄₄ lb. cornflour
¹⁄₄ lb. sifted white sugar
3 ozs. butter
¹⁄₄ tea-spoon baking powder
1 egg
Grated rind of half a lemon
Beat the butter to a cream. Add the cornflour, with which the baking powder has been mixed, sugar, well-beaten egg and lemon peel. Mix all well together. Bake five minutes in a quick oven.
*Cornflour Cakes—II
3 ozs. castor sugar, finely sifted
3 ozs. butter
2 ozs. Oswego cornflour (Kingsford’s)
2 eggs
1 small tea-spoon baking powder
Beat the butter and sugar together to a cream. Beat in the cornflour. Add the eggs (not previously beaten) and beat all well together. Then stir in the baking powder carefully. Bake in well buttered patty pans, in a moderate oven, until they are a delicate golden colour.
*Fairy Gingerbread
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup sweet milk
4 cups flour
³⁄₄ tea-spoon carbonate of soda
2 tea-spoons ground ginger
Beat the butter to a cream, add the sugar gradually. When the mixture is very light and creamy add the ginger. Dissolve the soda in the milk and add it with the flour. Grease a perfectly clean baking tin. Spread the mixture as thinly as possible over it with a knife. Bake in a moderate oven till brown. Cut into squares while hot and slip off the tin.
Fluffy Cakes
¹⁄₂ lb. cornflour
¹⁄₄ lb. castor sugar
6 ozs. butter
2 eggs
1 table-spoon milk
1 tea-spoon essence of vanilla
1 tea-spoon baking powder
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the eggs thoroughly and mix them with the butter and sugar. Sift in the cornflour, mixed with the baking powder, gradually, and mix well. Stir in about a table-spoonful of milk mixed with a small tea-spoonful of essence of vanilla.
Grease the patty pans with lard and sprinkle a little ground rice in each. Half fill them and bake in a quick oven for ten minutes.
*German Biscuits
5 ozs. flour
2 ozs. butter
2 ozs. sugar
2 yolks of eggs
1 white of egg
2 table-spoons cream or milk
1 oz. almonds
Beat the sugar and butter together. Add the flour and the beaten yolks. When well mixed add the cream or milk. Cut the paste thus made into strips and form it into different shapes. Brush over with the white of egg. Blanch and chop the almonds and strew them over the biscuits. Bake on a greased tin.
*Gingerbread Nuts
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
1¹⁄₂ lbs. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ oz. ginger
¹⁄₂ nutmeg grated
10 ozs. treacle
Sift the flour. Rub the butter finely into it. Sift the sugar and add it to the butter and flour. Add the rest of the ingredients (and caraway seeds if liked). Mix well together. Shape into little cakes. Bake on oiled paper in a slow oven.
Ginger Snaps
1 large cup butter and lard mixed
¹⁄₂ cup sugar
1 cup molasses
¹⁄₂ cup water
1 table-spoon ginger
1 table-spoon cinnamon
1 tea-spoon cloves
1 tea-spoon soda
Flour
Mix altogether, dissolving the soda in a very little hot water. Add sufficient flour to make a fairly stiff dough. Roll out thin and bake in a quick oven.
Ground Rice Biscuits
¹⁄₂ lb. ground rice
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. castor sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
2 eggs
1 tea-spoonful of baking powder
Mix the baking powder with the flour and ground rice, and then rub the butter into it. Add the well-beaten eggs. Roll out on a board and cut into rounds about the size of a five-shilling piece. Bake on a floured tin.
Hazel Nut Biscuits
4 ozs. hazel nuts
1 oz. sweet almonds
Whites of two eggs
6 ozs. powdered sugar
Flour
Blanch the nuts and pound them, but not very finely. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Mix them with the nuts. Add the sugar. Mix in sufficient flour to make a paste. Roll it out on a board as thin as possible. Cut into small rounds. Bake on buttered tins in a slow oven.
*Kletskoppen
7 ozs. flour
12 ozs. brown sugar
4 ozs. almonds
2 ozs. butter
Mix sugar and butter together. Add the flour and the almonds blanched and chopped. Divide into small cakes. Bake in a quick oven.
*Little Biscuits
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
2 eggs
¹⁄₄ lb. butter
¹⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar
A small tea-spoonful baking powder
A small wine-glass of sherry
Put the flour, sugar and baking powder into a basin and stir well together. Rub in the butter and add the well beaten eggs. Mix with the wine into a paste just firm enough to roll out on a paste-board. Cut out in little rounds with a small wine-glass. Bake on a floured tin until a delicate colour, like nicely baked pastry.
*Little Dutch Cakes
4 ozs. butter
4 ozs. white sugar
4 ozs. flour
Vanilla
2 yolks
1 white of egg
1 oz. almonds blanched and chopped
Mix the butter and sugar thoroughly together. Add the flour. Flavour with a few drops of vanilla. Beat the yolks and add them to the mixture. Roll out the paste. Shape it into rings. Dip each in the white of egg and sprinkle over them the chopped almonds.
Louisa Cakes
3 oz. cornflour
3 oz. flour
4 ozs. butter
3 eggs
4 ozs. powdered sugar
1 tea-spoon baking powder
Beat the butter to a cream and add the sugar. Then add one egg at a time, beating thoroughly. Stir in the flour (in which the baking powder has been mixed) and beat well. Bake in greased patty pan in a quick oven from 15 to 20 minutes. Ice when nearly cold with plain icing, p. 65, and ornament with crystallised cherries.
Macaroons
1 lb. sweet almonds
10 bitter almonds
Whites of eight eggs
1 tea-spoon arrowroot
Blanch and pound the almonds, adding to them a little rose water. Put in a basin, cover and set aside for twenty-four hours. Then beat the whites to a very stiff froth. Stir in the sugar lightly and add the almonds and arrowroot gradually. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture on buttered paper, sprinkle with powdered sugar and bake on a tin sheet in a quick oven until a delicate brown. One or two sliced almonds can be stuck into each biscuit.
Macaroons
1 lb. sweet almonds
Whites of four eggs
1 lb. powdered sugar
Rose water
Blanch and pound the almonds, add to them a little rose water. Mix thoroughly with the sugar over a fire. Whisk the whites to a stiff froth. Add to the almonds. Grease a paper and spread it on a baking sheet. Put the mixture on by spoonfuls. Bake in a rather slow oven for twenty minutes.
Madeleines
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
14 ozs. flour
1 lb. powdered sugar
6 eggs
1 dessert-spoon orange flower water
Melt the butter and pour it into a basin. Add to it gradually, beating all the time, the flour and sugar. Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the yolks first, then the flavouring, and, lastly, the whites. Butter a number of little tin shapes, fill them and bake in a moderate oven.
Oat Cakes
1 lb. oatmeal
A pinch of soda
Hot water
Mix oatmeal and soda, adding hot water to make a soft dough. Knead till smooth. Press into a round cake ¹⁄₂ inch thick, then roll out as thin as required with a roller. Divide into cakes with a cutter. Place them on a hot griddle and bake till firm. Take them off, rub them with meal and toast before the fire till they curl.
Orange Biscuit
Several Seville oranges
Their weight in powdered sugar
Boil the oranges whole, three times, changing the water each time. Cut them in halves and take out all the pulp and juice. Beat the outside very fine in a mortar and add to it the sugar. Mix into a paste. Spread very thinly on glass or plates and set in the sun to dry. When nearly dry cut into shapes and turn over. When quite dry put away in an air-tight tin.
*Orange Wafers
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
¹⁄₄ lb. flour
4 eggs
¹⁄₂ orange
1 lemon
Grate the yellow rind from half an orange. Put it in a cup and squeeze the juice of a whole lemon over it. After half-an-hour strain off the juice.
Beat the sugar and yolks until light and creamy. Add the strained juice and the whites whipped to a stiff froth. Sift in the flour and do not beat any more. Drop by the spoonful on to greased paper and bake quickly. Spread half of the wafers, when baked, with marmalade and put the others on top of them, pressing them lightly down.
Rice Cakes
2 eggs
Their weight in flour, powdered sugar and butter
1 large table-spoon rice flour
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon baking powder
Cream the butter and add the sugar. Mix the baking powder, flour and rice flour together and add to the butter and sugar. Whisk the eggs till light and frothy. Beat all well together. Bake in buttered patty pans.
Rock Cakes—I
¹⁄₂ lb. flour
2 ozs. butter
3 ozs. moist sugar
2 ozs. currants
2 eggs
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon baking powder
Rub the butter into the flour. Add the sugar and currants. Beat the eggs well and add to the mixture. Mix well together and drop in irregular shapes on a buttered tin. Bake in a moderate oven.
Rock Cakes—II
¹⁄₂ lb. self-raising flour
1 egg
¹⁄₄ lb. Demerara sugar
¹⁄₂ tea-cup milk
¹⁄₄ lb. butter and lard mixed
2 ozs. currants
Candied peel
1 table-spoon desiccated cocoanut
Mix flour, sugar, butter, currants and cocoanut well, then add the egg and milk. If the butter is soft it will not require all the milk, for they are better mixed as dry as possible. Put the mixture in rough pieces on a tin, and bake in a rather quick oven for fifteen or twenty minutes.
Shortbread
1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. fresh butter
¹⁄₄ lb. powdered sugar
Soften the butter a little and cut it into the flour. Knead in the sugar. Roll out. Cut into shapes. Bake in a tin, on buttered paper, until a delicate brown.
*Shortbread Biscuits
1 lb. flour
4 ozs. butter
1 egg
A little cream
Rub the butter into sifted and dried flour. Add the sugar and the egg slightly beaten.
Moisten with a very little cream or milk. Roll out thin. Cut into rounds. Bake on tins in a quick oven.
Snow Cakes
2 cups sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1 cup sweet milk
3 cups flour
3 tea-spoons baking powder
Whites of five eggs
Cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat well. Then add the flour, in which the baking powder should be mixed, and the milk. Beat for ten minutes. Whisk the whites to a stiff froth, and stir in lightly. Bake in square tins. When quite cold, cut off all the brown outside and divide into pieces about two inches square. Take each piece on a fork and ice and roll in finely grated cocoanut.
Sponge Fingers or Cakes
10 eggs
1 lb. powdered sugar
³⁄₄ lb. flour
Beat the eggs together until very light. Add the sugar and beat for fifteen minutes. Sift the flour in lightly. Bake in tins made for the purpose, in a quick oven.
Sugar Cakes
6 eggs
1 cup butter
3 cups sugar
Flour
Beat the yolks and whites separately very thoroughly. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the yolks. Beat well. Stir in the whites and enough flour to make a paste that can be lightly rolled out. Flavour with a few drops of lemon juice. Cut into rounds and bake in a quick oven.
Whole Meal Biscuits
1 cup rich cream, sour or sweet
¹⁄₄ cup powdered sugar
1 salt-spoon salt
2 cups fine whole meal
Mix together and knead with the hand until stiff enough to roll out as thin as a wafer. Cut into rounds and bake on floured tins in a very hot oven.