The cake and biscuit book

Buttercup Cake

³⁄₄ cup butter
1¹⁄₂ cups sugar
Yolks of eight eggs
1 whole egg
¹⁄₂ cup milk
2 cups flour
¹⁄₂ tea-spoon carbonate of soda
1¹⁄₂ tea-spoons cream of tartar
Juice and grated rind of half a lemon

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat thoroughly. Beat the eggs till light and frothy. Add to the butter. Dissolve the soda in the milk. Mix the cream of tartar with the flour. Add milk and flour to the mixture, beating well continually. Add the lemon juice and rind. Bake in two greased tins in a moderate oven until the cake shrinks from the sides.

*Chocolate Cake—I

9 ozs. butter
7 ozs. chocolate powder
9 ozs. sugar
5 eggs
6 ozs. flour

Mix the chocolate powder (which should be of the finest quality) with the butter. Beat for a quarter of an hour. Add the sugar and beat again. Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the yolks, then the flour, beating well all the time. Add the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a tin lined with greased paper in a moderate oven for an hour.

*Chocolate Cake—II

4 ozs. powdered chocolate
4 ozs. castor sugar
4 ozs. butter
3 eggs
2¹⁄₂ ozs. flour
1 small tea-spoon baking powder

Put the chocolate into the oven to warm. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the eggs until light and creamy. Add them to the butter and sugar. Then stir in the warmed chocolate and mix thoroughly. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add gradually, beating hard all the time. Beat for ten minutes. Bake in a tin lined with greased paper in a quick oven for an hour.

*Chocolate Cake—III

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
12 eggs
¹⁄₂ lb. powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. pounded almonds
4 ozs. powdered chocolate
1 salt-spoon crushed cloves and mace

Beat the butter to a cream. Add the yolks gradually, beating continually. Add the pounded almonds, sugar, chocolate and spices. Beat altogether for twenty minutes. Add the whites whisked to a stiff froth. Bake in a German tin (see p. 1) lined with greased paper, in a very moderate oven for an hour and a quarter. Ice when cold.

Gold Cake

1 lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
1 lb. flour
Yolks of ten eggs
Grated rind of one orange
Juice of two lemons
1 tea-spoon carbonate of soda

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the yolks. Beat hard for five or six minutes. Add the flour. Dissolve the soda in a very little hot water. Stir it thoroughly into the mixture. Add the lemon and orange flavouring. This flavouring should be prepared beforehand by putting the grated orange peel to soak for half-an-hour in the lemon juice, which should then be strained off through fine muslin. Bake in greased tins. Ice with orange icing (see p. 68).

Marbled Cake

1 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups flour
4 eggs
1 cup sweet milk
1 tea-spoon baking powder
1 heaping table-spoon grated chocolate
1 dessert-spoon milk

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Add the well-beaten eggs and the flour, in which the baking powder should be mixed. Take out a tea-cup of the mixture and add the chocolate and the milk to it.

Butter a tin and fill it to the depth of an inch with the white mixture. Drop two or three spoonfuls of chocolate mixture on to this in circles and spots. Add another layer of the white mixture and on to it drop more of the brown, and so on until both mixtures are finished.

Nut Cake

1¹⁄₂ cups sugar
¹⁄₂ cup butter
2 cups flour
³⁄₄ cup milk
Whites of four eggs
1 cup broken nuts
2 tea-spoons baking powder

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Mix the baking powder with the flour. Add it to the mixture with the milk, beating well all the time. Mix in the nuts thoroughly. Lastly add the whites, which should be beaten as stiff as possible. Bake in shallow square tins. Ice.

*Shortbread—I

1 lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
3 ozs. sugar

Knead all together until smooth. Roll out an inch thick. Prick all over with a fork. Bake quickly in shallow buttered tins.

*Shortbread—II

¹⁄₂ lb. flour
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
¹⁄₂ lb. butter
4 eggs
2 ozs. comfits
Grated rind of a lemon

Beat the butter to cream. Add the flour, sugar and eggs alternately in small quantities. When thoroughly mixed, add the grated rind and mix again lightly. Pour into a greased oblong tin (the mixture should be about an inch and a half deep). Sprinkle the comfits over the surface. Do not allow the cake to colour deeply in baking.

*Walnut Cake

¹⁄₂ lb. butter
¹⁄₂ lb. sugar
4 eggs
4 ozs. flour
4 ozs. pounded dry walnuts

Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Beat well. Beat the yolks and whites separately. Add the yolks to the cake. Mix the flour and the walnuts, which must be pounded as fine as possible. Add to the mixture. Stir in the whites. Bake in a shallow square tin. Ice.