Читать книгу The Young Housekeeper's Friend - Mrs. Cornelius - Страница 11

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When cake or pastry is to be made, take care not to make trouble for others by scattering materials, and soiling the table or floor, or by the needless use of many dishes. Put on a large and clean apron, roll your sleeves above the elbows, tie something over your head lest hair may fall; take care that your hands are clean, and have a basin of water and a clean towel at hand. Place every thing you will need on the table; butter the pans, grate the nutmegs, and squeeze the lemons. Then break the eggs, each in a cup by itself, lest adding a bad one to the others should spoil the whole. Then weigh or measure flour and sugar, and, if not already done, sift them. Make your cake in an earthen, and not in a tin pan.

In warm weather put your eggs into cold water some time before you are ready to break them. They cut into a much finer froth for being cold. For some kinds of cake the whites should be cut to a stiff froth, and the yolks beaten and strained, and then put to the butter and sugar after these have been stirred till they look like cream. Then mix the flour gradually.

When cream or sour milk is to be put in, half of it should be added when half the flour is mixed in; then the remainder of the flour, and then the saleratus dissolved in the other half of the cream or milk. Lastly, add the spice, wine, lemon-juice, or fruit.

In summer do not stir cake with the hand; the warmth of it makes it less light. A wooden spoon, kept on purpose, is the best thing. In winter, soften, but do not melt the butter, before using it. Cake not raised with yeast, should be baked as soon as it is made, except such as is hard enough to be rolled. Cookies and sugar gingerbread roll out more smoothly the next day.

Firkin butter must be cut in small pieces, and washed, to remove some of the salt. Drain it well, or it will make heavy cake. Never put strong butter into cake; it renders it disagreeable and unhealthy.[6]

Fresh eggs are needed for nice white cake. Those kept in lime-water will do for raised cake and cookies.

New Orleans, or other good brown sugar, is best for raised, fruit, and wedding cake, but it should be coarse-grained and clean. It will answer also for cup cake, especially if fruit is used. White sugar must be used for sponge and other white cake.

The fruit should be added to raised cake when it is ready for the oven. Spread it equally over the top, and press it only a little below the surface, else it will sink to the bottom.

Cask raisins should be washed before being stoned, and box raisins also, unless fresh. In stoning them, cut them in two or three pieces, or chop them.

Keep currants ready prepared for use. To do this, wash them in warm water, rubbing them between the hands, and then pour off the water. Repeat this till the water is clear, then drain them in a sieve, spread them on a cloth on a table, and rub them dry with the ends of the cloth. Then brush the good ones into a dish in your lap, putting aside the bad ones on the table. Dry them in a gentle warmth, and set them away for use.

Buttered white paper in the bottom and sides of pans for cake requiring long baking, is needful; and paper not buttered is good for other kinds of cake, as it prevents burning. It will readily peel off when the cake is taken from the pans.

Attention and practice will teach when cake is well baked. When it is done enough, it settles a little away from the pan. Even well made cake becomes heavy by being taken out of the oven before it is perfectly baked. Moving it carelessly while it is baking will also make light cake fall. If you have occasion to change the position of the pans, do it gently.

A tin chest or a stone jar is good to keep cake in, and it is a good way to let that which is not to be kept long, remain in the tins in which it was baked.

Directions for beating the Whites of Eggs.

On breaking eggs, take care that none of the yolk becomes mingled with the whites. A single particle will sometimes prevent their frothing well. Put the whites into a large, flat dish, and beat them with an egg-beater made of doubled wire, with a tin handle; or with a cork stuck crosswise upon the prongs of a fork. Strike a sharp, quick stroke through the whole length of the dish. Beat them in a cool place till they look like snow, and you can turn the dish over without their slipping off. Never suspend the process nor let them stand, even for one minute, as they will begin to return to a liquid state, and cannot be restored, and thus will make heavy cake. After they are beaten to a stiff froth they will not return to a liquid state.

The above directions are designed to prevent the necessity of repetition and minuteness in each receipt. The young cook is advised to refer to them in making cake, that she may know at once how to proceed.

Frosting.

A pound of the best of fine white sugar, the whites of three fresh eggs, a teaspoonful of nice starch, pounded, and sifted through a piece of muslin or a very fine sieve, the juice of half a lemon, and a few drops of the essence.

Beat the whites to a stiff froth, then add them to the sugar, and stir it steadily until it will stay where you put it. It will take nearly two hours, perhaps more. Dredge a little flour over the cake, and brush it off with a feather. This is to prevent the frosting from being discolored by the butter contained in the cake. Lay it on smoothly with a knife, and return the cake to the oven twelve or fifteen minutes.

Another (measured).

To a coffee cup of sifted sugar, the white of one egg, half a teaspoonful of powdered starch, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Observe the directions for making it, in the previous receipt. This will frost two small pans or one large one.

Another way.

A pound of the best crushed or loaf sugar, the whites of three eggs, the juice of a lemon, and a teaspoonful of finely powdered starch. To mix it, put the sugar into a deep bowl, and pour upon it just cold water enough to soften the lumps, then beat the whites of eggs about half as much as for nice cake—not to a stiff froth; add them to the melted sugar, and set the bowl into a kettle of boiling water, and stir the mixture steadily. It will soon become thin and clear, and afterwards thicken. When it has become quite thick, take it from the fire and stir it till it is cold, and thick enough to spread with a knife. This is enough for a large loaf.