The fact that soda and cream of tartar are the ingredients of the best baking powders is well understood.
Dr. Lillis Wood Starr says: “Cream of tartar belongs to the same class with soda. Soda is bi-carbonate of sodium; cream of tartar is bi-tartrate of potassium. Sodium, potassium and calcium (lime) all belong to the same group of metals and are injurious to the tissues of our bodies.”
Dr. Lauretta Kress—“Cream of tartar or Potassium Bi-tartrate is a gastro-intestinal irritant like soda. By combining cream of tartar and soda, we have Rochelle salts. If needed as a cathartic, they are better given as such on an empty stomach; then the system quickly gets rid of them. If taken in food they are retained longer and become more irritating.”
“Sugar when largely used is more injurious than meat.”
Cake at its best is not to be recommended, but for those who have not yet discarded it, we give a variety of recipes for cakes without baking powder or soda: there are some, also, without eggs.
When a few more eggs are used in a cake than would be required with chemicals, remember that less of the nitrogenous is necessary in other dishes: also, that the health of your family is of the first importance and it would be better not to give them any cake at all than that which will poison their systems.
Use pastry flour for all cakes; and since different brands even of pastry flour differ, it is best to use the same brand when you find a good one and become accustomed to it.
Sift flour once before measuring; and from 3–5 times for angeland other sponge cakes after measuring. The best way to sift flour several times is to lay down two pieces of large letter or Manila paper and to sift the flour first on to one and then on to the other.
All measurements have the sifted flour laid lightly into the cup with a spoon. If the cup is shaken or knocked on the side with the spoon there will be too much flour.
Skimmed milk and oil may be used in cakes and the cream saved for other purposes.
At great altitude, more flour and less shortening and sugar will be required in cakes.
In recipes calling for cream of tarter, use lemon juice in the proportion of 1 tablespn. or more to each teaspoon of cream of tartar. A larger quantity of lemon juice makes the cake more tender.
2 whites of eggs are said to equal 1 rounded teaspn. of baking powder, for lightness.
Boil molasses or syrup before using in cakes.
Half oil instead of all butter may be used in nearly all cakes, and in some cases, all oil is better. Use salt with oil.
It is usually thought important to cream butter and sugar well together, but one professional cake-maker told me that cakes were lighter when the butter and sugar were just mixed.
Always add a little of the flour for cakes to the creamed butter or sugar and butter, before adding eggs, milk or other liquids.
Saffron is used for both color and flavor: a very small quantity only, is required of the imported for a deep color.
For variety, thin slices of sweet prunes or dates are nice in place of other fruits in cakes.
Round tube pans bake cake the most evenly, Turk’s head molds being the best of all.
Do not oil the tins, for cakes without shortening.
For cakes with shortening, oil the tins and sprinkle flour over, shaking off all flour that is loose; or, line tins with well oiled paper.
Some recommend dipping angel cake pans into cold water and filling while wet; then the cake falls out white when cold, leaving the crust sticking to the mold.
Always beat whites of eggs on a platter or in a large cake bowl or “bombe” with a whip, not with a revolving beater.
Chop and fold, never stir, the whites into cake, the flour also.
Have all ingredients and utensils for sponge cake cold, and if possible, put it together in a cold room.
For sponge cakes, follow directions for putting nut and citron cake together, or the hot water way following sponge layer cake.
Bake sponge cakes very slowly and evenly in an oven that bakes well from the bottom. They will retain their lightness better if carefully inverted in the tin after baking and left in that position until cool.
Bake cakes with shortening in a moderate oven.
Cool all cakes slowly. One colored cook told me that she always set her cakes on the stove hearth for a little while after taking them out of the oven. Of course they should be handled carefully.
Set warm layer and other cakes on a cloth wrung out of cold water and they will quickly loosen from the pan.
Loaf or layer cakes may be set in ice box in tins for 2 hrs. before baking.
3 or 4 rose geranium leaves laid in the bottom of the tin before the batter is poured in will flavor cake with rose, or the leaves may be laid between layers after baking, while cooling. If the loaf is one that will bear removing from the tin while warm, lay it on some of the leaves.
Cakes may be steamed instead of baked—sponge cakes 1 hour,fruit cakes longer. One recipe for fruit cake says, steam 4 hours and bake 1 hour. Use your judgment.
Sponge cakes—angel and others, are supposed to be broken apart with 2 forks, not cut.
If loaves of cake that are to be covered with whipped cream are cut before the cream is put on, the cake will look smooth and nice and the pieces will come out more neatly.
Cakes made with yeast require to be kept a little warmer than bread (unless you keep bread too warm), and flour, fruit and all ingredients should be warm when added.
Have all the ingredients as nearly ice cold as possible; sift the sugar, sift the flour twice and leave it in the sifter; beat the yolks of the eggs in a cake bowl with a revolving egg-beater (a large one if you have it), adding sugar gradually. When stiff, add part of the water and more sugar; beat, add more water, sugar and half the lemon juice, beating, until all the sugar is in.
Stir into this mixture half the nut meal, a pinch of salt and the citron. Rest the egg beater on a quart measure (or some dish of the required height) by the side of the bowl, and let it drain into the bowl while beating the whites of the eggs. It will drain much cleaner than it could be scraped, besides saving the time. Beat the whites of the eggs to a moderately stiff froth, add the remaining half tablespn. of lemon juice and whip till dry and feathery; let them stand a moment, then slide onto the yolk mixture; sprinkle part of the nut meal over them and sift on a little flour; chop in lightly, dipping from the bottom with a large thin spoon three times; add more meal and flour; chop; continue this until the flour is all in. Take care not tomix too much; the mixture must not get soft. Put into pan at once and bake slowly until the cake stops singing, or does not stick to a broom splint. Bake 1½ hours, according to the heat of the oven. The fine particles of citron give an unusually delightful flavor to the cake. Preserved orange peel, ground, may be used sometimes; or fine cut raisins or dried blueberries.
Cream butter and sugar; add flavoring and a little of the flour, then the beaten yolks; beat well. Slide the stiffly-beaten whites on to this mixture, sift flour over gradually and chop together as for nut and citron cake; bake in moderate oven in 3 medium sized layers; sift a little sugar over one layer before baking, sometimes, to make a crust for the top. If possible, set in ice box for an hour before baking.
Use ⅓–½ cup of milk and 2½–2¾ cups of flour in preceding recipe, and bake in patty pans.
Put together the same as “Julia’s Birthday Cake,” let stand on ice for 2 hours, or bake at once in loaf or layers.
If baked in layers, use Washington pie filling with it.
Cream butter, add sugar and work very light; add 1 egg at a time and stir only until no yolk can be seen; mix in flour, turn into paper-lined pan and set in ice box for 2 hours. Bake in slow oven about an hour, or until the cake stops singing.
Cream butter, add sugar, a little of the flour and beaten yolks with half the juice and all the rind of lemon.
Beat whites of eggs with a little salt, adding the remainder of the lemon juice when half beaten; slip on to cake batter, sift flour over gradually, and fold all lightly together. Put into pan to depth of not over 2 in. Bake in moderate oven.
Mix fruit with part of the flour, add nuts; cream butter with a little of the flour; beat together the sugar and yolks of eggs until very light and add with extract to creamed butter; beat well; whip whites of eggs with pinch of salt to stiff froth, add fruit and nuts to yolk mixture, chop in beaten whites and remainder of flour; bake in well oiled tin 1½–2½ hrs. in moderate and slow oven; cover when necessary.
The cake may be steamed 3–4 hrs. and baked ½–1 hr.
This cake will keep a long time with care and is unusually desirable. 3 times the quantity given will make 4 medium sized loaves.
Beat yolks with half the sugar and cream butter with the other half; mix, beat. (Part of the flour and corn starch may be added to the butter and sugar.) Beat whites of eggs stiff, slide on to the mixture, add flour and corn starch (which havebeen sifted together) gradually, chopping and folding in with the whites; bake in moderate oven. Two thick round layers.
The Misses Lisk Cake Tins
The Misses Lisk Cake Tins
Cream butter and sugar, add flavoring, beaten whites and flour, lay slices of fruit in and on top of cake. One very large square, or two rather small round loaves.
Cream butter, add sugar and flour mixed, seeds also if used. A little of the flour may be saved for rolling.
Roll to about 1 in. thick, of the shape to fit your tin; crinkle the edges, press them with a fork or cut with pastry jagger, slide on to tin, prick lightly with fork and bake in a slow oven for 1 hour; or, roll ½ in. thick and bake ½ hour only. The cake is sometimes creased in squares before baking, or the dough may be cut in round cakes and the edges crinkled.
The cake is better with oil and ¼ teaspn. of salt in place of butter. One cup of sugar is sometimes used with ½ cup of butter or oil, and again, 1 cup of butter or oil with ½ cup of sugar, but the cake is very nice with the proportions given. By some, brown sugar is considered most suitable.
Cream butter with a little flour, add eggs, one at a time, beating, add sugar (except a little for the top), rind and flour;spread thin in oiled pans, sprinkle with almonds, coriander and sugar, bake in moderate oven, cut in squares while hot, leave in pan to cool.
Cream oil and sugar, add a little flour, yolks of eggs, salt and flavoring, then milk and flour alternately; beat well and fold in the stiff whites of eggs. Chill, or bake at once thoroughly, in 1 large or 2 small loaves in moderate oven that bakes well from the bottom.
For cookies, use 2 whites of eggs only and make dough stiff enough to roll.
Beat eggs and lemon juice in bowl set in boiling water, add sugar, then boiling molasses, with butter and orange peel, and lastly the flour.
Mix butter and sugar and add to beaten yolks, beating well; slide on to this the whites beaten with salt and lemon juice, then sift over gradually the two flours mixed, chopping and folding them in with the whites. Bake in small cakes in moderate oven 15–20 m. Use grated maple sugar for maple cakes.
Cream butter and sugar, add anise and molasses, beat well and add flour; turn mixture out on floured board, mold up and put into flat tins about 1 in. deep, wash over with milk and bake in a very slow oven.
When done, wrap or cover with damp cloths and keep at least 4 days before using. If necessary, moisten the cloths again, and perhaps again. The cakes will be hard and dry when taken from the oven, but keeping them for a few days in damp (not wet) cloths makes them nice and tender. Grated orange peel and vanilla, together or separate, may be used for flavoring; but the delicate flavor of anise is especially agreeable.
By weight, the ingredients are 1½ lb. pastry flour, ½ lb. butter, ½ lb. brown sugar, ⅞ lb. molasses.
It is especially important to use pastry flour in cakes made with yeast.
A good liquid yeast gives better results in cake, but compressed yeast may be used.
⅔–1 cake compressed yeast dissolved in a very little water, with sugar, may be used instead of soft yeast, and 1 extra tablespn. of water added to the sponge.
Make a sponge at night of the milk (just warm), yeast and 4½ cups of flour, and in the morning add the cup of warm saffron water. Cream the butter and sugar with a little flour, add the sponge gradually, mixing and beating, then the remainder of the flour warm (except a little which has been used to dust the fruit), beat well, add the extract and warmed, floured fruit, mix andpour into 3 good sized paper lined cake pans. Let stand until bubbles appear in the batter, usually 2–3 hrs. with soft yeast; not so long, perhaps, with compressed; when light, put into a slow oven; let cakes come up slowly and bake very moderately until they stop singing, 1½–2 hrs., depending upon the heat of the oven, but they must bake slowly.
When cake is started in the morning, 6 tablespns. of soft, or a whole cake of compressed yeast may be used. The quantity of flour may need to be varied a little according to the brand.
Prepare as in preceding recipe (of which it is just half) and at the last divide into 2 parts, add the citron and rose to one, and the cocoanut and vanilla to the other. The loaves will not be very large.
The whole of the above recipe, using only ¾ cup of butter, with ¾–1 cup of citron, 1 cup of cocoanut and ⅔ cup of almonds, all ground.
Cut 2 cups dried apples into small pieces with shears, soak over night in 1½ cup water, then cook in ¾ cup molasses until transparent.
Sponge—1 cup water, 1 cake compressed yeast, 2½ cups flour.
When light, add ⅔ cup butter (or half oil) and ½ cup sugar creamed together, the dried apples, grated rind of orange or lemon, 2 beaten eggs and 2 cups flour.
One egg only may be used; the cake is excellent with no eggs.
Remember to lay flour lightly into cup.
Sponge—
When light—
Prepare same as saffron cake and bake in not too thick loaves.
Bake Washington cake in rather thin, flat loaf, split and put the following cream between and around, or put cream over and around cake without splitting.
Cream—
Heat oil, add flour, then hot milk, salt and sugar, stirring smooth at different stages. Steep a trifle of saffron in the milk. Add vanilla when cold.
Another Cream—
Sponge—
When light—
Make sponge at night with soft yeast or early in the morning with compressed.
When light, add the butter, well creamed with the sugar, and beaten eggs. Beat all very thoroughly and put into the tins. When partly risen, stick the fruit in all over the top; let riseabout 1½ hr., or until bubbles may be seen; bake 1 hr. in moderate oven. The cake is excellent without fruit.
Sponge—
When light—
Beat yolks with sugar and add to butter which has been creamed with part of the flour; then add the flavoring, the sponge, the milk and the flour alternating, beating until the flour is all in. Butter tube mold or other pans thick with cold butter and stick almonds to sides in regular rows. Do not put any in the bottom. Half fill pan with batter and let rise until pan is nearly full; bake 1 hr., or until cake stops singing, in moderate and slow oven so as not to burn nuts.
(Mrs. W. W. Wheeler, Ambato, Ecuador.)
Beat eggs and sugar, add oil, then the sponge, lastly fold in the flour; put into 3 layer cake pans and let stand for 2 or 3 hours in a not very warm place. Bake in moderate oven.
Filling—Beat the white of egg stiff, add 1 tablespn. sugar and 2 tablespns. thick cream, or, make a cream sauce of the yolk.
Cream the butter, add the sugar and beaten egg and mix all thoroughly with the dough; add a little flour, turn into tin and let rise ½ hr. or longer before baking.
Sponge—2 cups skimmed milk, 4 tablespns. yeast, 4½ cups flour.
When light—2 cups (1 lb.) butter, 2 cups molasses which has been boiled and cooled to lukewarm, 3 cups (not too fine) nuts, raisins, citron or cocoanut or combinations of same, 4–4½ cups flour, part for fruit. The whites of 2 eggs may be used with the 4 cups of flour.
Attend to sponge and cake as soon as light. Steam or bake.
Let rise, knead, spread on flat tin with floured hand, ¾–1 in. thick, spread with butter, sprinkle with sugar and ground coriander seed; or, spread with an egg beaten with a teaspn. of sugar, sprinkle with sugar and chopped or split blanched almonds; let rise; bake in moderate oven.
Use universal crust dough if a more tender cake is desired.
Put together and bake same as nut and citron cake except for the nut meal. This makes 1 loaf or 2 small layers. 3 times the quantity makes 2 large square loaves, or 4 large layers.
May use 1½ tablespn. of orange juice with yolks of eggs and ½ tablespn. lemon juice with whites in place of the water and lemon juice. Flavor sugar with oil of orange and add ½ teaspn. vanilla to the cake. Finished with royal filling and icing, this makes a cake suitable for a royal occasion.
(1) Use 2 tablespns. of cream in cake instead of lemon juiceand water, with or without 1 teaspn. of lemon juice in whites of eggs.
(2) Use ⅔ cup of molasses in place of the sugar, no water, 1 teaspn. only, of lemon juice in the whites of eggs, 1 cup of flour and 1–2 teaspns. ground coriander seed.
(3) Use brown sugar in place of white, and orange or vanilla flavoring.
Boil sugar and water till syrup will thread, pour hot syrup slowly over beaten yolks; beat until cool, chop in stiffly-beaten whites and flour; flavor if desired. 2 small layers.
The sponge layer cake and all sponge cakes containing the yolks of eggs may be put together as follows: Break the eggs into a cake bowl, set the bowl into a pan of boiling water on the table and beat until light; add hot water (if any) and the sugar (or the hot syrup) gradually, beating. When light, remove from water, add flavoring and fold in flour lightly.
Pour cold water over sugar, heat and boil slowly until perfectly clear; cool, beat yolks of eggs, add syrup and half the lemon juice and beat very light; slide whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth with the remainder of the lemon juice on to mixture, sift flour over, a little at a time, and chop in with whites until all the flour is in. Bake ¾–1 hr. in slow oven until just done, no longer. 1 large loaf in deep square tin.
Put together as nut and citron cake, or beat eggs in dish set in hot water, add sugar, cocoanut and flavoring, then flour. Put mixture 1½ in. deep in pans lined with buttered paper.
Beat eggs in dish set in hot water, add sugar, flavoring and rice and pastry flour mixed. Bake in moderate oven.
Sift 2 or 3 cups of sugar twice; measure out 1 cup; sift a sifter of flour 4 times; measure out 1 cup and mix it with the cup of sugar; put both in the sifter and sift once, return to the sifter and set in cold place; separate the eggs, putting the whites into the dish in which they are to be beaten and set them in a cold place for 15–20 m.; when cool, add the salt to the eggs and begin beating with a long slow stroke, gradually increasing the velocity until the eggs begin to stiffen, then pour the lemon juice over and beat more rapidly for a time; continue beating until whites are stiff and feathery, then add flavoring; sift flour and sugar mixture over gradually, chopping and folding it in carefully; when all is in, drop by spoonfuls evenly into the pan and bake in slow oven 35–50 m., testing with broom straw. When done, turn the pan upside down with the sides resting on two saucers (unless you have the pans with projections for that purpose), so that a current of air will pass under and over the cake.
Angel cake—½ white flavored with vanilla; ½ pink flavored with rose, 3 or 4 large layers. Other layers, of sponge layer cake lemon flavored, or some nice light brown cake such as molassessugar cake or sponge layer cake with part browned flour. Filling of raisin dressing.
Add dry flour all at once to boiling water and butter; stir quickly over the fire until mixture forms a ball which leaves the pan; remove from fire and stir till partly cool; add beaten yolks of eggs, part at a time, beating well, then slightly beaten whites; beat; set in cold place, covered, for 1 hr. or more; drop by spoonfuls about 2 in. apart on oiled and floured tin, flatten with brush or fingers dipped in milk (may leave without shaping); have oven rather quick at first, then slower until there is no “singing”. Puffs are light weight when done. They will keep for several days. Reheat before filling. To fill, cut open at the side with shears.
The butter and flour may be creamed together first, and the boiling water poured over, then the whole cooked as before.
Cream—
Mix sugar and flour, pour boiling milk over, boil up well; pour over beaten eggs, return to fire until just creamy, not boiling, cool; add salt and flavoring.
If cream is preferred thicker, use ½ cup of flour and cook in double boiler 15 m. before adding the eggs.
Whipped cream may be used for the filling, but does not harmonize as well with the shells.
These shells are sometimes used for trumese and celery salad, or for creamed meat dishes.
Dainty little puffs filled with different creams may be used for garnishes for desserts, or piled on fancy plates for cakes.
Caraway or anise seeds, ground coriander or anise seed; chopped shelled nuts; grated or shredded cocoanut; grated orange or lemon rind; English currants; fine cut or ground raisins, citron, figs and dates; sometimes a raisin or half a blanched almond or half of a pecan or hickory nut meat in the center of each.
Coriander, English currants and English walnuts; raisins in molasses cookies; almonds chopped without blanching, and raisins; almonds same, and caraway or ground coriander seed.
Graham flour cookies with English currants; 1 part raisins and ⅓ part each of nuts, cocoanut and citron, with or without vanilla or lemon.
All cooky dough should be set in a cold place for 2 hrs. or longer before rolling out. Roll out in cool room on well floured board. Cut the cakes all out, put on tins and set in cold place before beginning to bake them as the baking will require all one’s attention.
Very thin dough may be cut oblong, round or in any desired shape and some of the following fillings placed between each two pieces before they are baked—
Ground or mashed dates or figs rolled thin and cut with the same cutter that the dough was cut with; raspberry or other fruit jams and jellies or orange marmalade, also some of the suitable cake fillings.
It may sometimes be more convenient to cut the dough into strips 4 in. wide, spread half the width with the fruit, fold the other half over, pinch down the edge and cut into 3 in. lengths.
Tops of cookies may sometimes be brushed with white of egg and water or with syrup of ½ cup each sugar and water boiled together; or, sprinkled with sugar, coriander, chopped nuts or suitable fruits.
Instead of sprinkling cookies with different materials, brushthe tops with milk and turn them on to any preparation or mixture desired.
Grated and sifted maple sugar may be used in place of other sugar in cookies by using a somewhat smaller quantity.
Oil and flour pans for baking cookies.
It is a good plan to bake cookies on the bottom of inverted dripping pans. This prevents them from burning on the bottom and it is easier to remove them from the tins.
(From an old recipe book of my auntie’s, published in 1846)
By weight—
Cream butter, add sugar, beaten eggs, flavoring and flour; let stand in cold place until thoroughly cold; roll ⅜–½ in. thick. Bake in oven which is moderately hot at first, so cakes will not spread. Be careful not to burn.
A little more flour may be used if preferred, also half oil instead of all butter, and brown sugar instead of granulated.
ForJumbles, break off pieces of dough the size of a walnut and make into rings by rolling out rolls as large as the finger and joining the ends; or, cut in rings; dust with sugar.
Poach yolks of eggs dry and mealy; rub them smooth and add butter gradually, creaming; add sugar and flavoring, then flour, a little at a time; cool, roll thin, cut with doughnut cutter, dust with sugar, bake.
Cream butter and sugar, stir in a little flour, add beaten yolks, beat well, then add the cream gradually with the flavoring, and lastly, all of the flour. Handle after mixing the same as rich small cakes. Fruits, nuts or seeds maybe added. These cookies will keep almost indefinitely.
Take ½ the sugar and a little more flour in rich small cakes, or cream cookies, and roll to ½ or 1 in. in thickness. Cut of the size to fit tins, crinkle edges or press with fork, crease in squares and bake in moderate oven. Caraway or other flavoring may be used. Chopped nuts, a little sugar and ground or shredded citron may be mixed on a board or flat pan and one side of the cakes pressed into the mixture before baking. Set in cold place before rolling out.
Cream butter, add sugar and a little flour, with seeds, then the yolks of the eggs, one at a time, and the stiffly-beaten whites, with flour, folding together lightly; knead in flour for soft dough, cover and set in cold place; roll rather thin, cut cakes about the size of a half dollar.
Mix lightly, set in cold place, roll rather thin.
Cream butter with a little flour, add beaten egg and honey, then remainder of flour.
Heat molasses to boiling and pour slowly, stirring, over well beaten eggs; cool; cream butter and sugar, stir in browned flour mixed with a little of the white flour, add flavoring with eggs and molasses, then the remainder of the flour or enough to make a not too soft dough. Set in cold place and roll out the same as small cakes. Care must be taken in baking, as molasses burns easily.
Or, boil and cool molasses, cream butter and sugar, add beaten eggs, a little flour, then molasses gradually, beating well, and finally, the flour.
Browned flour may be omitted and a few drops of rose extract used in flavoring.
Cream butter with a little flour, add molasses which has been boiled and cooled, with flavoring, and flour for stiff dough, about 2¼ qts. Mix as little as possible, cover and set in cold place for several hours. Shape into small thick cakes, or, roll about ½ in. thick, prick with fork or crease and cut into small cakes. Bake in moderate oven. Remove from tins as soon as baked.
With nice flavored molasses, no other flavoring is necessary. More shortening may be used.
Cream butter, sugar and the 2 cups of flour, pour hot molassesover, add flavoring and flour for stiff dough, perhaps about 6 cups; press together lightly, set in cold place for several hours; roll thin, bake in moderately quick oven and remove from tins at once. These cakes will be brittle when first made and will grow softer with time. One cup of butter may be used for richer cakes.
Beat eggs, add sugar gradually, beating well; then add flour, salt and nuts. Mix, spread as thin as possible on buttered pans, set in cold place, bake in quick oven. When nearly cold, cut into squares.
Mix, drop on well oiled tins some distance apart, bake. Remove from tins when taken from the oven.
Cream together ¼ cup butter and 1 cup sugar, add 1 well beaten egg and 1 cup of flour to which has been added a pinch of salt; stir in 1 cup chopped nut meats; drop in spoonfuls on buttered tins and flatten or shape a little; bake in moderate oven.