MAKING CAKES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 211, 5 August 1940, Page 11

MAKING CAKES.

SOME HANDY HINTS. (Copyright.) Cakes can lie made either with or without butter or its substitute and with or without eggs. Cake without butter comes under the sponge cake variety, whether so called, termed angel cake, or is given some fancy name. It is a cake in which no necessary ingredient is omitted, or any substitute used. ]t is a specific kind of cake, delicious and delicate, a cake preferred to any others by many persons.. Cake without eggs can be made by substituting some raising agent such as yeast, baking powder, or soda if sour milk is among the ingredients. Cakes without eggs do not belong in the class of fine cakes, as do those made without butter, as mentioned above, for eggs, if not butter, are essential to really good cake. Both are included in practically all recipes other than those for sponge varieties. When eggs are omitted, the cake comes under the category of thrift cake. It is possible to reduce the number of eggs by one, when there are three or more used, if the amount of baking powder is increased by a quarter teaspoonful. The lightness of the cake is not diminished although the richness is somewhat.

By the addition of an extra egg to a one or two egg cake recipe both the lightness of texture and the- richness of quality are improved. When the recipe calls for more than the number of eggs specified above, extra eggs are of no special advantage. When pull.ets’ eggs are used in cakes, extra ones are an improvement to recipes since the egg content is small. For example, a one-egg cake is better with two eggs, the additional one being rather essential when eggs are not up to normal size. When two eggs aro called for use three pullet-size eggs to ensure the wanted light texture, or when three' eggs are stated in the recipe use four. While the extra number may not be absolutely necessary to the rising of the batter, it is needed lor the flavour and wanted texture.

The more eggs in a cake recipe the less liquid is needed. For example, a sponge cake may call for 1-3 or .even as little as | cup of water, while a cake containing butter and eggs seldom requires less than one full cup of liquid. This is partly due to the latter kind of cake calling for more flour than docs the cake depending upon eggs for its delicate lightness. However, _ the fact that there is so much liquid in the eggs themselves is the outstanding reason. When extra eggs arc used in a cake the proportions of liquid can be slightly reduced, a scant cup measurement instead of a full one may be used.