THE HOUSEHOLD

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1107, 19 May 1893, Page 15

THE HOUSEHOLD

CAKEMAKING. Some Suggestions For Insuring Satisfac* tory Results. Cakemaking occupies a unique position in culinary work. People will undertake to make cake who never think of doing anything else in the way of cookery. Many fail and blame recipes for disappointments, which are entirely the result of neglect of some rule founded on common sense and recognized by experience. Before everything else, those who desire to excel in cakemaking must give attention to the minutest particulars. Much of this attention must be devoted to the choice and the preparation of ingredients. Cakes are never dainty when the materials of which they are composed are not dainty. Gritty currants, chance raisin seeds and the presence of unexpected small stones have spoiled many a cake that but for them would have been a brilliant success. Before beginning to mix cakes at all prepare every ingredient most carefully. Use only the best flour, and, excepting in hot weather, warm and afterward sift this flour before using it. Do this slowly, that it may be dry as well as warm. Especially should this be done if the flour has been kept in a cold, damp place. The use of damp flour is a great hindrance to successful cakemaking. The sugar for cakes should he fine and white.

More cakes are spoiled from "something going wrong with the eggs" than from any other cause. The eggs should be quite fresh. To make the most of them, the whites and yolks should be beaten separately. Egg whites can be most easily beaten till firm in a cold place, and a little salt sprinkled upon them facilitates matters. Many people think that the lightness of a cake depends upon the number of eggs employed. This, however, is not the case. "Eggs bind as well as lighten," and when their number is increased there should be a corresponding increase in the allowance of butter. Cakes lightened with baking powder are not necessarily made more light because eggs are also used; they are only enriched by the addition, while cakes that are moistened sufficiently with eggs without milk do not require baking powder or yeast at all. Cakes made light with baking powder, soda or beaten eggs should be baked as soon as mixed. Therefore they should not be mixed until all the ingredients are prepared and until the oven is heated. Cakes of this description are very often spoiled through being mixed too wet. When cakes are to be made, the molds should be most carefully prepared. For rich cakes the bottom and sides of the molds should be lined with doubled paper cut to the size and well buttered. For plain cakes the mold itself may be buttered and the paper dispensed with. Pretty Garnishing For Dishes. There is so much in the garnishing of Wishes.' B>aye plenty of crisp, green parsley; ( , cut lemons jntp thin slices and quarter)! them; cast colored jelly jnto mblds, mcyj as half egg cups, and use them round thp dishes. Use the tops pf watercress and the green ends of celery, and cut boiled beejb root into nice little shapes. They will alj. come in for "garnish." Soft Sugar Cookies. Rub together till white a teacupful of butter, two of sugar, then stir in a couple of beaten eggs, a little flour, grate in a nutmeg, dissolve a teaspoonful of saleratus in a teacupful of milk or water, strain it on the cake, then add flour until stiff enough to roll out nicely, but not too thinly.

Cushions For Stickpins.

The pretty stickpins now so fashionable deserve special arrangements for their safe and convenient keeping, and these are to be found in a number of charming little hanging cushions easily made by adepts in the manufacture of dainty decorative articles. One of the prettiest of these is here illustrated. The egg shaped padded center is covered with pompadour silk and bordered with a Jace frilling. It is suspended from the wall or looking glass by upright loops and swallow ends in embossed ribbon, bordered with satin stripes. Another unique arrangement, called the "double

EGG SHAPED CUSHION, target," consists Of two raised cushions—a largo one and a small one—in plush of contrasting shades, each fixed to the center of a flat foundation of bright colored satin and edged with radiating lace bows. The smaller cushion is hung beneath the larger, and a chain of two mixed cords finished off with a trefoil suspends the whole from the looking glass. Both large and small pins can bo fixed on these attractive targets. Another of these cushions is the "coronet" of shot velvet, surrounded with a crossband of satin, which is headed with fan shaped festoons of spangled lace, hiding the stuffed cushion. These cushions, when stuck full of the jeweled and fancy pins that ladies use for lacepins and gentlemen wear in their ties, are very attractive,

What Is Fur For? Why do you have fur on your jacket to keep you warm? What an odd idea, as the girl said when her friend wished her a happy married life. When have you seen fur worn to add to the wearer's warmth? Oh, of course, sometimes, but you see it mostly on the edges of skirts, jackets and hats. Not every jacket that has fur on it has fur inside. Many have fur cuffs and broad fur collars, and. some even have an edge of fur a little way back and nearly all the way around, but all of that is for show and not for warmth. Even gloves have fur on the edge of the wrists, but few have fur inside. Likewise the garments that are furlined —is the fur made use of for warmth?

Well, not if the girl can possibly live with her jacket open. Most of them are made so that the collar rolls over all the way down to the edge of the cloak or jacket. That shows the fur so nicely, and when the wind blows it makes the thing spread out and show the fur more. It is almost as nice as taking it off publicly and laying it, lining out, on the chair in front of you. Comfort is distinctly a secondary consideration to the average woman. Of course she is cold with tight gloves on, but loose warm ones are so ugly; her little pink ears are cold, but who would wear earmuffs and look so horrid; leggings are ever so comfortable, but they are so clumsy, and so on. It is only because her good looks are as dear as herself that she should be more careful. If she gets a cold, she would have a red nose, and she will get a cold if she doesn't wear her cloak shut up, even if it has fur lining.—Louisville Courier-JournaL A New Bicycle For Women. A new bicycle, designed especially as a "woman's safety," claims to be essentially a hygienic machine and to have the ease and lightness without the incidental cost and inconveniences of a machine fitted with pneumatic tires. In the designing of the new machine, which is remarkably free from combinations of springs and complicated parts, the whole of the framework is made to form the spring, but it is staid in such a manner that no power is lost when the driving power is applied. The "C" spring front wheel fork is made in one continuous piece, thus neutralizing vibration to the hands. The arched springs which carry the seat are connected with the continuous spring of the lower frame, so that both seat and pedals are insulated from the vibration. The resujt of this arrangement is that the machine runs with remarkable ease and comfort. The brake is so applied that the rider is not covered with dust or dirt in the act of braking, and in place of the ordinary saddle a seat is provided which enables the rider to maintain an upright position with the shoulders well set back. The seat is set back at an angle of 45 degrees from the driving axle, and this allows a lady to adjust her dress before starting in such a manner that monntIng can be effected with the greatest ease, and even if the rider wishes to stop In the most crowded streets she pan djb, bo with impunity, as she can start agaiii without the slightest help.—Pittsburg Dispatch. A Fashionable Woman's Paris Money. An American woman in Paris a couple of years ago, when the fashion of trimming bonnets with dead birds was at its height, saw in it a chance of making money enough to pay her expenses in the gay capital for another season. She made a contract to supply a Parisian millinery firm with 20,000 birdskins at 40 cents apiece. Returning home, she went to a large island pn the yjrginia coast, which had always been a famous, breeding ground for gulls and other birds, and offered to pay 10 cents for each skin. The same offer was published along the southern coast. The gunners went to work. Every kind of bird was slaughtered, from the heron to the humming bird. The murder was wholesale. As a result thousands of women decorated their hats with the dead bodies that winter, and the shrewd American woman, with her profit over expenses of $4,000 or $5, ( 000, spent probably a gay season in Paris untroubled by remorse. But the mother birds being shot, countless fledgelings died of starvation in the nests. On the island, which for hundreds of years had been full of innocent, happy life, there is now scarcely the chirp of a bird to be heard. This is but one chapter of the story of the widespread destruction of birds to satisfy the vanity of women.—Youth's Companion. Pitch, Tar and Turpentine? Pitch is the residuum obtained by boiling tar in an open pot or in a still until the volatile and liquid portion is driven off, Tar is obtained from pine wood by the process of charring. Turpentine is an oily resinous substance flowing from the pine and other coniferous trees. The Tarn O'Shanter Inn. Lovers of Burns will be interested to know that the famous Tarn O'Shanter inn at Ayr was recently sold by public auction for over $15,000. The property originally belonged to the Weavers'