WHEN MAKING CAKES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18512, 8 March 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

WHEN MAKING CAKES.

It is useless to expect good results from cake-making if pure ingredients are not used, and care is not taken in the baking. Cake-tins should be greased before the ingredients are mixed, and the oven prepared. The best place in which to put a cake is in the middle of the oven. Cakes for children should be made with fresh eggs and butter, and the addition of currants increases the nourishing qualities of the cake as well as adding to their attractiveness. The currants should be quite dry, after having been washed in several waters. Candied and lemon peel should be sliced as thinly as possible, as this is somewhat indigestible. Rasins should be stoned, and sultanas when cut in half improve the flavour of the cake. Almonds should be blanched and sliced lengthways, while a few cut width ways are useful for decorative purposes. Flour should be dry and finely-sifted, and is better slightly warmed. If damp the cake will be heavy. When whole eggs are used the result is a close kind of cake, and when yokes and whites are whipped separately the cake is of a lighter variety. The cake-tin should be lined with greased paper, which should project about three inches above the sides of the tin. For a rich cake the butter should be creamed to a light, frothy substance. The oven must be hot at first, i.e., about 350 degrees, if you have an oven thermometer. If not, put in a piece of white paper, and If after a few minutes it turns dark brown, it is right for a large cake. If the oven is too hot at first, it wall brown the cake too soon, and so stop it from rising, which It does as soon as it begins to colour. If not hot enough the cake wall fall and become stodgy. Leave the cake for ten or twenty minutes—according to size—at the temperature stated, then lower the gas, and again lower it to finish off the baking. Do not bang the oven door when opening it to see how things are going on. To know if the cake is done, insert a skewer in the centre. If it comes out clean it is done; then turn the cake on to a wire tray or upturned sieve, to allow the steam to escape and prevent it from getting sodden. The richer and more liquid the mixture, the longer it takes to bake.

BLANKET WASHING. Soak blankets when washing them in cold water for twenty-four hours. Then squeeze free of water. For each pair allow two tablespoonfuls of powdered borax and four tablespoonfuls of soft soap. Put this into a large dipper or bucket, and pour on boiling water gradually, stirring hard until the soft soap is entirely dissolved. If the vessel is placed on the fire this proceso will be hastened. When the soft soap is all dissolved, pour the mixture into the washing tub and add enough cold water to soak the blankets properly. Let all get quite cold. Then put the blankets in this, and let them soak for several hours. Then swish them about and put them through the wringer. Rinse them thoroughly in clean, cold water, probably needing three or four changes. This process keeps them very soft and white.

PEST REMEDIES. Insect bites are best sponged with strong watch hazel and menthol. The menthol is important, for it anaesthetises the wound considerably. Touching the part with ammonia will also help. Lead, opium, and tar lotion is good to apply where there is much inflammation. Blistering is best treated wdth a weak solution of soda. Oily substances should be avoided, as they only tend to cause further blisters where the skin is sunburnt. Peeling skin can be softened with a little glycerine and then massaged with milk and water. The delicate underskin should be well protected from the sun after this treatment with a good powder.

DAINTY SHEETS. We are told that the craze for coloured bed linen is growing, and more and more women are realising that, in London especially, pale pinks and blues, yellow and lettuce green are really more practical shades for sheets than white, says a London exchange. The writer admired the pale primrose sheets and pillow cases on a bed in a London home recently which toned deliciously with the hangings and wdndow curtains.

PRESERVED PEARS AND PINES. For bottling: Two dozen small pears, two pineapples. Peel the pears, peel and slice the pineapples. Make a syrup of 41b. sugar to five pints water, put in the fruit and simmer till tender.

INDOOR SLIPPERS. Baby’s indoor slippers should have the soles rubbed from time to time with sandpaper to roughten them. This will save many a tumble on wooden floors and 1 a oleum, caused by the glassy smoothness of the shoe soles.