The Home

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 13, 29 March 1906, Page 29

The Home

By 'Maureen'

The Mixing and Baking of Cakes. The flour for cakes should be well dried by the fire before being used. The fruit washed, picked, and well dried in a lloured cloth some hours before being wanted. The Icandiedj 'peel cut into small pieces, the almonds sliced, and the cherries, etc., prepared. Everything should be ready before the mixing begins ; the oven should be ready Ifor the cakes, as on no account must the cakes be kept waiting for it. The whites of eggs are whipped separately for sponge cakes, yolks and whites together for ordinary cakes. Lmless 'the recipe distinctly states otherwise, the usual process of mixing cakes is to cream the butter and sugar, add thef whipped eggs, the fluid .and flavoring, then dredge) in the flour, "whipping all the time, and lastly ,mix in the fruit. If baking powder is used it is mixed into tTie dry flour. In making sponge cakes, the whipped whites of eggs should be added last. If beef dripping is used (and there is no reason that it should not be employed for plain cakes) it must be thoroughly clarified. The cake tins should be well greased with lard, dripping, or butter, and when possible lined with wellgreasedj paper. A piece should also be cut to cover over the top. Mow as regards baking. The Fire should be so made up that it will last throughout the baking of a cake ; a hotter oven is needed for a thin, cake than for a tMck one. The oven door should not be opened for twenty minutes after the cake is put in, except in the case of small bun,s, when it may be opened at ten minutes ; a cake should never be jarred or the oven door slammed. It is hardly possible to give the exact time for baking cakes, but whenever possible the best way is to test the article before removing it from the oven by running a long, thin skewer or common straw into the centre of it: if itycomes out} dry and clean the cake is done; if it sticks and is wet, further baking is required. The heat of the oven must now be considered. If a thermometer is not in use, the best way of testing is to tear up a sheet of kilchen paper and try the oven by placing it in it every few minutes until the required temperature is arrived at. If after the stay of a few minutes the paper turns a dark brown the oven is 'hot' and fit for patties and small pastry. If after the same time the paper turns a good brown the oven is 'quick' and ready for tarts and things of that description. If a yellowish-brown the oven is 'moderately ((uick' or 'soaking,' ready! for bread, cakes, etc. If after being left in a few minutes the paper is only slightly tinged, sponge cakes, meringues, etc., may be baked. Oven thermometers are the greatest help to an inexperienced cook. Four hundred and fifty degrees correspond to a ' hot ' oven, 400 degrees to a .quick or sharp oven, 350 degrees moderately q-uick 1 , 300 degrees steady or soaking;, 273 degrees to 250 degrees slack or cool oven. Both bread and cakes should be a few minutes in the oven before itysginning to color, for after they turn brown they stop rising. Sponge Cake. Five new-laid eggs, the weight of four eggs in sugar and of three in flour, naif a tcaspoonful Manilla or lemon juice. Beat the yolks and the sugar together with the flavoring, sprinkle in the flour, beat the white to a froth and star them in very lightly with a few turns only, or the cake will be heavy. Bake for three quarters of an hour in a buttered mould in a very moderate oven. These mixtures are the foundations of layer cakes of all sorts ; they can also be cut into small rounds, hearts, or ovals, and iced and decorated in various ways.