Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, 9 December 1915, Page 57

Domestic

(By Maureen.)

CHRISTMAS COOKERY.

Economical Christmas Cake.

Take Mb of butter, lard, mixed peel, l|lb currants, 11b of sugar, one nutmeg, half a teaspoonful of salt, one packet of egg powder, one gill of best stout. Cream the butter, lard, egg powder, and stout together. Beat well, and then add the other ingredients, and sufficient flour to make a stiff batter. Bake three and a-half hours to four hours in a slow oven. Using the stout makes the cake look a rich dark color.

Arrowroot Sauce for Christmas Puddings.

One dessertspoonful of arrowroot, two of sifted sugar, one glass of white wine, the juice of half a lemon, half a pint of water. Rub the arrowroot very smoothly in a tiny drop of water, add the wine, the sugar, and the lemon juice, then pour in gradually half a pint of hot water. Stir it very quickly over a clear fire until it boils. Strain and serve at once. This sauce may be flavoured with anything preferred, and, if liked, may be dusted with nutmeg.

Mincemeat

Take Mb of suet, -Mb of raisins, jib of sultanas, Mb of currants, Mb of apples, Mb of sugar, 2oz candied peel, and a lemon. Chop the suet finely, stone and chop the raisins, wash well and pick the currants, rub and pick the sultanas, peel, core, and chop the apples, mince the candied peel: mix all the ingredients together with the sugar, juice, and grated rind of a lemon-. Put into jars, and cover tightly. This should be made some days before required for use. Line patty pans with some good puff paste, put. in the mincemeat, heaping it well in, cover with paste, make a hole in. the centre, bake for about 20 minutes in a hot oven.

Christmas Cake.

Half a pound of butter, £lb of castor sugar, |lb flour, 1 teaspoonful' baking powder, half a teaspoonful salt, Mb sultanas, Mb of glace cherries, jib of almonds, 2 lemons, loz powdered cloves, spice, and cinnamon, mixed, 5 eggs. Line a cake tin with three thicknesses .of greased paper. Next cream together the sugar arid butter. Well whisk the eggs, and add them gradually to the sugar and butter, at the same time putting in the flour, salt, and baking powder, previously sifted together. Stalk and clean the sultanas, halve the cherries, chop the peel, and skin and shred the almonds; mix all these on a plate together with the rind of the lemon and the spices. Then add them to the butter, etc. Mix well. Put the mixture into the prepared tin. Stand the tin on a baking sheet, which should have a thick layer of sand to. keep the cake from burning underneath. Bake in a moderate oven for 21- hours.

Very Rich Christmas Cake.

One, and a-quarter pounds of fresh butter, the same quantity of flour, 10 eggs, 12oz of sugar, loz of mixed spice, jib of blanched almonds (sweet), IMb currants, 6oz of mixed candied peel, Mb of sultanas, a claret glassful of good brandy, and a quarter of a teacupful of orange Water. Beat the butter to a cream, add (he powdered sugar, the yolks of the eggs .well beaten, then by degrees the flour, spice, candied peel cut in small pieces, the almonds, currants, and sultanas, then the orange flower water and brandy : beat for half an hour, then add the whites of the eggs, which must be whisked' to a stiff froth; beat again for half an hour, pour into a buttered tin lined with several thicknesses of buttered paper, and bake for five hours. As soon as the outside of the cake is baked it is best to cover the top with two or three layers of paper. To try when the cake is baked enough, put a highly-polished knife into the centre ,and if nothing adheres to it the cake is baked enough.