Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 29, 20 July 1922, Page 41

Domestic

By Maureen

SOFT GINGERBREAD. Cream one-half cupful of . butter with one-half cupful of sugar, add 1 teaspoonful of powdered ginger, one-half cupful of treacle, 1 teaspoonful of baking soda dissolved in one-half cupful of sour milk, 2 well-beaten eggs, and one-half cupful of flour. Mix and divide into well-buttered and floured pans and bake in a slow oven. doughnuts. 2 eggs, well beaten, li cupsfiil of sugar, 1 cupful of sour milk, a £ teaspoonful each of salt, cinnamon and grated nutmeg, a teaspoonful each of soda and baking powder, 2 teaspoonsful of melted butter, and flour to make a dough as soft as can be handled easily. Roll out, cut and fry in hot fat. ' delicious' cake. Into a saucepan put 1 cupful of water, 2 cupsful of raisins, 1 cupful of shredded candied citron-peel, and cook for 10 minutes. Cream together one-half cupful each of butter and sugar, add 2 tablespoonsful of treacle, one-half cupful of sour cream, 2 well beaten eggs, 2 cupsful of flour sifted with 1£ teaspoonsful of salt, 1 teaspoonful each of .pawdered nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon, 1 teaspoonful of baking soda, and stir in the fruit boiling hot. Bake in a moderate oven for 1 hour. Cool and cover the top with white icing. ':) A PLAIN FRUIT CAKE. Seed and, chop a £ pound of dates; mix with them 1 cupful of chopped seeded raisins, and dust them with I a cupful of flour. Dissolve a level teaspoonful of soda in 2 tablespoonsful of boiling water; add it to a £ pint of very thick sour cream; stir a moment and add 1 cupful of brown sugar; half a tumblerful of currant or blackberry jelly, 2 teaspoonsful of cinnamon, a teaspoonful of allspice, and 2\ cupsful of flour; beat thoroughly, add the fruit, mix well, and turn into a well-buttered square bread pan. Bake in a very slow oven for hours. Keep in a cake box 1 week before cutting. If the cream is thick and sour this cake will be quite equal to the best plain fruit cake. ORANGE CAKE. 2 eggs, and their weight in butter, sugar, and flour; 1 tablespoonful of milk, grated rind, and the juice of 1 orange 1 dessert-spoonful of paisley flour, or 1 teaspoonful of baking-powder. Beat the butter and the sugar to a cream, add the flour and eggs alternately, then stir

in the grated orange-rind and baking-powder. Pour into a prepared tin, and bake in a moderately heated oven 20 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire tray. Icing for the above cake;. 6 ounces of icing sugar, li tablespoonsful of orange-juice roll the sugar and mix with the juice until all lumps disappear. When it is the right consistency, cover the cake and ornament with walnuts and glaced cherries. HOUSEHOLD HINTS. . If a cloth is placed over a basin of freshly-made starch there will be no skin on the top, as is the case when it is left to cool uncovered. When washing knives, cut a potato in half and rib them with the side that is cut. This will remove rll stains, and will save cleaning them so often. When there is no shoe polish in the house, lemonjuice makes an excellent substitute. A few drops rubbed briskly on black or brown shoes gives a brilliant polish. Worn emery-paper should never be thrown away. Instead, place the used paper in a warm oven for a fen minutes, and much of its former rough surface will be restored. Tea-water is a capital cleanser for varnished and stained woodwork. This can be made by pouring boiling water on spent tea-leaves, and straining the liquid through a cloth or muslin. White marks on tables caused by hot dishes may to removed by the application of methylated spirit rubbed in with a piece of flannel. Afterwards polish with a soft rag dipped in paraffin.