THE ingredients for cakes, as well as for puddings, should all be fresh and good, as well as free from damp; the lightness of many kinds depends entirely on that given to the eggs by whisking, and by the manner in which the whole is mixed. A small portion of carbonate of soda, which will not be in the slightest degree perceptible to the taste after the cake is baked, if thrown in just before the mixture is put into the oven, will ensure its rising well.

Paste-board mould for

large buns.

To guard against the bitterness so often imparted by yeast when it is used for cakes or biscuits, it should be sparingly added, and the sponge should be left twice the usual time to rise. This method will be found to answer equally with bread. For example: should a couple of spoonsful of yeast be ordered in a receipt, when it is bitter, use but one, and let it stand two

hours instead of half the time: the fermentation, though slow, will be quite as perfect as if it were more quickly effected, and the cake or loaf thus made will not become dry by any means so soon as if a larger portion of yeast were mixed with it.

All light cakes require a rather brisk oven to raise and set them; very large rich ones a well-sustained degree of heat sufficient to bake them through; and small sugar-cakes a very slow oven, to prevent their taking a deep colour before they are half done: gingerbread too should be gently baked, unless it be of the light thick kind. Meringues, macaroons, and ratafias, will bear a slight degree more of heat than these.

For sponge and savoy cakes the French butter their moulds thickly, and shake fine sugar in them until they are equally covered with it: the loose sugar must be turned out before they are used.

To ascertain whether a cake be done, thrust a knife into the centre, and should this come out clean draw it from the oven directly; but should the paste adhere to it, continue the baking. Several sheets of paper are placed usually under large plumcakes.

TO BLANCH ALMONDS.

Put them into a saucepan with plenty of cold water, and heat it slowly; when it is just scalding turn the almonds into a basin, peel, and throw them into cold water as they are done: dry them well in a soft cloth before they are used. If the water be too hot it will turn them yellow.

TO POUND ALMONDS.

Almonds are more easily pounded, and less liable to become oily, if dried a little in a very gentle degree of heat after they are blanched; left for example, in a warm room for two or three days, lightly spread on a large dish or tin. They should be sprinkled during the beating with a few drops of cold water, or white of egg, or lemon-juice, and pounded to a smooth paste: this is more easily done, we believe, when they are first roughly chopped, but we prefer to have them thrown at once into the

mortar.

TO REDUCE ALMONDS TO A PASTE.

(The quickest and easiest way.)

Chop them a little on a large and very clean trencher, then with a paste-roller (rolling-pin), which ought to be thicker in the middle than at the ends, roll them well until no small bits

are perceptible amongst them. We have found this method answer admirably; but as some of the oil is expressed from the almonds by it, and absorbed by the board, we would recommend a marble slab for them in preference, when it is at hand; and should they be intended for a sweet dish, that some pounded sugar should be strewed under them. When a board or strong trencher is used, it should be rather higher in the middle than at the sides.

TO COLOUR ALMONDS FOR CAKES, OR PASTRY.

Blanch, dry, and chop them rather coarsely; pour a little prepared cochineal into the hands, and roll the almonds between them until they are equally coloured; then spread them on a sheet of paper, and place them in a very gentle degree of heat to dry. Use spinage-juice (see page 306) to colour them green, and a strong infusion of saffron to give them a yellow tint. They have a pretty effect when strewed over the icing of tarts or cakes, especially the rose-coloured ones, which should be rather pale.

TO PREPARE BUTTER FOR RICH CAKES.

For all large and very rich cakes the usual directions are, to beat the butter to a cream; but we find that they are quite as light, if not more so, when it is cut small and gently melted with just so much heat as will dissolve it, and no more. If it be shaken round in a saucepan previously warmed, and held near the fire for a short time, it will soon be liquefied, which is all that is required: it must on no account be hot when it is added to the other ingredients, to which it must be poured in small portions after they are all mixed, in the way which we have minutely described in the receipt for a Madeira cake, and that of the Sutherland puddings (Chapter XVIII). To cream it, drain the water well from it, after it is cut, soften it a little before the fire should it be very hard, and then with the back of a large strong wooden spoon beat it until it resembles thick cream. When prepared thus, the sugar is added to it first, and then the other ingredients in succession.

TO WHISK EGGS FOR LIGHT RICH CAKES.

Break them one by one, and separate the yolks from the whites: this is done easily by pouring the yolk from one half of the shell to the other, and letting the white drop from it into a basin beneath. With a small three-pronged fork take out the specks from each egg as it is broken, that none may accidentally

escape notice. Whisk the yolks until they appear light, and the whites until they are a quite solid froth; while any liquid remains at the bottom of the bowl they are not sufficiently beaten when a portion of them, taken up with the whisk, and dropped from it, remains standing in points, they are in the proper state for use, and should be mixed into the cake directly.

ORANGE-FLOWER MACAROONS. (DELICIOUS.)

Have ready two pounds of very dry white sifted sugar. Weigh two ounces of the petals of freshly-gathered orangeblossoms after they have been picked from the stems; and cut them very small with a pair of scissors into the sugar, as they will become discoloured if not mixed with it quickly after they are cut. When all are done, add the whites of seven eggs, and beat the whole well together till it looks like snow; then drop the mixture upon paper without delay, and send the cakes to a very cool oven.

Pounded sugar, 2 lbs.; orange-blossoms, 2 ozs.; whites of eggs, 7: 20 minutes, or more.

Obs.-It is almost impossible to state with accuracy the precise time required for these cakes, so much depends on the oven: they should be very delicately coloured, and yet dried through.

ALMOND MACAROONS.

Blanch a pound of fresh Jordan almonds, wipe them dry, and set them into a very cool oven to render them perfectly so; pound them to an exceedingly smooth paste, with a little white of egg; then whisk to a firm solid froth the whites of seven eggs, or of eight, should they be small; mix with them a pound and a half of the finest sugar; add these by degrees to the almonds, whisk the whole up well together, and drop the mixture upon wafer-paper, which may be procured at the confectioner's: bake them in a moderate oven a very pale brown. It is an improvement to the flavour of these cakes to substitute an ounce of bitter almonds for one of the sweet: they are sometimes made with an equal weight of each; and another variety of them is obtained by gently browning the almonds in a slow oven before they are pounded.

Jordan almonds blanched, 1 lb.; sugar, 1 lb.; whites of 7 or 8 eggs: 15 to 20 minutes.

IMPERIALS. (NOT VERY RICH.)

Work into a pound of flour six ounces of butter, and mix well

with them half a pound of sifted sugar, six ounces of currants, two ounces of candied orange-peel, the grated rind of a lemon, and four well-beaten eggs. Flour a tin lightly, and with a couple of forks place the paste upon it in small rough heaps quite too inches apart. Bake them in a very gentle oven, from a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes, or until they are equally coloured to a pale brown.

Flour, 1 lb.; butter, 6 ozs.; sugar, 8 ozs.; currants, 6 ozs.; candied peel, 2 ozs.; rind of 1 lemon; eggs, 4: 15 to 20 minutes.

VERY GOOD SMALL RICH CAKES.

Beat and mix well together four eggs properly whisked, and · half a pound of fine sifted sugar; pour to them by degrees a quarter-pound of clarified butter, as little warmed as possible; stir lightly in with these four ounces of dry sifted flour, beat the mixture for about ten minutes, put it into small buttered pattypans, and bake the cakes a quarter of an hour in a moderate oven. They should be flavoured with the rasped or grated rind of a small lemon, or with pounded mace or cinnamon.

Eggs, 4; sugar, 1 lb.; butter, 4 ozs.; flour, 4 ozs.; lemonrind, mace, or cinnamon: baked, 15 minutes.

ALMOND ROCHER. *

Chop very fine together eight ounces of almonds, blanched, and dried, six of candied orange-rind, or of orange and lemonrind mixed, and one ounce of citron; then add to them two ounces of flour, three quarters of a pound of sugar, a small teaspoonful of mace and cinnamon mixed, and the whites of three large eggs; roll the mixture into balls about the size of a large marble and bake them on wafer-paper twenty minutes in a moderate oven: they should be quite crisp, but not deeply coloured.

Almonds, 8 ozs.; candied orange-rind, 6 ozs.; citron, 1 oz.; flour, 2 ozs.; sugar, lb.; mace and cinnamon mixed, 1 teaspoonful; whites of eggs, 3 large: baked, moderate oven, 20 minutes.

Obs. When the flavour is not disliked, it will be found an improvement to substitute an ounce of bitter almonds for one of the sweet; and we prefer the whole of the almonds and candied peel also cut into spikes instead of being chopped: the ingre dients must then be made into a lighter paste, and placed in small heaps on the paper.