Jumbles.
Three cupfuls of sugar, two of butter, five of flour, one egg, half a teaspoonful of soda, flavor to taste. Roll thin, sprinkle with sugar, cut in round cakes, and cut a small piece from the centre of each.
Bake in a quick oven.
Seed Cakes.
Three-fourths of a pint of sugar, one cupful of butter, a quart and half a pint of flour, one teaspoonful of saleratus, two eggs, and seeds. Roll thin, cut in round cakes, and bake quickly.
Cookies.
One cupful of butter, two of sugar, five of flour, a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in four of milk; one egg, flavor to taste. Roll and bake like seed cakes.
Hermits.
Two cupfuls of sugar, one of butter, one of raisins (stoned and chopped), three eggs, half a teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in three table-spoonfuls of milk; a nutmeg, one teaspoonful each of clove and cinnamon, and six cupfuls of flour. Roll about one-fourth of an inch thick, and cut with a round cake cutter. Bake in a rather quick oven.
It will take about twelve minutes. [Mrs. L. C. A.]
Kneaded Plum Cake.
Two and a half cupfuls of sugar, half a cupful of butter, half a cupful of sour milk, two spoonfuls of cream, a teaspoonful of saleratus, half a spoonful of cinnamon and of nutmeg, a cupful of chopped raisins, and flour enough to knead (about six cupfuls). Roll an inch thick, and cut in oblong pieces. Bake on sheets in a quick oven.
Eclairs.
Put one cupful of boiling water and half a cupful of butter in a large sauce-pan, and when it boils up, turn in one pint of flour. Beat well with the vegetable masher. When perfectly smooth, and velvety to the touch, remove from the fire. Break five eggs into a bowl. When the paste is nearly cold, beat the eggs into it with the hand. Only a small part of the eggs should be added at a time. When the mixture is thoroughly beaten (it will take about twenty minutes), spread on buttered sheets in oblong pieces about four inches long and one and a half wide. These must be about two inches apart. Bake in a rather quick oven for about twenty-five minutes. As soon as they are done, ice with either chocolate or vanilla frosting. When the icing is cold, cut the _eclairs_ on one side and fill them.
Chocolate eclairs.
Put one cupful and a half of milk in the double boiler. Beat together two-thirds of a cupful of sugar, one-fourth of a cupful of flour, two eggs, and one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk. Cook fifteen minutes, stirring often. When cold, flavor with one teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Put two squares of scraped chocolate with five table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar and three of boiling water. Stir over the fire until smooth and glossy.
Dip the tops of the _eclairs_ in this as they come from the oven.
When the chocolate icing is dry, cut open, and fill with the cream, which should be cold. If a chocolate flavor is liked with the cream, one table-spoonful of the dissolved chocolate may be added to it.
Vanilla eclairs.
Make an icing with the whites of two eggs and a cupful and a half of powdered sugar. Flavor with one teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Frost the _eclairs_; and when dry, open, and fill with a cream, the same as chocolate _eclairs_. They may be filled with cream sweetened, flavored with vanilla and whipped to a stiff froth.
Strawberry and raspberry preserves are sometimes used to fill _eclairs_. They are then named after the fruit with which they are filled.
Frosting.
The white of one egg, one tea-cupful of powdered sugar, one table- spoonful of lemon juice. Put the white of the egg in a bowl and add the sugar by degrees, beating with a spoon. When all has been added, stir in the lemon juice. If the white of the egg is large it will require a very full cup of sugar, and if small, a rather scant cupful.
The egg must _not_ be beaten until the sugar is added. This gives a smooth, tender frosting, which will cover one small sheet of cake.
The same amount of material, prepared with the whites of the eggs unbeaten, will make one-third less frosting than it will if the eggs are beaten to a stiff froth before adding the sugar; but the icing will be enough smoother and softer to pay for the extra quantity. It may be flavored with half a teaspoonful of vanilla.
Chocolate Icing.
Two squares of Baker's chocolate, the whites of two eggs, two cupfuls of powdered sugar, four table-spoonfuls of boiling water. Beat one and two-thirds cupfuls of the sugar into the unbeaten whites of the eggs.
Scrape the chocolate, and put it and the remaining third of a cupful of sugar and the water in a small frying-pan. Stir over a hot fire until smooth and glossy, and then stir into the beaten whites and sugar. With the quantity given two sheets of cake can be iced.
Chocolate Icing, No. 2.
Soak a teaspoonful of gelatine one or two hours in three table- spoonfuls of water. Pour on it one-fourth of a cupful of boiling water, and stir into it one and two-thirds cupfuls of powdered sugar.
Prepare two squares of chocolate as for the first icing, and stir them into this mixture. Use immediately.
Caramel Frosting.
One cupful of brown sugar, one square of Baker's chocolate, scraped fine; one table-spoonful of water. Simmer gently twenty minutes, being careful not to let it burn. Spread on the cake while hot.
Golden Frosting.
Into the yolks of two eggs stir powdered sugar enough to thicken, and flavor strongly with lemon. This does not have so good a flavor as other kinds of frosting, but it makes a change.
Marking Cakes in Gold.
Bake round cakes for the children, and when the frosting on them is hard, dip a small brush into the yolk of an egg, and write a word or name upon the cake. It pleases the little ones very much.
PRESERVING.
In using self-sealing glass jars great care must be taken. If the work is properly done the fruit can be kept for years. Have a kettle of hot water on the stove beside the preserving kettle, and also a small dipper of hot water. Plunge a jar into the hot water, having the water strike both inside and outside the jar at the same time. If you set it down instead of plunging it, it will break. Put the cover in the dipper. When the jar is hot, lift it up and pour the water from it into the kettle. Stand the jar in the hot water and fill it with hot fruit from the preserving kettle. Fill to the brim with the hot syrup.
Take the cover from the dipper of hot water and screw it on very tightly. In using the jars a second time have the right cover and band for each one. A. large-mouthed tunnel, such as grocers have, is almost indispensible in the work of preserving.
Jellies and jams should be put in tumblers or bowls. A paper should be cut to fit the top, and then wet in brandy, and another paper should be pasted over it Jelly tumblers with glass covers are more convenient than the old-fashioned ones, and where they are used the second paper cover is not necessary. It is better not to cover until some weeks after the jelly is made. White crushed sugar is much the nicest for preserving. If jelly does not seem hard, as it should be the day after it is made, it can be set in the sun for several hours, which will help it greatly.
Strawberries.
To each pound of berries allow half a pound of sugar. Put the berries in a kettle, and mash them a little, so that there will be juice enough to cook them without using water. Stir them to prevent scorching. Cook fifteen minutes; then add the sugar, and let them boil hard one minute. Put them in the jars as directed. More or less sugar may be used, as one prefers.
Raspberries.
To each pound of berries allow three-fourths of a pound of sugar, and cook the same as the strawberries.
Cherries.