Baking Cake. Do not attempt to make cake unless you can have entire control of the fire. It should be rather low, but sufficient to heat the oven moderately, and to last without replenishing through the entire baking. Thin cakes require a hotter oven than those baked in thick loaves. Cakes made with baking-powders or soda and cream of tartar should bake more quickly than pound cake or sponge cake made light with eggs alone. Cakes with molasses in them require a quick oven, but as they burn quickly they must be baked with care; whichever kind yon are baking, ascertain from the time-table on page 155 the time required and divide it into quarters. Look at it quickly, within five minutes

During the first quarter of the time the cake should merely rise and not brown.

If it brown before rising, the oven is too hot and must be cooled. It should continue to rise on the edges dur-ing the second quarter and begin to brown in spots. In the third quarter it should rise in the centre and become all over a rich golden brown, and perhaps crack a little in the middle. In the last quarter it should settle to a level, brown in the crack and shrink from the pan.

During the first and second quarter the cake may be moved carefully if necessary, but in the third quarter, or when it is fully risen but not stiffened by the heat, there is danger of its falling, and it is better to protect it by a paper hood1 than to move it. Slamming the oven door will often cause the cake to fall.

Cake is done when it shrinks from the pan and stops hissing, or when a straw inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Loosen the edges of the cake with a knife and turn the pan over carefully upon a cloth laid over a bread cooler or sieve.

Suggestion to the Teacher.

In this lesson, use oysters in the fall and lobster in the spring. One or two receipts will be sufficient for illustration. Make the smallest possible quantity of cake. The receipt for plain cake may be halved. Poach one egg to show how it is done, then cook the same egg longer until hard and use it in making the egg vermicelli.

1 Crease a piece of stiff paper on each end so that the edges will rest on the oven bottom, and the top of the paper will be at least an inch above the cake.