160. Indian Slap Jacks

Scald a quart of Indian meal - when lukewarm, turn, stir in half a pint of flour, half a tea-cup of yeast, and a little salt. When light, fry them in just fat enough to prevent their sticking to the frying pan. Another method of making them, which is very nice, is to turn boiling milk or water on to the Indian meal, in the proportion of a quart of the former to a pint of the latter - stir in three table-spoonsful of flour, three eggs well beaten, and a couple of tea-spoonsful of salt.

161. Journey Or Johnny Cakes

Scald a quart of sifted Indian meal with sufficient water to make it a very thick batter. Stir in two or three tea-spoonsful of salt - mould it with the hand into small cakes. In order to mould them up, it will be necessary to rub a good deal of flour on the hands, to prevent their sticking. Fry them in nearly fat enough to cover them. When brown on the under side, they should be turned. It takes about twenty minutes to cook them. When cooked, split and butter them. Another way of making them, which is nice, is to scald the Indian meal, and put in saleratus, dissolved in milk and salt, in the proportion of a tea-spoonful of each to a quart of meal. Add two or three table-spoonsful of wheat flour, and drop the batter by the large spoonful into a frying pan. The batter should be of a very thick consistency, and there should be just fat enough in the frying pan to prevent the cakes sticking to it.

162. Hoe Cakes

Scald a quart of Indian meal with just water enough to make a thick batter. Stir in a couple of tea-spoonsful of salt, and two table-spoonful of butter. Turn it into a buttered bake pan, and bake it half an hour.

163. Muffins

Mix a quart of wheat flour smoothly with a pint and a half of lukewarm milk, half a tea-cup of yeast, a couple of beaten eggs, a heaping tea-spoonsful of salt, and a couple of table-spoonsful of lukewarm melted butter. Set the batter in a warm place to rise. When light, butter your muffin cups, turn in the mixture, and bake the muffins till a light brown.

164. Raised Flour Waffles

Stir into a quart of flour sufficient lukewarm milk to make a thick batter. The milk should be stirred in gradually, so as to have it free from lumps. Put in a table-spoonful of melted butter, a couple of beaten eggs, a tea-spoonsful of salt, and half a tea-cup of yeast. When risen, fill your waffle-irons with the batter, bake them on a hot bed of coals. When they have been on the fire between two and three minutes, turn the waffle-irons over - when brown on both sides, they are sufficiently baked. The waffle-irons should be well greased with lard, and very hot, before each one is put in. The waffles should be buttered as soon as cooked. Serve them up with powdered white sugar and cinnamon.

165. Quick Waffles

Mix flour and cold milk together, to make a thick batter. To a quart of the flour put six beaten eggs, a table-spoonful of melted butter, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Some cooks add a quarter of a pound of sugar, and half a nutmeg. Bake them immediately.

166. Rice Waffles

Take a tea-cup and a half of boiled rice - warm it with a pint of milk, mix it smooth, then take it from the fire, stir in a pint of cold milk, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Beat four eggs, and stir them in, together with sufficient flour to make a thick batter.

167. Rice Wafers

Melt a quarter of a pound of butter, and mix it with a pound of rice flour, a tea-spoonful of salt, and a wine glass of wine. Beat four eggs, and stir in, together with just cold milk enough to enable you to roll them out easily. They should be rolled out as thin as possible, cut with a wine glass into cakes, and baked in a moderate oven, on buttered flat tins.

168. Rules To Be Observed In Making Nice Cake

Cake, to be good, must be made of nice materials. The butter, eggs, and flour, should not be stale, and the sugar should be of a light color, and dry. Brown sugar answers very well for most kinds of cake, if rolled free from lumps, and stirred to a cream with the butter. The flour should be sifted, and if damp, dried perfectly, otherwise it will make the cake heavy. The eggs should be beaten to a froth; and the cake will be more delicate if the yelks and whites are beaten separately. Saleratus and soda should be perfectly dissolved, and strained before they are stirred into the cake. Raisins for cake should have the seeds taken out. Zante currants should be rinsed in several waters to cleanse them, rubbed in a dry cloth to get out the sticks, and then spread on platters, and dried perfectly, before they are put into the cake. Almonds should be blanched, which is done by turning boiling water on them, and letting them remain in it till the skins will rub off easily. When blanched, dry them, then pound them fine, with rose water, to prevent their oiling. When the weather is cold, the materials for cake should be moderately warmed, before mixing them together. All kinds of cake that are made without yeast are better for being stirred, till just before they are baked. The butter and sugar should be stirred together till white, then the eggs, 6 flour, and spice, added. Saleratus and cream should not be put in till just before the cake is baked - add the fruit last. Butter the cake pans well. The cake will be less liable to burn if the pans are lined with white buttered paper. The cake should not be moved while baking if it can be avoided, as moving it is apt to make it heavy. The quicker most kinds of cake are baked, the lighter and better they will be; but the oven should not be of such a furious heat as to burn them. It is impossible to give any exact rules as to the time to be allowed for baking various kinds of cake, as so much depends on the heat of the oven. It should be narrowly watched while in the oven, and if it browns too fast, it should be covered with a thick paper. To ascertain when rich cake is sufficiently baked, stick a clean broom splinter through the thickest part of the loaf - if none of the cake adheres to the splinter, it is sufficiently baked. When cake that is baked on flat tins moves easily on them, it is sufficiently baked.