Almond Cake

1 lb. powdered sugar. 1 " flour. 1/4 " butter. 8 eggs.

T coffee-cupful sweet almonds, blanched by putting them into hot water, and, when stripped of their skins and perfectly cold, beaten to a smooth paste in a Wedge-wood mortar, with a little rose-water and half a teaspoonful essence of bitter almonds.

Beat whites and yolks separately; stir butter and sugar to a cream; add to this the yolks ; beat very hard before putting in the flour; stir in the almond-paste alternately with the whites. Put in the brandy last.

Season the icing with rose-water.

Nut-Cake+

2 cups sugar. 1 cup butter.

3 cups flour.

1 cup cold water.

4 eggs.

1 teaspoonful soda.

2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar.

. 2 cupfuls kernels of hickory-nuts or white walnuts, carefully picked out, and added last of all. •

Gold Cake+

1 lb. sugar.

1/2 " butter.

1 " flour.

Yolks of ten eggs - well beaten.

Grated rind of one orange, and juice of two lemons.

1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.

Cream the butter and sugar, and stir in the yolks. Beat very hard for five minutes before putting in the flour The soda next, and lastly the lemon-juice, in which the grated orange-peel should have been steeped and strained out in a piece of thin muslin, leaving the flavoring and coloring matter in the juice.

Flavor the icing also with lemon.

Silver Cake+

1 lb. sugar.

3/4 " flour.

1/2 " butter.

Whites of ten eggs - whipped very stiff.

.1 large teaspoonful essence bitter almonds

Cream butter and sugar; put next the whites of the eggs; then the flour, lastly the flavoring.

Make gold and silver cake on the same day; bake them in tins of corresponding size, and lay them in alternate slices in the cake-basket. Flavor the icing of silver cake with rose-water.

Almond Macaroons

Prepare the almonds the day before you make the cakes, by blanching them in boiling water, stripping off the skins, and pounding them when perfectly cold - a few at a time - in a Wedgewood mortar, adding from time to time a little rose-water. When beaten to a smooth paste, stir in, to a pound of the sweet almonds, a generous tablespoonful of essence of bitter almonds; cover closely, and set away in a cold place until the morrow. Then to a pound of the nuts allow: -

1 lb. powdered sugar.

The beaten whites of eight eggs.

1 teaspoonful nutmeg.

1 teaspoonful arrowroot.

Stir the sugar and white of egg lightly together; then whip in gradually the almond-paste.

Line a broad baking-pan with buttered white paper; drop upon this spoonfuls of the mixture at such distances apart as shall prevent their running together. Sift powdered sugar thickly upon each, and bake in a quick oven to a delicate brown.

Try the mixture first, to make sure it is of the right consistency, and if the macaroons run into irregular shapes, beat in more sugar. This will hardly happen, however, if the mixture is already well beaten.