Study first the directions given under Measuring, Mixing, and Baking.

Cake is a mixture of part or all of the following materials: eggs, sugar or molasses, flour, butter or cream, milk or water, fruit, soda, cream of tartar, spices, etc.

An unlimited variety of cakes may be made by varying the proportions of these materials, and to the same proportions many different names are given. Many amusing experiences are known of the eagerness with which a newly named receipt for cake is received, which, after many trials, has been found to be an old receipt arranged in a different order. An analysis of the hundreds of receipts given in books devoted to cake-making would show that the general principles involved may be included under two divisions, namely, receipts for sponge cakes, made without butter; and pound or cup cakes, made with butter. Sponge cakes are made rich with eggs, the lightness depending wholly upon the amount of air beaten into the egg; or an inferior quality is sometimes made by substituting soda and cream of tartar for part of the eggs, and adding more flour and some liquid, usually water. They vary in color, according as the white or yolk of the egg is used. Butter cakes are varied in the same way, and also by the addition of fruit, or spices, or various coloring and flavoring materials.

There is no one department in cooking where so much depends upon the baking as in making cake. The fire should be rather low, but sufficient to last through the entire baking. In many stoves it is exceedingly difficult to bake cake by a morning fire; as so much coal is put on, the fire is too hot and cannot be checked sufficiently. The oven should be less hot than for bread. If too hot, leave the oven door open for ten minutes before putting in the cake, then watch it, and protect it by putting over it a covering of paper, or a pan on the grate above. Do not attempt to make cake unless you can have entire control of the fire.

Thin cakes require a hotter oven than those baked in thick loaves. If the oven be not hot enough at first, or be cooled too suddenly during the baking, the cake will not be light. Cakes with molasses in them burn more quickly than others. Thin cakes should bake from fifteen to twenty minutes, thicker cakes from thirty to forty minutes, very thick loaves about an hour, and fruit cake from two to three hours. Whichever kind you are baking, divide the time required into quarters. During the first quarter the heating is not manifested in appearance except by the rising; during the second the cake should continue to rise and begin to brown; then should become all over a rich golden brown; and in the last quarter settle a little, brown in the cracks, and shrink from the pan. Be careful not to take it out too soon. If necessary to move it, do it very gently, and never move it when it has risen to the full height, but is not browned or fixed in its shape.

If cake brown before rising, the oven is too hot. When it rises more in the centre, cracks open, and stays up, it is too stiff with flour. It should rise first on the edges, then in the middle, crack slightly, settle to a level again, when the cracks usually come together. Nothing is more suggestive of bakeshop cake, or inferior quality in material, than a loaf with an upper surface having sharp edges, then hollows, and a peaked centre, as if the inside of the cake had boiled up and run out over the top.

Line your cake tins with paper, to prevent burning the bottom and edges and to aid in removing the cake from the pans. Lay the paper over the outside of the pan, and crease it round the edge of the bottom. Allow it large enough to come above the top of the pan. Fold in the middle lengthwise and crosswise, and cut out the open corners to the crease made by the pan. Then fit it into the inside of the pan, and grease the paper, not the pan, with fresh butter or lard. Many use a rag tied on a stick; others grease with a brush. Nice brushes are very expensive (and no others are suitable), and unless carefully cleaned are quite objectionable. Rags and paper absorb the grease which should be put on the pan, and in any case the fingers should be washed after the process. So there is no quicker, easier, or more economical way of greasing a tin than to rub the butter on with the fingers.

Mix cake in an earthen bowl, and never in a tin pan. Use a wooden spoon, as iron spoons discolor the hand and the mixture. Use only the best materials. Go without cake rather than try to make it, or eat it when made, with what is called cooking butter and second-rate eggs. Such cake cannot be good or wholesome. Wash the butter, if very salt. Brown sugar is good for fruit cake, but for all other varieties use the finest granulated or powdered sugar. Very coarse granulated sugar makes heavy cake, with a hard and sticky crust. The flour should be dry. When it has been kept in a cool place it should be slightly warmed, and always sifted before using. St. Louis flour - or pastry flour, as it is sometimes called -is best for cake. When new-process flour is used, take one eighth less. Soda, cream of tartar, and baking-powders should be crushed and sifted into the flour, then sifted two or three times with the flour. Mix spices with the flour or with the sugar. Mix a little of the measure of flour with the fruit to keep it from sticking together or settling. If the sugar be lumpy, crush and sift before using. Eggs should be fresh, and cooled by keeping in cold water or in the ice-chest. The yolks and whites should be beaten separately. Break each egg on the edge of the cup, just enough to crack the middle of the shell, so the white will flow out, but not hard enough to break into the yolks. Then hold the egg over the cup, with the cracked side up, and break it apart. Let the white run into the cup, and keep the yolk in the half shell until all the white is drained off. Be careful not to break the yolk, as the smallest portion of it in the whites will prevent them from frothing. Beat the yolks in a bowl, and the whites in a platter if you use a fork or whisk, or in a bowl if you use a Dover beater. Never stop beating the whites until they are stiff and dry, as it is impossible to have them light if they become liquid again.

Measure all the ingredients, and have the fire and all utensils ready before you begin to mix. Observe the following order in putting materials together.