Cup Cake

1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, or

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoons baking-powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter, add the sugar, then the beaten yolks of eggs. Mix and sift the dry ingredients, add them, one-third at a time, to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat the whites till stiff, add them and the vanilla, beat the dough till barely mixed, and pour it into a greased pan. The dough should not much more than half fill the pan. Bake it for forty minutes in an insulated oven, tested as explained on page 225, for loaves of cake.

This recipe may be varied by adding one-half cupful of raisins, currants, chopped citron or nuts. Or two ounces of chocolate may be melted and added to the dough.

If baked in layers or in gem pans the stones must be heated somewhat hotter than for a loaf cake. Allow fifteen or twenty minutes in the oven.

Sour Cream Cake

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup thick sour cream

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup raisins

Beat the yolks of the eggs, add the sugar, then the cream. Mix and sift the dry ingredients, add them to the liquid mixture, then add the raisins, which have been floured with a little of the measured flour, and, lastly, the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Put it into a greased pan and bake it for forty minutes in an insulated oven, heated for loaf cake, as explained in the test on page 225.

Apple Sauce Cake (Made Without Butter, Milk Or Eggs)

1/2 cup white veal or beef drippings 1 cup sugar 1 cup sour apple sauce 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 cup raisins

1 teaspoon soda

2 cups flour

Mix the ingredients in the order given, beat the dough well, put it into a greased pan, and bake it for forty minutes in an insulated oven, heated for loaf cakes, as explained on page 225. This cake seems, when baked, very much like any spice cake.

Sponge Cake

6 eggs

1 cup sugar

Juice and rind of 1/2 lemon 1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat the yolks of the eggs, add the sugar and lemon; beat the whites of eggs till stiff, add them to the mixture, and when barely mixed add the flour and salt, folding them in lightly. Put it into a bright, ungreased tin, and bake it fifty minutes or an hour in an oven heated not quite so hot as for butter cakes. The paper should turn light brown when tested as explained on page 225.

Let the cake stand five minutes before removing it from the pan.

Plum Cake

1/2 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1/4 cup chopped nuts

1/4 cup candied orange peel

1 cup raisins

1 cup currants

5/8 cup pickled fruit syrup or molasses

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 teaspoons mixed spices

Mix and sift the flour, soda, cream of tartar, and spices. Put all the ingredients together in the order given, flouring the fruit with a little of the measured flour. Put it into a greased pan and bake it for one and one-quarter hours in an insulated oven, with stones heated as explained on page 225, till the paper is a light brown.

Rich Fruit Cake

1/2 lb. butter (1 cup) 1/2 lb. sugar (1 cup) 6 eggs

1/4 cup brandy 1/4 cup lemon juice Rind of 1 lemon, grated 2 cups blanched, chopped almonds

1/2 lb. citron

1/4 lb. candied orange peel

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 lb. raisins

1 lb. currants

1/2 lb. flour (1 3/4 cups)

Line the pan with three thicknesses of paper, buttering the top layer. Mix the flour and spices. Flour all the fruit except the citron. Mix the ingredients in the order in which they are given. The pan may be filled nearly full, as this cake rises but little. Bake it for three hours or more in a very moderate insulated oven. Test the stones as explained on page 225, until the paper will barely change colour. If, at the end of two hours, the cake is not browned at all, take out one or both of the stones very quickly and heat them again till they will slightly brown the tissue paper. The oven must be promptly closed when the stones are removed, or the cake will be injured. Test it with a steel knitting needle or straw. The needle will come out only a little greasy when the cake is done.

Let the cake stand at least five minutes after removing it from the oven before taking out of the pans, or it is likely to break. Fruit cake should be kept for at least a week in a tightly covered tin box or a crock, before it is ready for use. It will keep for months, and improves with time.