Ebony Fingers

Use the receipt for "Coffee Cake," bake in ladyfinger pans, and put the flat sides of the cakes together with an icing made by stirring powdered sugar into orangejuice and beating thoroughly before using.

Fig Eclairs

Steam one pound of figs over hot water one hour. Then chop fine and add a pint and a half of Catawba wine (or less of sherry) and half a cup of sugar, and cook until like a jelly. Bake yellow or white cake in sheets. Split the sheets and spread the fig mixture between. Press together, cut in ladyfinger size pieces, and ice on three or four sides.

Fruit Jumbles

Blend one cup of sugar with a third of a cup of butter. Add two eggs, half a pup of milk, and one and twothirds of a cup of flour into which one teaspoon of baking powder has been sifted. Stir in a cup of lightly dredged raisins, spread thin in buttered pans and bake in a quick oven. Cut in squares while hot.

Hermits

Blend a cup and a half of darkbrown sugar with half a cup of butter, and afterward add three wellbeaten eggs. Next put in half a nutmeg grated, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a cup of raisins, seeded, chopped, and dredged. Add a teaspoon of soda dissolved in hot water and flour enough to make the dough roll out in a soft blanket. Cut with cookie cutters into any shape you please animals, letters, or geometrical designs. Bake in a moderate oven.

ImproveWithAge Cakes

Mix half a cup of butter and half a cap of lard with one and a half cups of sugar. Put in three eggs beaten together, salt, cinnamon, and cloves to taste, half a teaspoon of soda dissolved in a tablespoon of warm water, and two and a half cups of flour. Add a pound of English walnut meats, a pound of stoned dates, and a cup and a half of seeded rasins all the fruit having been chopped medium fine. Stir well together, drop from a spoon on tins and bake in a medium hot oven. Keep the cakes in a stone jar in a cool, dry place, and they are better after a little time than at first.

Jumbles

Cream together one heaping teacup of shortening (threequarters of which should be butter, the rest lard) and two even teacups of sugar. To this add five wellbeaten eggs. Mix thoroughly. Next put in one teacup of sweet milk, half a teaspoon of salt, half a nutmeg, the grated rind of a lemon, and two tablespoons of lemon extract. Beat well together. Stir in four teacups of sifted flour. This done, knead in two more teacups of flour. Roll out on the pastry board not quite a quarter of an inch thick, cut with a small biscuit cutter, and bake in a floured pan. With a feather or a very small brush dust the top of each one lightly with the white of an egg not beaten, and sift over them (with a small tea strainer) granulated sugar. Bake in a quick oven a very light brown.

Macaroons

Homemade macaroons cost much less than when bought in a bakery then you know they are fresh. On a large platter put threeeighths of a pound of powdered sugar (sifted), half a pound of almond paste and add gradually the whites of three eggs slightly beaten. With the hands work this mixture into a perfectly smooth paste. Line a large baking pan with buttered paper and drop the paste from a teaspoon in tiny balls half an inch apart. The macaroon mixture slightly spreads in baking. They require from fifteen to twenty minutes in a slow oven. After baking, turn the paper to which the macaroons stick upside down, wet it with a cloth wrung from cold water, and they will come off easily.

New York New Year's Cakes

Cream together a pound of sugar and a pound of butter and then add a small cup of milk. Gradually stir in three pounds of flour into which three heaping teaspoons of baking powder have been sifted, and then add three tablespoons of caraway seeds. Roll out the dough in sheets half an inch thick, and cut into cakes about four inches long and two inches broad. Prick the top with a fork, lay in greased pans, and bake a light brown.

Oatmeal Cakes

Stir one cup of butter in one cup of sugar and add a beaten egg and a teaspoon of salt. Stir in gradually two cups of white flour and two cups of oatmeal, adding also a teaspoon of soda dissolved in two tablespoons of milk. When you have the dough well mixed roll it thin, cut into shapes and bake in a moderate oven.

Little Snow Cakes

Little snow cakes are made from plain snowcake batter baked in patty pans. See directions for "Snow Cake" on page 312. When the cakes are cool, dip each one in an icing flavored with orange extract and slightly colored by adding some of the grated rind of a fine yellow orange.

Snow And Chocolate Balls

Cut a large sponge cake into balls about an inch and a half in diameter. Half of the balls dip in chocolate icing, and the other half dip in white icing and then in grated cocoanut. Dry the icings and then pile together for serving.

Walnut Small Cakes

Stir together one cup of butter and one cup and a half of sugar. Then stir in three eggs and two cups of chopped walnut meats which have been dredged with flour. Lastly add a cup and a half of flour into which a heaping teaspoon of baking powder has been sifted. Stir together, and from the spoon drop the dough upon buttered paper laid in tins, allowing room for the cakes to run as they heat.