Remarks

Before you begin to mix the cakes grease the pans, and leave them to heat. They should be very hot before pouring in the mixture, which should not be allowed to stand after it is ready. The oven, too, must be hot, as all these things need to be baked quickly, as well as beaten hard. Have ready, always, a hot plate to put them on, so that they will not fall by a too sudden change of temperature. The sooner such things are eaten after baking, the better, especially those which do not contain much flour. Warm the knife before cutting any kind of tea cake. It will be even lighter if broken apart.

Remember, then, three rules: Mix quickly, bake quickly, and eat soon.

(For short-cake use pastry-flour, if you have it, as it makes a more flaky cake than the other.)

Quick Graham Biscuit

1 pint graham flour. 1 pint wheat flour. 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls salt. 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

1 heaping tablespoonful butter or lard.

2 tablespoonfuls molasses.

1 1/2 cupfuls milk or water (more or less.)

Do not sift the Graham flour. Mix like "Baking Powder Biscuit," putting in the molasses and milk last of all.

Add more milk if the dough is too stiff to roll out. Roll out about three quarters of an inch thick. Bake three quarters of an hour in a moderately hot oven. Makes a dripping-pan full.

Johnny Cake

1 quart Indian meal. 1 quart sour milk, or butter-milk. 1 teaspoonful soda (dissolved).

2 or 3 eggs, beaten light.

1 tablespoonful lard (melted).

1 teaspoonful salt.

Mix, beat well, and bake in a thin loaf about fifteen minutes in a quick oven. Serve with maple syrup.

Hominy Bread

2 cupfuls small hominy (boiled).

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 tablespoonful butter (melted).

4 eggs, beaten light. 1 pint corn meal. 1 pint milk.

Mix in this order. Beat hard. Have two pans hot, fill them half full and bake twenty-five minutes in a hot oven. Eat hot. This is particularly delicate and delicious. The loaves should be shallow. Enough for a family of six.

Pop Overs

2 eggs separated).

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 teaspoonful melted butter.

1 pint milk (sour). 1 teaspoonful soda (dis-solved). 1 pint flour.

Beat the yolks of the eggs. Add salt, butter and milk, with the soda. Lastly, the flour, put in alternately with the beaten whites of the eggs. Beat very light. The batter is so thin that it is a good plan to use a Dover Eggbeater to mix it instead of a spoon. Heat earthen cups or round gem-pans very hot. Butter them, and till half full with the hatter. Bake twenty minutes in a very hot oven, taking care not to open the oven door during the first ten minutes, and not to jar the pans, as they fall very easily. Eat at once. Makes one dozen. Use sweet milk if you like and omit the soda.

Lottie's Cream Tea Cake

2 cupfuls flour. 1 cupful sugar. 1 teaspoonful salt.

1 cupful sour cream.

1teaspoonful soda.

2eggs beaten light.

Stir the flour, sugar and salt together; then stir the soda into the cream dissolving it very thoroughly and stir it at once into the flour, etc. (If it is left standing it will foam and run over the cup.) Add the eggs, and beat all together rapidly. Bake in a loaf in a moderate oven three quarters of an hour filling the pan only half-full. Increase the heat towards the last. Have ready a hot plate to serve it on, and warm the knife before cutting the cake.

Huckleberry Tea Cake

1/2 cupful butter. l 1/2 cupfuls sugar.

2 eggs, beaten light.

1/2 cupful sour or buttermilk.

1/2 teaspoonful soda, dissolved. 2 1/2 cupfuls flour. 1 1/2 pint huckleberries or blueberries.

Rub butter and sugar to a cream, add the other ingredients in the order given. Bake in a loaf in a moderate oven about half an hour; increase the heat toward the last.

Plain Huckleberry Tea Cake

(See "Sally Lunn.")