Measurements can be only approximately given, since flours vary in their capacity to absorb moisture, and every housekeeper does not measure with the same sized cup, or spoon. Therefore it will be necessary for each cook to experiment to some extent for herself. Bread flour should only be used for bread or yeast cakes, as it contains too much gluten, and is liable to make baking powder cakes too thick. Cups of dry ingredients are measured level, teaspoons or tablespoons should be rounded, while liquid measure should never be overflowing full. A complete table of weights and measures is given elsewhere in this book, also an index to the abbreviations used.

Cake batters are usually mixed by first creaming together the butter and sugar, then adding the eggs, one at a time, and beating them well with the butter and sugar. Sometimes only the yolks are added, and the beaten whites at the very last. After the eggs, molasses, or milk, or whatever liquid the recipe calls for, is added, then the flour, in which the baking powder should first be mixed dry, and all sifted together before adding to the other ingredients.

The seeded or seedless raisins and the currants should be thoroughly cleaned and lightly dredged with flour before adding to the batter, the very last thing. Citron and candied lemon peel or orange peel, as well as nut meats, should also be dredged with flour before adding to the batter. This prevents the fruit from sticking together and falling to the bottom of the cake.

When sour milk is used in cake, it calls for about 1 teaspoon saleratus (soda) to each cup sour milk, or buttermilk-more or less soda, according to the acidity of the milk. Too much soda makes the cakes unpalatable, and causes the objectionable little brown spots. Sweet milk can be substituted for sour milk by omitting soda, and using baking powder instead. It usually requires about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder to 2 cups flour. Also, sour milk can be substituted for sweet milk by omitting baking powder and adding a teaspoon soda to each cup sour milk. One cup sour milk with 1 teaspoon saleratus generally equals about 2 teaspoons baking powder in "raising" power. A good substitute for the "boughten" baking powder is made of cream of tartar combined with saleratus (soda) - two parts of the former with one of the latter.

In dark cakes that call for butter, any good shortening can be substituted for the sake of economy-lard, chicken fat, or drippings, but none of strong flavor, such as goose or mutton, or any fat in which onions have been cooked. When trying a new recipe it is a good plan to measure the shortening and the sugar and molasses scant, until the individual family taste has been ascertained.

When cakes "fall" in the center while baking, or immediately after removing from the oven, it is generally because the batter was too thin, or too rich with butter or molasses, or the baking was too rapid, so that a hard outer crust had formed before the center had solidified. It is for this same reason that the crusts will break, and the batter come up between, thus forming unsightly broken tops to the cakes.

When the cake is thought to be about done, test it by inserting a broom straw with thick end cut to a fine point. If no moisture, or half baked batter adheres to the straw, the cake is done. Also, when the cake is done it usually recedes a little from the sides of the tin. After removing the cake from the oven never place in a draft or on a cold surface, but place the pan on a cloth or towel wrung out of water, and allow it to remain there a few minutes, after which the cake can be easily removed from the tin. The more delicate the cake, the more careful the handling should be.

Cake pans are best greased with baking oil, or lard, never with salted butter, as the latter burns easily, and sometimes also causes the cake to stick to the tins. Some cooks like to sprinkle flour in the greased tins to prevent cakes from sticking. Sprinkle liberally and shake out superfluous flour by inverting the tin and tapping lightly on the outside. Another good plan is to place a fitted piece of well greased paper (white or light brown) in the bottom of cake pan, and sometimes also along the sides, especially for rich cakes that require long baking.

Most cakes require medium heat in the baking, except when the recipe states otherwise. If the oven is too hot, a pan of cold water placed in it will help to reduce the temperature. As a rule, layer cakes and small cakes require a hotter oven than loaf cakes. Cakes made with baking powder call for a higher temperature than those in which cream of tartar and soda, or lemon juice and soda, or molasses and soda are used. Cakes made rich with the yolks of eggs require less heat than cakes made with the whites of eggs-that is, an oven should be hotter for an angel cake than for a yellow or rich and heavy cake. Cake containing fruit should always be baked in a slow oven.

The regulation of the oven temperature spells success or failure in cake baking. As a general rule, the oven should be slow at first, and the heat gradually increased. Never attempt to bake a delicate cake mixture with a freshly built coal fire, which, as everyone knows, always gives out a more intense heat, or with a fire from which the life has largely died out. When the same recipe is used with success at one time and results in failure at another time the fault can generally be attributed to an oven of improper temperature.

In mixing cakes lightened with yeast, observe the same points considered essential to success in bread making. On account of the tendency of sugar, butter and eggs to retard fermentation it is advisable to add these only to a light sponge or to a light bread dough. When filling cake tins the batter should never fill more than two-thirds of the space. Draw the mixture away from the center toward the corners or edges. If this is done, the cakes when baked will have level tops, providing the oven was properly heated.

It is a saving of time, and results will generally be more satisfactory, if, before beginning to mix a cake, the cook will see to it that she has everything needed ready at hand and in such condition that the ingredients can be put together quickly.