The excellence of a cake depends upon its lightness, texture, color and taste.

Cake is made light by the enlargement of the cells in the cake batter and this is accomplished in two ways. First, by the expansion of air when heated during baking. The cool air in the batter is enclosed by the beating of the batter, or the eggs. The expanding of the enclosed air bubbles puffs up and expands the batter: the heat also bakes the cake, making the walls of the cells rigid, so that they retain the structure of a sponge.

The other method of enlarging the cells of the cake batter is by the evolution of carbon dioxide, a harmless gas which fills the cells and expands when heated during the baking of the cake. Carbon dioxide is the gas in the bubbles given off by baking powder when it is wet and heated. The action of cream of tartar on soda also gives off carbon dioxide.

This lightness of a cake is greatly affected by the kind of flour used. Flour not made expressly for use in cake baking is rich in gluten, an excellent quality for bread, but detrimental for cake baking. Gluten is a tough, rubbery substance that makes difficult the expansion of the cake batter, because the heated air, or evolved gas bubbles, are not active enough to overcome this strong rubbery gluten. This prevents the cake having a fine grained texture, that is fluffy and light.

Flour with a yellowish or grayish color does not give that beautiful and creamy white color that goes far towards making a cake more palatable. Bread flours have this fault.

The delicacy of taste and flavor is an extremely important factor, for the dainty quality of a cake must not be dominated by the use of a strong and coarse flour.

Swans Down Cake Flour is a special preparation of those elements taken from selected wheat that go to make a flour which gives the best of results in cake and pastry baking.

The proportion of gluten in Swans Down Cake Flour is small and it is of extremely fine and tender quality. The eggs and butter and sugar used in a cake more than make up for the low gluten content, so far as the nutriment value is concerned.

It is best to have a special flour for cake baking. Swans Down Cake Flour is the best we can make and we have made the best of flour for over a half century.

COPYRIGHTED 1914. IGLEHEART BROTHERS