1281. Pound Cake

Ingredients required: - One pound of flour, one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, a wine glass of brandy, a little salt, and the rind of two oranges or lemons rubbed on sugar.

Place the butter in a basin, and work it with a wooden spoon until it assumes the appearance of thick cream ; then add the flour, sugar, and the eggs gradually ; when the whole is thoroughly incorporated, add the brandy, sugar, and salt; mix well together, and bake the cakes in any kind of mould (previously spread with butter), or in a tin hoop lined with buttered paper.

Plumbs, currants, almonds, pistachio-kernels, candied peel, or dried cherries may be added.

1282. Flemish Gauffres

Ingredients required: - Eight ounces of flour, six ounces of butter, six eggs, one ounce of yeast, half a pint of milk, half a pint of cream (whipped), the rind of two oranges rubbed on sugar, or a stick of vanilla pounded with half an ounce of sugar, and a little salt.

Put the flour into a gallon-sized basin, spread it out in the centre, then add the milk (with the yeast dissolved in it over the fire until the whole becomes tepid) ; mix these gradually and thoroughly ; then take the spoon out, scrape the sides of the basin with a knife, cover it with paper, and set the batter to rise in the screen. When the sponge has increased to twice its quantity, the butter should first be merely melted by the fire, and then added with the salt, orange sugar, and two whole eggs; mix these well in with the sponge, then add the whipped cream and the yolks of the four eggs, and lastly, after having whipped the four whites into a substantial froth, mix them lightly in with the batter, and again set it to rise in a warm place, either on the top of the screen or on the kitchen table, that it may rise to twice its original quantity.

While the batter is being prepared, let the gauffre-irons be heated over the flame of a charcoal fire, and when sufficiently hot to admit of their baking the gauffres, run a little clarified butter through them with a paste-brush, then fill one side of the irons with some of the batter, handling it gently with a spoon; close the irons, and then turn them upside down (that the batter may run into the opposite side), and set them over the flame of the charcoal fire, and when done of a bright-yellow color on one side, turn the irons over, that the gauffres may be baked also on the other side. They must then be turned out of the irons, and after the edges have been trimmed with a pair of scissors, set them in the oven or before a fire on a baking-sheet covered with paper. Repeat this until the whole of the batter be used up; then, shake some orange, lemon, or vanilla sugar over them, pile them up neatly on a napkin, and serve.

These gauffres are generally served as a remove in the second course.

1283. French Gauffres

Ingredients required: - Eight ounces of flour, four ounces of pounded sugar, one pint of whipped cream, eight eggs, one stick of vanilla, a little salt, and a glass of caracao.

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a basin, then add the yolks of eggs, the pounded vanilla, and the caracao, and mix these well together, gradually adding the whipped cream: just before using the batter, add the whipped whites of eggs, and mix them in lightly so as to thoroughly incorporate them with it.

Bake these gauffres in the same way as the foregoing, observing, however, that the iron be very carefully heated, and the superfluous heat allowed to go off previously to filling them with the batter; as, owing to the presence of sugar in their composition, they readily acquire color. When done, shake some vanilla-sugar over them, and send to table.

These gauffres may be spread with some kind of preserve; such as apricot, currant-jelly, etc.