Peach Shortcake

Rub half a cupful of butter into one and one-half cupfuls of sifted flour. Add a pinch of salt and enough ice-water to make a smooth paste. Roll out, shape it into flat round cakes, and put together with butter between. Bake brown, tear apart while hot, and fill with fresh peaches crushed with sugar. Cover the peaches with the other cake, spread peaches on top and pile high with sweetened whipped cream. Strawberry, banana, blackberry, cherry, fig, blueberry, gooseberry, orange, and raspberry shortcakes may be made in the same way.

Prune Shortcake

Stew a pound of prunes until soft, in water to cover, with half a cupful of sugar. When the prunes are soft, remove the stones and simmer for ten minutes longer. Make a biscuit crust, adding a little more shortening, and bake in two cakes with butter between. Split, spread with butter, fill with the prunes, cover the top with prunes, and serve hot with whipped cream.

Strawberry Shortcake

Sift a quart of flour with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and a pinch of salt. Work into it two tablespoonfuls of butter, add enough milk to make a soft dough, and bake in large pie-tins. Cool, split, spread with butter and crushed strawberries heavily sweetened. Pour crushed strawberries over the cake and serve.

Fruit Souffles

Drain any kind of preserved fruit and rub through a sieve enough to make a cupful. Add more sugar if required and fold in the stiffly beaten whites of eight eggs. Turn into a buttered baking-dish, bake for half an hour and serve immediately. Apples, apricots, bananas, prunes, cherries, chestnuts, cocoanut, figs, gooseberries, preserved ginger, peaches, pears, pineapples, quinces, raspberries, and strawberries may be used in the same way.