In Cake- as in Bread-making practical knowledge of a few cardinal rules will enable the cook to bring forth an almost infinite variety of sweets in this line of culinary adventure. She who can make, once and again, good cup cake is equal to whatever the layer-cake species may offer for experiment. The filling gives character and individuality to each of the family. Become proficient in the manufacture of pound cake, and, to parody Mr. Wegg, "all cake is open to you." Recipes many and divers are only suggestions to her whose sponge cake always turns out well, whose pound cake is never streaky, or her jelly cake-too stiff or too friable.

We do not, then, propose to clog her memory and these pages with a host of mere memoranda of the fine art. By the help of general laws herewith submitted even the Average American Cook ought to be able to attain excellence, if not perfection, in what is a much simpler branch of cookery than salads, sauces, or even soups.

1. Before mixing the cake, weigh or measure the ingredients as carefully as if you had never made a cake before, and have them all ready on the table by you.

2.   Cream butter and sugar by rubbing them together in a bowl with a wooden, agate-iron, or silver spoon, until you have a mixture as white as cream and as bland as oil.

3.   Sift baking powder, or soda, and salt twice with the flour, and if there is the least suspicion of dampness about the flour, set it near the fire for half an hour, then sift again.

4.   Beat whites and yolks separately, the whites to a closegrained, standing froth that can be cut with a knife, the yolks to a smooth, stiff cream.

5.   Add the flour last in mixing, or alternately with the whites of the eggs, whipping in lightly and almost horizontally with as few strokes as are needful to incorporate all the ingredients.

6.   Do not let the cake stand after it is mixed, awaiting the oven's mood, or the maker's convenience. Look to it that the oven is ready for it before beginning operations.

7.   Cottolene is better for greasing the pans than butter. Salt disposes the batter to stick, and if you use tin-ware (agate-iron is far preferable) blackens the pans.

8.   Give as much attention to baking as mixing. After the cake goes into the oven do not open the door for at least fifteen minutes, and then cautiously, to peep at the interior, closing the door again gently. A "slam" has caused the sudden fall of many a promising cake. To remove half-baked dough from one oven to another will almost certainly spoil it irretrievably.

This octave is the foundation of all cake-ly compositions.