i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A GOOD PLAIN CAKE. 
T HE sister who “never did feel satis¬ 
fied with mediocre results,” struck 
an answering chord in my nature. Mem¬ 
ories of amber jellies, toothsome cakes or 
luscious puddings cooling in the store¬ 
room, go far towards neutralizing the 
weariness of a long morning’s work ; while 
so ‘mall a matter as a tin of heavy ginger¬ 
bread threatens the satisfaction from a 
Saturday’s baking 
I. too, have tried many recipes for cake, 
and failed where most lavish of material. 
A year ago I “ lost my knack ” for making 
layer cake. In September the teacher 
came to board with us,—a tender miss, 
fresh from high school, who had not yet 
lost her appetite for sweets,—and I set 
about solving the cake difficulty. Perhaps 
she was not a critical guest; she certainly 
praised my cake the season through. I 
aimed only that my loaves should be light, 
moist and appetizing, and plain rather than 
rich. Believing that the virtue of a layer 
cake, too, lies chiefly in the filling, and re¬ 
membering the flat, leathery sheets I had 
taken from the oven after following recipes 
of extra richness, I limited myself to one 
egg and evolved the following : 
Recipe for Layer Cake —One cup of 
sugar, creamed with one baking spoonful 
of butter, with one egg beaten in; half a 
tea-spoonful of vanilla extract; one cup of 
milk ; two cups of flour; two tea spoonfuls 
of cream of-tartar, and half a tea-spoonful 
of salt mixed with flour; one tea-spoonful 
of soda in a little of the milk. 
From a successful, middle-aged cook I 
got the following points: “Always use 
cream-of-tartar and soda in preference to 
baking-powder ; and while you are careful 
of the proportions, do not scrimp the quan¬ 
tity ; be sure to add the soda last, and stir 
it only enough to mix after it is added.” 
She was probably unduly prejudiced 
against baking-powder, but her idea of 
first beating the cake vigorously and add¬ 
ing the soda the last thing has proved so 
satisfactory that I have never gone back to 
my Royal and Dover boxes. I would ad¬ 
vise people who have pure, sweet lard of 
their own preparing, to try the use of it 
Instead of butter for every-day cake It 
makes cake of a different consistency, 
whiter and more moist than that made 
^ with butter, and is, perhaps, better where 
a rich filling is used. In hot weather it 
is well to substitute water for the milk, 
since the cake does not dry so soon. While 
for a rich loaf it is always best to whip the 
whites of the eggs separately, I think the 
time may be better employed than in doing 
so for the common loaf, that is good enough 
without it. Really, I can never see that 
my one-egg cake is the better for it. The 
quantity prescribed in the recipe makes 
three layers, and the cakes should be 
baked in a rather hot oven; 15 minutes, or 
20 at the most, should turn them out a 
delicate brown. If the tins are floured 
after they have been rubbed with lard, 
there will be no difficulty in removing the 
cakes. One should bo careful not to bake 
too hard, and the filling should be ready so 
that the loaf may be put together before 
the cake cools. Of course, one should never 
slam the oven door, or bounce the cake 
around before it is done! For spreading 
between the layers many sorts of filling are 
available and lend variety. Marmalade is 
better than jelly for the purpose, and if a 
slight frosting of whipped cream be spread 
over each addition of the marmalade a 
very rich loaf will be the result. The juicy 
pulp taken from two large oranges and 
scattered over a spreading of white frost¬ 
ing is nice. Nothing looks prettier than 
grated cocoanut thus used, and if the desic¬ 
cated sort be kept on hand, spreading it is 
very little trouble. But it is better to use 
a boiled frosting, made of one cup of granu¬ 
lated sugar and four table-spoonfuls of 
water boiled to a clear syrup; pour in a 
fine stream over the stiffly beaten white of 
one egg, and stir till white and nearly 
cold. To such a frosting I used to add a 
grated square of chocolate for my choco¬ 
late cake; but having grown tired of that, 
I have since experimented in various ways, 
but I never yet gained entire satisfaction. 
There is oue sort that takes the whites of 
three eggs beaten stiff, 1 % cup of pow¬ 
dered sugar, and six table spoonfuls of 
grated chocolate, that is very good indeed. 
This is beaten up cold, and I like the flavor 
of the chocolate when it has not been 
melted; but the three eggs offend my 
ideas of economy, and I do not always care 
for the loaf of gold cake I make with the 
three yelks left from the frosting. A very 
easily made and economical filling, always 
relished by the family as a change, is made 
from one large sour apple, pared and 
grated; the juice and grated rind of one 
lemon, and one cup of sugar; boil three 
minutes and spread when cool. 
From such recipes one is pretty sure to 
turn out a palatable loaf suitable for the 
home tea-table, and up to the average 
article found at church sociables and pic¬ 
nics, country teas and collations ; but of 
the rich, 10 egg varieties that melt in one’s 
mouth and disarrange the digestion for a 
week afterward, I am sorrowfully ignorant. 
I can Imagine the great, shining, delicious 
loaf I would gladly bestow as a Christmas 
or oirth-day present upon an epicurean rel¬ 
ative ; but one venture upon angel cake 
has convinced me that “ discretion is the 
better part of valor ” and I hesitate to 
again risk my reputation—and 10 eggs— 
upon so slight a staff as a stranger’s 
printed list of ingredients. Experienced 
housekeepers smile their contempt over 
the explicit directions I covet; but, to 
illustrate the pitfalls that beset the way of 
the unskilled, hear of my last batch of 
cookies. My cream cookies were one thing 
that I prided myself upon, having brought 
my practice to a degree of accuracy that 
insured success. My recipe is nearly like 
one given on page 471 of a late Rural, but 
I omit the egg, and prefer vanilla for 
flavoring. I had found that I was likely 
to use a pint of flour; that they were best 
baked a very delicate brown; and that the 
richer the cream, the better the cookies. 
Wishing them to be extra good the last 
time, I used granulated sugar instead of 
the coffee A usually taken, and, spying in 
the cream jar some cream just turning to 
butter, I made my cookies of it. In vain I 
added milk to supply moisture. I had 
acted upon the notion that if thick cream 
was good, thicker would be better, and my 
cakes were so many hard, brittle failures, 
and one more experience was added to my 
slowly accumulating fund of culinary 
knowledge. 
How I admire the ways of the corres¬ 
pondent who “does not often make cake.” 
With thin slices of snowy bread, the best 
of butter, a salad or plate of cold meat, a 
glass dish full of berries and a small 
pitcher of cream, the tea-table is abun¬ 
dantly set forth both to mv mind and ap¬ 
petite. A prettily decorated flat dish costs 
so little; a few roots of parsley are so easily 
grown, and thin slices of pink ham or cold 
roast beef shading from pink to brown are 
so satisfying; but if there are but two 
ounces of strength left and the back aches, 
the table must stand against the wall. 
And imagine a half-dozen anaconda-like 
hired men sitting down to such a table and 
gulping tea from one’s Haviland china cups! 
To remove any latent convictions of my 
stinginess, I must confess why I always 
dispense with an egg where it will not be 
missed; I have great fondness for cup 
custards. Economy that saves in one place 
to spend in another is always easy for me 
to practice. For each cup of custard one 
needs one egg, one table spoonful of sugar, 
a little grated nutmeg and milk to fill the 
cup. Set the cups in a pan half-full of hot 
water and bake carefully, testing with a 
spoon handle and removing from the oven 
before a drop of whey forms. One of these 
custards is a very suitable offering to an 
invalid, and in this form an egg is pleasant 
when other forms have grown tiresome. 
BEDA BARNES. 
USEFUL HINTS. 
Papier mache for filling cracks in floors 
can be prepared by heating to a paste cut¬ 
tings of white or brown paper, boiled in 
water, and then mixing the paste with a 
solution of gum arabic Make the solution 
hot in which you mix the paper paste, and 
apply directly, thus making it adhere more 
firmly. 
This interesting item about girls in the 
great city, is clipped from the New York 
letter to the Savannah News: “ Dorothy 
Flats.—To this has it grown. It was single 
rooms last year and the year before. The 
girl bachelor flourishes like the green bay 
tree. The Dorothy apartments, with parlor 
in common and a bedroom apiece for three 
or four chums, has expanded into flats, 
where the cosiest housekeeping is carried 
on; two girls to a flat, and pretty tea 
things of old Satsuma, picked up delight¬ 
fully cheap at auction sales. Some of them 
like it, some yearn for masculine shoes 
and overcoats to pick up and put away.” 
For Neuralgia. —Boil a handful of lo¬ 
belia in a half pint of water, strain and 
add a tea-spoonful of fine salt. Wring 
cloths out of the liquid, very hot, and apply 
till the pain ceases, changing as fast as 
cold, then cover with dry cloth for awhile, 
to prevent taking cold. Two large table- 
spoonruls of cologne and two tea spoonfuls 
of tine salt, mixed in a bottle, make an ex¬ 
cellent inhalent for facial neuralgia. Horse¬ 
radish, prepared the same as for the table, 
applied to the temple or wrist, is recom¬ 
mended. 
Lemon Pudding. —Scald one pint of milk 
into which put one cup of fine bread 
crumbs and one table-spoonful of butter; 
let boil once, then set aside to cool a little, 
when add the yelks of three eggs beaten 
with one-half cup of sugar and grated rind 
of one lemon. Pour in dish and bake 15 to 
551 
20 minutes; remove from oven, spread over 
the top the whites of three eggs, beaten 
with one-half cup of sugar and the juice of 
one lemon; set in the oven to brown 
slightly. If any member of the family 
happens to discover that this is bread pud¬ 
ding, bind him over to silence. 
Bananas are so cheap this year that all 
should be able to use them to a greater or 
less extent. For the many who do not like 
them cooked there are several ways of serv¬ 
ing them at the table that make them a 
very delightful, as well as nutritious addi¬ 
tion to the meal. 
gftijscelliwwusi gUrmiSing. 
Readers of The R. N.-Y. will please the 
advertisers and benefit the paper by always 
mentioning it when writing to advertisers. 
With His Thumb, 
A boy is said to have saved the Netherlands 
from inundation. Multitudes have been 
saved from the invasion of disease by a 
bottle of Ayer’s Sarsaparilla. This medicine 
imparts tone to the system and strengthens 
every organ and fibre of the body. 
“ I have taken a great deal of medicine, 
but nothing has done me so much good as 
Ayer’s Sarsaparilla. I experienced its bene¬ 
ficial effects before I had quite finished one 
bottle, and I can freely testify that it is the 
best blood medicine I know of.” —L. W. 
Ward, sr., Woodland, Texas. 
“ Confined to an office, as I am, from one 
year’s end to another, with little or no out¬ 
door exercise, I find great help in Ayer’s 
Sarsaparilla, which I have used for several 
years, and am at present using, with excel¬ 
lent results. It enables me to keep always 
at my post, enjoying the best of health.” — 
H. C. Barnes, Malden, Mass. 
Ayer’s Sarsaparilla 
PREPARED BY 
DR. J. C. AYER & CO., Dowell, Mass. 
Sold by Druggists. $l,six$5. Worth $5 a bottle. 
GOLD MEDAL, PARIS. 1878. 
W. BAKER S CO.’S 
Breakfast Cocoa 
Is absolutely pure and 
i. Is soluble. 
No Chemicals 
ore used in its preparation. It baa mor. 
than three time* the strength of Cocoa 
mixed with Starch, Arrowroot or Sugar, 
and is therefore far more economical, 
costing less than one cent a cnp. It i» 
delicious, nourishing, strengthening, EA¬ 
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for invalids as well as persons in health. 
Sold by Grocers everywhere. 
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fbp SADIE S’ HOAE 
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