i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
569 
POINTS ABOUT CAKE MAKING 
FROM GOOD COOKS. 
WONDER If Lina Hadley’s trouble with 
her cake is not a matter of heat or the 
lack of it, as was her annoyance about beef 
steaks. A perfect cake cannot come from 
an ill-heated oven. Steady heat and a good 
deal of It are necessary for cakes when the 
lightness depends principally on eggs, and 
the same sort of heat in a little less inten¬ 
sity must be given to rich cake, no matter 
how much “leaven” there is “ in the lump.” 
If the oven becomes too hot and the cake is 
browning too fast, a thick paper on the 
top will remedy the matter, while a heated 
griddle slipped carefully under the tin 
will prevent danger from burning on the 
bottom; but I know of no means of saving a 
cake if it is put in when the oven is too cool. 
In regard to too much or too little beating, 
I do not feel prepared to offer an opinion. I 
have seen cakes which were marvels of de¬ 
licious lightness, when eggs, sugar, butter 
and flour were put into the dish together, 
and stirred just long enough to mix them, 
and still all well regulated cooks know 
that much beating of eggs and creaming of 
butter and sugar are regarded as necessities 
■when cakes are made for high festivals. 
Oh ! for a cast-iron something to do this 
endless beating, which may be as much of 
an improvement over the Dover egg-beater 
as that is over a fork. I wish Mrs. (?) 
Hadley would try the recipe which has 
done me such excellent service for a dozen 
years or more. Here is the formula : 
Charleston Cake.— One cupful of but¬ 
ter, creamed with three cupfuls of granu¬ 
lated sugar; six eggs beaten separately ; 
four cupfuls of flour sifted with three tea¬ 
spoonfuls of baking powder ; one cupful of 
sweet milk ; a little salt. Flavor to taste. 
This will make a large bowl of dough, and 
I usually torture it into three kinds of 
cake. Two deep, round jelly-cake tins are 
filled first. Then the dough is divided as 
equally as possible, and half is given a 
generous accompaniment of seeded raisins 
and put into a bar; the remaining half is 
converted into marbled cake by mixing 
grated chocolate or spices with a part of 
the dough. I line my cake paus with 
greased paper and remove the cake from 
the tins within five minutes from the time 
they come from the oven. The most quickly 
prepared cake I know of for unexpected 
necessities is roll jelly cake made as fol¬ 
lows : Put four eggs, one cupful of sugar, 
one cupful of prepared flour, a pinch of 
salt and a little vanilla into a bowl; stir till 
mixed, and pour into square tins, which 
have been greased. Bake in a quick oven 
till they do not adhere to a straw. Take 
from the tins with a flexible knife as soon 
as removed from the oven. Lay each cake, 
bottom upwards, on a cloth and spread 
with jelly or jam, and roll quickly and 
they are ready. Lard is better for greasing 
tins than butter, as it does not burn so 
easily. Some one recommended preparing 
a quantity of flour by sifting it with the 
baking powder. This is an excellent 
plan, but the can iu which it is put must 
be very dry, and as nearly air-tight as pos¬ 
sible, else the baking powder will lose its 
strength. Water will make whiter cake 
than milk and answers just as well, a fact 
which it is sometimes well to know. 
s. A. L. 
DIRECTIONS FOR CAKE BAKING. 
HE following directions are from 
those of Mrs. Mary B. Welch, for¬ 
merly teacher of Domestic Economy at the 
Iowa State College of Agriculture, and if 
followed, poor cake is an impossibility. 
General Directions.— The mixing and 
baking of cakes are both important ele¬ 
ments in the final result. Two persons 
can each take exactly the same material, 
and one will produce light, delicate, ten¬ 
der cake, beautiful to the eye and delicious 
to the taste, while the other will take 
from the oven a leathery, unwholesome- 
looking loaf, good neither to look at nor 
Pi.srcUancous §ulmti,$iug. 
Advertisers treat all correspondents 
well if they mention The Rural New- 
Yorker. 
Wheu Baby was sick, we gave her Castoria, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castoria, 
Wheu she bad Children, she gave them Castoria. 
to eat. The first has properly compounded 
her materials, and attended carefully to 
the temperature of the oven ; the second 
has put them together haphazard and let 
the oven take care of itself. 
I have arranged the directions to be fol¬ 
lowed under numbered steps. If any in¬ 
gredient mentioned is not called for by 
the recipe you are following, simply pro¬ 
ceed after the order given, leaving this 
step out and going to the next. 
1. Gather all materials and all utensils 
needed together. 
2. Grease and line the tins with paper. 
3. Weigh, or measure the flour, sugar, 
milk, butter, etc. 
4. Break the eggs, always separating the 
yelks from the whites. 
5. Beat the butter to a cream. 
6. Add the sugar gradually. 
7. Add the yelks of the eggs. 
8. Mix the baking powder thoroughly 
with one-third of the flour. 
9. Add, alternately, the two-thirds of the 
flour and the milk, until both are stirred 
thoroughly into the mixture. 
10. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff 
froth. 
11. Add, by degrees, the one third of the 
flour and the whites of the eggs. 
Things to be Remembered.— Always 
sift the flour before measuring, unless the 
recipe expressly directs otherwise. Keep 
the box of baking powder covered, or it 
will lose strength. Never stir butter and 
sugar together in a tin basin or with an 
iron spoon. A wooden spoon is better than 
any other kind, and costs but a trifle. 
Never let cake dough stand any length of 
time before baking. Use the common 
kitchen tea cup for measuring. All cake 
needs a moderate oven. If put in a hot 
oven it will crust over before it has per¬ 
fectly risen, and then as it rises the dough 
will force its way through the crust, mak¬ 
ing an ugly-shaped loaf. Be sure the oven 
is right before the cake is put in, and then 
do not open the door until it has been 
baking at least 10 miuutes. 
I have followed these directions for 
years, and when using them exactly as 
given, have never had a failure. Sugar, 
butter, milk, eggs, flour and baking 
powder cannot be dumped into the bowl 
and stirred together by many persons 
and good cake result. If the lady has no 
good cake recipes, I would be pleased to 
give her some of Mrs. Welch’s, as they are 
perfect, having given me much better re¬ 
sults than any of those from the noted 
recipe books. mrs. j. n. muncey. 
A CHAPTER ON PEACHES. 
HE peach crop is a very light one in 
this section. There is, however, 
some natural fruit as well as some few 
specimens upon the Early Rivers. All my 
early peaches, thus far, are cling-stones, 
and, except in very fortunate years, the 
quality is far from excellent. Though one 
would hardly think of canning or other¬ 
wise preserving such inferior fruit in most 
years, it will be found, by trial, that even 
inferior peaches make excellent sweet 
pickles, marmalade and preserves. The 
cling stones make nice pickles either peeled 
or unpeeled. If the skius are left on, wash 
and wipe them and stick two or three 
cloves in each peach. Put four pounds of 
sugar and two quarts of cider vinegar into 
a preserving kettle and stir until the sugar 
is dissolved. Prepare a little cotton bag 
and put two tea-spoonfuls of ground cinna¬ 
mon and a very little allspice into it, and, 
having fastened it securely, drop it into the 
vinegar; then add the peaches and cook 
until a broom-straw will pierce to the pit - 
but do not boil too long. Seal in cans like 
other fruit. Where the peaches are peeled 
it is better to put no cloves into the 
peaches, but au even tea-spoonful of ground 
cloves put into the bag improves their 
flavor. Spices make peeled peaches look 
darker than they are without them. 
Preserved Peaches. —Very ordinary 
peaches make good preserves, though the 
better the peach the better the sweetmeat. 
Three quarters of a pound of sugar to each 
pound of fruit is sufficient. Crack a few 
of the pits aud cook the meats with the 
syrup. Dissolve the sugar in as little 
water as possible, and, wheu hot, put in 
the peaches, which have been previously 
halved and peeled; boil until clear. It is 
best to cook but little more than enough to 
fill a can at one time. When peaches do 
not leave the stone readily it is well to 
halve them before peeling, as they do not 
crush so easily. When they are not per¬ 
fect iu shape, they are nice cut into pieces 
the size of dice before they are preserved. 
They look nicer in this way than iu mar¬ 
malade, but if they are unripe, marmalade 
and jelly are all they should be used for. 
An economical way to prepare these 
dainties is to cook the fruit in a little water 
till very soft, great care being taken to 
prevent burning. Place the fruit care¬ 
fully in a fine sieve and allow the juice to 
run out. Put the juice in a jelly bag to 
drain and make the jelly like any other 
kind, using one pound of granulated sugar, 
which has been heated, to each pint of 
juice. Let it boil from two to five minutes 
and put into the jelly glasses. Press the 
remaining fruit through the sieve, throw 
in a few of the meats from the pits and add 
pound for pound of granulated sugar. Set 
the preserving kettle iu a pan of water and 
heat the mass thoroughly. When boiling- 
hot turn into jelly glasses. This is a de¬ 
licious dressing for roll jelly cake. 
Dessert. —A beautiful and delicious dish 
for dessert or evening companies in hot 
weather may be made as follows: Soak 
one box of Cox’s gelatine in one pint of 
cold water for an hour, then add one quart 
of boiling water and one pound of granu¬ 
lated sugar; flavor very delicately with 
bitter almond. Have fine, ripe peaches 
ready peeled and quartered. When the 
jelly is cool, but not cold, put fruit and 
jelly in alternate layers in a mold, having 
jelly at the bottom. Set on ice till firm. 
Serve with whipped cream and sponge 
cake. 8. A. little. 
Clyde, N. Y. 
USEFUL HINTS. 
Grape Jelly.— Two or three years ago, 
I learned something by experiment, which 
has been of great value to me, and may be 
of equal value to all who are fond of jellies, 
if they can command plenty of grapes, or 
rhubarb. It is this: Grapes when green, or 
rhubarb at that stage when it jellies best, 
will make an excellent foundation for any 
kind of jelly, only enough of oranges, 
peaches, or berries being used to give a 
flavor and a name to the jelly. When fruit 
is scarce putting this idea in practice is a 
great help, and even when it is not, jellies 
made of the green grapes, and given the 
desired flavor are better than those kinds 
of the whole fruit that do not jelly well. 
The grapes should be sed just before they 
turn, as they jelly best at that stage. 
M. Y. NORYS. 
* # * 
A DELICIOUS desert is banana custard and 
sponge cake. Make a boiled custard, let it 
become cold, then just before sending it to 
the table slice bananas into it. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The”Rural. 
As a Rule, 
It is best not to attempt to remedy eostive- 
ness by the use of saline or drastic purga¬ 
tives. When a cathartic medicine is needed, 
the most prompt and beneficial is Ayer’s 
Tills. Their effect is to restore the regular 
action of the bowels, without weakening 
them. Being sugar-coated, these Pills retain 
their medicinal virtues for a long time, and 
are easy to take. 
“ I can recommend Ayer’s Pills above all 
others, having long proved their value as a 
cathartic for myself and family.”—J. T. Hess, 
Leitlisville, Pa. 
“ In 1858, by the advice of a friend, I began 
tne use of Ayer’s Pills as a remedy for bil¬ 
iousness, constipation, high fevers, and 
colds. They served me better than any¬ 
thing I had previously tried, and I have used 
them in attacks of that sort ever since.”— 
H. W. Hersh, Judsonia, Ark. 
Ayer’s Pills, 
PREPARED BT 
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Sold by all Dealers iu Medicines. 
Dyspepsia is the bane of the present, gen¬ 
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sick headache, constipatio n an d piles, that 
tuit’s Pills 
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New York Trade Schools 
First Ave., 67th and 68th St., New York. 
Evening instruction In Plumbing, Bricklaying, Car¬ 
pentry, House ani Sign Painting, Fresco Painting, 
Plastering and Blacksmith’s Work, commences Octo¬ 
ber 21, 189 i. Terms moderate. 
A three month-’ Day Course of instruction In Plumb¬ 
ing. will commence on Decemtier 3, terms $35; In 
House, Sign and Fresco Palming on Deeemb r 3, 
terms $40; In Bricklaying and Plastering on January 
6, 189', terms $40: in Carpentry on January 6, terms 
$35; In Stone Cutting on January fi, terms $3-. 
Send postal card for circular, Illustrated with photo, 
engraving of scholars’ work, or call and see work 
done last season. 
Norfolk College M l\dIK8L < ’ 
NEAR OLD POINT COMFORT. 
Largest, cheapest and best equipped school In Va. 
290 Students; 23 Teachers—Graduates of Smith College, 
Boston Univ., Wesleyan, Stuttgart. &c. Arts of seif- 
support a specialty Home Life Board, Tuition. $42 50 
a quarter Fire climate for delicate girls. For cata¬ 
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