Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book Part 37

The small oblong cakes are called Naples biscuits, and require no icing.

A large turban cake may be iced plain, without ornament.

A _very light_ sponge cake, when sliced, will cut down rough and coa.r.s.e grained, and it is desirable to have it so.

_Lady Fingers_--Are mixed in the same manner, and of the same ingredients as the foregoing receipt for the best sponge cake. When the mixture is finished, form the cakes by shaping the batter with a tea-spoon, upon sheets of soft white paper slightly damped, forming them like double ovals joined in the centre. Sift powdered sugar over them, and bake them in a quick oven till slightly browned. When cool, take them off the papers. They are sometimes iced.

ALMOND SPONGE CAKE.--The addition of almonds makes this cake very superior to the usual sponge cake. Sift half a pound of fine flour or arrow root. Blanch in scalding water two ounces of sh.e.l.led sweet almonds, and two ounces of bitter ones, renewing the hot water when expedient. When the skins are all off, wash the almonds in cold water, (mixing the sweet and bitter) and wipe them dry. Pound them to a fine smooth paste, (one at a time,) in a very clean marble mortar, adding, as you proceed, plenty of rose-water to prevent their oiling. Then set them in a cool place. Beat twelve eggs till very smooth and thick, and then beat into them, gradually, a pound of powdered loaf sugar, in turn with the pounded almonds. Lastly, add the flour, stirring it round slowly and lightly on the surface of the mixture, as in common sponge cake. Have ready a _deep_ square pan. b.u.t.ter it nicely. Put the mixture carefully into it, set it into the oven, and bake it till thoroughly done and risen very high. When cool, cover it with plain white icing, flavored with rose-water. With sweet almonds, always use a small portion of bitter ones. Without them, _sweet_ almonds have little or no taste, though they add to the richness of the cake.

SPANISH BUNS.--In a shallow pan put a half pint of rich unskimmed milk, and cut up in it a half pound of the best fresh b.u.t.ter. Set it on the stove, or near the fire, to warm and soften, but do not let it melt or oil. When soft, stir it all through the milk with a broad knife, and then set it away to cool. Sift into a broad pan half a pound of the finest flour, and an additional quarter of a pound put on a plate by itself. Beat four eggs in a shallow pan till very thick and smooth, and mix them at once into the b.u.t.ter and sugar, adding the half pound of flour. Stir in a powdered nutmeg, and two wine-gla.s.ses of strong yeast, fresh from the brewer's, first removing the thin liquid or beer from the top. Stir the mixture very hard with a knife, and then add, _gradually_, half a pound of powdered white sugar. The buns will become heavy if the sugar is thrown in all at once. It is important that it should be added a little at a time. Then sprinkle in, by degrees, the extra quarter of a pound of sifted flour, and lastly add a wine-gla.s.s of strong rose-water. When all has been well stirred, b.u.t.ter (with fine fresh b.u.t.ter,) an oblong iron or block-tin pan, and carefully put the bun mixture into it. Cover it with a clean cloth, and set it near the fire to rise. It may require five hours; therefore buns wanted for tea should be made in the forenoon. When the batter has risen very high, and is covered with bubbles, put the pan immediately into a moderate but steady oven, and bake it. When cool, cut the buns into squares, and ice each one separately, if for company; the icing being flavored with lemon or orange juice. Otherwise, you may simply sift sugar over them. These buns were first introduced by Mrs. Goodfellow; and in her school were always excellently made, nothing being spared that was good, and the use of soda and other alkalis being unknown in the establishment--hartshorn in cakes would have horrified her.

LADY CAKE.--This cake must be flavored highly with bitter almonds; without them, sweet almonds have little or no taste, and are useless in lady cake. Blanch, in scalding water, three small ounces of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds, and then lay them in a bowl of very cold water.

Afterwards wipe them dry, and pound them (one at a time,) to a smooth paste in a clean marble mortar; adding, as you proceed, a wine-gla.s.s of rose-water to improve the flavor, and prevent their oiling, and becoming heavy and dark. When done, set them away in a cool place, on a saucer.

Almonds are always lighter and better when blanched and pounded the day before. Cut up three quarters of a pound of the best fresh b.u.t.ter in a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Mix it in a deep earthen pan, and stir and beat it with a spaddle till it becomes very light and creamy. Then, gradually, stir in the pounded almonds. Take the _whites only_ of seventeen or eighteen fresh eggs, and beat them in a shallow pan to a stiff froth, till they stand alone. Then stir the beaten white of egg, gradually, into the pan of creamed b.u.t.ter and sugar, in turn with three small quarters of a pound (or a pint and a half,) of sifted flour of the very best quality. Stir the whole very hard at the last, and transfer it to a straight-sided tin pan, well greased with excellent fresh b.u.t.ter.

Set the pan immediately into an oven, and bake it with a moderate but steady heat. When it has been baking rather more than two hours, probe it by sticking down to the bottom a twig from a corn broom, or a very narrow knife. If it comes out clean the cake is done; if clammy or daubed, keep it longer in the oven. A cake when quite done generally shrinks a little. When you take it out, set it to cool on an inverted sieve. Ice a lady cake entirely with white, and ornament it with white flowers. It is now much in use at weddings, and if well made, and quite fresh, there is no cake better liked.

CINNAMON CAKE.--Cut up half a pound of fine fresh b.u.t.ter, and warm it till soft in half a pint of rich milk. Sift a pound of fine flour into a broad pan; make a hole in the centre, and pour into it the milk and b.u.t.ter, having stirred them well together. Then, gradually, add a large quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, and a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Beat three eggs very smooth and thick, and stir them in, also a wine-gla.s.s and a half of strong fresh brewer's yeast, or two gla.s.ses of fresh baker's yeast. Then mix, (having sprinkled some over the top,) all the flour into the hole in the centre, so as to make a soft dough. When all is well mixed cover it, and set it to rise in a round straight-sided tin pan. Place it near the fire, and when quite light and cracked all over the surface, flour your pasteboard well, place the loaf upon it, and having prepared in a pint bowl a stiff mixture of ground cinnamon, fresh b.u.t.ter, and brown sugar, beaten together so as to stand alone, make numerous deep cuts or incisions all over the surface on the sides and top of the cake; fill them with the cinnamon mixture, and pinch each together so as to keep the seasoning from coming out. Glaze it all over with beaten white of egg a little sweetened. Then return the loaf to the pan, and bake it in a moderate oven till thoroughly done. When cool, cut it down in slices like a pound cake.

This dough may be divided into small round cakes, the size of a m.u.f.fin, and baked on tin or iron sheets, sifting sugar over them when cool. It must have a high flavor of cinnamon.

WEST INDIA COCOA-NUT CAKE.--Cut up and peel some pieces of very ripe cocoa-nut. Lay them for a while in cold water. Then take them out and wipe them dry, and grate very fine as much as will weigh half a pound.

Beat eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth. Have ready half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and stir it into the pan of beaten egg, alternately with the grated cocoa-nut; adding a handful of sifted flour, a powdered nutmeg, and a large gla.s.s of madeira or sherry, stirring the whole very hard. b.u.t.ter an oblong tin pan. Put in the mixture, set it immediately into a quick oven, and bake it well. Set it to cool on an inverted sieve; cut it into squares, and ice each square, flavoring the icing with rose.

You may bake it in a large loaf; adding double portions of all the ingredients, and ornamenting the icing handsomely.

_Sweet Potato Cake_--Is made like the above cocoa-nut cake. The sweet potatos must be pared and grated _raw_, till you have as much as weighs half a pound. Then proceed as above, and with the same ingredients and proportions. You may boil and mash the sweet potatos; but be sure, afterwards, to pa.s.s them through a coa.r.s.e sieve, or they may chance to clod and become heavy. If well made, and well flavored, this cake is very nice.

GOLDEN CAKE.--The best time for making this cake is when ripe oranges are plenty. For one cake select four large deep-colored oranges, and roll each one under your hand upon a table to soften them, and increase the juice. Weigh a pound of the best loaf sugar. On some of the largest pieces rub off the yellow or outer rind of the oranges, omitting the white entirely. The white or inner rind of oranges or lemons should never be used for any thing. Cut the oranges, and squeeze their juice through a strainer into a large saucer or a small deep plate. Powder all the sugar, including that which has the orange zest upon it, and put it into a deep earthen pan, with a pound of the best fresh b.u.t.ter cut up among it. With a wooden spaddle stir the b.u.t.ter and sugar together, till very light and creamy. In a shallow pan beat twelve eggs, omitting the _whites_ of three. Sift into a dish a small quart of the best and finest flour, and stir it gradually into the pan of b.u.t.ter and sugar and orange, in turn with the beaten egg, a little at a time of each. Stir the whole very hard; and when done, immediately transfer the batter to square tin pans, greased with the same fresh b.u.t.ter that was used for the cake. Many a fine cake has been spoiled, at last, by the poor economy of greasing the pans with salt b.u.t.ter. Fill the pans to the top.

If the cake has been well made, and well beaten, there is no danger of the batter running over the edges. Put it, immediately, into a quick oven and bake it well, not allowing the heat to be lessened till the cake is quite done. When cool, cut it into squares. If you ice it, flavor the icing with orange juice.

Do not attempt to make this cake with yolk of egg only, by way of improving the yellow color. Without any whites, it will a.s.suredly be tough and heavy. Cakes may be made light with white of egg only, but never with yellow of egg only.

If you use soda, saleratus, hartshorn, or any of the alkalis, they will entirely destroy the orange flavor, and communicate a bad taste of their own.

SILVER CAKE.--Scald in a bowl of boiling water two ounces of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds. As you peel off the skins throw each almond into a bowl of ice-cold water. When all are blanched, take them out, and wipe them dry on a clean napkin. Put them, one at a time, into a very clean marble mortar, and pound each one separately to a smooth paste, adding, as you pound them, a few drops of strong rose-water, till you have used up a large wine-gla.s.s full. As you remove the pounded almonds from the water, lay them lightly and loosely on a plate. When all are done, put them into a very cool place. In a deep earthen pan cut up a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter into a pound of powdered sugar, and with a wooden spaddle stir the b.u.t.ter and sugar together till perfectly light. Into another pan sift three quarters of a pound of fine flour, and in a broad shallow pan beat with small rods the whites only of eighteen eggs till they are stiff enough to stand alone. Then, gradually, and alternately, stir into the pan of beaten b.u.t.ter and sugar the flour, the beaten white of eggs, and the pounded almonds. Give the whole a hard stirring at the last.

Transfer it to square tin pans greased with the same b.u.t.ter, and bake it well. When cool, cut it into square cakes, and send it to table on china plates, piled alternately with pieces of golden cake, handsomely arranged. If you ice silver cake, flavor the icing with strong rose-water.

These cakes, (gold or silver) if made as above, will be found delicious.

The yolk of egg left from the silver cake may be used for soft custards.

But yolk of egg alone, will not raise a cake; though white of egg will.

APEES.--Cut up a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter into two pounds of sifted flour, and rubbing the b.u.t.ter very fine, and mixing in a pound of powdered sugar, with a heaped tea-spoonful of mixed spice, nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, and four tea-spoonfuls of carraway seeds. Moisten the whole with a large gla.s.s of white wine; and barely sufficient cold water to make a stiff dough. Mix it well with a broad knife, and roll it out into a sheet less than half an inch thick; then with the edge of a tumbler, or a tin cake-cutter, divide it into round small cakes. Bake them in oblong pans, (tin or iron) slightly b.u.t.tered; and do not place them so closely as to touch. Bake them in a quick oven, till they are of a pale brown. These cakes are soon prepared, requiring neither eggs nor yeast.

MARMALADE MERINGUES.--Make a mixture as for apees, omitting only the carraway seeds. Roll out the sheet of dough quite thin; cut it into round flat cakes with the edge of a tumbler, and bake them a few minutes, till lightly colored. Take them out of the oven and spread them thickly with very nice marmalade, or with ripe strawberries or raspberries, sweetened, and mashed without cooking. Have ready a stiff meringue of beaten white of egg and sugar. Pile it high over the marmalade on each cake. Heap it on with a spoon, so as quite to conceal the marmalade, and do not smooth it on the top. It should stand up _uneven_ as the spoon left it. Set it again in the oven for a minute or two, to harden it.

JUMBLES.--Mix together, all at once, in a deep pan, a pound of b.u.t.ter cut up in a pound of powdered sugar, a pound of sifted flour, and six eggs, previously beaten very light in a pan by themselves. Add a table-spoonful of powdered spice, (mixed nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon) and a gla.s.s of mixed wine and brandy; or else a gla.s.s of rose water; or the juice and grated yellow rind of a large lemon. Stir the whole very hard till all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, and become a soft dough.

Flour your hands and your pasteboard, and lay the dough upon it. Take off equal portions from the lump, and with your hands form them into round rolls, and make them into rings by joining together the two ends of each. Place the jumbles (not so near as to touch,) in tin pans slightly b.u.t.tered, and bake them in a very brisk oven little more than five or six minutes, or enough to color them a light brown. If the oven is too cool, the jumbles will spread and run into each other. When cold, sift sugar over them. _Jumbles_ may be made with yolks of eggs only, if the whites are wanted for something else.

_Cocoa-nut Jumbles_--Are made as above, only with finely grated cocoa-nut instead of flour, and with white of egg instead of yolk.

_Cocoa-nut Puffs._--Grate any quant.i.ty of cocoa-nut. Mix it with powdered sugar and a little beaten white of egg, and lay it in small heaps of equal size. On the top of each place a ripe strawberry, raspberry, or any small preserved fruit, flattening a slight hollow, to hold it without its rolling off.

SCOTCH CAKE.--Take a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, a pound of powdered white sugar, and two pounds of sifted flour. Mix the sugar with the flour, and rub the b.u.t.ter into it, crumbled fine. Add a heaped table-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon. Put _no water_, but moisten it entirely with b.u.t.ter. A small gla.s.s of brandy is an improvement. Roll it out into a large thick sheet, and cut it into round cakes about the size of saucers. Bake them on flat tins, slightly b.u.t.tered. This cake is very crumbly but very good, and of Scottish origin. It keeps well, and is often sent from thence, packed in boxes.

JELLY CAKE.--For baking jelly cake you must have large flat tin pans rather larger than a dinner plate. But a very clean soap-stone griddle may be subst.i.tuted, though more troublesome. Make a rich batter as for pound cake, and bake it in single cakes, (in the manner of buckwheat, or thicker) taking care to grease the tin or soap-stone with _excellent_ fresh b.u.t.ter. Have ready, enough of fruit jelly or marmalade, to spread a thick layer all over each cake when it cools. Pile one on another very evenly, till you have four, five, or half a dozen; and ice the surface of the whole. Cut it down in triangular pieces like a pie. Jelly cake is no longer made of sponge cake, which is going out of use for all purposes, as being too often dry, tough, and insipid, and frequently not so good as plain bread.

ALMOND MACAROONS.--The day before they are wanted, prepare three quarters of a pound of sh.e.l.led sweet almonds, and a quarter of a pound of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds; by scalding, blanching, and pounding them to a smooth paste in a marble mortar, (one or two at a time) adding, as you proceed, rose-water to prevent their oiling, and becoming dark and heavy. Having beaten to a stiff froth the whites of six eggs, and prepared a pound of powdered loaf sugar, beat the sugar into the egg a spoonful at a time. Then mix in gradually the pounded almonds, and add a grated nutmeg. Stir the whole very hard, and form the mixture into small round b.a.l.l.s. Then flatten slightly the surface of each. b.u.t.ter slightly some shallow tin pans. Place the macaroons not so close as to be in danger of touching; and glaze them lightly with a little beaten white of egg. Put them into a brisk oven, and bake them a light brown.

Ground-nut macaroons are made in the same manner.

_Chocolate Macaroons._--Sc.r.a.pe down, very fine, half a pound of Baker's prepared cocoa. Beat to a stiff froth the white of four eggs, and beat into the white of egg a pound of powdered loaf sugar, in turn with the chocolate, adding a little sifted flour if the mixture appears too thin.

Grease the bottom of some oblong tin pans, very slightly, with sweet oil. Having formed the mixture into small thick cakes, lay them (not close,) in the pan, and bake them a few minutes. Sift sugar over them while warm.

KISSES.--Having beaten to a stiff froth, till it stands alone, the whites of eight eggs, mix with it, gradually, three quarters of a pound of finely powdered loaf sugar, beating it in very hard, a spoonful at a time, and as you proceed flavoring it with extract of vanilla, rose, or lemon juice. If the meringue is not thoroughly beaten and very stiff, the kisses will lose their shape and run in baking. Try one first, and if that runs, beat a while longer before you bake the whole. Pile portions of the meringue on sheets of letter paper, placing each heap far apart. Smooth and shape them with a broad knife dipped in cold water. Make them about the size and form of half eggs, with the flat part downwards. Arrange them on a smooth hickory board, and set it in a quick oven, (leaving the door open) and watch them well. A few minutes will color them a pale brown, and that is all they require. Then take them out, and set them to cool. When cool, slip a knife carefully under each, and remove them from the paper. Then with your knife hollow the meringue from the base of each kiss and sc.r.a.pe upwards toward the top, being careful not to break through the outside or crust. Fill up this vacancy with any sort of stiff jelly. Then clap two halves together, and unite them at the base, by moistening the edges with a little of the meringue that was left. Handle them very carefully throughout.

Large kisses, of twice or thrice the usual size, are introduced at parties, filled with ice cream, or flavored calf's foot jelly.

It is very customary now to finish a fine charlotte russe with a thick layer of this jelly at the top.

LAFAYETTE GINGERBREAD.--Cut up in a deep pan half a pound of the best fresh b.u.t.ter, with a half pound of excellent brown sugar; and stir it to cream with a spaddle. Add a pint of West India mola.s.ses, mixed with half a pint of warm milk; four table-spoonfuls of ginger; a heaped table-spoonful of mixed powdered cinnamon and powdered mace and nutmeg; and a gla.s.s of brandy. Sift in a pound and a half of fine flour. Beat six eggs till very light and thick, and mix them, alternately, into the pan of b.u.t.ter, sugar, mola.s.ses, &c. At the last, mix in the yellow rind (grated fine) of two large oranges and the juice. Stir the whole very hard. Melt in one cup a very small level tea-spoonful of soda, and in another a small level salt-spoon of tartaric acid. Dissolve them both in lukewarm water, and see that both are quite melted. First stir the soda into the mixture, and then put in the tartaric acid. On no account exceed the quant.i.ty of the two alkalis, as if too much is used, they will destroy entirely the flavoring, and communicate a very disagreeable taste instead. Few cakes are the better for any of the alkaline powders, and many sorts are entirely spoiled by them. Even in gingerbread they should be used very sparingly, rather less than more of the prescribed quant.i.ty. Having b.u.t.tered, (with the same b.u.t.ter) a large round or oblong pan, put in the mixture, and bake it in a moderate oven till thoroughly done, keeping up a steady heat, but watching that it does not burn. There is no gingerbread superior to this, if well made. Instead of lemon or orange, cut in half a pound of seedless raisins, dredge them well with flour, and stir them, gradually, into the mixture.

This is also called Franklin gingerbread.

GINGER NUTS.--Cut a pound of the best fresh b.u.t.ter into two pounds or two quarts of sifted flour, and half a pound of fine brown sugar. Add four heaped table-spoonfuls of ground ginger; a heaped table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and the same quant.i.ty of mixed nutmeg and mace. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly together; adding, gradually, a large pint of West India mola.s.ses, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon or orange. Stir it very hard with a spaddle. Flour your hands, break off pieces of the dough, and knead each piece a little; then flatten them on the top. Make them the size of a quarter dollar. Or, (flouring your pasteboard) roll out the dough, and cut out the ginger-nuts with the edge of a small wine-gla.s.s. Bake them on b.u.t.tered tins, having first glazed them with a thin mixture of mola.s.ses and water. The same dough may be baked in long straight sticks, divided by lines deeply marked with a knife.

There are many other gingerbreads; but any of the soft sorts may be made with little variation from the foregoing directions for Lafayette gingerbread; and of the hard sort of ginger-nut preparation, the above is the basis of the rest. If the receipts are liberally and exactly followed, it will be found that to those two none are superior.

PIGEON PIE.--For this pie take six fine fat tame pigeons, carefully cleaned and picked. Lay them in cold water for an hour, changing the water twice during that time. This is to remove what is called "the taste of the nest." Have ready the yolks of six hard-boiled eggs, seasoned with powdered nutmeg. Place a bit of fresh b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, in the inside of each pigeon, with its liver cut up, and with a yolk of egg seasoned with powdered mace. Lay a nice tender beef steak, or thin veal cutlet, in the bottom of a large deep dish, that has been lined with puff-paste. b.u.t.ter the steak, and dredge it with flour.

There must be meat enough to cover well the bottom of the pie dish. Lay the pigeons upon it, with the breast downward, (their heads and feet cut off, and their livers cut up, and put inside with the stuffing.) Fill up the dish with water. Roll out and put on the lid of the pie, which you may ornament with paste leaves or flowers, according to your taste. For company, pigeon pies are expected to look handsome. It is no longer fas.h.i.+onable to have the feet of the pigeons sticking out of the slit in the top of the paste.

Moorfowl, pheasants, partridges, or quails, may be made into pies in the above manner. It is usual, for partridge pies, to peel two fine sweet oranges; and having divided them into quarters, carefully remove the strings and seeds, and put the oranges into the birds without any other stuffing. Instead of beef steak or veal cutlet, lay a thin slice of cold ham in the bottom of the pie-dish.

This receipt, and the following, were accidentally omitted in their proper places.