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Classic
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page 252
oven must be allowed to cool; if the flour remains white after the lapse of a
few seconds, the temperature is too low. When the oven is of the proper
temperature, the flour will slightly brown and look slightly scorched.
Another good way to test the heat, is to drop a few spoonfuls of the cake,
batter on a small piece of buttered letter-paper, and place it in the oven
during the finishing of the cake, so that the piece will be baked before putting
in the whole cake; if the little drop of cake-batter bakes evenly without
burning around the edge, it will be safe to put the whole cake in the oven. Then
again if the oven seems too hot, fold a thick brown paper double, and lay on the
bottom of the oven; then after the cake has risen, put a thick brown paper over
the top, or butter well a thick white paper and lay carefully over the top.
If, after the cake is put in, it seems to bake too fast, put a brown paper
loosely over the top of the pan, care being taken that it does not touch the
cake, and do not open the door for five minutes at least; the cake should then
be quickly examined, and the door shut carefully, or the rush of cold air will
cause it to fall. Setting a small dish of hot water in the oven, will also
prevent the cake from scorching.
To ascertain when the cake is done, run a broom straw into the middle of it; if
it comes out clean and smooth, the cake will do to take out.
Where the recipe calls for baking powder, and you have none, you can use cream
tartar and soda in proportion to one level teaspoonful of soda, two heaping
teaspoonfuls of cream tartar.
When sour milk is called for in the recipe, use only soda. Cakes made with
molasses burn much more easily than those made with sugar.
Never stir cake after the butter and sugar is creamed, but beat it down from the
bottom, up, and over; this laps air into the cake-batter, and produces little
air cells, which causes the dough to puff and swell when it comes in contact
with the heat while cooking.
When making most cakes, especially sponge cake, the flour should be added by
degrees, stirred very slowly and lightly, for if stirred hard and fast it will
make it porous and tough.
Cakes should be kept in tight tin cake-cans, or earthern jars, in a cool, dry
place.
Cookies, jumbles, ginger-snaps, etc., require a quick oven; if they become moist
or soft by keeping, put again into the oven a few minutes.
To remove a cake from a tin after it is baked, so that it will not crack, break
or fall, first butter the tin well all around the sides and bottom; then cut a
piece of letter-paper to exactly fit the tin, butter that on both sides, placing
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