3380.—HOLIDAY CAKE.
Ingredients.—2 lbs. of flour, ¾ of a lb. of castor sugar, ¾ of a lb. of butter and dripping or lard mixed, 1 lb. of currants, ½ a lb. of stoned raisins, ¼ of a lb. of mixed candied peel, 2 ozs. of baking-powder, 3 eggs, 1 pint of milk.
Method.—Mix the baking-powder with the flour, then rub in the fat; have ready the currants, washed, picked, and dried, the raisins stoned and cut into small pieces (not chopped), and the peel cut into neat slices. Add these with the sugar to the flour, etc., and mix all the dry ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs, stir into them the milk, and with this liquid moisten the cake; beat it up well, that all the ingredients may be very thoroughly mixed; line a cake tin with buttered paper, put in the cake, and bake it from 2¼ to 2¾ hours in a good oven. To ascertain when it is done, plunge a clean skewer into the middle of it, and if on withdrawing it looks clean and not sticky, the cake is done. To prevent its burning at the top, a piece of clean paper may be put over the cake while it is baking, to ensure it being thoroughly cooked in the middle.
Time.—2¼ to 2¾ hours. Average Cost, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for one large cake.
3381.—HONEY CAKE. (Fr.—Gâteau de Miel.)
Ingredients.—½ of a breakfastcupful of sugar, 1 breakfastcupful of rich-sour cream, 2 breakfastcupfuls of flour, ½ a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, honey to taste.
Method.—Mix the sugar and cream together; dredge in the flour, add as much honey as will flavour the mixture nicely; stir it well, that all the ingredients may be thoroughly mixed; add the carbonate of soda, and beat the cake well for another 5 minutes. Put it into a buttered tin, and bake it from to ½ of ¾ of an hour, and let it be eaten warm.
Time.—½ to ¾ hour. Average Cost, 8d. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons.
3382.—ICED CAKE.
Ingredients.—½ a lb. of flour, ½ a lb. of currants, ½ a lb. of sugar, ¼ of an oz. of mace and cloves, 12 sweet almonds, 6 bitter almonds, ½ a lb. of butter, 4 eggs, 1 oz. of mixed peel, 1 teaspoonful of carbonate of soda.
Method.—Blanch and split the almonds, and mix all the dry ingredients together. Warm the butter in a clean basin, add the sugar, and beat to a cream with the hand; add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; when all are in, add the other ingredients, well mix, and turn out into a round papered and greased tin. Bake for about 1½ hours. When cold cover with white icing and decorate to taste. (See No. 3462.)
Time.—1½ hours. Average Cost, 1s. 8d. Sufficient for 1 cake.
