In making very fine plum cake first prepare the fruit and spice, and sift the flour (which must be the very best superfine,) into a large flat dish, and dry it before the fire. Use none but the very best fresh butter; if of inferior quality, the butter will taste through every thing, and spoil the cake. In fact, all the ingredients should be excellent, and liberally allowed. Take the best bloom or muscatel raisins, seeded and cut in half. Pick and wash the currants or plums through two waters, and dry them well. Powder the spice, and let it infuse over night in the wine and brandy. Cut the citron into slips, mix it with the raisins and currants, and dredge all the fruit very thickly, on both sides, with flour. This will prevent its sinking or clodding in the cake, while baking. Eggs should always be beaten till the frothing is over, and till they become thick and smooth, as thick as a good boiled custard, and quite smooth on the surface. If you can obtain hickory-rods as egg-beaters, there is nothing so good; but if you cannot get them, use the common egg-beaters, of thin fine wire. For stirring butter and sugar you should have a spaddle, which resembles a short mush-stick flattened at one end. Stir the butter and sugar in a deep earthen pan, and continue till it is light, thick, and creamy. Beat eggs always in a broad shallow earthen pan, and with a short quick stroke, keeping your right elbow close to your side, and moving only your wrist. In this way you may beat for an hour without fatigue. But to stir butter and sugar is the hardest part of cake making. Have this done by a man servant. His strength will accomplish it in a short time—also, let him give the final stirring to the cake. If the ingredients are prepared as far as practicable on the preceding day, the cake may be in the oven by ten or eleven o'clock in the forenoon.

For a large plum cake allow one pound, (or a quart) of sifted flour; one pound of fresh butter cut up in a pound of powdered loaf sugar, in a deep pan; twelve eggs; two pounds of bloom raisins; two pounds of Zante currants; half a pound of citron, either cut into slips or chopped small; a table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon, mixed; two grated nutmegs; a large wine-glass of madeira (or more), a wine-glass of French brandy, mixed together, and the spice steeped in it.

First stir the butter and sugar to a light cream, and add to them the spice and liquor. Then beat the eggs in a shallow pan till very thick and smooth, breaking them one at a time into a saucer to ascertain if there is a bad one among them. One stale egg will spoil the whole cake. When the eggs are very light, stir them gradually into the large pan of butter and sugar in turn with the flour, that being the mixing pan. Lastly, add the fruit and citron, a little at a time of each, and give the whole a hard stirring. If the fruit is well floured it will not sink, but it will be seen evenly dispersed all over the cake when baked. Take a large straight-sided block tin pan, grease it inside with the same butter used for the cake, and put the mixture carefully into it. Set it immediately into a well-heated oven, and keep up a steady heat while it is baking. When nearly done, the cake will shrink a little from the sides of the pan; and on probing it to the bottom with a sprig from a corn broom, or a splinter-skewer, the probe will come out clean. Otherwise, keep the cake in the oven a little longer. If it cracks on the top, it is a proof of its being very light. When quite done, take it out. It will become hard if left to grow cold with the oven. Set it to cool on an inverted sieve.

ICING.—

Allow to the white of each egg a quarter of a pound of the best loaf sugar, finely powdered; but if you find the mixture too thin, you must add still more sugar. Put the white of egg into a shallow pan, and beat it with small rods or a large silver fork, till it becomes a stiff froth, and stands alone without falling. Then beat in the powdered sugar, a tea-spoonful at a time. As you proceed, flavor it with lemon juice. This will render the icing whiter and smoother, also improving the taste. You may ice the cake as soon as it becomes lukewarm, without waiting till it is quite cold. Dredge it lightly with flour to absorb the grease from the outside; then wipe off the flour. With a broad knife put some icing on the middle of the cake, and then spread it down, thickly and evenly, all over the top and sides, smoothing it with another knife dipped in cold water. When this is quite dry, spread on a second coat of icing rather thinner than the first, and flavored with rose. Set it a few minutes in the oven to harden the icing, leaving the oven-door open; or place it beneath the stove. When the icing is quite dry, you may ornament it with sugar borders and flowers; having ready, for that purpose, some additional icing. By means of a syringe, (made for the purpose, and to be obtained at the best furnishing stores) you can decorate the surface of the cake very handsomely; but it requires taste, skill, and practice. You may first cover the cake with pink, brown, green, or other colored icing, and then take white icing to decorate it, forming the pattern by moving your hand skilfully and steadily over it, and pressing it out of the syringe as you go. An easier way is to ornament the cake (when the top-icing is nearly dry, but not quite,) with large strawberries or raspberries, or purple grapes placed very near each other, and arranged in circles or patterns. Be careful not to mash the berries.

Warm Icing.—This is made in the usual proportion of the whites of four eggs, beaten to stiff froth, and a pound of finely powdered loaf sugar afterwards added to it, gradually. Then boil the egg and sugar in a porcelain kettle, and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Take it off the fire, and stir into it sufficient orange juice, lemon juice, or rose-water, to flavor it highly. Flour your cake—wipe off the flour, put on the icing with a broad knife, and then smooth it with another knife dipped in cold water. For this icing the cake should be warm from the oven, and dried slowly and gradually afterwards. Warm icing is much liked. It is very light; rises thick and high in cooling, and has a fine gloss. Try it. The mixture called by the French a meringue, and used for macaroons, kisses, and other nice articles, is made in the same manner as icing for cakes, allowing a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar to every beaten white of egg.

POUND CAKE.—

One of Mrs. Goodfellow's maxims was, "up-weight of flour, and down-weight of every thing else"—and she was right, as the excellence of her cakes sufficiently proved, during the thirty years that she taught her art in Philadelphia, with unexampled success. Therefore, allow for a pound cake a rather small pound of sifted flour; a large pound of the best fresh butter, a large pound of powdered loaf sugar, ten eggs, or eleven if they are small; a large glass of mixed wine and brandy; a glass of rose-water; a grated nutmeg, and a heaped tea-spoonful of mixed spice, powdered mace, and cinnamon. Put the sugar into a deep earthen pan, and cut up the butter among it. In cold weather place it near the fire a few minutes, till the butter softens. Next, stir it very hard with a spaddle till the mixture becomes very light. Next, stir in, gradually, the spice, liquor, &c. Then beat the eggs in a shallow pan with rods or a whisk, till light, thick, and smooth. Add them gradually to the beaten batter and sugar, in turn with the flour; and give the whole a hard stirring at the last. Have the oven ready with a moderate heat. Transfer the mixture to a thick straight-sided tin pan well greased with the best fresh butter, and smooth the butter on the surface. Set it immediately into the oven, and bake it with a steady heat two hours and a half, or more. Probe it to the bottom with a twig from a corn broom. When it shrinks a little from the pan it is done. When taken out, set it to cool on an inverted sieve. When you ice it, flavor the icing with lemon or rose.

It should be eaten fresh, as it soon becomes very dry.

Pound cake is not so much in use as formerly, particularly for weddings and large parties; lady cake and plum cake being now substituted. A pound cake may be much improved by the addition of a pound of citron, sliced, chopped well, dredged with flour to prevent its sinking, and stirred gradually into the batter, in turn with the sifted flour and beaten egg.

QUEEN CAKE—

Is made in the same manner as pound cake, only with a less proportion of flour, (fourteen ounces, or two ounces less than a pound) as it must be baked in little tins; and small cakes require less flour than large ones. Also, (besides a somewhat larger allowance of spice, liquor, &c.) add the juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon or two, and half a pound of sultana or seedless raisins, cut in half and dredged with flour. Butter your small cake tins, and fill to the edge with the batter. They will not run over the edge if well made, and baked with a proper fire, but they will rise high and fine in the centre. Ice them when beginning to cool, flavoring the icing with lemon or rose. Queen cakes made exactly as above are superlative.

ORANGE CAKES.—

Make a mixture precisely as for queen cake, only omit the wine, brandy, and rose-water, and substitute the grated yellow rind and the juice of four large ripe oranges, stirred into the batter in turn with the egg and flour. Flavor the icing with orange juice.

LEMON CAKES—

Are also made as above, substituting for the oranges the grated rind and juice of three lemons. To give a full taste, less lemon is required than orange.

SPONGE CAKE.—

Many persons suppose that sponge cake must be very easy to make, because there is no butter in it. On the contrary, the want of butter renders it difficult to get light. A really good sponge cake is a very different thing from those numerous tough leathery compositions that go by that name, and being flavored with nothing, are not worthy of eating as cake, and are neither palatable nor wholesome as diet, unless too fresh to have grown dry and hard. The best sponge cake we know of is made as follows, and even that should be eaten the day it is baked. Sift half a pound of flour, (arrow-root is still better,) in a shallow pan; beat twelve eggs till very thick, light, and smooth. You need not separate the yolks and whites, if you know the true way of adding the flour. Beat a pound of powdered loaf sugar, gradually, (a little at a time) into the beaten eggs, and add the juice and grated yellow rinds of two large lemons or oranges. Lastly stir in the flour or arrow root. It is all important that this should be done slowly and lightly, and without stirring down to the bottom of the pan. Hold the egg-beater perpendicularly or quite upright in one hand, and move it round on the surface of the beaten egg, while with the other hand you lightly and gradually sprinkle in the flour till all is in. If stirred in hard and fast it will render the cake porous and tough, and dry and hard when cold. Have ready either a large turban mould, or some small oblong or square tins. Butter them nicely, transfer to them the cake mixture, grate powdered sugar profusely over the surface to give it a gloss like a very thin crust, and set it immediately into a brisk oven. 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 coarse 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 shelled 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. Butter 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 butter. 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 butter and sugar, adding the half pound of flour. Stir in a powdered nutmeg, and two wine-glasses 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-glass of strong rose-water. When all has been well stirred, butter (with fine fresh butter,) 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 shelled 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-glass 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 butter 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 butter 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 butter. 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 butter, 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 butter, 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-glass and a half of strong fresh brewer's yeast, or two glasses 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 butter, 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 muffin, 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 glass of madeira or sherry, stirring the whole very hard. Butter 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 pass them through a coarse 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 butter cut up among it. With a wooden spaddle stir the butter 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 butter 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 butter 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 butter. 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 assuredly 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 shelled 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-glass 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 butter into a pound of powdered sugar, and with a wooden spaddle stir the butter 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 butter 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 butter, 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 butter into two pounds of sifted flour, and rubbing the butter 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 glass 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 buttered; 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 butter 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 glass of mixed wine and brandy; or else a glass 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 buttered, 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 quantity 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 butter, a pound of powdered white sugar, and two pounds of sifted flour. Mix the sugar with the flour, and rub the butter into it, crumbled fine. Add a heaped table-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon. Put no water, but moisten it entirely with butter. A small glass 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 buttered. 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 substituted, 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 butter. 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 shelled sweet almonds, and a quarter of a pound of shelled 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 balls. Then flatten slightly the surface of each. Butter 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.—Scrape 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.

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 scrape 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 butter, with a half pound of excellent brown sugar; and stir it to cream with a spaddle. Add a pint of West India molasses, 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 glass 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 butter, sugar, molasses, &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 quantity 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 quantity. Having buttered, (with the same butter) 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 butter 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 quantity of mixed nutmeg and mace. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly together; adding, gradually, a large pint of West India molasses, 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-glass. Bake them on buttered tins, having first glazed them with a thin mixture of molasses 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 butter 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. Butter 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 fashionable 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.

CHICKEN PIE.—

Skin a pair of fine fowls, and cut them up. Save out the necks, backs, feet, livers, and gizzards, and the ends of the pinions; and seasoning them with a little pepper and salt add some trimmings or spare bits of fresh beef or veal, and stew them in a small sauce-pan with a little water, to make the gravy. Let them stew till all to rags, and then strain off the liquid; and while hot, stir into it a beaten egg and a bit of fresh butter, dredged with flour. In the mean time make a nice puff-paste, and roll it out rather thick; divide it in two circular sheets. Line with one sheet the bottom and sides of a deep pie dish, and put in the best pieces of chicken. Lay among them four hard-boiled eggs, sliced or quartered. Season well with powdered mace or nutmeg. The gravy being strained, pour that into the pie, and finish at the top with a layer of butter divided into small pieces, and dredge with flour. This is what the old English cookery books mean when they say—"Close the pie with a lear."

A chicken pie will be improved by the addition of a dozen or more large fresh oysters, stewed. If you add oysters, take off the lid or upper crust as soon as the pie is baked, and put in the oysters then; if put in at the beginning, they will bake too long. Replace the lid nicely, and send the pie to table hot.

The lid should have in the top a cross slit with a nice paste flower in it. To make a paste flower roll out a straight narrow slip of paste, about four or five inches wide. Roll it up with your fingers as if you were rolling up a ribbon. Then with a sharp knife cut four clefts in the upper half, and when baked, it will spread apart as like the leaves of a flower.