“’Tis passing good: I prithee let me have it”

APPLE BREAD

• ½ compressed yeast cake
• ½ pint (1 cup) milk
• 1 lb. (4 cups) flour
• 3 ozs. (3 heaping tablespoonfuls) sugar
• 6 ozs. (¾ cup) butter
• 3 eggs
• Apple sauce

At night dissolve the yeast cake in the milk. The milk should be heated to boiling point, then cooled to lukewarm. Sift the flour into an earthenware basin, add the sugar, and rub the butter well into them. Add the milk, the eggs well beaten, and beat with a wooden spoon until the dough is blistered.

Cover and set over night in a warm place. The next day roll the dough in two cakes, each about half an inch thick; spread the lower one with tart apple sauce, then butter the other slightly and lay over it, and let them rise together in a buttered fireproof dish for half an hour.

Bake in a moderate oven till the bread is ready. When taken from the oven spread with more apple sauce; dredge with sugar and return to the oven to glaze.

Serve hot.

APPLE SAUCE CAKE

• ½ pint (1 cup) sour apple sauce
• 1 teaspoonful baking soda
• ½ lb. (1 cup) sugar
• ¼ lb. (½ cup) butter or lard
• 1 saltspoonful salt
• ½ teaspoonful powdered cloves
• 1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoonful grated nutmeg
• 3 tablespoonfuls warm water
• 7 ozs. (1¾ cups) flour
• 1 cupful Sultana raisins

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the salt, spices, raisins, cleaned, the soda dissolved in the warm water, apple sauce, and the flour. Beat all thoroughly together and pour into a buttered and floured shallow casserole.

Bake in a moderate oven for forty-five minutes.

BRANDY CAKE

• 6 ozs. (¾ cup) butter
• 12 ozs. (1½ cups) sugar
• 2 eggs
• ¾ lb. (3 cups) flour
• 3 gills (1½ cups) milk
• 2 heaping teaspoonfuls baking powder
• 1 gill (½ cup) brandy

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, then add the yolks of the eggs, beating them well in, the milk, flour, baking powder, brandy, and the whites of eggs beaten stiffly.

Turn into a buttered and floured fireproof dish and bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour.

CHEESE CAKE

• 4 ozs. (½ cup) butter
• 1 lb. (2 cups) sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 ozs. (1 cup) flour
• ½ pint (1 cup) milk
• 2 lbs. pot cheese
• 1 lemon
• Pastry

Line a well-buttered casserole with pie crust. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, then beat in the yolks of the eggs, add the flour, milk, cheese, grated lemon rind, and the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs.

Bake for fifty minutes in a moderate oven. Allow it to cool in the casserole. Dust thickly over with powdered sugar.

CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 4 ozs. (½ cup) butter
• 12 ozs. (1½ cups) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 gill (½ cup) sour milk
• 1 square chocolate
• 1 gill (½ cup) boiling water
• 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoonful rose extract
• ½ lb. (2 cups) flour
• 1 teaspoonful baking soda

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs well beaten, the milk, the chocolate dissolved in the boiling water, the extracts, the flour, and the soda.

Mix carefully, turn into a shallow buttered and floured earthenware dish in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour.

• 2 ozs. (¼ cup) cocoa
• 3 eggs
• 1 gill (½ cup) cold water
• 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
• 1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoonful salt
• 7 ozs. (1¾ cups) flour
• ¼ teaspoonful grated nutmeg
• 12 ozs. (1½ cups) sugar

Beat up the yolks of the eggs till light, then add the water, sugar, and vanilla. Mix together the flour, nutmeg, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder, then add them to the sugar. Fold in the whites of eggs stiffly beaten and bake in a quick oven in a buttered earthenware dish till ready.

COFFEE BREAD

• ½ pint (1 cup) scalded milk
• 4 ozs. (½ cup) butter
• 4 ozs. (½ cup) sugar
• ½ teaspoonful salt
• 1 compressed yeast cake
• 1 gill (½ cup) warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1 cupful Sultana raisins
• Flour

Scald the milk, add the butter, sugar, and salt to it; when lukewarm, add the yeast cake dissolved in the lukewarm milk, the egg well beaten, the raisins, and enough sifted flour to make a stiff batter.

Turn into a well-buttered casserole, cover, and allow to rise overnight. In the morning spread in another buttered fireproof dish, cover, and allow to rise again.

Before baking, brush over with a beaten egg, and cover with the following mixture: Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter, add one-third of a cupful of sugar and one teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon. When the sugar is almost melted, add three heaping tablespoonfuls of flour.

Bake in a hot oven for thirty-five minutes.

CORN BREAD

• 3 gills (1½ cups) yellow corn meal
• ½ pint (1 cup) sweet milk
• ½ pint (1 cup) buttermilk
• ½ teaspoonful baking soda
• 1 teaspoonful salt
• 2 eggs

Mix the milks, soda, salt, and the eggs well beaten, then beat them into the meal.

Butter a casserole, set it in the oven till hot, pour in the batter to the depth of three-quarters of an inch, and bake in a hot oven till ready.

CURRANT CAKE

• 6 ozs. (6 heaping tablespoonfuls) cleaned currants
• 1 lb. (4 cups) flour
• 4 ozs. (4 heaping tablespoonfuls) sugar
• 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
• 4 eggs
• ½ cupful chopped nuts
• ½ lb. (1 cup) butter
• 1 teaspoonful lemon extract
• Pinch of salt

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, then add the eggs one by one. Mix thoroughly, then sift in the flour, salt, and baking powder, then add the currants, nuts, and lemon extract, and mix gently.

Pour into a buttered and floured earthenware dish and bake in a moderate oven for one hour.

DATE CAKE

• 1 lb. dates, stoned and halved
• ½ lb. (1 cup) butter
• ½ lb. (1 cup) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoonful baking soda
• 1 gill (½ cup) boiling water
• 1 lb. chopped walnut meats
• 2 cupfuls Sultana raisins
• ½ lb. (2 cups) flour
• 1 teaspoonful almond extract

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy, then add the eggs well beaten. Dissolve the soda in the boiling water, then add it with the nuts, fruit, extract, and flour. Mix thoroughly, turn into a buttered and floured fireproof dish, and bake in a moderate oven for one hour.

DUTCH APPLE CAKE

• Apples, cored and sliced
• 1 oz. (1 heaping tablespoonful) butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoonful lemon extract
• 4 ozs. (4 heaping tablespoonfuls) sugar
• ½ lb. (2 cups) flour
• ¼ teaspoonful salt
• 2 heaping teaspoonfuls baking powder
• ½ pint (1 cup) milk

Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs, add to the yolks the melted butter, milk, salt, and sifted flour. Beat till smooth, then add the baking powder, lemon extract, and fold in the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs.

Pour into a well-greased casserole, cover with the apples, and bake in a hot oven for half an hour.

Serve hot with sweet sauce flavored with lemon extract or with cream.

FRUIT CAKE

• ½ lb. (1 cup) butter
• 1½ lbs. (3 cups) sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 pint (2 cups) sour cream
• 1 teaspoonful soda
• 1¾ lbs. (7 cups) flour
• 1 grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoonful powdered mace
• 1 lb. currants
• 1 lb. Sultana raisins
• ½ lb. chopped citron peel
• 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoonful rose extract
• ¼ teaspoonful salt

Cream the butter and sugar together, add gradually the yolks of the eggs well beaten, the soda mixed with the cream, flour, salt, spices, grated rind and strained lemon juice, the chopped citron peel, currants, rose extract, raisins, and the whites of eggs beaten stiffly.

Mix carefully, turn into a large buttered casserole, and bake for two and a half hours in a steady oven.

FUDGE CAKE

• 4 ozs. (½ cup) butter
• ½ lb. (1 cup) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 gill (½ cup) milk
• 6 ozs. (1½ cups) flour
• 2½ teaspoonfuls baking powder
• 2 ozs. melted unsweetened chocolate
• ½ teaspoonful vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the yolks of eggs well beaten, the whites stiffly beaten, milk, flour, baking powder, chocolate, and extracts.

Mix well and pour into a buttered and floured shallow casserole. Bake for forty minutes in a moderate oven. When cold, cover with any good white frosting.

HICKORY NUT CAKE

• 1½ cupfuls hickory nut meats
• 1 lb. (2 cups) sugar
• ½ lb. (1 cup) butter
• 3 eggs
• ½ pint (1 cup) buttermilk
• 1 teaspoonful baking soda
• 1 lb. (4 cups) sifted flour
• ¼ teaspoonful salt
• 1 teaspoonful almond extract

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs well beaten, the salt, extract, the soda dissolved in the buttermilk, flour, and the nuts chopped.

Mix carefully and pour into a buttered and floured casserole and bake in a moderate oven for one hour.

IMPERIAL CAKE

• 1 lb. (2 cups) butter
• 1 lb. (2 cups) sugar
• 10 eggs
• 1¼ lbs. (5 cups) flour
• 3 ozs. (3 heaping tablespoonfuls) blanched and halved pistachio nuts
• ¼ lb. (½ cup) preserved cherries
• 1 gill (½ cup) cream
• 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
• 1 teaspoonful pistachio extract

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, then beat in the yolks of the eggs one by one, add the cream, flour, baking powder, the nuts, cherries, extract, and whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth.

Mix carefully, turn into a buttered and floured casserole, and bake in a moderate oven for one and a half hours.

MOTHER’S CAKE

• 1½ cups (¾ pint) yellow corn meal
• 2 ozs. (¼ cup) sugar
• 3 gills (1½ cups) sour milk
• 2 ozs. (½ cup) flour
• 1 teaspoonful baking powder
• ½ teaspoonful salt
• 1 teaspoonful baking soda
• 1 tablespoonful melted butter or lard

Put the sugar into a basin, add the corn meal, flour, baking powder, salt, soda, and the milk. Beat well, then add the melted butter or lard and pour into a buttered and floured shallow earthenware dish.

Bake in a moderate oven for thirty-five minutes.

POTATO CAKE

• 6 ozs. (¾ cup) butter
• 1 lb. (2 cups) sugar
• ½ lb. (2 cups) flour
• ½ pint (1 cup) hot mashed potatoes
• 1 gill (½ cup) milk
• ? cupful melted chocolate
• ½ pint (1 cup) English walnut meats
• 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
• 1 teaspoonful powdered cloves
• 1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
• ½ teaspoonful grated nutmeg
• 4 eggs

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, then add the potatoes, milk, chocolate, yolks of eggs well beaten, flour, baking powder, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth.

Mix all together, then add the chopped nuts. Turn into a buttered and floured casserole, and bake in a moderate oven for forty-five minutes.

SOFT GINGERBREAD

• 6 ozs. (¾ cup) butter
• 6 ozs. (¾ cup) sugar
• ½ pint (1 cup) milk (sour preferred)
• ½ pint (1 cup) molasses
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoonfuls powdered ginger
• 2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoonful grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoonful baking soda
• 3 tablespoonfuls hot water
• 11 ozs. (2¾ cups) flour

Cream the butter and the sugar together, then add the eggs well beaten, milk, molasses, spices, flour, and the soda dissolved in the hot water. Mix well, turn into a buttered and floured shallow earthenware dish.

Bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour.

SPICE CAKE

• 4 ozs. (½ cup) butter
• 4 ozs. (½ cup) sugar
• ½ lb. (2 cups) flour
• 1½ teaspoonfuls baking powder
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoonful powdered ginger
• ½ teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
• Some lemon marmalade

Rub the butter finely into the flour, add the sugar, baking powder, and spices. Beat up the egg, add it gradually, making the dry ingredients into a stiff paste. Knead it a little on a floured baking board, divide it into two pieces, roll them out, and line a greased fireproof plate with one of them, spread over with the marmalade, spread the other piece on the top, and pinch it neatly round the edges.

Bake in a hot oven for half an hour.

RAISIN BREAD

• 1½ pints (3 cups) yellow corn meal
• ¾ pint (1½ cups) Graham flour
• ¾ pint (1½ cups) white flour
• ½ pint (1 cup) molasses
• 1 teaspoonful baking soda
• 1 gill (½ cup) hot water
• 1 teaspoonful salt
• ¾ pint (1½ cups) Sultana raisins
• Sour milk

Put the corn meal into a basin, add the flours, raisins, salt, the soda mixed with the molasses and water; make into a soft batter with the sour milk.

Fill a buttered casserole half full with the mixture, cover, and steam for three hours.