3 eggs.

Mix the spices with the molasses. Dissolve the soda in a little boiling water and add it to the coffee. Cream together the butter and sugar, add the eggs, one at a time, and beat each one well. Add the molasses, then the coffee and flour, a little at a time, alternately. Bake in two bread-tins in a moderate oven forty to sixty minutes, or until the cake leaves the sides of the pans.

Invert the loaves and cover the tops with a chocolate glaze made as follows:

CHOCOLATE GLAZE

Put into a double saucepan two ounces or squares of chocolate. When it is melted remove it from the fire and stir into it half a cupful of sugar, then add a quarter cupful of hot water. Return it to the fire, stir it until the sugar is dissolved, and continue to cook it without stirring until a little dropped in water can be taken up and rolled between the fingers into a soft ball. Pour it over the top of the cake.

No. 2. With whipped cream. Use the same receipt as No. 1, substituting a cupful of boiling water for the coffee, and using half butter and half lard; or two cupfuls of molasses may be used, and the sugar omitted. In the latter case two teaspoonfuls of soda instead of one should be dissolved in a cupful of boiling water. Serve the cake very fresh, and cover the top just before serving with whipped cream.

The cake may be broken into squares, and the pieces fitted together and covered entirely with whipped cream. It can then be passed with a fork and spoon, as a dessert.

No. 3. With preserved ginger.

Warm the molasses and mix it with the butter, add the ginger and salt, then the beaten eggs, and lastly the flour and water, a little at a time, alternately. Bake in a square pan. Break the cake into square pieces. Open each piece and spread between the halves some icing, No. 1 or No. 2, mixed with chopped preserved ginger; or use a chocolate icing.

Serve very fresh.

First beat the yolks and sugar together thoroughly, then add the orange juice and grated peel, then the flour and water, a little at a time, alternately, and lastly the whites of three eggs whipped to a stiff froth.

Make the layer one and a quarter inches thick for crescents.

Bake in a moderate oven about twenty minutes, or until the cake leaves the sides of the pan. Cut the layer into pieces with a crescent-shaped cutter, and cover the tops with icing No. 1, page 191, made of confectioners’ sugar and with water strained from grated peel. Arrange the crescents as shown in illustration.

The amount of mixture given in above receipt will make a long layer which can be cut into eight crescents, and two round layers one inch thick and six inches in diameter. Spread the tops of the round layers with same icing and place one on top of the other; or use cocoanut cream filling in place of the icing, as in illustration No. 171.

ORANGE-CAKE, No. 2, or PLAIN CUP-CAKE

Beat together the butter and sugar, add the yolks of the eggs and the flavoring, then alternately, a little at a time, the milk and the flour which has been mixed with the baking-powder by sifting them together. Lastly fold in the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in a moderate oven. If flavored with orange, cover the loaf with orange icing, or bake it in layers and spread the icing between the layers as well as on top. The icing should be mixed with the juice of an orange and the part put between the layers should have some of the grated peel in it.

CHOCOLATE-CAKE

Shave four squares of unsweetened chocolate, add half a cupful of milk and half a cupful of sugar. Boil until thickened, then add a teaspoonful of vanilla.

Mix half a cupful of butter and half a cupful of sugar, stir them to a cream, then add the beaten yolks of three eggs and the chocolate mixture, then alternately, a little at a time, two cupfuls of sifted flour mixed with a teaspoonful of baking-powder, and half a cupful of milk. Lastly, fold in the whites of two eggs. Bake in loaves or in layers in a moderate oven. This amount of mixture will make two loaves.

Cover with chocolate icing No. 13. If in layers, use the same icing between the layers.

COCOANUT-CAKE

Make two layers of cake, using any cake mixture. Spread cream filling between the layers. Cut the edges even, using a sharp knife. Cover the whole with icing and before it hardens sprinkle it with a plentiful amount of grated cocoanut.

Use any cake mixture for the layers. The orange-cake mixtures are recommended.

Make a filling as follows: put in a saucepan,

Mix them and let them come to the boiling-point, then add slowly a heaping tablespoonful of cornstarch, moistened with a tablespoonful of milk, and stir until the mixture is thickened. Remove it from the fire and add the beaten yolk of an egg. When it cools and is beginning to set, spread it over the tops of both layers of cake and place one on the other. Trim the edges. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar or with grated cocoanut.

The cake in the illustration has in the center a confectioner’s rose. Various kinds of sugar flowers can be bought at bakers’ supply stores.

CAKE DECORATED WITH STAR

Paint the surface of an inverted loaf of any kind of cake with white of egg, then sift over it while it is moist enough powdered sugar to whiten it. Place a star stencil on top, get it exactly in the center, and sift powdered cocoa into the opening.

The star could be made of granulated sugar, colored pink, if preferred, or a space could be filled with small candies called “hundreds and thousands.”

TO MAKE STENCIL

Place a piece of stiff paper over the bottom of the inverted pan in which the cake was baked and crease it enough to indicate the circle. Outline the circle with a pencil and draw inside of it two other circles, the first half an inch and the second one and a half inches inside the outer one. Draw two lines across the circles at right angles, then two more lines at equal distances between the others, then draw pointed lines in the eight spaces between the second and third circles.

CAKE DECORATED IN TWO SHADES OF WHITE ICING

The illustration shows a simple pattern for decorating a loaf of cake. The cake can be made of any mixture. It is first covered with icing No. 3, page 192, which gives a clear icing and makes a good background for the white lines. If it does not run evenly dip a knife in water and smooth it. Most irregularities can be smoothed out with a clean, wet knife. The lines are made of decorating icing, which is white (No. 16, page 195), pressed through a pastry-bag with tube of small opening. Each one of the center figures of the pattern holds a small silvered pellet of candy.

ICED CAKE DECORATED WITH PINK BOW-KNOT

Cover the cake with a smooth, hard icing (No. 2 or No. 4). Put decorating icing (No. 16), colored pink with cochineal, into a pastry-bag with tube of plain, small opening, and trace a bow-knot with it. Fill the space between the outlines with pink icing, and flatten it, to look like a ribbon, with a wet knife.

If the tracing is not satisfactory, take it off with a knife, wipe the cake with a dry cloth, and make another trial. A little practice with a pencil, drawing a knot of the right size on paper, will enable one to trace more easily the outlines on the cake.

No. 1. Cover a loaf of cake with icing flavored with rose-water or extract. Scatter over it candied pink rose-leaves.

No. 2. Make a loaf of orange-cake. Cover it with white icing, and arrange around it candied violets forming two wreaths.

CAKE-BASKET HOLDING MERINGUE MUSHROOMS

Make a loaf of any kind of cake, cup- or sponge-cake preferred. Bake it in a fluted pan.

Soften a long piece of macaroni in boiling-hot water. It must be pressed carefully and gradually into the water as the ends soften. When the macaroni is sufficiently softened, pour cold water over it, lay it on a board, and bend it into the shape of a handle of suitable size for the cake. Let it dry, then brush it with the white of egg and sprinkle it with granulated sugar.

Cut little holes in the top of the cake and insert the handle. Cover the top of the cake with mushroom-shaped meringues (see page 189).

SMALL CAKES

No. 1. Jelly-roll. Make a layer of sponge-cake, and while it is still hot cut off the edges, spread it with jelly, and roll it together. Then roll it in a stiff paper and tie it. If the cake is not over-baked and is rolled while hot it will not crack. The paper will keep it in shape. Cover the top and ends with icing. Decorate it with tracings of icing, candied cherries, and angelica.

No. 2. Daisy cakes. Drop separate spoonfuls of sponge-cake mixture at intervals on a baking-sheet. Bake in a hot oven for a few minutes only, and watch carefully that the edges do not burn. The cakes will spread, rising in the center, and be thin on the edges.

Spread the flat sides with an icing colored green. Blanch some almonds, split them, and cut them in strips. Arrange them in a circle, and place in the center a little icing mixed with yolk of egg to color it yellow; or the icing can be white and the almonds colored in the oven to a light yellow.

No. 3. Medallion fruit-cakes. Use a sponge- or a cup-cake mixture and bake it in gem-pans. If they rise in the center cut off the tops to even them. Invert them, and with a small cutter stamp a circle in the center of each one and take out a thin layer of the cake. Cover the rest of the cakes with icing, or the cakes may be moistened with water and then rubbed over with powdered sugar to whiten them. Place in the center of each, where the piece was removed, a piece of preserved peach or other fruit, cut with the same stamp previously used, so the fruit will exactly fit the opening.

CUP-CAKES WITH DECORATION OF FLOWER DESIGN

Make a cup-cake mixture and bake it in gem-pans. Invert the cakes and cover them with icing Nos. 1, 2, or 3. Place on top of each one half a candied cherry, the flat side down, two pieces of angelica cut into diamond shape to imitate leaves, and a thin strip of angelica to imitate a stem.

No. 1. Cherry-cakes. Cut a layer of any kind of cake into pieces three inches long and two and a quarter wide. Ice them, lay on candied cherries cut in halves, small strips of angelica imitating stems, and angelica cut in diamond-shaped pieces imitating leaves.

The cakes in illustration are made of sponge-cake; the two on the outside are covered with icing No. 4, the other two with maple icing No. 5.

No. 2. Domino cakes. Cut a layer of cake into two pieces. Cover one with chocolate icing and the other with white icing. While the icing is still soft cut the cake, using a sharp knife, into pieces three inches long and one and a half inches wide.

Put a little decorating icing (No. 16) into a pastry-bag with plain tube of small opening, and press it through on to the cakes in dots and lines to imitate dominoes. Use white icing for the chocolate pieces, and the same icing mixed with cocoa powder for the white pieces.

No. 3. Marble cakes. Drop any cake mixture from a spoon on to a floured baking-sheet, using about a dessertspoonful of mixture for each cake, and leaving enough space for the cakes to spread. Place on the flat sides icings of three colors and let them run together irregularly to give a marble-like appearance.

No. 4. Hemispheres. Make a cake mixture, using,

Cream together the butter and sugar, add the yolks and flavoring, and then the flour. Make it into balls one inch in diameter, by rolling small portions of the mixture between the hands. Roll the balls in powdered sugar and place them on a floured tin. They will flatten in baking and leave the shape of hemispheres. Bake them in a moderate oven ten to fifteen minutes. Cover the flat sides with icing of different colors and ornament with decorating icing pressed through a tube of small opening.

In the illustration some of the cakes have only the decorating icing in rings with a spot of jelly in the center, others have pistache with decoration, and others have plain icing with a spot of jelly in the center.

CREAM-CAKES

To a cupful of hot water add a tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of sugar, and a dash of salt. When the sugar is dissolved and the butter melted add a cupful and a quarter of flour. Cook it, stirring all the time, until it is a smooth paste that leaves the sides of the pan. Let it cool a few minutes and then add three or, if necessary, four eggs, beating in well one at a time. The paste should have sufficient consistency to hold its shape without spreading when dropped from a spoon.

Put the paste into a pastry-bag with a plain tube of half-inch opening and press it through into balls from three quarters of an inch to two and a half inches in diameter, according to the size of cakes wanted. Brush the tops with egg and bake in a slow oven for thirty to forty minutes, or until the cakes are puffed and feel light.

If they are to be used for plain cream-cakes, open them on one side and put in a spoonful of cream filling made as follows:

Beat together the yolks of five eggs, half a cupful of sugar, and a heaping tablespoonful of cornstarch, add a pint of scalding milk and stir over the fire until it is well thickened, then add half a teaspoonful of vanilla or other flavoring.

CREAM-CAKES, ICED

Make cream-cakes two inches in diameter, fill them with charlotte russe filling, or with apricot or other jam, and whipped cream. Cover them with icing No. 1 or 2; or fill them with cream filling flavored with coffee and cover them with icing No. 1 made with coffee.

CREAM-CAKES WITH JAM AND WHIPPED CREAM

Make cream-cakes one to one and a half inches across. Open and spread the inside with apricot or any jam, and then fill them with whipped cream. Boil a little sugar and water to the crack; that is, until a little of the boiling sugar dropped into water will be brittle enough to break with a snap. Pour this over the cakes, and sprinkle them with chopped blanched almonds.

LITTLE CREAM-CAKES WITH CARAMEL ICING

Make cream-cakes of one inch diameter. Fill them with cream filling, and cover them with sugar boiled to the crack, as directed above. Place each one in a little paper box and serve with other fancy cakes.

MERINGUE MUSHROOMS

Place meringue mixture (see page 150) in a pastry-bag with a plain tube, and press it through into shapes like mushroom caps. This is done by holding the tube still until enough of the egg is pressed through to form a cap of the size desired and high in the center. With a wet knife lightly press down the point left by the tube, and, if necessary, smooth the whole top. On another paper make forms resembling mushroom stems, and with a wet knife flatten the tops. Place all in a cool oven for a few minutes to form a crust, but do not let them color. When a little firm place them on the hot shelf to dry. Sprinkle the tops of the caps with powdered cocoa, and with the finger darken an edge around the flat under surface to represent the gills of a mushroom. Moisten the tops of the stems with white of egg and stick them on the caps.

COCOANUT MERINGUES

Place meringue mixture (page 150) in a pastry-bag with plain tube of one-half inch opening, and press it through on to paper in pieces about three inches long. Cut the meringue from the tube to give clean ends. Sprinkle the tops with as much grated cocoanut as will adhere. Desiccated cocoanut can be used. Place in a moderate oven to color it lightly, then remove to the hot shelf of the range to dry.

These meringues are also pretty if pressed through a star-tube into rings.

GALETTES

Roll puff-paste trimmings as thin as possible. Stamp it all over with some rough surface which will pierce the paste (a wooden meat-pounder was used for those in illustration). Then cut with a plain biscuit-cutter into round or oblong shapes. Lay these on a baking-sheet, paint the tops all over evenly with egg, and sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Bake in a medium oven until lightly colored.

Every scrap of paste can be utilized for these cakes, which are very nice with ice-cream or for afternoon tea-cakes.

There is a utensil for making these cakes, but it is too expensive for general use. It is a metal plate with raised pattern, and over this the thin paste is rolled.

PASTRY FINGERS

Roll puff-paste to one-eighth inch thickness. Cut it into strips one inch wide and three inches long. Spread one half of the strips with a thin layer of any kind of jam, and cover with the remaining strips, making sandwich-like pieces. Bake in a hot oven for ten minutes, or until done, then paint the tops with white of egg and sprinkle with powdered sugar and chopped blanched almonds. Return to the oven to glaze and slightly color the nuts.

If not used at once place the fingers in the oven a few minutes to freshen them before serving.

ICINGS

No. 1. Using confectioners’ sugar. This is XXXX sugar, and is exceedingly fine.

Mix confectioners’ sugar with enough water to make it spread evenly. A little flavoring of any kind may be put in the water, but is not necessary. This makes a soft, clear icing, which is very nice and is the easiest of all icings to prepare and handle.

For orange icing. Use strained orange juice instead of water, or soak the grated peel in hot water for a little while, and then strain it through a cloth and use the water.

For yellow icing. Dilute the yolk of an egg with a little water, and flavor with mandarin orange extract.

For pistache icing. Color the water with green coloring paste, and flavor it with one teaspoonful of orange-flower water and one quarter teaspoonful of bitter-almond extract.

For pink icing. Use strawberry juice, or color water with a little cochineal.

For wine-cakes. Use sherry instead of water.

No. 2. Hard, white icing. Take the unbeaten white of an egg, dilute it with a very little water and flavor it. Stir in powdered sugar until it is of the consistency to spread.

This makes a hard, white icing.

No. 3. Boiled icing. Put a cupful of granulated sugar and a half cupful of hot water into a saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved, then let it boil without stirring until it threads or, if dropped into water, it can be taken up and rolled between the fingers into a soft ball. Remove it from the fire and stir until it slightly clouds, then immediately pour it over the cake.

This makes a clear icing, and is a good covering for cakes which are to be decorated, as it gives, with the decorating icing, two colors.

No. 4. Boiled icing, No. 2. Cook, without stirring, after the sugar is dissolved, one cupful of granulated sugar and one quarter cupful of hot water until it threads, then pour it slowly over the whipped white of one egg. Beat the mixture all the time, and until it is cool enough to spread.

No. 5. Maple icing. Boil to the thread or soft-ball stage a cupful of maple sugar with a quarter of a cupful of hot water to dissolve it, or use maple syrup. Pour it slowly over the whipped white of one egg as in No. 4.

No. 6. Caramel icing. Boil a cupful of granulated sugar, a half cupful of milk, and a teaspoonful of butter to the thread or soft-ball stage. Flavor with a few drops of vanilla and stir until it begins to grain.

No. 7. Crystal icing. Spread any icing over a cake, and while it is still moist sprinkle over it the coarse grains of granulated sugar obtained by sifting.

No. 8. Powdered sugar. Moisten with a brush the surface of a cake with the white of an egg diluted with a tablespoonful of water and stirred just enough to break the stringiness; then dust it thickly with powdered sugar, using a sifter. After the egg has dried, shake off the sugar that does not adhere.

No. 9. Whipped cream. Flavor a half pint of cream with a few drops of vanilla and whip it until it is stiff and dry. Just before serving the cake ornament it with the whipped cream pressed through a pastry-bag and star-tube.

This cream is used with strawberry cake and with molasses gingerbread.

No. 10. Whipped cream with maple flavor. Heat two tablespoonfuls of maple syrup and dissolve in it one teaspoonful of granulated gelatine which has been soaked in a tablespoonful of cold water. Let the syrup cool so it will not heat the cream, but before it sets stir it into a half pint of cream. Whip the cream to a stiff froth and press it through a pastry-bag and tube on to the cake in an ornamental pattern.

No. 11. Butter. Whip a half pound of butter until it is smooth and light, sweeten it with thick sugar syrup flavored, and add a level tablespoonful of cornstarch. Press it through a pastry-bag and tube on to the cake in ornamental designs.

No. 12. Mocha cream. Whip half a pound of butter, using a fork, until it is smooth and light. Flavor it with syrup made of a half cupful of sugar and a quarter cupful of strong coffee. Add a level tablespoonful of cornstarch to give the butter more stability. Press it through a pastry-bag and tube.

No. 13. Chocolate icing, No. 1. Dissolve one and a half ounces of unsweetened chocolate in one third cupful of cream or milk, and add half a teaspoonful of butter. When this mixture is a little cool add the beaten yolk of one egg, one half teaspoonful of vanilla, and enough confectioners’ sugar to make it spread.

No. 14. Chocolate icing, No. 2. Melt two ounces of unsweetened chocolate on a hot pan, remove it from the fire, and add half a cupful of sugar, one teaspoonful of butter, and lastly a quarter cupful of milk. Replace it on the fire and cook until a little dropped into water will form a soft ball. Pour it over the cake.

No. 15. Tutti frutti icing. Cook a cupful of sugar and a quarter cupful of water to the thread or soft-ball stage. Turn it slowly on to the whipped white of one egg. Beat them together and add a tablespoonful each of chopped blanched almonds, citron cut in small pieces, seeded raisins, candied cherries cut into pieces, and angelica cut into bits. Spread it roughly over the cake. Any combination of fruits may be used instead of those given above. As this is a rich icing, it should be used on a plain cake, such as cup- or sponge-cake.

No. 16. Decorating icing. Whip the whites of two eggs to a very stiff froth, then add slowly powdered sugar until the mixture is so stiff that every point and thread left by the beater will hold its place. It requires beating a long time. It is the same as meringue mixture, except that it is made hard with sugar instead of by drying, and takes about a half cupful of sugar to each egg.

Note.—Sprinkle a cake that is going to be frosted with flour as soon as it is taken from the pan. Before icing, wipe off the flour. This prevents the icing from running so much, and makes it easier to spread.

Note.—Smooth icings with the broad side of a wet knife. Wipe the blade clean, and dip it in water each time it is drawn over the icing. In this way very rough surfaces can be smoothed.

Note.—Icing left over will keep any length of time, if excluded from the air and not allowed to dry. Put it in a cup, cover the cup with a wet cloth, double several times, and cover the cloth with a saucer.

Note.—For other icings and directions, see “Century Cook Book,” page 483.