The following relative to making as large a variety of cakes from one dough as is possible, without, however, having the cakes appear too much alike, and also have them taste different, by F. Bauer, of Chicago, should prove of great value to the general cake baker.

A good many bakers make the mistake of flavoring almost every cake alike, using lemon and mace or some other similar favorite spice or extract, giving them that monotonous bakers’ taste. When more than one kind of cake is made from one mix, it saves the time for weighing and mixing, eliminates to some extent the chances of making mistakes, as it is hard to weigh small amounts of soda, baking powder and ammonia on the bake shop scale; and a little too much of either in a small mix is apt to spoil it, while it would hardly affect a large one. For this very reason many bakers who are not careful and who do not think it necessary to be accurate find it hard to work in small shops or in a bakery where small mixes are made.

Cakes called Butter Rings and “SS” form a good example of the varieties of cakes that can be made from one mix, although a larger, smaller or better variety can be made from others. The Rings and “SS” can be made plain, some strewn with almonds, some with shredded cocoanut, some left plain and iced after baking, by melting the required amount of chocolate and adding to it a part of the dough, Chocolate Rings and “SS” can be made.

Small cookies like Butter Wafers, Almond Wafers strewn with almonds, can be made, also small fancy shaped cookies like “SS,” Hearts, Crescents, Rings and Ovals, decorated with cherries and angelica, can be made at Christmas time, and on other occasions, or regularly in better or fancy bakeries.

One mix or dough from which can be derived a large benefit and satisfaction is the ordinary wine cake or layer cake mix, from which you can make layers for layer cakes, ten and five cent wine cakes, loaf cakes; adding chopped nuts and nut flavor to part of the mix, you can make nut cakes. By adding melted chocolate to a certain part of the mix, you can make devil’s food cakes, lemon cakes, Boston squares, chocolate and maple squares, raspberry and chocolate drops, cup and currant cakes, and other cakes like nut and cocoanut slices, penny golden-rod squares, etc., can also be made. All these can be flavored and iced so that hardly any customer would even imagine that they were made from one and the same dough. This way of making cakes enables one to make larger mixes, make smaller amounts of each cake so they can be made fresh oftener, and keep a larger variety of cakes in store. On Mondays or other busy days, or when you want to get off a day or so, or being short of help, one can make a large assortment of cakes in a short time.