A Lesson In Cakemaking

TO begin with the first steps in the science of mixing, I will choose for the lesson a snow cake, one of the simplest most delicate and inexpensive of cakes. This receipt makes a goodsized loaf or a large layer cake, using only the whites of two eggs, a very satisfactory item in these days of high prices. No cake in the great assortment of cakes I might choose from is so tender of grain, so delicious, so crisp of crust or so all round satisfactory as this is. The receipt is one in everyday use in my own household, because it is capable of infinite variation in the hands of an adaptive cook. Here it is:

Snow Cake

Cream together quarter of a cup of butter and one cup of sugar, then add half a cup of milk and one and twothirds of a cup of flour sifted with two and a half teaspoons of baking powder, adding flour and milk alternately in small quantities. When perfectly smooth and white, fold in the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Flavor with half a teaspoon of vanilla.

Before beginning the work, let me impress on you that poor materials will never make good cake. One needs good sugar, the best of tub butter, perfectly fresh eggs and pastry flour to have delicate tasting, finegrained, crisply crusted cake. If poor cooking butter or eggs of a doubtful age are used, it is of no avail trying to disguise the fact by adding a double portion of vanilla; the strongest taste is uppermost.

Before beginning work, get all your materials ready. Sift the flour and lift from it one and twothirds level cups, smoothing off the top with a knife; for in this receipt, and in all others I give, the measurements are level, unless otherwise stated. Put the flour and baking powder in the sifter. Butter the cake pans with a bristle brush and sift flour into it till a coating of white covers the inside of the tin. This gives a fine crust; it is easier than lining a tin with buttered paper, and the cake is not liable to burn. Measure the butter, sugar, and milk, separate the egg, and see that the oven is in good condition. If you bake in a gas stove, light both oven burners; it takes about as long for the oven to heat as it does to mix the cake.

If the weather is cold and the butter is hard, warm an earthen bowl by allowing hot water to stand in it for a few minutes. Pour it out, dry the bowl, then put the butter to soften, but never to melt. Butter which has melted will never produce a smooth white cream. Take a wooden slitted spoon and beat the butter till creamy; this process allows of a perfect blending with the sugar, which add gradually, beating constantly all the time. When the cream mixture is light and snowy white, sift in a few spoons of flour to keep the butter and sugar from separating, as would happen if the milk went in first. By the way, always use a slitted spoon when making cake. The air, which you are endeavoring to beat into the cake, is caught and driven through the slits and a perfect blending of ingredients can be quickly accomplished.

With the ordinary bowl spoon this process is arrived at very slowly. Few cooks realize what an important factor quickness is in the beating of cake. The woman of slow, deliberate motions will invariably turn out a heavy cake; the quick, energetic cook will have a light, delicious cake. I have seen this result many times in cooking school, where the same materials, the same utensils, the same welltempered stove were at the disposal of women of different temperaments.

To turn again to the cake, which we left at the stage of thoroughly creamed butter and sugar, with a small amount of flour sifted in. Add now a few tablespoons of milk, and beat; then sift in half a cup of flour till it is all in and you have a snowy, light batter. If you are making the cake alone, stop now and beat the whites of the eggs. If some one can help it would be better, at the time you begin the creaming of the butter, that she commence to beat the eggs.

When they reach the light, dry, frothy condition which is a necessity, the cake mixture would be ready to have them folded in. If you have to beat the white of egg yourself, it is better to allow the cake to wait for it than to let it wait for the cake. No matter how well whipped it has been, the air will escape from it and it will go back to a condition from which it can never again be beaten stiff. When it is thoroughly whipped, fold it into the batter. By folding I mean put the spoon in edgewise, lift the batter, and turn it over. Repeat until thoroughly mixed.

At this point the batter holds millions of little air cells obtained by beating, and the bubbles formed by whipping air into the whites of the eggs. If at this point the batter is subjected to further beating, the imprisoned air bubbles would be liberated and the cake would be heavy. Therefore, put it immediately into the oven for the air cells to be set by the heat

There is a certain knack in pouring cake batter into the pans, which results in a perfectly flat, wellshaped cake. Smooth the batter after it is all in with a spatula, having the mixture come well to the corners and sides of the pans, leaving a slight depression in the centre. Never scrape batter from a knife or spoon on the edge of the pan. If you do, the cake will not rise on that side. Fill the pans threequarters full if you wish the cake to reach the top of the tins.