Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

powdered sugar; roll a lemon in some of the sugar till the flavor is extracted. After it is beaten very well, drop it in heaps about the size of half an egg on a sheet of paper; smooth them over with a spoon, and let them be of a regular shape; bake them in an oven that has been moderately heated, till they are of a pale brown color; do not have the oven too cool, or they will run together; take them from the papers carefully, and stick two together. CAKES. Remarks on Making and Baking Cake. The materials for making cake should be of the best quality, as your success very much depends on it. Flour should be dried and sifted, sugar rolled fine, spices pounded and sifted. Where brown sugar is used, it should be spread on a dish and dried before rolling it. I have known very good pound cake made with brown sugar; also jumbles, &c. Persons that make their own butter sometimes use it fresh from the churn, which prevents the necessity of washing the salt out of it for cake, and it mixes more readily than hard butter. Currants should be picked over, washed and dried; raisins should be stemmed and stoned. When these preparations are made the day before, it is a great assistance. Eggs should be fresh, or they will not beat light: in beating the whites, take a broad flat dish, and beat them until you can hold the dish upside down,--this is a test of their lightness. A large bowl is best for mixing and beating cake. You must use your hand for mixing the sugar and butter, and as you add the other ingredients, you may take a large wooden spoon; beat it some time after all is mixed. The oven should be ready to bake immediately, as standing makes cake heavy. A brick oven is the most certain,--and over your pans of cake, you should spread several layers of newspaper, to prevent its browning too suddenly. Cake requires more time than bread: a large cake should stay