Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1911 — WHILE WIFE WAS AWAY [ARTICLE]

WHILE WIFE WAS AWAY

LONE MAN’S EXPERIENCE WITH BAKING OF A CAKE. V,-. •tf:" - '" 1 ’ "v* o ' Recipe In the Women’s Home Guide: Was B!mple Enough, but the Result WaS Far Frpm Satisfactory. .t ~ r ~ 1 ' V • t "I think it said a slow oven,” said the man. He knelt on the spattered kitchen floor and peeped into the oven. “What’n thunder’s a slow oven, anyway?" As he looked within, the oven began a curious movement, and he watched it fascinated. Something in a square pan had been ballooning out several inches, and even as he looked it began to recede, even as a bubble grows smaller when a child cautiously removes a finger from the spool, with which it is blown. “Huh!” said the man; “that’s funny.”. Then it occurred to him that a draft of cold air had struck his cake, causing it to fall, and he hurriedly. Blammed the oven door and heaped wood on the fire In order that It rise again. . r __ It is not necessary to say the man was alone. It might be well to say, however, that his womankind had gone off on a visit, and lest some think him insane, to state that he had been reading recipes in the Women’s Home Guide until his tongue hung out. The Home Guide was explicit in saying that such a cake was easy to make, and the man, searching the kitchen, found all the ingredients. The temptatoin was too great, and he began making a cake. It should have been a good cake, for he had been very careful. True, he couldn’t remember the difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoonful until he had put three tablespoonfuls of baking powder In—heaping Bpoonfuls—but, as everybody knows, that should make the cake lighter. One of the eggs looked a bit pale and washed out, and he rejected that, using only two, and he had added a little sugar to the quantity, because he liked cake sweet. But, generally speaking, he had made the cake according to directions. He cautiously opened the open again, and with a cloth jerked the cake out and slammed it on the table. Then he stood back and looked at it. Something was wrong, that was certain. It was of a curious dun color, and hadj a great bulge in the middle, while all about the bulge was a dip like a surrounding valley. Also the edges were not dun color, but black. The bottom also was black, though much of the black stuck to the pan. Then the man tasted his cake. Yes, something was wrong. It* was soft as library paste and gummy beyond belief. The man did not hesitate. * He opened the back door and cast the cake into outer darkness, and with diligence began washing up the dishes, for there were dishes that seemed to Intricate that he had been trying to make a cake, and the folks would be back in the morning. And, when all was clean, he lighted his pipe and took up a magazine. Cake? Not much. He never wanted to see a cake again. The Magazine was not the Women’s Home Guide,—Qalveston News.