Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1916 — MIXING THE BUTTER CAKES [ARTICLE]

MIXING THE BUTTER CAKES

Breakfast and Luncheon Delicacy Worth All the Time That Can Be Bestowed on It. An earthen bowl should always b« ÜBed for mixing cake, and a wooden cake spoon with slits lightens the labor. Measure dry ingredients, and mix and sift baking powder and spices, if used, with flour. Count out number of eggs required, breaking each separately that there may be no loss should a stale egg chance to be found in the number, separating yolks from whites if rule so specifies. Measure butter, then liquid. Having everything in readiness, the mixing may be quickly accomplished. If butter ia very hard, by allowing it to stand a short time in a warm room it la measured and creamed much easier. If time cannot be allowed for this to be done, warm bowl by pouring in some hot water, letting stand one minute, then emptying and wiping dry. Avoid overheating the bowl, as butter will become oily rather than creamy. Put butter in bowl and cream by working with a wooden spoon until soft and of a creamy consistency, then add sugar gradually and continue beating. All yolks of eggs or whole eggs beaten until light, liquid and flour mixed and sifted with baking powder; or liquid and flour may be added alternately. When yolks and whites are beaten separately whites are usually added at the last, as in the case when whites of eggs alone are used. A cake can be made fine grained only by long beating, although light and delicate with a small amount of beating. Never stir cake after the final beating, remembering that beating motion should always be the last used. Fruit, when added to cake, is usually floured, to prevent its settling to the bottom. This is not necessary if it is added directly after the sugar, which is desirable in all dark cakes. If a light fruit cake is made, fruit added in this way discolors the loaf. Citron is cut first in thin slices, then in strips, floured, and put in between layers of cake mixture. Raisins are seeded and cut, rather than chopped. Washed currants, put up in packages, are quite free from stems and foreign substances, and need only picking over and rolling In flour.