HELPFUL HINTS ABOUT CAKE MAKING.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 1, Issue 4, 15 December 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

HELPFUL HINTS ABOUT CAKE MAKING.

1. See that the oven is heating before starting to make the mixture.

2. Sieve all flower, to remove lumps and to aerate it, this lightening the cakes.

3. Use good butter and eggs

4. Clean all fruit in a colander with a little flour ; take the sugar out of the candied peel. 5. Fruit cakes need a hot oven at first, in order to set the mixture quickly, otherwise the fruit sinks to the bottom.

6. Until a cake is set do not move it, and shut the oven-door very gently, or, if a light mixture, it will fall, and have a hole in the middle.

7. To see if cakes are cooked through push a clean skewer into the centre. If baked sufficiently it will be quite clear and bright on withdrawal.

8. Leave all cakes tilted up against the edge of a plate or place them on a sieve when taken out of the oven, to allow the steam to escape.

Spring Soup.—Stock two pints, spring onions 4, green peas one teacup, lettuce a few leaves, butter loz, flour loz, salt, red. pepper, parsley chopped one teaspoon. Chop the onions and lettuce quite fine, add them with peas to the stock; cook gently fifteen minutes. Melt the butter and mix it with the flour; add it to the soup, sirring all the time; let it cook a few minutes, add one small teacup of milk and the parsley; season well before serving.

Roast Goose, with sage and onion stuffing.—Cost of goose from 5s to 7s 6d. A goose, three onions, one heaped breakfast cup of breadcrumbs, one tablespoon chopped sage leaves, one tablespoon suet or butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, very little sugar. To make the sage and onion stuffing : Peel, slice and par-boil the onions for five minutes. Strain off the water; add fresh, and boil the onions till half-cooked. Take them out of the water, chop them finely, and mix them w ; th the crumbs, butter, sage and seasoning. Wipe the goose inside with clean, damp cloth,

put the stuffing into the body of the bird, close the ends neatly, dredge with flour, add a little fat or dripping, and bake for about an hour and a half to two hours for a medium-sized bird. Baste it well while cooking. Serve with apple sauce and thick gravy. This sage and onion stuffing is also used for roast duck or pork.

Apple Sauce. —One pound green apples, castor sugar, boiling water, teaspoon butter. This sauce is often a failure as regards colour, frequently being a dingy brown. To avoid this the apples must be peeled and sliced with a silver knife, and cooked in an enamel or aluminium saucepan, with a close-fitting lid. Cook the apples to a pulp. This sauce may be served hot or cold.

Christmas Pudding., average cost 3s 9d.—lib flour 3 21b finely chopped suet, lib breadcrumbs., lib sugar, lib sultanas, lib currants, £lb raisins, 4oz mixed neel, the rind of 2 lemons, 1 grated nutmeg, loz cinnamon, 8 eggs, 1 teacup milk, 1 teaspoon baking powder. Mix suet, flour and crumbs, clean the fruit, add it with the grated nutmeg, lemon and cinnamon to the suet, beat the eggs well, stir them into the dry ingredients. Put the mixture into well-greased basins, tie over with a scalded and floured cloth. Put into a saucepan of fast boiling water and boil steadily for 6or 8 hours. This quantity makes 3 large puddings.