Cream Instead of Butter

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 29, 12 January 1940, Page 45

Cream Instead of Butter

Dear Aunt Daisy, I wonder would you help me out with arecipe? It is for a plain cake made with cream, and using soda and cream of tartar. My sister used to make one years ago, and it was delightful, having no butter whatever, but one cup of cream. I have forgotten the proportions. My husband has just come in and said, " Oh, ask Aunt Daisy about preserving skim milk for winter use." I think one heats it and lifts the curds off. It is for feeding stock and poultry.-"‘Another Daisy" (Masterton). I expect this is the cake recipe you want: It is one which has been used regularly for thirty years by the lady who sent it. Cream Cake One cup of thick cream, one cup of sugar, two eggs, a little salt, two level cups of flour, one teaspoon cream of tartar, and half a teaspoon of baking soda, cherries or preserved ginger to taste, and any flavouring. Beat the cream and sugar together well, add the salt and eggs, and beat well again. Then sift in the dry ingredients, adding the fruit last. This cake requires a hot oven to start, and when fully risen, a lower temperature. Ice with a thin layer of butter icing. A Curd Pit The easiest way to save curds for feeding poultry in winter is to make a "Curd Pit." I think it is a Danish custom, but someone will probably send us the history of it. Anyhow, several people on farms are doing this with great success. Dig a large pit, say, seven or eight feet long, five or six feet wide, and three or four feet deep, a good distance from the house. First put a couple of tins of whey from the curd drum into the pit, to provide the bacteria to start the milk curdling. Then pour in the surplus skim milk every day. The curd forms and floats on the top, and the whey gradually sinks into the ground. Keep on pouring in the skim milk, and by the winter there will be a pit of tightly pressed curd. Dig it out in square blocks with a spade. It is good for feeding to pigs and fowls. Have a lid made to fit, so that flies are kept away, and put a small fence round to prevent any small animal falling in. _