EASTER HOLIDAY SUGGESTIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 457, 25 March 1948, Page 22

EASTER HOLIDAY SUGGESTIONS

T is always very satisfactory to have some small cakes and biscuits in the tins at holiday times for unexpected guests. So here are some ideas for them, and also a really grand eggless cake recipe sent to me last week by Nona, an extremely successful and cheerful young housewife. Eggless Holiday Cake Five ounces fat (Nona put 2oz. dripping and 3oz. butter), 6o0z. sugar, 42 pint water, %4lb. flour, 1 tablespoon golden syrup, 114 teaspoons mixed spice, 12 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg, 2 level teaspoons baking soda, 1 level teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon almond essence, 1lb. mixed fruit, 144 teaspoons curry powder, 1 tablespoon sherry. Put sugar, water and fat into a saucepan, add the fruit (except any dates) and spices, Heat slowly, then boil 3 to 4 minutes. Stand aside and add dates. (if any) and golden syrup, then cool, but don’t let the fat solidify. Sift the dry ingredients (including curry powder), add the fruit mixture, then the essence. Bake in greased, lined tin (about 8 inches) in very moderate oven, decreasing the heat when slightly brown; 1%4 to 2 hours. Do not remove from tin in less than an hour, as it breaks easily. [Nona cooked it on Regulo 4 (350 degrees) for about 25 minutes, then turned down to Regulo 2% (300 degrees) for the rest of the time and it took 1% hours exactly.] Fruit-and-Nut Loaf This recipe comes from Featherston and will be useful for suppers and teas in the holidays. It may be cooked in a large square tin, or two loaf-tins, and is nice eaten without as well as with butter. Put. these ingredients into a saucepan, bring to the boil, and leave to cool: two small cups sugar, 1 packet raisins (or any fruit available), 1/3rd packet spice, 1 dessertspoon each of cinnmamon and ginger, 2 tablespoons butter or dripping, 242 cups hot water, 4% cup walnuts or almonds if desired. Sift together 4 cups flour, 4% teaspoon salt, 2 level teaspoons baking soda, add the liquid mixture, and bake 144 to 2 hours, moderate oven, Seven-In-One Patty Cakes First make the foundation mixture: 4oz. each butter -and sugar (castor is best), 1 small teaspoon baking powder, 2 eggs, a few drops almond and vanilla essences mixed, 6o0z. flour, about 114 tablespoons milk. Cream butter and sugar specially well, add eggs one by one, with sprinkling of flour each time, beating very well. Then add remainder of flour and flavouring, lastly the milk, Cook in patty tins or paper cases. Moderate oven. By adding loz. more flour and sultanas to taste, or chopped walnuts, you have queen cakes; by cooking in patty tins, putting a dab of raspberry or strawberry jam in the centre of each, raspberry or strawberry buns; by adding a ‘tablespoon of cocoa mixed with an extra

tablespoon of milk to the foundationmixture, chocolate cakes; or by adding grated orange or lemon rind (no juice) to the mixture, you have orange or lemon cakes. Leamingtons One small cup of sugar, 142 cups flour, 2 tablespoons butter, 42 cup milk, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon baking powder, Cream sugar and butter, add egg, milk,

and lastly fous and baking powder. Bake in a flat tin.in a moderate oven. When cool, cut into squares and ice the following way: heat in saucepan 2oz. chocolate or cocoa, 2 cups icing sugar, 2% tablespoons water, and essence of vanilla. Heat, but do not boil. Dip cake squares into icing, holding each one on a skewer while dipping, Roll in desiccated coconut and put aside to dry. Hokey-Pokey Biscuits Quarter of a pound of butter or good fat, 4% to % cup sugar, 1 large cup flour, 1 dessertspoon milk, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 dessertspoon golden syrup. Melt.syrup and milk together, and when nearly cool add soda, and beat till frothy. Cream butter and sugar, add frothy mixture, then the flour. Roll in balls, press with a fork. Slow oven, about 4% hour, Novelty Biscuits Place in a bowl 2 cups coconut, 1 cup chopped raisins and sultanas mixed, 1 cup chopped dates, 1 cup chopped walnuts, 1 tin of sweetened condensed milk (use breakfast cups for all measures). Mix all together and make small balls about size of a walnut and bake on a greased oven shelf very slowly for 15 minutes. Pack in a tin -will keep a long time. Can halve or double this quantity. No flour, butter, sugar or eggs.