g more in proportion. Rose water or a liqueur have the same effect
but give their own flavor--which whiskey does not.

If strong butter needs must be used, it can be mitigated to a degree, by
washing and kneading well in cold water barely dashed with chloride of
lime solution, then rinsing well in cold water, and afterward in sweet
milk. The milk may be half water. Rinse it out clean. Let the butter
soften well before undertaking to cream it. A stout, blunt wooden spoon
is the best for creaming, along with a deep bowl very narrow at the
bottom. Grease deep cake tins plentifully, with either lard or
butter--using only the best. For heavy cakes such as fruit, spice and
marble cake, line them with double thicknesses of buttered paper and
either set shallow pans of water in the oven while baking or stand the
pans themselves in other pans with a quarter inch of water in the
bottoms. If cakes brown too fast, open the oven door, a trifle, and lay
over the pan a thick, well buttered paper until the oven cools. Never
jar the oven while cake is baking in it--neither by banging the doors,
nor dumping heavy vessels on top of it. Beware likewise slamming kitchen
doors, or bumping things about in the room. Fine cake demands as many
virtues of omission as of commission. Indeed the don'ts are as essential
as the doings.

Layer cakes need to be mixed thinner than deep ones. The batter must run
freely. Half fill the tins and set in a hot oven, taking care not to
scorch before rising is finished. Butter tins very freely--it is
economy in the end. Be sure the tins sit level in the oven--thus you
escape an ungainly final loaf. Get filling ready as baking goes forward
so as to put your layers together while still warm and pliable. Let cool
before frosting, so as to trim sides smooth. Take care fillings are not
too watery, also that they are mixed smooth. Spread evenly, and press
down a layer firmly all over, before putting filling on top. Layers
simplify greatly the problem of baking, but to my mind, no layer cake,
not even the famous Lady Baltimore, is equal to a fine deep loaf, well
frosted, and meltingly rich throughout.

_Pound Cake_: (Aunt Polly Rives) Take ten fresh eggs, their weight in
fresh butter, white sugar, and thrice sifted flour. Separate the eggs,
beat yolks to a cream-yellow, add the sugar, cupful at a time, beat
hard, then the butter creamed to a froth, then half the flour, then two
wineglasses of whiskey or brandy or goo