2 to 2 scant teaspoonfuls of baking powder to two cups of
flour. Saleratus should be used alone with sour milk. Put baking
molasses in a stew-pan over fire and allow it to just come to boil;
cool before using it. It will not sour as quickly in warm weather, and
the cake baked from it will have a better flavor. The cup used in
measuring ingredients for cakes holds exactly one-half pint. All cakes
are improved by the addition of a pinch of salt. When lard is used
instead of butter, beat to a cream and salt well. In mixing cakes,
beat butter and sugar together until light and creamy, then add the
beaten yolks of eggs, unless stated otherwise as for angel cake, etc.,
then the flavoring, then mix in the flour and liquid alternately. The
baking powder, flour and salt should have been sifted together three
or four times before being added. Lastly, fold in lightly the stiffly
beaten whites of eggs. Fruit well dredged with flour should be added
last, if used. Cool the oven if too hot for baking cakes by placing a
pan containing cold water in the top rack of oven. Sponge cake
particularly is improved by doing this, as it makes the cake moist.
Stir sponge cake as little as possible after adding flour, as too much
stirring then will make cake tough. Sift flour several times before
using for sponge cake, as tins causes the flour to become lighter.
Layer cake, and most small cakes, require a quick oven. The oven door
should not be opened for 12 minutes after cake has been placed in
oven. Rich cakes, loaf cakes and fruit cakes must bake long and
slowly. The richer the cake, the slower the heat required in baking.
To test the oven, if the hand can bear the heat of the oven 20 or 25
seconds, the oven then is the right temperature. After placing a loaf
cake in oven do not open the oven door for 20 minutes. If oven be not
hot enough, the cake will rise, then fall and be heavy. Angel cake,
sunshine cake and sponge cake require a moderate oven.

Raisins and dried currants should be washed and dried before using in
cake. All fruit should be dredged with flour before being added to
cake. Citron may be quickly and easily prepared by cutting on a slaw
cutter or it may be grated before being added to cake. When a recipe
calls for butter the size of an egg it means two tablespoonfuls. A
tablespoonful of butter, melted, means the butter should be measured
first, then melted. Aunt Sarah frequently used a mixture of butter and
lard in her cakes for