e time to be
allowed for baking various kinds of cake, as so much depends on the heat
of the oven. It should be narrowly watched while in the oven, and if it
browns too fast, it should be covered with a thick paper. To ascertain
when rich cake is sufficiently baked, stick a clean broom splinter
through the thickest part of the loaf--if none of the cake adheres to
the splinter, it is sufficiently baked. When cake that is baked on flat
tins moves easily on them, it is sufficiently baked.

169. _Frosting for Cake._

Allow for the white of one egg nine heaping tea-spoonsful of double
refined sugar, and one of nice Poland starch. The sugar and starch
should be pounded, and sifted through a very fine sieve. Beat the whites
of eggs to a stiff froth, so that you can turn the plate upside down,
without the eggs falling from it--then stir in the sugar gradually, with
a wooden spoon--stir it ten or fifteen minutes without any
cessation--then add a tea-spoonful of lemon juice, (vinegar will answer,
but is not as nice)--put in sufficient rosewater to flavor it. If you
wish to color it pink, stir in a few grains of cochineal powder, or rose
pink--if you wish to have it of a blue tinge, add a little of what is
called the powder blue. Lay the frosting on the cake with a knife, soon
after it is taken from the oven--smooth it over, and let it remain in a
cool place till hard. To frost a common sized loaf of cake, allow the
white of one egg, and half of another.

170. _Sponge Gingerbread._

Melt a piece of butter of the size of a hen's egg--mix it with a pint of
nice molasses, a table-spoonful of ginger, and a quart of flour.
Dissolve a heaping table-spoonful of saleratus in half a pint of milk,
strain and mix it with the rest of the ingredients, add sufficient flour
to enable you to roll it out easily, roll it out about half an inch
thick, and bake it on flat tins in a quick oven. Gingerbread made in
this manner will be light and spongy if baked quick, and made of nice
molasses, but it will not keep good so long as hard gingerbread.

171. _Hard Molasses Gingerbread._

To a pint of molasses put half a tea-cup of melted butter, a
table-spoonful of ginger, and a quart of flour. Dissolve a tea-spoonful
of saleratus in half a pint of water, and stir it in, together with
flour sufficient to enable you to roll it out. Bake it in a moderately
warm oven.

172. _Soft Molasses Gingerbread._

Melt a tea-cup of butter--mix it with a