ake in the oven. Then, again, if the oven seems too
hot, fold a thick brown paper double, and lay on the bottom of the
oven; then after the cake has risen, put a thick brown paper over the
top, or butter well a thick white paper and lay carefully over the
top.

If, after the cake is put in, it seems to bake too fast, put a brown
paper loosely over the top of the pan, care being taken that it does
not touch the cake, and do not open the door for five minutes at
least; the cake should then be quickly examined, and the door shut
carefully, or the rush of cold air will cause it to fall. Setting a
_small dish_ of hot water in the oven, will also prevent the cake from
scorching.

To ascertain when the cake is done, run a broom straw into the middle
of it; if it comes out clean and smooth, the cake will do to take out.

Where the recipe calls for baking powder, and you have none, you can
use cream of tartar and soda in proportion to one level teaspoonful of
soda, two heaping teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.

When sour milk is called for in the recipe, use only soda. Cakes made
with molasses burn much more easily than those made with sugar. Never
stir cake after the butter and sugar is creamed, but beat it down from
the bottom, up and over; this laps air into the cake batter, and
produces little air cells, which cause the dough to puff and swell
when it comes in contact with the heat while cooking.

When making most cakes, especially sponge cake, the flour should be
added by degrees, stirred very slowly and lightly, for if stirred hard
and fast it will make it porous and tough.

Cakes should be kept in tight tin cake-cans, or earthen jars, in a
cool, dry place.

Cookies, jumbles, ginger-snaps, etc., require a quick oven; if they
become moist or soft by keeping, put again into the oven a few
minutes.

To remove a cake from a tin after it is baked, so that it will not
crack, break or fall, first butter the tin well all around the sides
and bottom; then cut a piece of letter paper to exactly fit the tin,
butter that on both sides, placing it smoothly on the bottom and sides
of the tin. When the cake is baked, let it remain in the tin until it
is _cold_; then set it in the oven a minute, or just long enough to
warm the tin through. Remove it from the oven; turn it upside down on
your hand, tap the edge of the tin on the table and it will slip out
with ease, leaving it whole.

If a cake-pan is too shallow for holding the