Maple Filling
2 cups maple syrup.
Whites of 2 eggs.
Boil the syrup slowly till it makes a thread when you hold it up; then add it slowly to your beaten egg-whites, beating till cold.
Orange Filling
1 cup powdered sugar.
1 tablespoonful boiling water.
Grated rind of 1 orange.
1 tablespoonful orange-juice.
Put the sugar in a bowl, add the rind, then the water and juice, and spread at once on the cake. This icing must be very thick when made, and if is seems thin put in more sugar.
Caramel Filling
2 cups brown sugar.
1/2 cup cream or milk.
b.u.t.ter the size of an egg.
1/2 teaspoonful vanilla.
Mix all together and cook till it is smooth and thick.
Plain Icing
Put the white of one egg into a bowl with a half-teaspoonful of water, and beat till light. Then stir in a cup of sifted powdered sugar, and put on the cake while that is still warm, and smooth it over with a wet knife.
Chocolate Icing
Melt one square of Baker"s chocolate in a saucer over the teakettle, and put in two tablespoonfuls of milk and stir till smooth.
Add two tablespoonfuls of sugar and a small half-teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter, and stir again. Take it off the stove and put it on the cake while both are warm.
Caramel Icing
1/2 cup of milk.
2 cups brown sugar.
b.u.t.ter the size of an egg.
1 teaspoonful of vanilla.
Mix the b.u.t.ter, sugar, and milk, and cook till it is smooth and thick, stirring all the time and watching it carefully to see that it does not burn; take it off and put in the vanilla, and spread while warm on a warm cake.
Doughnuts
Margaret"s mother did not approve of putting this rule in her cook-book, because she did not want Margaret ever to eat rich things; but her grandmother said it really must go in, for once in awhile very nice doughnuts would not hurt anybody.
1 1/2 cups of sugar.
1/2 cup of b.u.t.ter.
3 eggs.
1 1/2 cups of milk.
2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder.
Pinch of salt.
Put in flour enough to make a very soft dough, just as soft as you can handle it. Mix, and put on a slightly floured board and make into round b.a.l.l.s, or roll out and cut with a cooky cutter with a hole in the centre. Heat two cups of lard with one cup of beef suet which you have melted and strained, and heat till it browns a bit of bread instantly. Then drop in three doughnuts,--not more, or you will chill the fat, --and when you take them out dry on brown paper. It is much better to use part suet than all lard, yet that will do if you have no suet in the house.
Oatmeal Macaroons
These little cakes are so like real macaroons that no one who had not seen the recipe would guess how they were made.
2 1/2 cups rolled oats.
2 1/2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder.
1/2 teaspoonful salt.
3 even tablespoonfuls b.u.t.ter.
1 cup sugar.
3 eggs, beaten separately.
1 teaspoonful vanilla.
Cream the b.u.t.ter, add the sugar and well beaten egg-yolks, then the oatmeal, salt, and baking-powder, then the vanilla, and last the whites of the eggs. Drop in small bits, no larger than the end of your finger, on a shallow pan, three inches apart.
Bake in a very slow oven till brown, and take from the pan while hot.
Peanut Wafers
1 cup of sugar.
1/2 cup of b.u.t.ter.
1/2 cup of milk.
1/2 teaspoonful soda.
2 cups of flour.
1 cup chopped peanuts.
Cream the b.u.t.ter and sugar, put the soda in the milk and stir well, and put this in next; add the flour and beat well. b.u.t.ter a baking-pan and spread this evenly over the bottom, and then spread the peanuts over all. Bake till a light brown.
Tea-party Cakes
2 squares of Baker"s chocolate.
1 teaspoonful of sugar.
Bit of b.u.t.ter the size of a pea.