The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-02-10
ideas for dMnmen

Down in Tennessee taefe $ q cieNG y
tie woman, Mrs. c. II. Wilson. who has
made a hit and a sturdy financial success
by baking cakes.
Without heraiding of any SORT her
cakes have made their way into two con
tinents. Several times she has sent
brides cakes and Christmas cakes tos
London and Paris. And one has gone
even as far as Australia. In THESE
United States they go from New YORK TO
California. The maker OF them IS
forced to turn away orders most days
in the year. This because she will not
let her name go out as guarantee lof
what her hand has not been set 20.
There are only twenty-four hours in the
day. you see, and some of them must
be given TO rest and sleep.
81 got into business altogether acct
dentally., she says. with a smile, when
YOU ask about it. 81 always loved to
make cake and candy and nice things
? generally. After l married and set up
Housekeeping. l began to ask my FRIENDS
to come and help eat what ! had
cooked. Soon hey began to ask rae 10
make cakes and bon bens, when they had
entertainments. They would not let me
furnish anything-oniy do the work.
'sThen so many of them wanted me to
make things. they said I simply must
take pay for it. 1 hated to do it-it was
so entirely beyond what / had Ehought
of. But people who came to the CITY
and were entertained got so in the way Oh
raving over my cakes, taking away 20
their own home other cakes ana tnen
sending back for more. that | was IN a
manner forced to become a professional
c~ake-maker.
ssThere is no secret about it," she goes
on. Il simply use the best of everything.
Ny eggs l buy in the country direct
from the farm. My butter too, is fresh
and always carefully washed and kept
on ice until l want it. Flour, sugar,
nuts, fruits. 1ayorings. iquors-what-
ever / use, in fact. has to be as good as
can be found. 1 find a dash of brandy,
Iust as the cake goes to the oven, helps
to make it light, and also to bake more
evenly.
cakes are mixed in various ways
according to the Sort l am making. The
eggs are already very cold when broken,
and whipped light in a cool place. l sift
my flower two or three times-untn II is
light like snow. There is just a certain
turn in the stirring that mixes the ingre-
dents right. One person who has it by
nature always makes good cakes. One
who hadn't it may work twice as hard,
and never turn out a good one.
My icing. which is really the distin-
gushing feature of my cakes, is cooked,
you see. No, l cannot tell you how l
make it. That is my only secret, and l
feel bound to keep it. l color it almost
any shade. After it is done, let me show
you what l do with it."
She was speaking in the kitchen of her
handsome apartment, a kitchen as tidy
as the pretty parlor. 1t is furnished with
a gas range, on top of which was a bright
big saucepan full of what looked like
boiling snow. A colored girl as neat as
the kitchen kept beating and stirring it
all the while, at the other side there We're
other pans full of the same snow, which
had mysteriously turned green or blue or
pink or purple.
My idea of cake and icing said Mrs.
Wilson. sis that they should never be
either sticky or clammy, yet always soft
enough to eat with a spoon. Here are
some cakes ready to be sent off. This one
goes to North Carelina-the others are
for local orders. l pack them. you see.
IN boxes just big enough to hold Them,
cover them with oiled paper, put in
crumpied tissue paper over that-then
set the boxes in baskets, with handles
at top. The express companies are mott
fed always to carry them by the handles
thus they get to their destinations with
the cakes uncrushed. How did / get to
the point of knowing SO much? Well,
it has all come through experience.
When one way would not answer / had to
sit dow and think up something better"
Naturally, the Tennessee centennial
was a time of triumph for her. She
made the cakes for the breakfast given
Mrs. Mckinley by the Woman's Board,
took all the prizes offered by the centen-
nial for cakes, and ended by showing
upon Kate Kirkman day a cake with a
picture of Kate Kirkman herself, presi-
dent of the Woman's Board, which was
so lifelike everybody recognized it. Be
yond all that, her work was in such
great request tor the many handsome en-
tertainments that she was forced TO leave
the city for more han a month, rather
than let herself be overworked.
Most housewives don't think of having
fried eggs in any way but fried in the
pan after having cooked ham or bacon.
says an experienced housekeeper. But
if you will put into a frying pan some
of these times an ounce of butter, and
then when it is hot slip intN it from a
plate four broken eggs. you al Awell on
the road to serving a dish tina \, nj prove
welcome. Salt eggs a bit. and cook them
for about three minutes; take them up
upon a hot dish and put into the frying
pan another ounce of butter and let it
melt; squeeze into it the juice of half a
lemon, a dash of cayenne, and when the
butter turns brown a little pour II over
the eggs and send to the table.
And with it have some sort of Gro
auettes. say OF canned sweet corn. Mix
with the corn two-thirds of it's quantity
OF finely mashed potatoes, salt and a
good generous piece of butter. Then
form it into croquettes, dip in beaten
eggs, then il bread crumbs and fry a
fine color in hot fat. Graham bread
toasted, if the bread is thin enough. but
tered enough and hot enough, when it
comes to the table, is good with this
breakfast.
A subli;nated hash is made like this:
Chop an onion as finely as possible and
fry 1t, without coloring, in an ounce of
h,Iffpr. when tho pninp Is anita stap7ar