Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-20
BY MRS. NJ. A. WILSON

Copyright 19,9, r9a, py nfrs,,s Ms M 4. wilson
THERE is no royal road to Success
- in cake making. Each and every
step must be carefully taken, as if
upon it alone depended the fate OF
the undertaking.
Each housewife we'll knows that
the pinnacle of fame in cooking is
the cake making. Also the woman
whose sponge cake is light, de-
licious and tender knows full well
that those who sample it will ap-
preciate the ineffable delciousness
of this cake.
Then, too, the middle-aged woman
will remember the delicious, genuine
pound cake Of grandma's day that
required two hours steady beating.
Think of it, two hours steady beat
ing, We hustlers of this twentieth
century! This steady, long beating
brought the dough to a velvet-like
consistency and made it the color
of molten gold. But, alas, gone are
those days, as we'll as those of the
southern hostess, who always COM
pounded these cakes and was as
sisted by her colored maid.
In those bygone days the skill
of the cook gave the result obtained
in the making of the cake. Cake to
be perfect must be:
First. Delicate and fine in
texture; very tender and free from
any suggestion of sogginess.
Second. 1t must be light, the
grain neither too fine nor too coarse.
Third. 1t must be we'll favored.
Fourth. There should not be a
predominance of any one ingredient,
either in flour, butter, eggs or
favoring.
Fifth. The appearance of the
cake itself should suggest de-
liciousness.
Method
Have all the utensils and in
gradients assembled and ready to
use before mixing the ingredients.
All utensils must be absolutely free
from any suspicion of grease. But
ter or shortening should be soft, so
that it may be easily creamed.
Place the eggs in a dish, so that
none may break. Sift the -four
twice before measuring and then sift
three times after adding the bak-
ing powder.
Preparation of the Pans
Grease and then -four all the pans.
This method is much easier than
lining the pan with paper. Do not
use butter for greasing the pans
owing to the fact that butter burns
at much lower temperature than
other shortening and so gives the
cake heavy, dark crust.
There are a limited number of
women who are gifted with a sense
of proportion. These women are
able to judge the amounts without
careful measuring. They belong to
class with an eye for quantities,
Seldom do they vary their measure
ments by a quarter of a teaspoonful
one way or the other. But we
mortals who are not so gifted must
realize that the main point for the
success of any cooking depends en-
tirely upon our careful weighing
and measuring of all ingredients.
This is the rock that so many
failures are stranded on. Ere
quently one will feel that, "Oh. well
just little bit more or less won't
matter" But it does matter. and
very much so at that. Il is these
little practices that prevent you
from having a perfect product.
A famous French baker once told
me in my young apprentice day;
that more cakes We're spoiled be
cause of poor efforts in baking than
in any other way. In fact, he was
very insistent that | must not only
carefully compound the ingredient:
in a thorough workmanlike man,