Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery/cakes

In vegetarian cookery there is no difference, as far as cake-making is concerned, between it and ordinary cookery. In making cakes we will confine our attention chiefly to general principles which, if once known, render cake-making of every description comparatively easy work. Those who wish for detailed recipes for making almost every kind of cake known will find all that they require on a large scale in “Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery,” and also everything necessary on a smaller scale in “Cassell’s Shilling Cookery,” which has already reached its hundred-thousandth edition.

Cakes may be divided into two classes—those that contain fruit and those that do not. Plum cakes can be made very rich indeed, like a wedding cake, or so plain that it can scarcely be distinguished from a loaf of bread with a few currants in it. Again, cakes that contain no fruit can, at the same time, be made exceedingly rich, the richness chiefly depending upon the amount of butter and eggs that are used. We will first give a few directions with regard to making what may be termed plain cakes, i.e., cakes that contain no fruit at all. Perhaps the best model we can give to illustrate the general principles will be that of a pound cake. The recipe is a very easy one to recollect, as a pound cake means one that is made from a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of flour. There is one addition, however, which the good plain cook will probably not be up to, and which, so far as flavour is concerned, makes all the difference between Francatelli and “Jemima Ann”—we must rub some of the lumps of sugar on the outsides of either two oranges or two lemons. It is also a great improvement to add a small glass of brandy, and in every kind of cake we must add a pinch of salt.

In making cakes it is always necessary to be careful about the butter. It is best to put the butter in cold water before it is used, and, if salt butter, it should be washed in several waters to extract the salt. The next thing necessary is to beat the butter to a cream. To do this it must be worked about in a basin with a wooden spoon. The basin should be a strong one, and a wooden spoon is far preferable to a metal one. You simply beat the butter and spread it against the sides of the basin and knock it about till it loses its consistency. You cannot beat the butter to the consistency of ordinary cream, but to a state more resembling Devonshire clotted cream. Of course, when it is like this it is much more easily mixed with the other ingredients. In making a pound cake we should first of all beat the butter to a cream and then add flour, sugar, and eggs gradually. When the whole is thoroughly well mixed together, we must bake it in a tin, or mould, or hoop. We need say nothing about tins or moulds, but will confine ourselves to giving directions how to bake a cake in a hoop, for, as a rule, ordinary English cooks do not understand how to use them.

One great advantage of using a hoop is that when the cake is baked there is no fear of breaking it in turning it out. A very simple hoop can be made with an ordinary slip of tin, say six inches wide; as the tin will lap over, the cake can be made any size round you wish. It is a good plan to fasten a piece of copper wire round the outside of the tin. This can be twisted, and when the cake is baked and has got cold can be untwisted, and the tin will then open of its own accord. The tin must be lined with buttered paper, and buttered paper must be placed on a flat piece of tin at the bottom. When an “amateur hoop” is used like we have described, care must be taken that the cake does not come out at the bottom. The cake, especially when it is made with beaten-up eggs, like sponge cake, will rise, and unless precautions are taken the tin will rise with it, and the unset portion of the cake break loose round the edge at the bottom. To prevent this the tin must be kept down with a weight at the top. In a proper hoop made for the purpose there are appliances for fastening the hoop together itself and also for keeping it in its place, but if we use a strip of tin we must place something across the tin on the top and then put on a heavy weight. When this is done, you must remember to allow room for the cake to rise. A pound cake such as we have described can be made into a rich fruit cake by adding stoned raisins, currants, chopped candied peel, sultana raisins, or, better still, dried cherries. In making ordinary cakes, when currants are used, they should be first washed and then dried; if you use damp currants the cake will probably be heavy.

With regard to the flour, it is cheapest in the end to use the best quality, and the flour should be dried and sifted. If you weigh the flour remember to dry and sift it before you weigh it, and not after. In using sugar get the best loaf; this should also be pounded and sifted.

In using eggs, of course each egg should be broken separately. Very often it is necessary to separate the yolks from the whites. This requires some little skill; you are less likely to break the yolk when you crack the egg boldly. Put the yolk from one half egg-shell into the other half, spilling as much of the white as you can. You will soon get the yolks separate. Next, remember before mixing the eggs to remove the thread or string from them. When the whites are beaten separately, you must whisk them till they become a solid froth; no liquid should remain at the bottom of the basin. The yolks should not be broken till they are wanted.

Lemon-peel is often used in making cakes, and in chopping it a little powdered sugar is a great assistance in preventing the peel sticking together. Remember only to use the yellow part, not the white. The white part gives the cake a bitter flavour.

Sometimes milk or cream is used in cake-making. If Swiss milk is used as a substitute, remember that less sugar will be required.

When pounded almonds are used for cakes, the almonds must be blanched by being thrown, first into boiling water, and then into cold water. In pounding them, add a little rose-water or orange-flower water, or the white of an egg, to prevent the almonds getting oily.

Nearly all plain cakes, where only a few eggs are used, will be made lighter by the addition of a little baking-powder. A very good baking-powder is made by mixing an ounce of tartaric acid with an ounce and a half of bicarbonate of soda, and an ounce and a half of arrowroot. The baking powder should be kept very dry.

A very nice way of making home-made cakes is to use some dough, which can be procured from the baker’s. Suppose you have a quartern of dough, put it in a basin, cover it over with a cloth, and put it in front of the fire to rise, then spread it on a floured pastry-board, slice it up, and work in half a pound of fresh butter, half a pound of moist sugar, six eggs, a teaspoonful of salt, and half an ounce of caraway seeds. When all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, place them in two or more well-buttered tins or hoops, and let them stand in front of the fire a little while before they are placed in the oven. Cakes can be flavoured with a variety of spices, such as cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, or powdered coriander seeds. These last are always used to give a special flavour to hot cross buns.

Bread.—Home-made bread is not so much used now as it was years back. Most housekeepers have found by experience that it is a waste both of time and money. There are very few houses among the middle classes which possess an oven capable of competing with any chance of success with a baker’s oven. There are, however, many vegetarians who believe in what is called whole-meal bread. A good deal of the whole-meal bread sold as such has been found to be adulterated with substances very unwholesome to ordinary stomachs. We may mention saw-dust as one of the ingredients used for the purpose. Again, if you attempt to make whole-meal bread into loaves, you will find great difficulty in baking the loaves. This whole-meal is a very slow conductor of heat, and the result will probably be that the outside of the loaf will be very hard while the inside will be too underdone to be eaten. Consequently, should you wish to have home-made whole-meal bread, it is far best to bake it in the form of a tea-cake or flat-cake. We cannot do better, in conclusion, than quote what Sir Henry Thompson says on this subject:—“The following recipe,” he says, “will be found successful, probably, after a trial or two, in producing excellent, light, friable, and most palatable bread: To two pounds of coarsely ground or crushed whole-meal, add half a pound of fine flour and a sufficient quantity of baking powder and salt; when these are well mixed, rub in two ounces of butter, and make into dough with half milk and water, or with all milk if preferred. Make rapidly into flat cakes like ‘tea-cakes,’ and bake without delay in a quick oven, leaving them afterwards to finish thoroughly at a lower temperature. The butter and milk supply fatty matters, in which the wheat is somewhat deficient; all the saline and mineral matters of the husk are retained; and thus a more nutritive form of bread cannot be made. Moreover, it retains the natural flavour of the wheat, in place of the insipidity which is characteristic of fine flour, although it is indisputable that bread produced from the latter, especially in Paris and Vienna, is unrivalled for delicacy, texture, and colour. Whole meal may be bought; but mills are now cheaply made for home use, and wheat may be ground to any degree of coarseness desired.”