Page:Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats.djvu/59

Rh is very cold, and the butter hard, set the pan near the fire for a few minutes; but if the butter is too warm, the cake will be heavy, Stir the butter and sugar together with a wooden stick, till they are very light, and white, and look like cream.

Beat the eggs in a broad shallow pan' with a wooden egg-beater or whisk. They must be beaten till they are thick and smooth, and of the consistence of boiled custard.

Pour the liquor and rose-water, gradually, into the butter and sugar, stiringstirring [sic] all the time. Add by degrees, the essence of lemon and spice. Stir the egg and flour alternately into the butter and sugar, a handful of flour, and about two spoonfuls of the egg (which you must continue to beat all the time,) and when all is in, stir the whole mixture very hard, for near ten minutes. Butter a large tin pan, or a cake mould with an open tube rising from the middle. Put the mixture into it as evenly as possible. Bake it in a moderate oven, for two, or three, or four hours, in proportion to its thickness, and to the heat of the fire.

When you think it is nearly done, thrust a twig or wooden skewer into it down to the bottom. If the stick comes out clean and dry, the cake is almost baked. When quite done, it will shrink from the sides of the pan, and cease making a noise. Then withdraw the coals (if baked in a dutch oven;p) take off the lid, and let the cake remain in the oven to cool gradually. You may ice it either warm or cold. Before you put the icing on a large cake, dredge the cake all over with flour, and then wipe the flour off; this will make the icing stick on better&mdash;If you have