Page:The Boston cooking-school cook book (1910).djvu/578

 quarter, continue rising and begin to brown; third quarter, continue browning; fourth quarter, finish baking and shrink from pan. If oven is too hot, open check and raise back covers, or leave oven door ajar. It is sometimes necessary to cover cake with brown paper; there is, however, danger of cake adhering to paper. Cake should be often looked at during baking, and providing oven door is opened and closed carefully, there is no danger of this causing cake to fall. Cake should not be moved in oven until it has risen its full height; after this it is usually desirable to move it that it may be evenly browned. Cake when done shrinks from the pan, and in most cases this is a sufficient test; however, in pound cakes this rule does not apply. Pound and rich fruit cakes are tested by pressing surface with tip of finger. If cake feels firm to touch and follows finger back into place, it is safe to remove it from the oven. When baking cake arrange to have nothing else in the oven, and place loaf or loaves as near the centre of oven as possible. If placed close to fire box, one side of loaf is apt to become burned before sufficiently risen to turn. If cake is put in too slow an oven, it often rises over sides of pan and is of very coarse texture; if put in too hot an oven, it browns on top before sufficiently risen, and in its attempt to rise breaks through the crust, thus making an unsightly loaf. Cake will also crack on top if too much flour has been used. The oven should be kept at as nearly uniform temperature as possible. Small and layer cakes require a hotter oven than loaf cakes.

To Remove Cake From Pans. Remove cake from pans as soon as it comes from the oven, by inverting pan on a wire cake cooler, or on a board covered with a piece of old linen. If cake is inclined to stick, do not hurry it from pan, but loosen with knife around edges, and rest pan on its four sides successively; thus by its own weight cake may be helped out.

To Frost Cake. Where cooked frostings are used, it makes but little difference whether they are spread on hot or cold cake. Where uncooked frostings are used, it is best to have the cake slightly warm, with the exception of Confectioners' Frosting, where boiling water is employed.