The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory;

Currant clear Cakes

Take the currants before they are very ripe, and put them into water, scarcely enough to cover them; when they have boiled a little while, strain them through a woollen bag; put a pound and a quarter of fine sugar, boiled to a candy; then put a pint of the jelly, and make it scalding hot: put the whole into pots to dry, and, when jellied, turn them on glasses.

Egg Cake

Beat eight eggs, leaving out half the whites, for half an hour; half a pound of lump-sugar, pounded and sifted, to be put in during that time; then, by degrees, mix in half a pound of flour. Bake as soon after as possible. Butter the tin.

Enamelled Cake

Beat one pound of almonds, with three quarters of a pound of fine sugar, to a paste; then put a little musk, and roll it out thin. Cut it in what shape you please, and let it dry. Then beat up isinglass with white of eggs, and cover it on both sides.

Epsom Cake

Half a pound of butter beat to a cream, half a pound of sugar, four eggs, whites and yolks beat separately, half a quartern of French roll dough, two ounces of caraway seeds, and one tea-spoonful of grated ginger: if for a plum-cake, a quarter of a pound of currants.

Ginger Cakes

To a pound of sugar put half an ounce of ginger, the rind of a lemon, and four large spoonfuls of water. Stir it well together, and boil it till it is a stiff candy; then drop it in small cakes on a wet table.

Ginger or Hunting Cakes. No. 1

Take three pounds of flour, two pounds of sugar, one pound of butter, two ounces of ginger, pounded and sifted fine, and a nutmeg grated. Rub these ingredients very fine in the flour, and wet it with a pint of cream, just warm, sufficiently to roll out into thin cakes. Bake them in a slack oven.

Ginger or Hunting Cakes. No. 2

Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of flour; add a quarter of a pound of powder-sugar, one ounce of ginger, beat and sifted, the yolks of three eggs, and one gill of cream. A slow fire does them best.

Ginger or Hunting Cakes. No. 3

One ounce of butter, one ounce of sugar, twelve grains of ginger, a quarter of a pound of flour, and treacle sufficient to make it into a paste; roll it out thin, and bake it.

Gooseberry clear Cakes

Take the gooseberries very green; just cover them with water, and, when they are boiled and mashed, strain them through a sieve or woollen bag, and squeeze it well. Then boil up a candy of a pound and a quarter of fine sugar to a pint of the jelly; put it into pots to dry in a stove, and, when they jelly, turn them out on glasses.

Jersey Cake

To a pound of flour take three quarters of a pound of fresh butter beaten to a cream, three quarters of a pound of lump sugar finely pounded, nine eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately, nutmeg to your taste. Add a glass of brandy.

Jersey Merveilles

One pound of flour, two ounces of butter, the same of sugar, a spoonful of brandy, and five eggs. When well mixed, roll out and make into fancy shapes, and boil in hot lard. The Jersey shape is a true-lover’s knot.

London Wigs

Take a quarter of a peck of flour; put to it half a pound of sugar, and as much caraways, smooth or rough, as you like; mix these, and set them to the fire to dry. Then make a pound and half of butter hot over a gentle fire; stir it often, and add to it nearly a quart of milk or cream; when the butter is melted in the cream, pour it into the middle of the flour, and to it add a couple of wine-glasses of good white wine, and a full pint and half of very good ale yest; let it stand before the fire to rise, before you lay your cakes on the tin plates to bake.

Onion Cake

Slice onions thin; set them in butter till they are soft, and, when they are cold, put into a pan to a quart basin of these stewed onions three eggs, three spoonfuls of fine dried bread crumbs, salt, and three spoonfuls of cream. Put common pie-crust in a tin; turn it up all round, like a cheesecake, and spread the onions over the cake; beat up an egg, and with a brush spread it in, and bake it of a fine yellow.

Orange Cakes

Put the Seville oranges you intend to use into water for two days. Pare them very thick, and boil the rind tender. Mince it fine; squeeze in the juice; take out all the meat from the strings and put into it. Then take one-fourth more than its weight in double-refined sugar; wet it with water, and boil it almost to sugar again. Cool it a little; put in the orange, and let it scald till it looks clear and sinks in the syrup, but do not let it boil. Put it into deep glass plates, and stove them till they are candied on the tops. Turn them out, and shape them as you please with a knife. Continue to turn them till they are dry; keep them so, and between papers.

Lemon cakes are made in the same way, only with half the juice.

Another way

Take three large oranges; pare and rub them with salt; boil them tender and cut them in halves; take out the seeds; then beat your oranges, and rub them through a hair sieve till you have a pound; add one pound and a quarter of double-refined sugar, boiled till it comes to the consistency of sugar, and put in a pint of strong juice of pippins and juice of lemon; keep stirring it on the fire till the sugar is completely melted.

Orange Clove Cake

Make a very strong jelly of apples, and to every pint of jelly put in the peel of an orange. Set it on a quick fire, and boil it well; then run it through a jelly-bag and measure it. To every pint take a pound of fine sugar; set it on the fire, make it scalding hot, and strain it from the scum. Take the orange-peel, boiled very tender, shred it very small, and put it into it; give it another scald, and serve it out.

Lemon clove cake may be done the same way, but you must scald the peel before the sugar is put in.

Orange-flower Cakes

Dip sugar in water, and let it boil over a quick fire till it is almost dry sugar again. To half a pound of sugar, when it is perfectly clear, add seven spoonfuls of water; then put in the orange-flowers: just give the mixture a boil up; drop it on china or silver plates, and set them in the sun till the cakes are dry enough to be taken off.

Plum Cake. No. 1

Take eight pounds and three quarters of fine flour well dried and sifted, one ounce of beaten mace, one pound and a half of sugar. Mix them together, and take one quart of cream and six pounds of butter, put together, and set them over the fire till the butter is melted. Then take thirty-three eggs, one quart of yest, and twelve spoonfuls of sack; put it into the flour, stir it well together, and, when well mixed, set it before the fire to rise for an hour. Then take ten pounds of currants washed and dried, and set them to dry before the fire, one pound of citron minced, one pound of orange and lemon-peel together, sliced. When your oven is ready, stir your cake thoroughly; put in your sweetmeats and currants; mix them well in, and put into tin hoops. The quantity here given will make two large cakes, which will take two hours’ baking.

Plum Cake. No. 2

One pound of fine flour well dried and sifted, three quarters of a pound of fine sugar, also well dried and sifted. Work one pound to a cream with a noggin of brandy; then add to it by degrees your sugar, continuing to beat it very light. Beat the yolks of ten eggs extremely light; then put them into the butter and sugar, a spoonful at a time; beat the whites very light, and when you add the flour, which should be by degrees, put in the whites a spoonful at a time; add a grated nutmeg and a little beaten mace, and a good pound of currants, washed, dried, and picked, with a little of the flour rubbed about them. Work them into the cake. Cut in thin slices a quarter of a pound of blanched almonds, and two ounces of citron and candied orange-peel. Between every layer of cake, as you put it into the hoop, put in the sweetmeats, and bake it two hours.

Plum Cake. No. 3

Rub one pound of butter into two pounds of flour; take one pound of sugar, one pound of currants, and mix them with four eggs; make them into little round cakes, and bake them on tins. Half this quantity is sufficient to make at a time.

Clear Plum Cake

Make apple jelly rather strong, and strain it through a woollen bag. Put as many white pear plums as will give a flavour to the jelly; let it boil; strain it again through the bag, and boil up as many pounds of fine sugar for a candy as you had pints of jelly; and when your sugar is boiled very high, add your jelly; just scald it over the fire; put it in little pots, and let it stand with a constant fire.

Portugal Cakes

Put one pound of fine sugar, well beaten and sifted, one pound of fresh butter, five eggs, and a little beaten mace, into a flat pan: beat it up with your hand until it is very light; then put in by degrees one pound of fine flour well dried and sifted, half a pound of currants picked, washed, and well dried; beat them together till very light; bake them in heart pans in a slack oven.

Potato Cakes

Roast or bake mealy potatoes, as they are drier and lighter when done that way than boiled; peel them, and beat them in a mortar with a little cream or melted butter; add some yolks of eggs, a little sack, sugar, a little beaten mace, and nutmeg: work it into a light paste, then make it into cakes of what shape you please with moulds. Fry them brown in the best fresh butter; serve them with sack and sugar.

Pound Cake

Take a pound of flour and a pound of butter; beat to a cream eight eggs, leaving out the whites of four, and beat them up with the butter. Put the flour in by degrees, one pound of sugar, a few caraway seeds, and currants, if you like; half a pound will do.

Another

Take half a pound of butter, and half a pound of powdered lump-sugar; beat them till they are like a cream. Then take three eggs, leaving out the whites of two; beat them very well with a little brandy; then put the eggs to the butter and sugar; beat it again till it is come to a cream. Shake over it half a pound of dried flour; beat it well with your hand; add half a nutmeg, half an ounce of caraway seeds, and what sweetmeat you please. Butter the mould well.

Pound Davy

Beat up well ten eggs and half a pound of sugar with a little rose-water; mix in half a pound of flour, and bake it in a pan.

Clear Quince Cakes

Take the apple quince, pare and core it; take as many apples as quinces; just cover them with water, and boil till they are broken. Strain them through a sieve or woollen bag, and boil up to a candy as many pounds of sugar as you have of jelly, which put in your jelly; just let it scald over the fire, and put it into paste in a stove. The paste is made thus: Scald quinces in water till they are tender; then pare and scrape them fine with a knife and put them into apple jelly; let it stand till you think the paste sufficiently thickened, then boil up to a candy as many pounds of sugar as you have of paste.

Ratafia Cakes

Bitter and sweet almonds, of each a quarter of a pound, blanched and well dried with a napkin, finely pounded with the white of an egg; three quarters of a pound of finely pounded sugar mixed with the almonds. Have the whites of three eggs beat well, and mix up with the sugar and almonds; put the mixture with a tea-spoon on white paper, and bake it in a slow heat; when the cakes are cold, they come off easily from the paper. When almonds are pounded, they are generally sprinkled with a little water, otherwise they become oily. Instead of water take to the above the white of an egg or a little more; to the whole of the above quantity the whites of four eggs are used.

Rice Cake

Ground rice, flour and loaf-sugar, of each six ounces, eight eggs, leaving out five of the whites, the peel of a lemon grated: beat all together half an hour, and bake it three quarters of an hour in a quick oven.

Another

Take one pound of sifted rice flour, one pound of fine sugar finely beaten and sifted, and sixteen eggs, leaving out half the whites; beat them a quarter of an hour at least, separately; then add the sugar, and beat it with the eggs extremely well and light. When they are as light as possible, add by degrees the rice-flour; beat them all together for an hour as light as you can. Put in a little orange-flower water, or brandy, and candied peel, if you like; the oven must not be too hot.

Rock Cakes

One pound of flour, half a pound of clarified butter, half a pound of currants, half a pound of sugar; mix and pinch into small cakes.

Royal Cakes

Take three pounds of very fine flour, one pound and a half of butter, and as much currants, seven yolks and three whites of eggs, a nutmeg grated, a little rose-water, one pound and a half of sugar finely beaten; knead it well and light, and bake on tins.

Savoy or Sponge Cake

Take twelve new-laid eggs, and their weight in double refined sugar; pound it fine, and sift it through a lawn sieve; beat the yolks very light, and add the sugar to them by degrees; beat the whole well together till it is extremely light. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a strong froth; then mix all together by adding the yolks and the sugar to the whites. Have ready the weight of seven eggs in fine flour very well dried and sifted; stir it in by degrees, and grate in the rind of a lemon. Butter a mould well, and bake in a quick oven. About half an hour or forty minutes will do it.

Another

Take one pound of Jordan and two ounces of bitter almonds; blanch them in cold water, and beat them very fine in a mortar, adding orange-flower and rose-water as you beat them to prevent their oiling. Then beat eighteen eggs, the whites separately to a froth, and the yolks extremely well, with a little brandy and sack. Put the almonds when pounded into a dry, clean, wooden bowl, and beat them with your hand extremely light, with one pound of fine dried and sifted sugar; put the sugar in by degrees, and beat it very light, also the peels of two large lemons finely grated. Put in by degrees the whites of the eggs as they rise to a froth, and in the same manner the yolks, continuing to beat it for an hour, or until it is as light as possible. An hour will bake it; it must be a quick oven; you must continue to beat the cake until the oven is ready for it.

Seed Cake. No. 1

Heat a wooden bowl, and work in three pounds of butter with your hands, till it is as thin as cream; then work in by degrees two pounds of fine sugar sifted, and eighteen eggs well beaten, leaving out four of the whites; put the eggs in by degrees. Take three pounds of the finest flour, well dried and sifted, mixed with one ounce and a half of caraway seeds, one nutmeg, and a little mace; put them in the flour as you did the sugar, and beat it well up with your hands; put it in your hoop; and it will take two hours’ baking. You may add sweetmeats if you like. The dough must be made by the fire, and kept constantly worked with the hands to mix it well together. If you have sweetmeats, put half a pound of citron, a quarter of a pound of lemon-peel, and put the dough lightly into the hoop, just before you send it to the oven, without smoothing it at top, for that makes it heavy.

Seed Cake. No. 2

Take a pound and a half of butter; beat it to a cream with your hand or a flat stick; beat twelve eggs, the yolks in one pan and the whites in another, as light as possible, and then beat them together, adding by degrees one pound and a half of well dried and sifted loaf-sugar, and a little sack and brandy. When the oven is nearly ready, mix all together, with one pound and a half of well dried and sifted flour, half a pound of sliced almonds, and some caraway seeds: beat it well with your hand before you put it into the hoop.

Seed Cake. No. 3, called Borrow Brack

Melt one pound and a half of butter in a quart of milk made warm. Mix fourteen eggs in half a pint of yest. Take half a peck of flour, and one pound of sugar, both dried and sifted, four ounces of caraway seeds, and two ounces of beaten ginger. Mix all well together. First put the eggs and the yest to the flour, then add the butter and the milk. Make it into a paste of the substance of that for French bread; if not flour enough add what is sufficient; and if too much, put some warm new milk. Let it stand for above half an hour at the fire, before you make it up into what form you please.

Shrewsbury Cakes

Take three pounds and a half of fresh butter, work the whey and any salt that it may contain well out of it. Take four pounds of fine flour well dried and sifted, one ounce of powdered cinnamon, five eggs well beaten, and two pounds of loaf-sugar well dried and sifted. Put them all into the flour, and work them well together into a paste. Make it into a roll; cut off pieces for cakes and work them well with your hands. This quantity will make above six dozen of the size of those sold at Shrewsbury. They require great care in baking; a short time is sufficient, and the oven must not be very hot.

Sponge Cake

Take seven eggs, leaving out three whites; beat them well with a whisk; then take three quarters of a pound of lump-sugar beat fine: put to it a quarter of a pint of boiling water, and pour it to the eggs; then beat it half an hour or more; when you are just going to put it in the oven, add half a pint of flour well dried. You must not beat it after the flour is in. Put a paper in the tin. A quick oven will bake this quantity in an hour. It must not be beaten with a spoon, as it will make it heavy.

Another

Take twelve eggs, leaving out half the whites; beat them to froth; shake in one pound of lump-sugar, sifted through a fine sieve, and three quarters of a pound of flour well dried; put in the peel of two lemons grated and the juice of one; beat all well in with a fork.

Sugar Cakes

Take half a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, two ounces of flour, two eggs, but the white of one only, a little beaten mace, and a little brandy. Mix all together into a paste with your hands; make it into little cakes, and bake them on tins. You may put in six ounces of currants, if you like.

Little Sugar Cakes

Take double-refined sugar and sift it very fine; beat the white of an egg to a froth; take gum-dragon that has been steeped in juice of lemon or orange-flower water, and some ambergris finely beaten with the sugar. Mix all these together in a mortar, and beat it till it is very white; then roll it into small knobs, or make it into small loaves. Lay them on paper well sugared, and set them into a very gentle oven.

Sweet Cakes

Take half a pound of butter, and beat it with a spoon till it is quite soft; add two eggs, well beaten, half a pound of currants, half a pound of powdered sugar, and a pound of flour, mixed by degrees with the butter. Drop it on, and bake them. Blanched almonds, powdered to paste, instead of currants, are excellent.

Tea Cakes

Take loaf sugar, finely powdered, and butter, of each a quarter of a pound, about half a pound of flour, dried before the fire, a walnut-shellful of caraway seeds, just bruised, and one egg. Work all together into a paste, adding a spoonful of brandy. Roll the paste out to the thickness of a half-crown, and cut it with a tea-cup. Flour a tin, and lay the cakes upon it. Take the white of an egg, well beaten and frothed, dip a feather in this, and wash them over, and then grate upon them a little fine sugar. Put them into a slackish oven, till they are of a very pale brown.

Dry Tea Cakes

Boil two ounces of butter in a pint of skimmed milk; let it stand till it is as cold as new milk; then put to it a spoonful of light yest, a little salt, and as much flour as will make it a stiff paste. Work it as much, or more, than you would do brown bread; let it lie half an hour to rise; then roll it into thin cakes; prick them very well quite through, to prevent their blistering, and bake them on tin plates in a quick oven. To keep crisp, they must be hung up in the kitchen, or where there is a constant fire.

Thousand Cake

One pound of flour, half a pound of butter, six ounces of sugar, five eggs, leaving out three whites; rub the flour, butter, and sugar, well together; pour the eggs into it; work it up well; roll it out thin, and cut them with a glass of what size you please.

Tunbridge Cakes

One pound and a half of flour, one pound of butter; rub the butter into the flour; strew in a few caraways, and add the yolks of two eggs, first beaten, and as much water as will make it into a paste: roll it out thin, and prick it with a jagging iron; run the cakes into what shape you please, or cut them with a glass. Just as you put them into the oven, sift sugar on them, and a very little when they come out. The oven must be as hot as for manchets. Bake them on paper.

Veal Cake

Take thin slices of veal, and fat and lean slices of ham, and lay the bottom of a basin or mould with one slice of each in rows. Chop some sweet-herbs very small, and fill the basin with alternate layers of veal and ham, sprinkling every layer with the herbs. Season to your taste; and add some hard yolks of eggs. When the basin is full, pour in some gravy. Put a plate on the top, and a weight on it to keep the meat close. Bake it about an hour and a half, and do not turn it out till next day.

Yorkshire Cakes

Take two pounds of flour, three ounces of butter, the yolks of two eggs, three spoonfuls of yest that is not bitter; melt the butter in half a pint of milk; then mix them all well together; let it stand one hour by the fire to rise; then roll the dough into cakes pretty thin. Set them a quarter of an hour longer to the fire to rise; bake them on tins in a moderate oven; toast and butter them as you do muffins.

Calves’ Foot Jelly. No. 1

To two calves’ feet put a gallon of water, and boil it to two quarts; run it through a sieve, and let it stand till it is cold; then take off all the fat, and put the jelly in a pan, with a pint of white wine, the juice of two lemons, sugar to your taste, and the whites of six eggs. Stir these together near half an hour, then strain it through a jelly-bag; put a piece of lemon-peel in the bag; let it pass through the bag till it is clear. If you wish this jelly to be very clear and strong, add an ounce of isinglass.

Calves’ Foot Jelly. No. 2

Boil four calves’ feet in three quarts of water for three or four hours, or till they will not hold together, now and then skimming off the fat. The liquor must be reduced to a quart. When you have quite cleared it from the fat, which must be done by papering it over, add to it nearly a bottle of white wine, sherry is the best, the juice of four or five lemons, the peel also pared very thin, so that no white is left on it, and sugar to your taste. Then beat up six whites of eggs to a stiff froth, and with a whisk keep stirring it over the fire till it boils. Then pour it into the jelly-bag, and keep changing it till it comes clear. This quantity will produce about a quart of jelly strong enough to turn out of moulds.