If possible, they should not be moved from one shelf to another, but the oven should be cooled gradually by opening the ventilators or lowering the gas. A moderate oven is needed to finish the cooking.
All fruit cakes (unless weighing less than 1 lb.) need to be baked from 1-1/2 to 2 hours. The larger the cake the slower should be the baking. The cake tins should be lined with greased paper.
If a gas oven is used, stand the cake tin on a sand tin (see Cold Water Bread).If the cake becomes sufficiently brown on top before it is cooked through, cover with a greased paper to prevent burning.
To test if done, dip a clean knife into hot water. Thrust it gently down the centre of cake. If done, the knife will come out clean and bright.
Half butter and half nutter gives just as good results and is more economical.
Beat together the butter and sugar to a cream. Whisk the eggs to a stiff froth and add. Stir in the flour gently. Mix well. Add a little milk if mixture is too stiff. This makes a Madeira Cake.
For other varieties, mix with the flour 1 dessertspoon caraway seeds for Seed Cake; 2 tablespoons desiccated cocoanut for Cocoanut Cake; 6 ozs. candied cherries chopped in halves for Cherry Cake; 6 ozs. sultanas and the grated rind of 1 lemon for Sultana Cake; the grated yellow part of 2 lemon rinds for Lemon Cake.
Take 2 small eggs and half quantities of the ingredients given for the cake mixture. Add the grated rind of half a lemon for flavoring. Grease a tin for small cakes with 9 depressions. Put a spoonful of the mixture in each depression. Bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven.
Proceed as for Macaroons, but make the cakes smaller. Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour.
This recipe was especially concocted for non-users of milk and eggs. Stir the oil well into the flour. Add the washed and stoned raisins (or seedless raisins, or sultanas). Mix to a dough with the water. Divide dough into two portions. Roll out, form into rounds, and cut each round into 6 small scones. Bake in a hot oven for half an hour.
Mix flour and sugar, and rub in the butter. Mix with water to plastic dough. Divide dough into two cakes, 1 inch in thickness. Cover one evenly with currants, lay the other on top, and roll out to the thickness of one-third of an inch. Cut into sections, and bake in a hot oven for about 30 minutes.
Make a short crust (see recipe). Well grease some shallow jam sandwich tins. Roll out the paste very thin and line with it the tins. Peel, core, and finely chop some good, juicy apples. Spread well all over the paste. Sprinkle with castor sugar and grated lemon rind. Cover with another layer of thin paste. Bake for about 20 minutes in a hot oven. When done, take carefully out of the tin to cool. Cut into wedges, sprinkle with castor sugar, and pile on a plate.
Flavoring may consist of lemon rind, desiccated cocoanut, cooked currants, caraway seed, mace, ginger, etc. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, add flavoring and flour. Mix with the beaten egg, if used; it not, treat like the Lemon Short Cake. Roll out, cut into shapes, and bake about 10 minutes.
Beat the nutter and sugar together; add the molasses, spice, etc., and just enough flour to form a plastic dough. Knead well, roll out, cut into small biscuits, and bake on oiled or floured tins in a very moderate oven.
Mix ingredients and prepare 2 jam sandwich tins as for Sponge Cake (see recipe). Pour mixture in tins and bake for about 10 minutes in a hot oven. Take out, spread one round with warmed jam, place the other on top, and cut when cold.
Mix together nutter and sugar, add grated lemon rind, work in flour, and knead well. Press into sheets about ½ in. thick. Prick all over.
Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.
An easy way of baking for the inexpert cook who may find it difficult to avoid breaking the sheets, is to well grease a shallow jam-sandwich tin, sprinkle it well with castor sugar, as for sponge cakes, and press the short cake into it, well smoothing the top with a knife, and, lastly, pricking it.
Blanch the almonds and flake them in a nut mill. Whisk the eggs to a stiff froth adding the sugar a teaspoonful at a time. Add the almonds, and stir lightly. Drop the mixture, a dessertspoon at a time, on to well-oiled paper, or, better still, rice-paper. Shape with a knife into small cakes and put the half of a blanched almond into the centre of each. Bake in a moderate oven.
Well grease the cake-tin, and sprinkle with castor sugar until thoroughly covered, and shake out any that remains loose.
Well whisk the eggs with a coiled wire beater. They must be quite stiff when done. Add the sugar, a teaspoon at a time, while whisking. Or separate the yolks and whites, beating the yolks and sugar together and whisking the whites on a plate with a knife before adding to the yolks. Lastly, dredge in the flour. Stir lightly, but do not beat, or the eggs will go down. Pour mixture into tin, and bake about one hour in a moderate oven.
Mix the flour and sugar; rub in the nutter; add sultanas; make it into a dough with the water; roll out about ½ in. thick; form into scones; bake in a moderate oven.
This cake is included especially for the non-users of milk and eggs. Of course it does not turn out quite like the orthodox cake; some people might even call it “puddeny,” but it is not by any means unlike the substantial household cake if the directions are minutely followed and the baking well done. But if any attempt is made to make it rich, disaster follows, and it becomes as heavy as the proverbial lead. Made as follows, however, I am told it is quite common in some country places:--Beat the nutter and sugar to a cream. Upon the amount of air incorporated during this beating depends the lightness of the cake. Beat the flour into the creamed nutter. Now add enough water to make cake of a consistency to not quite drop off the spoon. Put the mixture into a greased hot qr. qtn. tin. Put in a very hot oven until nicely brown. This will take from 20 minutes to half an hour. Cover top with greased paper, and allow oven to get slightly cooler. The baking will take from 1-1/2 to 2 hours.