SAUCE FOR PUDDING

Cream together 1 cup of pulverized sugar, scant 1/2 cup of butter, beat whites of 2 eggs in, one at a time, and one teaspoonful of lemon flavoring; stand on ice a short time before serving. Serve sauce very cold.

"SLICE" BREAD PUDDING

Line the sides of a pudding dish holding two quarts with seven slices of stale bread from which crust had been removed. Beat together 3 eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar and 3 cups of sweet milk (and add the juice and grated rind of one lemon, or half a grated nutmeg). Pour in the centre of pudding dish. With a spoon dip some of the custard over each slice of bread. Bake about 30 minutes and serve hot with the following sauce:

One cup of water, 1/2 cup milk, 1 teaspoonful butter, scant tablespoonful of flour mixed smooth with a little water before adding it. Sweeten to taste, add grated nutmeg or vanilla to flavor. Cook all together, then add the yolk of one egg. Place on stove a minute to heat. Add a pinch of salt. Serve hot over the pudding in individual dishes.

CEREALS--OATMEAL PORRIDGE

Oatmeal to be palatable and wholesome should be thoroughly cooked, that is, steamed over a hot fire two hours or longer. Use a double boiler of agateware. Place in the upper half of the boiler about 5 cups of water and stand directly over the hottest part of the range. When the water boils furiously, and is full of little bubbles (not before), stir into the boiling water about 2 cups of oatmeal (if porridge is liked rather thick), and about 1 teaspoonful of salt. (Tastes differ regarding the thickness of porridge.) Let stand directly on the front of the range, stirring only enough to prevent scorching, and cook ten minutes, then stand upper part of double boiler over the lower compartment, partly filled with boiling water; cover closely and let steam from two to three hours. In order to have the oatmeal ready to serve at early breakfast the following morning, put oatmeal on to cook about five o'clock in the evening, while preparing supper, and allow it to stand and steam over boiling water until the fire in the range is dampened off for the night. Allow the oatmeal to stand on range until the following morning, when draw the boiler to front part of range, and when breakfast is ready (after removing top crust formed by standing), turn the oatmeal out on a dish and serve with rich cream and sugar, and you will have a good, wholesome breakfast dish with the flakes distinct, and a nutty flavor. Serve fruit with it, if possible. A good rule for cooking oatmeal is in the proportion of 2-1/2 cups of water to 1 cup of oatmeal.

The cereals which come ready prepared are taking the place of the old-time standby with which mothers fed their growing boys. If you wish your boys to have muscle and brawn, feed them oats. To quote an old physician, "If horses thrive on oats, why not boys who resemble young colts?"

For example, look at the hardy young Scot who thrives and grows hearty and strong on his oatmeal "porritch." Chopped almonds, dates or figs may be added to oatmeal to make it more palatable. Use cup measuring 1/2 pint for measuring cereals as well as every other recipe calling for one cup in this book.

COOKED RICE

Boil 1 cup of whole, thoroughly cleansed, uncoated rice in 3 quarts of rapidly boiling water (salted) about 25 minutes, or until tender, which can be tested by pressing a couple of grains of rice between the fingers. Do not stir often while boiling. When the rice is tender turn on to a sieve and drain; then put in a dish and place in the oven, to dry off, with oven door open, when the grains should be whole, flaky, white and tempting, not the soggy, unappetizing mass one often sees. Serve rice with cream and sugar. Some prefer brown sugar and others like crushed maple sugar with it. Or rice may be eaten as a vegetable with salt and butter. Rice is inexpensive, nutritious and one of the most easily digested cereals, and if rightly cooked, an appetizing looking food. It is a wonder the economical housewife does not serve it oftener on her table in some of the numerous ways it may be prepared. As an ingredient of soup, as a vegetable, or a pudding, croquettes, etc., the wise housekeeper will cook double the amount of rice needed and stand half aside until the day following, when may be quickly prepared rice croquettes, cheese balls, etc. On the day following that on which rice has been served, any cold boiled rice remaining may be placed in a small bake dish with an equal quantity of milk, a little sugar and flavoring, baked a short time in oven and served with a cup of stewed, seeded raisins which have slowly steamed, covered with cold water, on the back of the range, until soft and plump.

CORN MEAL MUSH

Place on the range a cook-pot containing 9 cups of boiling water (good measure). Sift in slowly 2 cups of yellow granulated corn meal, stirring constantly while adding the meal, until the mixture is smooth and free from lumps. Add 1-1/4 level teaspoonfuls of salt and 1/4 teaspoonful of sugar, and cook a short time, stirring constantly, then stand where the mush will simmer, or cook slowly for four or five hours.

Serve hot, as a porridge, adding 1/2 teaspoonful of butter to each individual bowl of hot mush and serve with it cold milk or cream. Should a portion of the mush remain after the meal, turn it at once, while still hot, in an oblong pan several inches in depth, stand until quite cold. Cut in half-inch slices, sift flour over each slice and fry a golden brown in a couple tablespoonfuls of sweet drippings and butter. Or dip slices of mush in egg and bread crumbs and fry brown in the same manner. Some there are who like maple syrup or molasses served with fried mush.

This proportion of corn meal and water will make porridge of the proper consistency and it will be just right to be sliced for frying when cold. Long, slow cooking makes corn meal much more wholesome and palatable, and prevents the raw taste of cornmeal noticeable in mush cooked too quickly. The small quantity of sugar added is not noticed, but improves the flavor of the mush.

In early spring, when the family tire of winter foods and it is still too early for vegetables from the home garden, and the high price of early forced vegetables in the city markets prevent the housewife, of limited means from purchasing, then the resourceful, economical housewife serves macaroni and rice in various ways and makes appetizing dishes of the fruits she canned and preserved for Winter use, combined with tapioca and gelatine. Milk and eggs tide her over the most difficult time of the year for young, inexperienced cooks. When the prices of early vegetables soar beyond the reach of her purse, then she should buy sparingly of them and of meat, and occasionally serve, instead, a dish of macaroni and cheese, or rice and cheese, and invest the money thus saved in fruit; dried fruits, if fresh fruits are not obtainable.

Macaroni is such a nutritious food that it should be used frequently by the young housewife as a substitute for meat on the bill of fare. Also occasionally serve a dish of baked beans or a dish composed of eggs, or milk combined with eggs, instead of the more expensive meat dish, all equally useful as muscle-builders, and cheaper than meat. The wise housewife will learn which foods furnish heat for the body and those which produce fat and energy, and those which are muscle-builders, and endeavor to serve well-balanced meals of the foods belonging to the three classes and thus with fruit and vegetables she will make wise provision for her family.

BAKED MACARONI AND CHEESE

Put 2 cups or 1/2 pound of macaroni (either the long sticks broken in pieces or the "elbow" macaroni, as preferred) in a kettle holding several quarts of rapidly boiling, salted water, and cook about 25 minutes, or until tender. Drain in a colander and allow cold water to run over it for several seconds. This prevents the macaroni sticking together. Place the macaroni in a buttered baking dish and pour over a hot "cream sauce" composed of 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, 2 even tablespoonfuls of butter and a pinch of salt. (Too much salt is apt to curdle the milk.) Spread over the top of macaroni about 3 tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, or, if preferred, sprinkle over the top 3 tablespoonfuls of well-seasoned dried bread crumbs and small bits of butter. Stand the bake-dish containing the macaroni in a hot oven ten or fifteen minutes, until lightly browned on top. Serve hot in the dish in which it was baked. Stewed tomatoes are a nice accompaniment to this dish. Double the quantity of macaroni may be cooked at one time and a part of it kept on ice; the following day serve in tomato sauce, thus utilizing any left-over tomatoes.

The macaroni may be cooked while the housewife is using the range, early in the morning. Drain the macaroni in a colander and stand aside in a cool place. It may be quickly prepared for six o'clock dinner by pouring over a hot cream sauce and grated cheese and quickly browning in the oven.

Or the macaroni, when cooked tender in salt water, may be quickly served by pouring over it a hot cream sauce, before the macaroni has become cold. Serve at once.

Housewives should be particular when buying macaroni to get a brand made from good flour.

CAKES--CAKE-MAKING

Sift flour and baking powder together several times before adding to cake batter. Aunt Sarah usually sifted flour and baking powder together four times for cakes. Flour should always be sifted before using. Baking powder should be sifted through the flour dry. Salaratus (or baking soda) should, usually, be dissolved before using in a teaspoonful of hot water, unless stated otherwise. Cream of tartar should be sifted with the flour. Flour should be added gradually and batter stirred as little as possible afterwards, unless directions are given to the contrary. Much beating after flour has been added is apt to make cake tough. Cake will be lighter if baked slowly at first After it has raised increase heat slowly so it will brown nicely on top. The batter, if heated slowly, will rise evenly. This does not mean a cool oven. To prevent cakes sticking to pans, grease pans well with lard, and sift a little flour lightly over pan. Use baking powder with sweet milk. Saleratus is always used with sour milk. Use 1 teaspoonful of saleratus to 1 pint of sour milk. Cream of tartar and saleratus combined may be used with sweet milk instead of baking powder. One heaping teaspoonful of Royal baking powder is equivalent to 1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar and 1/2 teaspoonful of saleratus combined. Either baking powder or a combination of saleratus and cream of tartar may be used in a cake in which sweet milk is used. Usually take 1-1/2 to 2 scant teaspoonfuls of baking powder to two cups of flour. Saleratus should be used alone with sour milk. Put baking molasses in a stew-pan over fire and allow it to just come to boil; cool before using it. It will not sour as quickly in warm weather, and the cake baked from it will have a better flavor. The cup used in measuring ingredients for cakes holds exactly one-half pint. All cakes are improved by the addition of a pinch of salt. When lard is used instead of butter, beat to a cream and salt well. In mixing cakes, beat butter and sugar toget

Raisins and dried currants should be washed and dried before using in cake. All fruit should be dredged with flour before being added to cake. Citron may be quickly and easily prepared by cutting on a slaw cutter or it may be grated before being added to cake. When a recipe calls for butter the size of an egg it means two tablespoonfuls. A tablespoonful of butter, melted, means the butter should be measured first, then melted. Aunt Sarah frequently used a mixture of butter and lard in her cakes for economy's sake, and a lesser quantity may be used, as the shortening quality of lard is greater than that of butter. When substituting lard for butter, she always beat the lard to a cream before using it and salt it well. If raisins and currants are placed in oven of range a few minutes to become warmed before being added to cake, then rolled in flour, they will not sink to bottom of cake when baked.

FRAU SCHMIDT'S LEMON CAKE

1-1/2 cups sugar. 1/2 cup butter and lard. 3 small eggs or 2 large ones. 1/2 cup sweet milk. 2 cups flour. 1/2 teaspoonful saleratus. 1 teaspoonful cream of tartar. Grated yellow rind and juice of half a lemon.

Beat sugar and butter to a cream and add the yolks of eggs. Add the milk, then the flour and cream of tartar and saleratus; and the flavoring. Lastly, the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs.

This makes one loaf cake. The original of this recipe was a very old one which Frau Schmidt had used many years. Every ingredient in the old recipe was doubled, except the eggs, when five were used. Mary thought this cake fine and from the recipe, when she used half the quantity of everything, she baked a fine loaf cake, and from the original recipe was made one good sized loaf and one layer cake. Thinly sliced citron added to this cake is a great improvement.

FINE "KRUM KUCHEN"

One cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter and lard, mixed; 2 cups flour and 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sweet milk.

Crumb together with the hands the sugar, butter, flour and baking powder sifted together. Take out 1/2 cup of these crumbs to be scattered over top of cake. To the remainder add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten, and the sweet milk, and lastly the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Put the mixture in a well-greased pan (a deep custard pie tin will answer), scatter the half cup of crumbs reserved over top of cake and bake about 3/4 of an hour in a rather quick oven. When cake is baked, sprinkle over 1 teaspoonful of melted butter and dust top with cinnamon.

AUNT SARAH'S "QUICK DUTCH CAKES"

She creamed together 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoonful of lard, 1 tablespoonful of butter and added 1-1/2 cups of luke-warm milk. Add 3 cups flour (good measure), sifted with three scant teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Add a half cup of raisins, seeded and cut in several pieces, if liked, but the cakes are very good without. Spread in two pans and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top and press about five small dabs of butter on top of each cake. Put in oven and bake at once. These are a very good substitute for "raised Dutch cakes," and are much more quickly and easily-made and, as no eggs are used, are quite cheap and very good.

A RELIABLE LAYER CAKE

1-1/4 cups granulated sugar. 3 eggs. 1/2 cup butter and lard mixed. (Use all butter if preferred.) 1/2 cup sweet milk. 2 cups flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls Royal baking powder.

Cream together sugar and shortening. Add yolks of eggs, beating well, as each ingredient is added. Then add milk and flour alternately, and lastly the stiffly beaten white of eggs. Stir all together. Bake in two square layer pans, and put together with chocolate or white icing. Or ice the cakes when cold and cut in squares.

BOILED ICING

Boil together 1 cup of granulated sugar and 5 tablespoonfuls boiling water ten or twelve minutes, or until a small quantity dropped from spoon spins a thread. Stir this into the stiffly-beaten white of one egg until thick and creamy. Flavor with lemon, almond or vanilla flavoring and spread on cake. Dip knife in hot water occasionally when spreading icing on cake.

A delicious icing is composed of almonds blanched and pounded to a paste. Add a few drops of essence of bitter almonds. Dust the top of the cake lightly with flour, spread on the almond paste and when nearly dry cover with ordinary icing. Dry almonds before pounding them in mortar, and use a small quantity of rose water. A few drops only should be used of essence of bitter almonds to flavor icing or cake. A pinch of baking powder added to sugar when making boiled icing causes the icing to become more creamy, or add a pinch of cream of tartar when making boiled icing. Or, when a cake iced with "boiled icing" has become cold, spread on top of icing unsweetened, melted chocolate. This is a delicious "cream chocolate icing."

A DELICIOUS "SPICE LAYER CAKE"

2 cups light brown sugar. 1 cup chopped raisins. 2 eggs. 1 cup sour milk. 1/2 cup butter. 2 cups flour. 1 teaspoonful each of soda, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and a little grated nutmeg.

Cream sugar and butter together, add yolks of eggs, then the sour milk in which the soda has been dissolved, flour and spices, and lastly stir in the stiffly beaten white of eggs. Bake in two-layer pans.

Two cups sugar, 3/4 cup of milk or cream, 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. Boil until it forms a soft ball when a small quantity is dropped in water, and flavor with vanilla. Beat until cold and spread between layers of cake. Also on top and sides.

AN INEXPENSIVE COCOA CAKE

This is a decidedly good cake and no eggs are required. Cream together 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter. Add 1 cup of sour milk, 1-3/4 cups flour, then sift over 1-1/2 tablespoonfuls of cocoa. Add 1 level teaspoonful saleratus, dissolved in a little of the sour milk, and 1 teaspoonful vanilla. Bake in a small loaf. Use the following icing:

1/4 cup of grated chocolate, 3/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup sugar, boiled together until thick, and spread on cake.

AUNT SARAH'S WALNUT GINGERBREAD

1/2 cup of New Orleans molasses. 1 cup of light brown sugar. 1/2 cup of shortening (composed of butter, lard and sweet drippings). 1/2 teaspoonful of ginger, cinnamon and cloves each. 2 teaspoonfuls of baking soda (saleratus), sifted with 3-1/2 cups flour. 1 cup boiling water. 2 eggs.

Beat to a cream the sugar and shortening in a bowl; add molasses, then pour over all one cup of boiling water. Beat well. Add flour, soda and spices, all sifted together. Beat into this the two unbeaten eggs (one at a time), then add about 3/4 of a cup of coarsely chopped _black walnut_ meats or the same quantity of well-floured raisins may be substituted for the walnut meats.

The cakes may be baked in muffin pans. In that case fill pans about two-thirds full. The above quantity makes eighteen. They can also be baked in a pan as a loaf cake. This cake is excellent, and will keep fresh several days. These cakes taste similar to those sold in an Atlantic City bake-shop which have gained a reputation for their excellence.

AUNT SARAH'S "GERMAN CRUMB CAKES" BAKED IN CRUSTS

3 cups flour. 2-1/2 heaping teaspoonfuls baking powder. 2 cups sugar (soft A or light brown). 1/2 cup lard and butter mixed. 2 eggs. 1 cup sweet milk. Pinch of salt. Flavoring--vanilla or grated orange rind.

Line three small pie tins with pie crust. Sift together into a bowl the flour and baking powder and add light brown or A sugar, and the butter, lard and salt. Rub this all together with the hands until well mixed and crumbly. Take out 1 cupful of these crumbs and stand aside. Add to the rest of the mixture the yolks of eggs, whites being beaten separately and added last. Add slowly 1 cup of sweet milk. Mix it in gradually until the mixture is creamed, then add a small quantity of grated orange peel, lemon or vanilla flavoring. Lastly, stir in the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Pour the mixture into each one of the three unbaked crusts, then sprinkle the cup of crumbs thickly over the tops. Bake in a moderate oven. These are very good, cheap cakes for breakfast or lunch.

"SOUR CREAM" MOLASSES CAKE

1/2 cup molasses. 1 cup sugar. 1/2 cup thick sour cream. 1/2 cup sour milk. 1/2 cup finely chopped peanuts. 1 egg. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in little hot water. 2-3/4 cups flour. 1 cup seeded raisins.

Mix together like ordinary cake. Bake in a fruit cake pan in a slow oven about forty minutes. This excellent cake requires no shortening, as cream is used.

ECONOMY CAKE

1 egg. 1 cup sweet milk. 1 cup granulated sugar. 2 cups flour. 1/4 cup butter. 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Cream together sugar and yolk of egg, then beat into this mixture the butter and add the milk. Then stir the flour, a small quantity at a time, into the mixture, keeping it smooth and free from lumps. Add the stiffly beaten white of egg. Use any flavoring or spice preferred. Bake in a quick oven.

This is not simply a very cheap cake, but a decidedly good one, and made from inexpensive materials. Follow the recipe exactly or the cake may be too light and too crumbly if too much baking powder is used, or heavy if too much butter is used. By varying the flavor and baking in different forms it is as good as a number of more expensive recipes. It makes three layers of any kind of layer cake, or bake in Gem pans.

GINGER CAKE

1/2 cup brown sugar. 1 egg. 1/2 cup lard. 2 large cups flour. 1/2 cup New Orleans molasses. 1 tablespoonful of ginger. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in half cup lukewarm water.

Beat sugar and lard to a cream, then beat in the yolk of egg, molasses and flour and soda dissolved in water. Lastly, add the stiffly-beaten white of egg. Bake 45 minutes in hot oven.

A VERY ECONOMICAL GERMAN CLOVE CAKE

Place in a stew-pan the following ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar. 1 cup cold water. 2 cups seeded raisins. 1/3 cup sweet lard, or a mixture of lard and butter. 1/4 grated nutmeg. 2 teaspoonfuls cinnamon. 1/2 teaspoonful ground cloves. Pinch of salt.

Boil all together three minutes. When cold add I teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water. Add about 1-3/4 cups flour sifted with 1/2 teaspoonful of baking powder. Bake in a loaf in a moderately hot oven about thirty minutes. This cake is both good and economical, as no butter, eggs or milk are used in its composition. The recipe for making this excellent, cheap cake was bought by Aunt Sarah at a "Cake and Pie" sale. She was given permission to pass it on.

1 small cup pulverized sugar. 2 tablespoonfuls of cocoa.

Mix smooth with a very little boiling water. Spread over cake.

CAKE ICING FOR VARIOUS CAKES

Cook together 2 cups of granulated sugar, 1-1/4 cups of water a little less than 12 minutes. Just before it reaches the soft ball stage, beat in quickly 25 marshmallows; when dissolved and a thick, creamy mass, spread between layers and on top of cake.

This is a delicious creamy icing when made according to directions. If sugar and water be cooked one minute too long, the icing becomes sugary instead of creamy. One-half the above quantity will ice the top of a cake nicely.

MARY'S RECIPE FOR "HOT MILK" SPONGE CAKE

For this cake was used:

2 cups granulated sugar. 4 eggs. 2-1/8 cups flour. 1-1/2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. 1 cup boiling hot milk.

Separate the eggs, place yolks in a bowl, add the sugar and beat until creamy.

Add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs alternately with the sifted flour and baking powder; lastly add the cup of boiling hot milk; should the milk not be rich, add one teaspoon of butter to the hot milk. The cake batter should be thin as griddle cake batter, pour into a tube pan and place at once in a _very moderate_ oven; in about 15 minutes increase the heat and in about 25 minutes more the cake, risen to the top of pan, should have commenced to brown on top.

Bake from 15 to 20 minutes more in a moderately hot oven with steady heat; when baked the top of the cake should be a light fawn color and texture of cake light and fine grained.

Mary was told by her Aunt that any sponge cake was improved by the addition of a teaspoon of butter, causing the sponge cake to resemble pound cake in texture.

CHEAP "MOLASSES GINGER BREAD"

1 cup New Orleans molasses. 1 cup sugar. 1/2 cup shortening (lard and butter mixed). 1 cup hot water. 1 large teaspoonful soda dissolved in the one cup of hot water. 1 teaspoonful of ginger. 1/2 teaspoonful of cinnamon. 1 quart of flour.

Stir sugar and shortening together. Add molasses, beat all thoroughly, then add hot water and flour. Stir hard. Bake in two layer pans in quick oven about 30 minutes. Use cake while fresh.

AUNT SARAH'S EXTRA FINE LARGE SPONGE CAKE

2 cups granulated sugar. 2-1/4 cups of flour. 3/4 cup of boiling water. 4 large eggs. 2 even teaspoonfuls baking powder. 1 teaspoonful lemon juice.

Put whites of eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat very stiff. Add sugar (sifted 3 times), then add the well-beaten yolks, flour (sifted 3 times with baking powder), add lemon juice. Lastly, add the hot water. Bake about 50 minutes in a tube pan in a moderately hot oven with a steady heat. Stand a pan of hot water in the upper rack of oven if the oven is quite hot. It improves the cake and causes it to be more moist. This is an excellent sponge cake and easily made, although the ingredients are put together the opposite way cakes are usually mixed, with the exception of angel cake. When this cake was taken from oven, powdered sugar was sifted thickly over the top. Use cup holding 1/2 pint, as in all other cake recipes.

ANGEL CAKE--AUNT SARAH'S RECIPE

Mary was taught by her Aunt, when preparing a dish calling for yolks of eggs only, to place the white of eggs not used in a glass jar which she stood in a cold place or on ice. When she had saved one even cupful she baked an angel cake over the following recipe:

One heaping cup of pulverized sugar (all the cup will hold), was sifted 8 times. One cup of a mixture of pastry flour and corn starch (equal parts) was also sifted 8 times. The whole was then sifted together 4 times. The one cupful of white of eggs was beaten very stiff. When about half beaten, sprinkle over the partly-beaten eggs one scant teaspoonful of cream of tartar, then finish beating the whites of eggs. Flavor with almond or vanilla. Then carefully sift into the stiffly beaten whites of eggs sugar, flour and corn starch. Fold into the whites of eggs rather than stir. Aunt Sarah always baked this cake in a small, oblong bread pan. This cake should be baked in a _very_ moderate oven, one in which the hand might be held without inconvenience while counting one hundred; the oven should be just hot enough for one to know there was fire in the range. Do not open the oven door for 15 minutes, then increase the heat a little; if not too hot, open the oven door a moment to cool and bake slowly for about 55 minutes.

AUNT SARAH'S GOOD AND CHEAP "COUNTRY FRUIT CAKE"

1 cup butter and lard, mixed. 4 eggs. 1 cup New Orleans molasses. 1 cup sour milk. 1 pound dried currants. 1/4 pound thinly sliced citron. 2 teaspoonfuls baking soda. 4 cups flour. 2 pounds raisins, seeded.

A little grated nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and a very small quantity of cloves.

Bake in one large fruit cake pan or in two good sized pans about 1-3/4 hours. This cake should not be kept as long a time as a more expensive fruit cake, but may be kept several weeks. This was Aunt Sarah's best recipe for an excellent, inexpensive fruit cake.

A "SPONGE CUSTARD" CAKE

4 eggs. 2 cups granulated sugar. 3 cups flour. 1 teaspoonful baking soda. 1 cup cold water. Juice of 1 lemon. 2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and pinch of salt.

Beat eggs well, then sift in sugar and half of flour in which cream of tartar has been mixed. Dissolve the soda in a little water and add also the lemon juice and lastly add the balance of flour. Bake in layer cake pans two inches deep.

Boil 1 pint of sweet milk and add to it, stirring constantly, the following mixture: Two tablespoonfuls corn starch, mixed with a little water before boiling, 1 cup of sugar and 1 well-beaten egg. Allow all to cook a few minutes in a double boiler about 15 minutes. Split the sponge cakes when baked and put custard between when cooled.

GRANDMOTHER'S EXCELLENT "OLD RECIPE" FOR MARBLE CAKE