In vegetarian cookery there is no difference, as far as cake-making is concerned, between it and ordinary cookery. In making cakes we will confine our attention chiefly to general principles which, if once known, render cake-making of every description comparatively easy work. Those who wish for detailed recipes for making almost every kind of cake known will find all that they require on a large scale in “Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery,” and also everything necessary on a smaller scale in “Cassell’s Shilling Cookery,” which has already reached its hundred-thousandth edition.

Cakes may be divided into two classes—those that contain fruit and those that do not. Plum cakes can be made very rich indeed, like a wedding cake, or so plain that it can scarcely be distinguished from a loaf of bread with a few currants in it. Again, cakes that contain no fruit can, at the same time, be made exceedingly rich, the richness chiefly depending upon the amount of butter and eggs that are used. We will first give a few directions with regard to making what may be termed plain cakes, i.e., cakes that contain no fruit at all. Perhaps the best model we can give to illustrate the general principles will be that of a pound cake. The recipe is a very easy one to recollect, as a pound cake means one that is made from a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of flour. There is one addition, however, which the good plain cook will probably not be up to, and which, so far as flavour is concerned, makes all the difference between Francatelli and “Jemima Ann”—we must rub some of the lumps of sugar on the outsides of either two oranges or two lemons. It is also a great improvement to add a small glass of brandy, and in every kind of cake we must add a pinch of salt.

In making cakes it is always necessary to be careful about the butter. It is best to put the butter in cold water before it is used, and, if salt butter, it should be washed in several waters to extract the salt. The next thing necessary is to beat the butter to a cream. To do this it must be worked about in a basin with a wooden spoon. The basin should be a strong one, and a wooden spoon is far preferable to a metal one. You simply beat the butter and spread it against the sides of the basin and knock it about till it loses its consistency. You cannot beat the butter to the consistency of ordinary cream, but to a state more resembling Devonshire clotted cream. Of course, when it is like this it is much more easily mixed with the other ingredients. In making a pound cake we should first of all beat the butter to a cream and then add flour, sugar, and eggs gradually. When the whole is thoroughly well mixed together, we must bake it in a tin, or mould, or hoop. We need say nothing about tins or moulds, but will confine ourselves to giving directions how to bake a cake in a hoop, for, as a rule, ordinary English cooks do not understand how to use them.