Flake brazil nuts or pine-kernels in a nut mill, or chop very finely by hand. Do not put them through the food-chopper, as this pulps them together, and the pudding will be heavy. Allow 1 heaped cup of flaked nuts to 2 level cups of flour. Mix to a paste with cold water. Roll out very lightly. Cover with chopped apple and sugar, or apples and sultanas, or jam. Roll up. Tie loosely in a floured pudding-cloth. Put into fast-boiling water and boil for 1 hour.

24. PLAIN PUDDING.

1 lb. flour, 3 ozs. nutter, a full 1/2 pint water.

Rub the nutter very lightly into the flour, or chop like suet and mix in.

Add the water gradually, and mix well. Put into a pudding-basin, and boil or steam for 3 hours. Turn out and serve with golden syrup, lemon sauce or jam.

25. PLUM PUDDING, CHRISTMAS.

1/2 lb. raisins, 1/2 lb. sultanas, 1/2 lb. currants, 1/2 lb. cane sugar, 1/2 lb. flour, 1/4 lb. sweet almonds, 1/4 lb. grated carrot, 1/4 lb.

grated apple, 1/4 lb. nutter, grated rind of 2 lemons, 1/2 a nutmeg.

Well wash the raisins, sultanas and currants in hot water. Don't imagine that this will deprive them of their goodness. The latter is all inside the skin. What comes off from the outside is dirt, and a mixture of syrup and water through which they have been pa.s.sed to improve their appearance.

Rub the currants in a cloth to get off the stalks, pick the stalks from the sultanas, and stone the raisins. Put the currants and sultanas in a basin, just barely cover them with water, cover them with a plate, and put into a warm oven--until they have fully swollen, when the water should be all absorbed. (Currants treated in this way will not disagree with the most delicate child. They are abominations if not so treated.) Rub the nutter into the flour, or chop it as you would suet. Blanch the almonds by steeping them in boiling water for a few minutes: the skins may then be easily removed; chop very finely, or put through a mincer. Wash, core, and mince (but do not peel) the apples. Grate off the yellow part of the lemon rind. Mince or grate the carrots.

Mix together the flour, nutter, sugar, lemon rind, almonds and nutmeg.

Then add the raisins, sultanas and currants. Lastly, add the grated carrot and apple, taking care not to lose any of the juice. Don't add any other moisture. If the directions have been exactly followed, it will be moist enough. Put it into pudding-basins or tin moulds greased with nutter, and boil or steam for 8 hours.

26. RAILWAY PUDDING.

2 eggs, 1 oz. b.u.t.ter, 3 ozs. flour, 2 ozs. castor sugar, 2 tablespoons milk.

Beat the b.u.t.ter and sugar to a cream. Separate the whites and yolks of the eggs. Beat the yolks, and add to sugar and b.u.t.ter. Add the flour, and lastly, stir in the whites, whisked to a froth, very gently. Have ready a hot, greased tin, pour in the mixture quickly, and bake in a very hot oven from 6 to 8 minutes. Warm some jam in a small saucepan. Slip the pudding out of the tin on to a paper sprinkled with castor sugar. Spread with jam quickly and roll up. Serve hot or cold.

27. SAGO SHAPE.

5 ozs. small sago, sugar to taste, 1-1/2 pints water, or water and fruit juice.

Wash the sago. Soak it for 4 hours. Strain off the water. Add to the strainings enough water or the juice from stewed fruit to make 1-1/2 pints liquid. Sweeten if necessary, but if the juice from stewed fruit is used it will probably be sweet enough. This dish is spoiled if made too sweet.

Put the sago and 1-1/2 pints liquid into a saucepan and stew for 20 minutes. Now add the stewed fruit which you deprived of its juice, stir well, pour into a wet mould, and serve cold. Made with water only, and flavoured with a very little sugar and lemon peel, it may be served with stewed fruit.

28. SUMMER PUDDING.

Put a layer of sponge cake at the bottom of a gla.s.s dish. Cut up a tinned pine-apple (get the pine-apple chunks if possible) and fill dish, first pouring a little of the juice over the cake. Melt a very little agar-agar in the rest of the juice. (Allow half the 1/4 oz. to a pint of juice.) Pour over the mixture. Serve when cold.

29. TREACLE PUDDING.

Line a pudding-basin with short crust. Mix together in another basin some good cane golden syrup, enough bread-crumbs to thicken it, and some grated lemon rind. Put a layer of this mixture at the bottom of the pudding-basin, cover with a layer of pastry, follow with a layer of the mixture, and so on, until the basin is full. Top with a layer of pastry, tie on a floured pudding-cloth, and boil or steam for 3 hours.

30. TRIFLE, SIMPLE.

Put a layer of sponge cake at the bottom of a gla.s.s dish. Better still, use sections of good home-made jam sandwich. Pour hot boiled custard on to this until the cake is barely covered. Blanch some sweet almonds, and cut into strips. Stick these into the top of the cake until it somewhat resembles the back of a hedgehog! Serve when cold.

X.--CAKES AND BISCUITS.

Cakes need a hot oven for the first half-hour.

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.

1. CAKE MIXTURE.

1/4 lb. b.u.t.ter, 1/4 lb. castor sugar, 6 ozs. flour, 2 eggs.

Half b.u.t.ter and half nutter gives just as good results and is more economical.

Beat together the b.u.t.ter 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.

2. SMALL CAKES.

Take 2 small eggs and half quant.i.ties of the ingredients given for the cake mixture. Add the grated rind of half a lemon for flavouring. 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.

3. COCOANUT BISCUITS.

1/2 lb. desiccated cocoanut, 1/4 lb. sugar, 2 small eggs.

Proceed as for Macaroons, but make the cakes smaller. Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour.

4. "CORN WINE AND OIL" CAKES.