To Bake Cake

Ingredients

• one tell when a cake is ready to be taken out ? asks mrs

Directions

1. How hot should the oven be for cake, and how can one tell when a cake is ready to be taken out ? asks Mrs. E. D. There is probably no other place in cooking where so much depends on the baking as in making cake. The fire must be sufficient to last through the entire baking, and yet it should not be as hot as for baking bread. If the oven seems too hot, leave the door open for a few minutes before putting in the cake. Then carefully watch it, and if necessary, put the asbestos baking sheets below and above to protect it from too great heat. Thin cakes require a hotter oven than those baked in loaves, and if the oven be not hot enough at first, or be cooled constantly during the baking, the cake is apt to be heavy.

2. Thin cakes should bake from fifteen to twenty minutes; thicker ones from thirty to forty, and whichever kind you are baking, divide the required time into quarters. During the first quarter the cake should continue to rise, during the second it should begin to brown a little, during the third it should brown evently, and in the last, shrink from the pan. If the cake browns before rising the oven is too hot. If the cake rises in the center and cracks open it is too stiff with flour. In telling whether it is done or not, press it with your finger lightly. If it comes back it is apt to be done ; if the depression stays in, the cake is not en- tirely done ; or take it from the oven and listen to it : a pro- nounced ticking or wet sound means that the cake is not yet baked. — Good Housekeeping.