NEVER FAIL “FLANNEL” CAKES

2 cups thick sour milk (quite sour). 2 tablespoonfuls sweet milk. 1 egg. 1/2 teaspoonful salt. 2 cups flour. 1 teaspoonful baking soda (good measure).

Pour the milk in a bowl, add yolk of egg.  Sift together flour, baking soda and salt, four times.  Beat all well together.  Then add the stiffly-beaten white of egg, and bake at once on a hot griddle, using about two tablespoonfuls of the batter for a cake.  Serve with butter and maple syrup or a substitute.

This recipe, given Mary by an old, reliable cook, was unfailing as to results, if recipe be closely followed.  The cakes should be three-fourths of an inch thick, light as a feather, and inside, fine, like bread, not “doughy,” as cakes baked from richer batters frequently are.

From this recipe was made eighteen cakes.

WAFFLES MADE FROM SWEET MILK AND BAKING POWDER

Sift together 1 quart of flour, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoonful of salt.  Mix into a batter, a little thicker than for griddle cakes, with sweet milk; add yolks of 3 eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls of melted butter; lastly, stir in lightly the 3 stiffly-beaten whites of eggs.  Bake on a hot, well-greased waffle iron and serve with maple syrup.

“BUCKS COUNTY” BUCKWHEAT CAKES

About 12 o’clock noon dissolve 1 cake of yeast (the small, round or square cornmeal cakes) in 1 pint of lukewarm water.  Add to this 1 tablespoonful wheat flour, 1 tablespoonful yellow cornmeal, and enough good buckwheat flour to make a thin batter.  Set in a warm place near the range to rise.  About 6 or 7 o’clock in the evening add this sponge to 1 quart and 1 pint of lukewarm potato water (water drained from boiled potatoes), 1 tablespoonful of mashed potatoes added improves the cakes; add salt.  They need considerable.  Stir in enough buckwheat flour to make quite a stiff batter, beat hard and set to rise, covered, in a warm place over night.  The next morning add 1 teaspoonful salaratus, dissolved in a little hot water; 1 tablespoonful of baking molasses and a little warm milk, to thin the batter; or water will answer.  The batter should be thin enough to pour.  Let stand a short time, then bake on a hot griddle.  Half this quantity will be enough for a small family.  Then use only 1/2 teaspoonful salaratus.  Bake golden brown on hot griddle.  Serve with honey or maple syrup.  If this recipe for buckwheat cakes is followed, you should have good cakes, but much of their excellence depends on the flour.  Buy a small quantity of flour and try it before investing in a large quantity, as you cannot make good cakes from a poor brand of flour.

DELICIOUS CORN CAKES