Cream the butter, and add the sugar.  Then put in the bread dough, and work together till well mixed.  The hand is best for this, though it can be done with a wooden spoon.  Add the eggs, then the flour, and last the soda.  Let it stand in a warm place for one hour, and bake in a moderate oven forty-five minutes, testing with a broom-straw.  A pound of stoned and chopped raisins is a nice addition.  Omitting them, and adding flour enough to roll out, makes an excellent raised doughnut or bun.  Let it rise two hours; then cut in shapes, and fry in boiling lard.  Or, for buns, bake in a quick oven, and, a minute before taking out, brush the top with a spoonful of sugar and milk mixed together.

PLAIN BUNS.

One pint-bowlful of dough; one cup of sugar; butter the size of an egg; one teaspoonful of cinnamon.

Boll the dough thin.  Spread the butter upon it.  Mix sugar and cinnamon together, and sprinkle on it.  Now turn over the edges of the dough carefully to keep the sugar in, and press and work gently for a few minutes, that it may not break through.  Knead till thoroughly mixed.  Roll out; cut like biscuit, and let them rise an hour, baking in a quick oven.

The same rule can be used for raised doughnuts.

DOUGHNUTS.

First put on the lard, and let it be heating gradually.  To test it when hot, drop in a bit of bread; if it browns as you count twenty, it is right.  Never let it boil furiously, or scorch.  This is the rule for all frying, whether fritters, croquettes, or cakes.

One quart of flour into which has been sifted a teaspoonful of salt, and one of soda if sour milk is used, or two of baking powder if sweet milk.  If cream can be had, use part cream, allowing one large cup of milk, or cream and milk.  One heaping cup of fine brown sugar; one teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, and half a one of mace or nutmeg; use one spoonful of butter, if you have no cream, stirring it into the sugar.  Add two or three beaten eggs; mixing all as in general directions for cake.  They can be made without eggs.  Roll out; cut in shapes, and fry brown, taking them out with a fork into a sieve set over a pan that all fat may drain off.

Cut thin, and baked brown in a quick oven, these make a good plain cooky.

GINGER SNAPS.

One cup of butter and lard or dripping mixed, or dripping alone can be used; one cup of molasses; one cup of brown sugar; two teaspoonfuls of ginger, and one each of clove, allspice, and mace; one teaspoonful of salt, and one of soda dissolved in half a cup of hot water; one egg.

Stir together the shortening, sugar, molasses, and spice.  Add the soda, and then sifted flour enough to make a dough,—­about three pints.  Turn on to the board, and knead well.  Take about quarter of it, and roll out thin as a knife-blade.  Bake in a quick oven.  They will bake in five minutes, and will keep for months.  By using only four cups of flour, this can be baked in a loaf as spiced gingerbread; or it can be rolled half an inch thick, and baked as a cooky.  In this, as in all cakes, experience will teach you many variations.