LUNCHEON CAKE.
1765. INGREDIENTS.—1/2 lb. of butter, 1 lb. of flour, 1/2 oz. of caraway seeds, 1/4 lb. of currants, 6 oz. of moist sugar, 1 oz. of candied peel, 3 eggs, 1/2 pint of milk, 1 small teaspoonful of carbonate of soda.
Mode.—Rub the butter into the flour until it is quite fine; add the caraway seeds, currants (which should be nicely washed, picked, and dried), sugar, and candied peel cut into thin slices; mix these well together, and moisten with the eggs, which should be well whisked. Boil the milk, and add to it, whilst boiling, the carbonate of soda, which must be well stirred into it, and, with the milk, mix the other ingredients. Butter a tin, pour the cake into it, and bake it in a moderate oven from 3/4 to 1 hour.
Time.—1 to 14 hour. Average cost, 1s. 8d. Seasonable at any time.
CARBONATE OF SODA—Soda was called the mineral alkali, because it was originally dug up out of the ground in Africa and other countries: this state of carbonate of soda is called natron. But carbonate of soda is likewise procured from the combustion of marine plants, or such as grow on the sea-shore. Pure carbonate of soda is employed for making effervescing draughts, with lemon-juice, citric acid, or tartaric acid. The chief constituent of soda, the alkali, has been used in France from time immemorial in the manufacture of soap and glass, two chemical productions which employ and keep in circulation an immense amount of capital. A small pinch of carbonate of soda will give an extraordinary lightness to puff pastes; and, introduced into the teapot, will extract the full strength of the tea. But its qualities have a powerful effect upon delicate constitutions, and it is not to be used incautiously in any preparation.