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Twelfth Day

"Mamma, did you know that Friday was Jessie's birthday?" asked Grace, pursuing her mother into her bedroom and shutting the door cautiously. "It is, and Aunt Carroll says she will have a little party for her if we will go over and make the things; and won't you please invite Jessie here to spend Thursday with Mabel and Amy, so that we can have some surprises?" "Don't you think Jessie will enjoy it more if she has the pleasure of anticipation too?" inquired Mrs. Vernon. "Oh, she knows she is going to have company, but then we'd like to have just a few things that none of them know anything about; and if she is at home she'll want to be all the time in the kitchen, and she'll be in the way, and then the other girls will come over to see her, and so, you see دو "And so, I see, you've settled it all among yourselves beforehand. Very well; I shall make no objection to any thing your aunts decide upon. I suppose Aunt Jane will superintend, as usual." "We haven't asked her, but I know she will," said Grace, and ran off to make sure of it.

Any one who knows Aunt Jane can easily guess the answer. Soon after breakfast on Thursday morning she met the three older girls at Mrs. Carroll's. "Mamma is just going to have a simple lunch to-day and a late dinner," said Rose, "so that nothing can possibly interfere with us, and we'll have the whole day to ourselves." "Your mother and I have had some consultation about our refreshments and other matters," said Mrs. King. "At first we were going to have the good old-fashioned hours of four to eight, but there must be a birthday cake, and that wouldn't be any thing without candles, and the candles won't show by daylight; so, all things considered, as the weather is very hot and the visitors wouldn't want to come out early in the afternoon, the invitations have been made from five to nine." "The three little ones are going round giving them this morning," said Rose. "So we will have a regular tea (only there won't be any tea,) at half-past six; and about a quarter before nine we'll have the cake, all lighted up, and some lemonade." The girls approved of this, and Aunt Jane set them at work without delay. "We'll get our fruit ready first of all," said she. "It is very tedious to stop after one has begun cooking to stone raisins or wash currants."

Grace and Edith took the dish of raisins between them, with a small case-knife apiece, a plate on which to put the seeded fruit, a bowl of water to dip their sticky fingers in, and a towel to wipe them on; also a piece of brown paper on which to scrape off the seeds. "It is never any loss of time," said Mrs. King, "to make everything as convenient as possible before you begin. Make-shifts seem to save a minute or two at first, but they don't in the end."

Rose undertook to prepare the dried currants. "Oh, what dirty things!" she exclaimed. "Are these what they put in cake?" "Just these and nothing else,” answered Aunt Jane. "But after they have passed through your hands they will be quite another thing. Shake them out over this large dish, and pick out the most obvious intrudersstones, leaves, sticks, and so forth." After this the currants were poured into a large pan of water, rinsed round, and allowed to settle. This was repeated four times, the water looking less and less black after each operation. After the fifth water was poured off, Mrs. King said they were ready to dry. "Now take this large crash towel and rub them in it, a few at a time," said she.

It was surprising to see how much dirt and how many scraps of foreign matter the currants had contrived to retain in spite of all their duckings and sousings; but towels were plenty and Rose was almost nervously neat, and she did not let them go until they were what she called "really, truly, eatably clean." "This fruit is all for the birthday cake," said Aunt Jane, as she showed her pupils how to shred up citron. "What we will have on the tea-table will be quite plain." "What else are we going to have for tea?" asked Grace. "First and foremost, cold boiled ham and cold tongue; those are the solids; then biscuit, jam puffs, chocolate, and, if you choose to make them, lemon jelly and soft custard." "Of course we will!" "Berries are so common everywhere, that I think the little girls would like the jelly better. We can have a handsome dish of oranges for the center of the table, so as not to be quite without fruit. Then of course, there must be several kinds of cake for the tea-table. We might have small sponge-cakes, crisp cookies, cocoanut drops and jumbles. How would you like to try some macaroons?" "Splendid! We should like it ever so much! But we haven't any recipes for them." "I've brought over my book on purpose, and you may write them down before we begin."

No. 159-CRISP COOKIES.

One pound sugar, one of flour, one half-pound butter, half a nutmeg, or any other spice, five eggs.

No. 160-MACAROONS.

The whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth, half a pound of powdered sugar, half a pound desiccated cocoanut, half a pint rolled and sifted crackers, one teaspoonful extract of bitter almond; drop them on buttered paper in a dripping-pan, and bake light brown.

No. 161-SMALL SPONGE CAKES.

One teacup powdered sugar, one of flour, three eggs, half a teaspoonful cream tartar, a quarter of a teaspoonful soda. "How can we ever measure a quarter of a teaspoonful, Aunt Jane?" "Measure your half one of cream tartar and divide it into two little piles; then make a pile of soda of the size of one of these. That isn't hard to do." "And what will be the name of the birthday cake, Aunt Jane?' "What I made for Amy's last birth-day was Dover cake, and I don't think there's anything nicer for the purpose. You have it in your receipt-books, number 34. To that we add a pound of raisins, a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of citron, a glass of brandy and some spice, and that makes a fruit-cake of it. This recipe makes a very large loaf, which of course must be iced, so it will present quite an imposing appearance. Usually we bake it in two loaves, but to-day it must go into a four quart tin pan."

Mrs. King didn't have to tell the girls a word about putting the cake together that day, they had done it so often before. She watched them with great pleasure as one set about beating the whites of eggs, another the yolks, and the third creamed the butter and afterwards beat up the sugar with it, then added the yolks of eggs, afterward the milk and soda, and finally the whites of eggs and flour alternately, a little of each at a time. The soda she directed them to mix in a very little vinegar, as that has a peculiar effect in producing lightness, especially in certain kinds of rich cake. There was only one thing Aunt Jane had to remind them of, and that was that they must save out some of the flour to rub the fruit in. If she hadn't done that, I do believe they would have put it all in, and then had to add more and so make the cake plainer, for it would never have done to put in the fruit without dredging.

When it had been beaten enough to satisfy even Aunt Jane's requiring eye, the three cooks taking it in turn, the light batter was poured into the tin pan, which had been lined with nice white paper and well buttered. "We mus'nt make it a bit more than half full,” said Aunt Jane, "for this is an aspiring cake, and he means to rise and rise till he fills the whole pan and rounds up in the middle in a little hill. Now the fire must be kept very even, and we shan't need to look at the cake for a long time, so as to give it a chance to get well set. Then it may want turning." "I have a bright idea, girls," said Aunt Jane when the oven door had been closed upon the cake from which so much was expected. "Instead of soft custard, suppose we make whipped cream for to-morrow, as this is a great occasion." "Oh, that would be perfectly delicious," cried Rose. "Everybody likes whipped cream, and it will look so much more like a party than custard, such as we have every few days. Is there any particular recipe for it, Aunt Jane?" "Yes, indeed; I'll give it to you now, though we can't make the cream till to-morrow, because it must be fresh." No. 162-WHIPPED CREAM.