Grate the nutmeg, slice the citron in very thin narrow strips about half an inch long, and flour it. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, whisk the eggs very light, and stir them in with the flour, brandy, and spices. Beat the whole for several minutes; then stir in the citron. Line your pans with several thicknesses of paper, well buttered, pour in the mixture and bake them in a slow oven. When cold ice them.
572. Half a pound of pulverized white sugar, The whites of six eggs, One vanilla bean.
Pound the bean in a mortar until it is completely pulverized. Whisk the eggs to a stiff froth, add the sugar very gradually, then stir in the vanilla. Drop the mixture on white paper so as not to touch each other. You may make them any size you choose. About a dessert spoonful makes a pretty sized cake. Take care to have them sufficiently far apart. Place them on tins with several thicknesses of stout paper under them, set them in a hot oven, and as soon as they have a tinge of brown take them out, with a broad bladed knife slip them off the paper, and place the under sides of two together.
573. Half a pound of pulverized white sugar, The whites of four eggs, One small vanilla bean, or half of a large one.
Pound the vanilla bean in a mortar until it is completely pulverized. Beat the eggs to a dry froth, add the sugar very gradually; when all the sugar is in stir in the vanilla. Drop a tea spoonful of the mixture on thick white paper to form each cake, they must not be near enough to touch each other. Place them in a cool oven, and as soon as they are sufficiently dry take them out, as soon as they are cold slip the blade of a case-knife under each one to loosen it from the paper. The oven should not be hot enough to brown them.
574. Three-quarters of a pound of butter, Three-quarters of a pound of sugar, Six eggs, One pound and a half of flour, One pint of molasses, The grated rind of two large oranges, Three table spoonsful of ginger, Two table spoonsful of cinnamon, One table spoonful of _dissolved_ salæratus, or One large tea spoonful of dissolved carbonate of ammonia.
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the eggs very light and add to it, then stir in all the other ingredients except the salæratus or ammonia. Beat the mixture very hard for several minutes, then stir in the salæratus or ammonia. Butter an earthen cake mould or thick iron pan, pour in the mixture and bake it in a moderate oven. If you bake it in an iron pan line the pan with several thicknesses of stout paper well buttered.