A cake to sell well must have flavor, texture and grain, and neither of these can be obtained from an imperfect mixture, or one that is imperfectly made. In using eggs, great care should be used in their selection, as when the prices are high and eggs scarce, these are the times when large quantities of cake are usually sold. Therefore, in figuring the cost of your cake, don’t do it in June, when everything is naturally cheap. June and December do not work in harmony together, as a rule, and if you are basing your profits on June prices to sell in the spring months, when everything is high, you will have to readjust matters. With proper management, however, and carefully considering these matters, it will be possible to make a good cake at a popular price.
In baking your cakes the pans should be covered similar to a sandwich pan. If you have no pans suitably covered, the pans can be covered with thick brown paper or thin wood—anything to keep the top heat of the oven from browning the cake too much, as the sale of your cake will depend to a great extent upon the delicate appearance of it. When we state that these cakes are better if kept a few weeks before being sold, this possibly would seem strange to many of our readers; nevertheless, it is a fact that if this class of cake is properly made and properly baked, age up to a limited time will be the determining factor in its quality.
But it must be borne in mind that the storage of the cakes after being baked, or as soon as being removed from the oven, will have much to do with the future keeping qualities of the cake. It is a mistake to turn the cake out on the iron pans or on wooden shelves and allow them to remain there with the steam from the baking being kept in them, as you must recollect that the paper around the pans which in the baking has adhered to the cake has become thoroughly saturated with grease and has consequently practically formed an air-proof surface. Therefore the steam has very little chance of escaping readily, and in order to get the best from this class of cakes they should cool off readily, and as soon as they are thoroughly cooled should at once be wrapped in an air-proof paper and stored on shelves, with sufficient space between all sides for a circulation of air between each cake. Your shelves also should be formed from slats, or if made from solid wood should have two such slats running longways, in order that the air can get under as well as all around them. If placed flat on the shelves, the possibilities of moulding in hot weather is greater. I think now, that I have given pretty thorough instructions, on a general principle. Of course, there will have to be instructions given occasionally in the various cakes that I will describe, but if the instructions which I have given here are carried out, the others will be mere matters of small importance.