1/4 Cup of butter.

1 Cup of sugar.

2 Eggs.

1 1/2 Cups of pastry flour.

1/2 Teaspoon of soda (slightly scanted).

1 Teaspoon of cream of tartar.

A little grated nutmeg.

1 Teaspoon of vanilla.

See first of all that you have a proper fire. Measure the ingredients, and get everything ready before beginning - mixing-bowl, pans, etc. Use a wooden cake spoon, with slits in the bowl, for mixing. Line the pans with buttered paper. Then cream the butter, adding to it half the sugar and half the milk, the latter very slowly; separate the yolks of the eggs from the whites, and beat them with the remaining sugar; when they are very light add the rest of the milk. Beat the whites until stiff. Now mix the creamed butter and yolks together with the flavoring, then stir in the flour, and last the whites, which are to be cut and folded in, not beaten. Bake it in shallow pans in a moderate oven forty minutes, or about that time. "When the cake begins to shrink a little from the sides of the pan, there is no doubt that it is cooked enough. This recipe may be used for a variety of plain cakes.

For Chocolate Cake. Melt and stir into the above mixture two ounces of Baker's chocolate, or two teaspoons of cocoa wet in a little warm water.

For Rose Cake. Color the feather cake mixture with six drops of carmine.