All capable housewives know how to make cakes, but most of them feel at a loss when they want to decorate a Christmas or Mawlid cake, or a cake for celebrating the birthday of one of the members of the family — the kind of cake that must make an attractive appearance. Yet the matter is easy if you follow, with all care, the directions set out on this page; after that you will be able to make a cake with all the beauty of appearance of any cake made by the professional cooks who specialize in pastry work.

Cakes are usually decorated with a coating of sugar (icing), prepared as follows:

To do a large cake you need a pound of the said sugar (or a loaf of sugar, ground and then sifted through a fine sieve), 4 to 6 tablespoons of water or milk, and a little vanilla or some other flavoring essence.

Sift the (icing) sugar into a fairly large bowl. Add the milk or water to it, a very small quantity at a time, and beat it into the sugar with a wooden spoon until it becomes a most thoroughly blended mixture, and then thick enough that if you dip the spoon into it, it sinks in and stands up by itself. After that, add the flavoring essence to this mixture, and the sugar icing is ready. Now make the top of the cake as flat as you possibly can by turning it over onto the bottom of a bowl, and trim away all the edges or projecting pieces from around the cake; then dip a knife in hot water and spread the sugar icing with all care over the top of the cake and its sides, and smooth it evenly with the edge of the knife. Your cake is now dainty and white, and all that remains is to decorate it with any design or inscription you wish. And here are some kinds of cake:

Ingredients: half a teacup of milk — 2 cups of flour — a teaspoon of baking powder — a beaten egg — a cup of sugar — a teaspoon of vanilla — a cup of tinned dates, chopped — a teaspoon of powdered ginger — a cup of chopped raisins — a teaspoon of powdered cloves — a cup of chopped walnuts — a cup and a half of mashed apples.

Method: 1 — Beat the milk with the sugar until they become like cream; then add the egg, the vanilla, the flour, and the baking powder, and mix all well together

2 — Add the rest of the other ingredients and mix well

3 — Put the dough in a tray greased with ghee and place it in an oven of moderate heat for three quarters of an hour; leave it until it cools, then cut it into squares, and set a piece of date on each square for decoration

Ingredients: 8 eggs — 8 tablespoons of sugar — the juice of an orange and a half, together with its grated outer rind — 2 tablespoons of pounded rusk — peeled almonds, ground in the machine.

Method: 1 — Pour the orange juice over the pounded rusk 10 hours before making the cake; cover it and leave it.

2 — Beat the egg yolks well with the sugar, then add the grated outer rind of the orange.

3 — Add the almonds and the prepared rusk, then the whites of the eggs after beating them, and fold everything well together.

4 — Put the dough in the cake tray, greased with ghee, and place it in an oven of moderate heat for about an hour. To test whether it is done, push a matchstick into its edge: if it comes out dry, that shows the cake is done. When it has cooled, cut it into two halves and spread apricot jam or cream over it, then sprinkle fine sugar over its surface.

Method: 1 — Set on the fire about a cupful of water, with a tablespoon of milk and a teaspoon of salt in it, until the water boils. Then add a cupful of flour and mix well; then take it off the fire until it cools

2 — Break 5 eggs and add to them a quarter of a cup of grated white cheese; then add them to the foregoing and knead

3 — Take a teaspoonful of this dough, work it by hand into the shape of a ball, place it on the tray, and put it into the oven.