In making pastry or cakes, it is best to begin by weighing out the ingredients, sifting the flour, pounding and sifting the sugar and spice, washing the butter, and preparing the fruit.
Sugar can be powdered by pounding it in a large mortar, or by rolling it on a paste-board with a rolling-pin. It should be very fine and always sifted.
All sorts of spice should be pounded in a mortar, except nutmeg, which it is better to grate. If spice is wanted in large quantities, it may be ground in a mill.
The butter should always be fresh and very good. Wash it in cold water before you use it, and then make it up with your hand into hard lumps, squeezing the water well out.
If the butter and sugar are to be stirred together, always do that before the eggs are beaten, as (unless they are kept too warm) the butter and sugar will not be injured by standing awhile. For stirring them, nothing is so convenient as a round hickory stick about a foot and a half long, and somewhat flattened at one end.
