Ginger Drop Cakes

(2 Dozen Cakes)

1/2 c. shortening 1/2 c. brown sugar 1 egg 2-1/2 c. flour 1/2 tsp. soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 Tb. ginger 1/2 c. sour milk 1/2 c. molasses

Cream the shortening, add the sugar, and mix well. Beat the egg and add it. Sift the dry ingredients and add alternately with the milk and molasses. Drop on greased sheets and bake in a moderate oven for about 15 or 20 minutes.
Have the pastry bag clean and dry, and make it ready for use by slipping the pastry tube inside of the bag. The point of the tube should protrude from the narrow end of the bag, which is too small to allow the top of the tube to be pushed through. The cakes to be decorated with the aid of a pastry tube are usually prepared, as the cake in the illustration shows, by covering it with a perfectly smooth coating of uncooked icing of some kind.

With the tube inserted and the cake coated, the work of decorating may be taken up. Roll the top of the bag down and into it put as much of the icing as is desired. See that the icing is pushed as far down into the end of the bag as possible. Then hold the top of the bag shut with one hand and with the other grasp it at the place where the contents end. When the hands have been so placed, press down on the bag so that the icing will be forced from the point of the tube. To make the decorations most satisfactorily, have the point of the tube pressed tightly against the surface of the cake and raise it very slowly as the icing comes out. Otherwise the shape of the design will not be good, as a little experimenting will prove. The rosette tube is used to make the decorations here shown, but if a different form of decoration is desired, one of the other tubes may be selected.