Concerning the utensils for baking, see Chapter II. The cups or pans are prepared by warming and greasing. Use a bit of soft paper or a brush for greasing the pan and ordinarily an inexpensive fat, reserving butter for delicate cake. Flour sprinkled on a pan is sufficient for biscuit and cookies. Line a pan for loaf cake with white paper, and grease the paper. See that the oven is ready before the mixing begins. We shall not be able to bake accurately until our ovens are equipped with thermometers. In the meantime we must use some simple oven test. The indicators on the doors of some ovens are a guide, although they are not really accurate according to the scale of the thermometer. A glass door is also a convenience. A loaf should be baked at a lower temperature than a biscuit or muffin. Why? _For loaves_, 380° F. Test by the hand, counting fifteen slowly, fifteen seconds. A piece of white paper will become a delicate brown in five minutes. _For biscuits, muffins_, and _small cakes_, 425° to 450° F.——Test by the hand, a count of ten. A piece of paper becomes a deeper golden brown in five minutes. Any mixture containing baking powder may stand some little time before it is put in the oven, provided it is kept cold. The action of the baking powder is not immediate, and is very slight at a low temperature. The stages of the baking are first, the rising; second, the crusting over; third, the baking of the interior; and last, a shrinkage of the whole. Many ovens bake unevenly, and pans must be shifted. This should be done with care and not before the third stage of the baking. It is often well to cool off the oven the latter part of the time. An oven that is too hot may be cooled by a pan of water. Paper may be laid over the top of the cake if the browning has been too rapid. These are all makeshifts, and indicate a poor oven, or poor management of the fire. Do not look into the oven for the first ten minutes of baking, and always close the oven door gently. When we are privileged to have electric ovens, with glass doors, and an accurate thermometer, baking will be an easy and accurate process. EXPERIMENTS AND RECIPES _A. Experiments with baking powder._ 1. Dissolve half a teaspoonful of baking powder in two tablespoonfuls of water and heat in a test tube, or saucepan, over a flame; notice the effervescence when the bubbling is at its height, and hold a lighted match in the mouth of the tube. This is a simple test for carbon dioxide. 2. Dissolve 2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar in 1/2 cup water in a glass. Dissolve 1 teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in 1/2 cup water in a glass. Taste both of these. Test both with litmus paper, noting the change of color. There are several vegetable coloring matters that change color in this way, in the presence of an acid or an alkaline substance.