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Royal Baking Powder Co., 1929. Hardcover, 100 pp.; 24 cm; illustrated with color plates of cakes and breads, black-and-white step-by-step photographs, and line drawings. Compiled by the Educational Department of the Royal Baking Powder Co.
In Good condition, no dust jacket. Blue cloth boards with title, mixing-bowl vignette and "PRICE $1.50" in gilt on front cover, gilt bright; mild to moderate shelf and edge wear with rubbing and fraying along edges, scattered pale spotting, and some color loss, heavier on rear cover, where lower third has streaked color loss; light nicking to corner tips, with cloth worn through at lower corners of rear cover. Binding solid, with thin cracks between pp. 32-33 and 80-81. Endpapers toned, with darker toning where the cloth turn-ins show through, a small crease near lower corner of front pastedown, and wrinkling along rear hinge. Pages toned, otherwise unmarked, with occasional light spotting, soiling and foxing. A promotional baking manual issued by the Royal Baking Powder Company, first published in 1927 and reissued here in the year Royal merged with Fleischmann's to form Standard Brands. The book combines recipes with photographic how-to sequences (baking powder biscuits, the creaming method for cakes, and doughnuts fried in deep fat) and color plates of finished cakes, breads and cookies, along with chapters on table service, oven temperatures, measuring, and cake making. "The Evolution of Baking Powder," illustrated with a map of southern France and a view of Montpellier, makes Royal's case for cream of tartar powder made from wine grapes; Royal had long campaigned against cheaper alum powders. Recipes credited to individual cooks, the Mary Lyles Wilson School of Cookery in Nashville and Good Housekeeping appear throughout, and a recipe for Boo Loo Gai is taken from the 1914 Chinese-Japanese Cook Book by Sara Bosse and Onoto Watanna (Winnifred Eaton). Ends with "Hints for Young Housewives" and an index to recipes.