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The currants should be large, fine, and fully ripe. The best and sweetest currants grow in the shade; and the largest, also. If exposed to the full heat of our American sun, it turns them sour, dries up the juice, and withers their growth. Gather them when fully ripe, strip them from the stems into a cullender, and wash and drain them. Transfer them to a large pan, and mash them well with a wooden beetle. Then put the currants, with their juice, into abain-marieor double kettle, and cook them with the water outside, stirring them hard to bring out the juice. Simmer them for a quarter of an hour, and then transfer them to a very clean sieve, and press them over a pan till no more juice appears. Measure the juice, and to each pint allow a pound of broken-up loaf sugar. Mix the sugar with the juice, put all into a porcelain kettle, and boil it till the scum ceases to rise. If the sugar is of excellent quality, (the best double-refined should be used for all nice sweetmeats) it will need but little skimming, and leave no sediment when poured off.Boil it twenty minutes with the sugar. To try if it is done, take up a spoonful and hold it out in the open air. If it congeals very soon, it is cooked enough. Put it warm into glass tumblers. Cut out some white tissue paper into double rounds, exactly fitting the glasses. Press these papers lightly on the surface of the jelly; and, next day, tie over the top thick papers dipped in brandy, and set them in the sun all that day if the weather is bright and warm.
All jellies of small fruit may be made in a similar manner; first boiling the fruit by itself, and mashing it to get out all the juice. Then boiling the berries again,with the sugar, for about twenty minutes. The above receipt is equally good for grapes, blackberries, and gooseberries. Black currant jelly (excellent for sore throats,) requires but three quarters of a pound of sugar, the juice being very thick of itself. Peaches, plums, damsons, and green gages, must be scalded, peeled, and stoned, before boiling for jelly, and they require, at least, a pound and a half of sugar to a pint of juice. It is better to preserve them as marmalade than as jelly. Strawberries and raspberries require no previous cooking; mash out the juice, strain it, allow a pound of sugar to every pint of juice, and then boil them together (skimming carefully) for about a quarter of an hour, or till they congeal on being tried in the air.
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Wine jellies are seldom made except for company. The wine must be of excellent quality; either port, madeira, or champagne. To a quart of wine allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf sugar, and an ounce of the best Russian isinglass. Melt the sugar (broken small) in the wine. Melt the isinglass by itself in as much warm water as will just cover it, and when quite dissolved, stir it into the mixed wine and sugar. Boil all together, till on trial it becomes a firm jelly, which will be very soon. If it does not congeal well, add some more dissolved isinglass, and more sugar. Serve in moulds, and eat it on saucers. Jelly is made in this manner of any nice sort ofliqueuror cordial. Also of strong green tea, or very strong coffee; first made as usual, and then boiled with loaf sugar and isinglass till they congeal. We do not recommend them, except as some exhilaration to the fatigue of a party.
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This is a very nice and very elegant party dish, and is served in a large glass bowl. Put into the bottom of the bowl a pound of bitter almond maccaroons. Pour on sufficient madeira or sherry to dissolve them. Let them soak in it till soft and broken. Have ready a very rich custard, flavored with vanilla bean (broken up and boiled by itself in a little milk), and then strained into the quart of milk prepared for the custard, which should be of ten eggs, (using only the yolks)and sweetened with a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar. It is best and easiest tobakethe custard. It will be very rich and soft with yolk of egg only. When the custard is cold lay it on the dissolved maccaroons. Then add a thick layer of very nice marmalade. Rub off the yellow rind of a large lemon or two on some pieces of loaf sugar, and add to it some powdered sugar mixed with the lemon juice. Whip to a strong froth a large quart (or more) of rich cream, gradually mixing with it the lemon and sugar. Lastly, pile up the frothed cream high on the glass bowl, and keep it on ice till it is sent to table. Instead of lemon you may flavor the whipt cream with rose-water; it will require, if not very strong, a wine-glassful. To give the cream a fine pink color, tie up some alkanet chips in a thin muslin bag; lay the bag to infuse in a tea-cup of plain cream, and then add the pink infusion to the quart of cream as you froth it.
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The best and finest blancmange is made with a set of calves' feet, (singed but not skinned) boiled slowly in a gallon of water till the meat drops from the bone; then strain it, and set it away till next day, in a broad white-ware pan. Skim it well while boiling. Next day it should be a solid cake of clear jelly. Scrape off all the fat and sediment from the outside, cut the jelly into small bits, and melt it over again. Boil in a porcelain kettle a pint of cream,and when it has come to a boil, stir in six ounces of loaf sugar, and whatever you intend for flavoring; either the milk, in which a handful of bitter almonds has been boiled, (first being blanched and broken up) or a vanilla bean split and cut to pieces, and boiled in a little milk and strained. Or, it may be mixed with three ounces of chocolate, (Baker's prepared cocoa is the best) scraped fine. When the flavoring has had a boil with the sugar, stir into it, gradually, the melted jelly, and transfer it to white-ware moulds that have set in cold water, and are still damp. Stir it well, and when the blancmange is thickening, and becoming hard to stir, set the moulds on ice, or in pans of cold water in the cellar, and cease stirring. When quite congealed, dip the moulds in lukewarm water, and turn out the blancmange on glass dishes. You may color almond or vanilla blancmange a fine pink, by putting into the cream chips of alkanet root tied in a small thin muslin bag, to be removed as soon as the cream is highly colored. Or, it may be made green by the infusion of spinach juice, obtained by pounding in a marble mortar, and then boiling and straining.
Gelatine is now frequently used for blancmange and jelly, instead of calves' feet or isinglass. It has no advantage but that of being more speedily prepared than calves' feet, which must be boiled the day before. Four cakes of gelatine are equal to four calves' feet. Before using, they must be soaked for an hour or more in a pan of cold water, then boiled with the other ingredients.Some persons think they perceive an unpleasant taste in gelatine; perhaps they have heard of what it is made.
When calves' feet cannot be obtained, pigs' feet will do very well, if nobody knows it. Four feet of calves are equal to eight of pigs. They are very glutinous, and have no perceptible taste.
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Break up a half pound of the best double-refined loaf sugar. On some of the pieces rub off the yellow rind of two large lemons, having rolled them under your hand to increase the juice. Then powder all the sugar, and mix with it, gradually, the juice of the lemons, a pint of rich cream, and a large half pint (not less) of sherry or madeira. Stir the mixture very hard till all the articles are thoroughly amalgamated. Then stir in, gradually, asecondpint of cream. Put into a small sauce-pan an ounce of the best Russia isinglass, with one jill (or two common-sized wineglasses) of cold water. Boil it till the isinglass is completely dissolved, stirring it several times down to the bottom. When the melted isinglass has become lukewarm, stir it gradually into the mixture, and then give the whole a hard stirring. Have ready some white-ware moulds that have just been dipped and rinsed in cold water. Fill them with the mixture, set them on ice, and in two or three hours the blancmange will be congealed. When it is perfectly firm, dip the moulds for a minute in lukewarm water, and turn out the blancmange on glass dishes. This, if accurately made, is the finest of blancmange. For company, you must have double, or treble, or four times the quantity of ingredients; each article in due proportion.
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Farina is a very fine and delicate preparation, made from the inner part of the grain of new wheat. It is exceedingly nutritious, and excellent either for invalids or for persons in health. It is now much in use, and is to be had, in packages of a pound or half a pound, of the best grocers and druggists, and is highly recommended by physicians for gruel and panade. It also makes an excellent pudding, either boiled or baked, prepared in the same manner as any flour pudding. For boiling farina, nothing is so good as abain-marieor double kettle.
For Farina Blancmange.—From a quart of rich milk take out a half pint. Put the half pint into a small sauce-pan, and add to it a handful of bitter almonds broken up; or a bunch of fresh peach leaves, or a vanilla bean split, cut up, and tied in a thin muslin bag. When this milk has boiled till very highly flavored, strain it into the pint and a half, and set it over the fire in a porcelain kettle or abain-marie. When the milk has come to a boil, sprinkle in, gradually, a large half pint or more (or four large heaping table-spoonfuls) of farina, stirring it well—also sprinkling in and stirring, as if making thick mush. Let it boilslowly a quarter of an hour after the farina is all in. When done, remove it from the fire, and stir in two large table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a wineglass of rose-water, or one of white wine. Transfer it to a blancmange mould, (previously wet with cold water,) set it on ice, and turn it out when ready for dinner. Eat it with sauce of wine, sugar, and nutmeg.
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Mince very small a quarter of a pound of nice beef marrow, and grate or crumble half a pound of almond sponge cake. Cut in half, a quarter of a pound of sultana or seedless raisins, chop two peels of candied citron, mix them with the raisins, and dredge both thickly with flour. Add a large heaped table-spoonful of loaf sugar, a small nutmeg grated, and a wineglass of mixed wine and brandy. Mix all these ingredients well, put them into a deep dish, lay a border of puff-paste all round the rim, and fill the dish up to the top with a nice custard made in the proportion of four eggs to a pint of well-sweetened milk, flavored with either bitter almonds, rose-water, peach-water, or vanilla. Bake this pudding half an hour. When cool, sift sugar over it.
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Break six eggs, separating the yolks and whites. Give them a slight stir, and strain the whites into one pan andthe yolks into another. Add to the yolks three large table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar, a heaped tea-spoonful of arrow-root flour, and twelve drops of strong orange-flower water, and beat it till very thick and smooth. Then beat the whites to a stiff froth, beginning slowly at first, but gradually beating faster. Then add the beaten yolk very gently to the whites. Have ready a silver or plated dish well-buttered. Use tin for want of better, but it will not look well, as the omelette has to be served up in the dish it was baked in. Place the dish with the mixture in a hot oven, and watch it while baking. When it has well risen, and seems very light, take it out of the oven for a moment; run a knife round it, sift some sugar over it, set it again in the oven, and when raised to its utmost take it out again, and serve it up as hot as possible, with a spoon on the plate beside it. When once broken, it will sink immediately. It is usual to send round the omelette soufflé at the very last of the pastry course; the cook not beginning to make it till the dinner has commenced. If not light when baked, give it up, and do not send it to table at all. It is safest for an inexperienced housewife to engage a French cook to come to the house with his own ingredients and utensils, and make and bake the omelette soufflé while there. Still though very fashionable, it is less delicious than many other desserts.
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Warm a quart of rich milk, and cut up in it half a pound of the best fresh butter to soften in the milk, but not to oil. Beat eight eggs till very light and thick, and then stir them gradually into the pan of milk and butter, in turn with eight large table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Beat all very hard together, and then transfer the batter to white tea-cups, slightly buttered, not filling them quite full. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them about twenty minutes, or till they are slightly browned, and have puffed up very light. As soon as they are cool enough to handle without burning your fingers, turn them out of the cups on a dish, cut a slit in the top of each, and, taking a tea-spoon, fill them quite full of any sort of jelly or marmalade; or if more convenient, with ripe strawberries or raspberries, sweetened with powdered sugar, and mashed smoothly. When filled with fruit, close the slit neatly with your fingers; and on the top of each lay a large strawberry or raspberry, having first dredged the sunderland with sugar.
Cream Cakes—Are made in the above manner, but baked in patty-pans. When baked take them out, cut a slit in thesideof each; and having prepared an ample quantity of rich boiled custard, made with yolk of egg, and highly flavored (after it has boiled,) with lemon, orange, vanilla, rose-water or peach-water, fill the cakes full of the custard, closing the opening well by pinchingit together. Sift powdered sugar over them, and send them to table on a large china dish.
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Make a fine puff-paste of equal quantities of fresh butter and sifted flour; mixing into the pan of flour a heaped table-spoonful of powdered sugar, and wetting it with a beaten egg. Rub one quarter of the butter into the pan of flour. Divide the remainder of butter into six, and roll it into the flour at six turns till it is all in. Have, ready grated, the yellow rind and the juice of a large lemon or orange mixed with a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar; or a flavoring of a split-up vanilla bean; or a dozen bitter almonds broken up, and boiled in a very little milk. Mix the flavoring with a pint of rich cream, and the well-beaten whites of three eggs. Take small deep pans, line them all through with the paste rolled out very thin, and cut square. Fill them with the cream, and turn the square pieces of paste a little over it at the top, so as to form corners. Bake the tarts in a brisk oven, and when cold, grate nutmeg over the surface.
Are these the cream tarts of the Arabian Nights?
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Break up a fine ripe cocoa-nut, and after peeling off the brown skin, lay the pieces in cold water for a while. Then wipe them dry with a clean towel, and grate them into a deep dish. Mix in, plenty of powdered white sugar. Take some fine large oranges, very ripe and juicy. Peel off all the rind, and slice the oranges rather thick. Cover the bottom of a large glass bowl with sliced orange, (the first layer being double, where the bowl is small) and strew among the slices sufficient sugar. Then put in a thick layer of the grated cocoa-nut, next another layer of orange—again a layer of cocoa-nut, and so on, alternately, till the bowl is filled, finishing with cocoa-nut heaped high. This is a handsome and delicious article for a supper-table, and a niceimpromptuaddition to the dessert at a dinner; and soon prepared, as it requires no cooking. When the fruit is in season, a dessert for a small company may consist entirely of orange cocoa-nut, raspberry charlotte, and cream strawberries.
Never send oranges whole to table. To ladies they are unmanageable in company.
Creamed Strawberries.—Take fine large ripe strawberries. Hull or stem them, and set them on ice till just before they are wanted. Divide them into saucerfulls. If you have glass saucers, they will make a better show than china. Put some powdered white sugar in the bottom of each saucer. Fill them with strawberries, and then strew on a liberal allowance of sugar, for American strawberries (however fine in appearance) are seldom sweet. Have ready sufficient whipped cream, that has been frothed with rods or with a tin cream-churn. Pile high a portion of the whipt cream on each saucer of strawberries.
Strawberries are sometimes eaten with wine and sugar, when cream is not convenient. Withmilkthey curdle, and are unwholesome—besides tasting poorly.
Creamed Pine-apple.—Cut into four pieces two large ripe pine-apples. Stand them up successively in a deep dish, and grate them from the rind. When all is grated, transfer it to a large glass bowl, and make it very sweet by mixing in powdered white loaf sugar. Whip to a stiff froth a sufficiency of rich cream, adding to it some sugar, and heap it high upon the grated pine-apple.
Peaches and Cream.—Take fine juicy freestone peaches. Pare them, and cut them in slices. Put them, with their juice, into a large bowl, and make them very sweet with powdered loaf sugar. Set them on ice, and let them remain in the juice till wanted. Then send them to table with fresh sugar sifted over the top. Set near them pitchers of plain cream, not frothed.
If you cannot obtain cream, it is better to be satisfied with sugar alone, than to substitute milk, with peaches, or any other fruit.
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Put into a porcelain-lined preserving kettle three pounds of the best loaf sugar, and pour on it a pint and a half of very clear water. When it has entirely dissolved, set it over the fire, and add a table spoonful of fine cider vinegar to assist in clearing it as it boils. Boil and skim it well, and when no more scum risesadd the juice of four large lemons or oranges. Let it boil till it will boil no longer, stirring it well. When done transfer it to square tin pans, that have been made very clean and bright, and that are slightly greased with sweet oil. Set the taffy away to cool, first marking it with a knife, while soft. Mark it in straight lines the broad or crossway of the pans. If marked lengthways, the pieces will be too long. When the taffy is cold, cut it according to the lines, in regular slips, like cocoa-nut candy. It is for a handsome supper party. Serve it up in glass dishes.
Orange taffy is made in the same manner. These candies should be kept in tin boxes.
Cocoa-nut Candy—Is made in the manner of taffy, using finely grated cocoa-nut, instead of lemon or orange.
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Split, cut up, and boil a large vanilla bean in half a pint of rich milk, till it is highly flavored, and reduced to one-half. Then strain out the vanilla through a strainer so fine as to avoid all the seeds. Mix the strained milk with half a pint of rich cream. Beat five eggs till very smooth and thick. Strain them, and add them gradually to the cream when it is entirely cold, to make a rich custard. Set this custard over the fire (stirring it all the time) till it simmers; but take it off before it comes to a boil, or it will curdle. Set it on ice. Have ready in another sauce-pan an ounce of the bestRussia isinglass, boiled in half a pint of water, till it is all dissolved into a thick jelly. When both are cold, (but not hard) mix the custard and the isinglass together, and add four table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar. Then take a large lump of loaf sugar, and rub off on it the yellow rind of two large lemons. Scrape off the lemon-grate with a tea-spoon, and add it to the mixture, with the lump of sugar powdered and crushed fine. Mix together the strained juice of the lemons, and two glasses of madeira; dissolve in them the lemon-flavored sugar, and mix it with a pint of rich cream that has been whipped with a whisk to a strong froth. Add the whipped cream gradually to the custard, starring very hard at the time, and also after the whole is mixed. Then set it on ice.
Cover the bottom of a flat oval dish with a slice of almond sponge cake, cut to fit. Prepare a sufficient number of oblong slices of the cake, (all of the same size and shape) to go all round; with one extra slice, in case they should not quite hold out. Dip every one in a plate of beaten white of egg to make them adhere. Stand each of them up on one end, round the large oval slice that lies at the bottom. Make them follow each other evenly and neatly, (every one lapping a little way over its predecessor) till you have a handsome wall of slices, cemented all round by the white of egg. Fill it quite full with the custard mixture. Cover the top with another oval slice of cake, cemented with a little white of eggto the upper edge of the wall. Make a nice icing in the usual way, of powdered sugar beaten into frothed white of egg, and flavored with lemon, orange, or rose. Spread this icing thickly and smoothly over the cake that covers the top of the charlotte, and ornament it with a handsome pattern of sugar flowers. There is no charlotte russe superior to this.
Another Charlotte Russe.—Have a very nice circular lady cake. It should be iced all over, and ornamented with sugar flowers. Take off the top nicely, and without breaking or defacing, and hollow out the inside, leaving the sides and bottom standing. The cake taken from the inside may be cut in regular pieces and used at tea, or for other purposes. Make a very fine boiled custard, according to the preceding receipt. Fill with it the empty cake, as if filling a mould. Then put on the lid, set the whole on ice, and when wanted serve it up on a glass or china dish.
A charlotte that requires no cooking may be very easily made by hollowing a nice circular almond sponge cake, and filling it with layers of small preserves, and piling on the top whipped cream finely flavored.
For the walls of a charlotte russe you may use the oblong sponge cakes, called Naples biscuits, or those denominated lady fingers, dipping them first in beaten white of egg, standing them on end, and arranging them so as to lap over each other in forming the wall. Arrange some of them handsomely to cover the top of the custard.
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Pewter freezers for ice cream are better than those of block tin; as in them the freezing goes on more gradually and thoroughly, and it does not melt so soon, besides being smoother when done. The ice tub should be large enough to allow ample space all round (six inches, at least,) the freezer as it stands in the centre, and should have a plug at the bottom (beneath the freezer) for letting out the water that drips from the ice; that a large coarse woolen cloth should be folded, and laid under it and around it. The ice should be broken up into small bits, and mixed with coarse salt, in the proportion of a pound of salt to five pounds of ice. Fill the tub within three inches of the top; pounding and pressing down hard the mixed ice and salt. Have ready all the ingredients. To every quart ofrealrich cream mix in a pint of milk, (not more) and half a pound of fine loaf sugar. The following are the most usual flavorings, all the fruit being made very sweet. Ripe strawberries or raspberries, mashed through a sieve till all the juice is extracted; ripe juicy freestone peaches, pared, and cut in half, the kernels being taken from the stones, are pounded, and mashed with the fruit through a cullender; all the juice that can be mashed out of a sliced pine-apple, the grated yellow rind and the juice of lemons or oranges, allowing two to each quart of cream, and mixing the juice with plenty of sugar before it is put to the cream. A handful of shelled bitter almonds blanched, broken, and boiled by themselves inhalf a pint of milk till all the almond flavor is extracted, and then strain the bitter almond milk into the cream. For vanilla flavor, split and cut up a vanilla bean, boil it by itself in a half pint of milk, and when highly flavored, strain the vanilla milk into the cream. For chocolate ice cream, scrape down a quarter of a pound of Baker's prepared cocoa, and melt it in just water enough to cover it; then sweeten and mix it gradually into a quart of rich milk, (boiling at the time) and then boil and stir it till strong and smooth. Ice cream is spoiled by the addition of eggs. Besides giving it a yellowish color, eggs convert it into mere frozen custard, particularly if instead of using real cream, it is made of milk thickened with arrow-root or flour. For company at least, ice cream should be made in the best and most liberal manner, or else do not attempt it. Mean ice cream is a very mean thing.
When all the ingredients are prepared and mixed, put the whole into the freezer, and set it in the ice tub; and having put on the lid tightly, take the freezer by the handle and turn it about very fast for five or six minutes. Then remove the lid carefully, and scrape down the cream from the sides with a spaddle or long-handled spoon. Repeat this frequently while it is freezing, taking care to keep the sides clear, stirring it well to the bottom, and keeping the tub well filled with salt and ice outside the freezer.
After the cream has been well frozen in the freezer, transfer it to moulds, pressing it in hard,so as to fill every part of the mould. Then set the mould in a fresh tub of ice and salt, (using as before the proportion of a pound of salt to five pounds of ice) and let it remain undisturbed in the mould for an hour, not turning it out till it is time to serve it up to the company. Then wrap a cloth, dipped in warm water, round the outside of the moulds, open them, and turn out the frozen cream on glass or china dishes, and serve it up immediately.
Unless ice cream is very highly flavored at the beginning, its taste will be much weakened in the process of freezing.
The most usual form of ice cream moulds are pyramids, dolphins, doves, and baskets of fruit. We have seen ice cream in the shape of a curly lap-dog, and very well represented.
If you eat what is called strawberry ice cream looking of an exquisite rose-pink color, there is no strawberry about it, either in tint or taste. It is produced by alkanet or cochineal. Real strawberries do not color so beautifully; neither do raspberries, or any other sort of red fruit. But genuine fruit syrups may be employed for this purpose, having at least the true taste. To make strawberry or raspberry syrup, prepare first what is called simple syrup, by melting a pound of the best double-refined loaf sugar in half a pint of cold water; and when melted, boiling them together, and skimming it perfectly clean. Then stir in as much fruit juice (mashed and strained,)as will give it a fine tinge, and let it have one more boiling up.
Vanilla Syrup.—Take six fine fresh vanilla beans. Split, and cut them in pieces. Scrape the seeds loose in the pods with your finger nail, and bruise and mash the shells. All this will increase the vanilla flavor. Put all you can get of the vanilla into a small quart of what is called by the druggist "absolute alcohol." Cork the bottle closely, and let the vanilla infuse in it a week. Then strain it through a very fine strainer that will not let out a single seed. Have ready half a dozen pint bottles of simple syrup. Put into every bottle of the simple syrup a portion of the strained infusion of vanilla. Cork it tightly and use it for vanilla flavoring in ice creams, custards, blancmange, &c.
Orange or Lemon Syrups—Are made by paring off the yellow rind very thin (after the fruit has been rolled under your hand on a table to increase the juice,) then boiling the rind till the water is highly flavored. Strain this water over the best loaf sugar, allowing two pounds of sugar to a pint of juice. The sugar being melted, mix it with the juice.
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Water ices are made of the juice of fruits, very well sweetened, mixed with a little water, and frozen in the manner of ice cream, to which they are by many persons preferred. They are all prepared nearlyin the same manner, allowing a pint of juice to a pint of water, and a quarter of a pound of sugar. Mix it well, and then freeze it in the manner of ice cream, and serve it up in glass bowls. For lemon and orange sherbet, first roll the fruit on a table under your hand; then take off a very thin paring of the yellow rind, and boil it slowly in a very little water, till all the flavor is extracted. Next, strain the flavored water into the cold water you intend to mix with the juice, and make it very sweet with loaf sugar. Squeeze the juice into it through a tin strainer to avoid the seeds. Stir the whole very hard, and transfer it to a freezer. Orange water-ice is considered the best, if well made. For pine-apple water-ice, pare, core, and slice fineripeapples very thin. Put them into a dish with thick layers of powdered loaf sugar; cover the dish, and let them lie several hours in the sugar. Then press out all the juice you can, from the pine-apple; mix it with a little water, and freeze it. To two large pine-apples allow a half pound of sugar, which has been melted in a quart of boiling water. This looks very well frozen in a mould shaped like a pine-apple.Orangesherbet may be frozen in a pine-apple mould. It can be made so rich with orange juice as to perfume the whole table.
Roman Punch—Is made of strong lemonade or orangeade, adding to every quart a pint of brandy or rum. Then freeze it, and serve in saucers or a large glass bowl. Put it into a porcelain kettle, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise.When cold, bottle it, seal the corks and keep it in a cool place.
Syrup of strawberries, raspberries, currants and blackberries, is made in a similar manner.
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For one common-sized floating island have a round thick jelly cake, lady cake, or almond sponge cake, that will weigh a pound and a half, or two pounds. Slice it downwards, almost to the bottom, but do not take the slices apart. Stand up the cake in the centre of a glass bowl or a deep dish. Have ready a pint and a half of rich cream, make it very sweet with sugar, and color it a fine green with a tea-cupful of the juice of pounded spinach, boiled five minutes by itself; strained, and made very sweet. Or for coloring pink you may use currant jelly, or the juice of preserved strawberries. Whip to a stiff froth another pint and a half of sweetened cream, and flavor it with a large glass of mixed wine and brandy. Pour round the cake, as it stands in the dish or bowl, the colored unfrothed cream, and pile the whipped white cream all over the cake, highest on the top.
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In making very fine plum cake first prepare the fruit and spice, and sift the flour (which must be the very best superfine,) into a large flat dish, and dry it before the fire. Use none but the very best fresh butter; if of inferior quality, the butter will taste through every thing, and spoil the cake. In fact, all the ingredients should be excellent, and liberally allowed. Take the best bloom or muscatel raisins, seeded and cut in half. Pick and wash the currants or plums through two waters, and dry them well. Powder the spice, and let it infuse over night in the wine and brandy. Cut the citron into slips, mix it with the raisins and currants, and dredge all the fruit very thickly, on both sides, with flour. This will prevent its sinking or clodding in the cake, while baking. Eggs should always be beaten till the frothing is over, and till they become thick and smooth, as thick as a good boiled custard, and quite smooth on the surface. If you can obtain hickory-rods as egg-beaters, there is nothing so good; but if you cannot getthem, use the common egg-beaters, of thin fine wire. For stirring butter and sugar you should have a spaddle, which resembles a short mush-stick flattened at one end. Stir the butter and sugar in a deep earthen pan, and continue till it is light, thick, and creamy. Beat eggs always in a broad shallow earthen pan, and with a shortquick stroke, keeping your right elbow close to your side, and moving only your wrist. In this way you may beat for an hour without fatigue. But to stir butter and sugar is the hardest part of cake making. Have this done by a man servant. His strength will accomplish it in a short time—also, let him give the final stirring to the cake. If the ingredients are prepared as far as practicable on the preceding day, the cake may be in the oven by ten or eleven o'clock in the forenoon.
For a large plum cake allow one pound, (or a quart) of sifted flour; one pound of fresh butter cut up in a pound of powdered loaf sugar, in a deep pan; twelve eggs; two pounds of bloom raisins; two pounds of Zante currants; half a pound of citron, either cut into slips or chopped small; a table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon, mixed; two grated nutmegs; a large wine-glass of madeira (or more), a wine-glass of French brandy, mixed together, and the spice steeped in it.
First stir the butter and sugar to a light cream, and add to them the spice and liquor. Then beat the eggs in a shallow pan till very thick and smooth, breaking them one at a time into a saucer to ascertain if there is a bad one among them. One stale egg will spoil the whole cake. When the eggs are very light, stir them gradually into the large pan of butter and sugar in turn with the flour, that being the mixing pan. Lastly, add the fruit and citron, a little at a time of each,and give the whole a hard stirring. If the fruit is well floured it will not sink, but it will be seen evenly dispersed all over the cake when baked. Take a large straight-sided block tin pan, grease it inside with the same butter used for the cake, and put the mixture carefully into it. Set it immediately into a well-heated oven, and keep up a steady heat while it is baking. When nearly done, the cake will shrink a little from the sides of the pan; and on probing it to the bottom with a sprig from a corn broom, or a splinter-skewer, the probe will come out clean. Otherwise, keep the cake in the oven a little longer. If it cracks on the top, it is a proof of its being very light. When quite done, take it out. It will become hard if left to grow cold with the oven. Set it to cool on an inverted sieve.
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Allow to the white of each egg a quarter of a pound of the best loaf sugar, finely powdered; but if you find the mixture too thin, you must add still more sugar. Put the white of egg into a shallow pan, and beat it with small rods or a large silver fork, till it becomes a stiff froth, and stands alone without falling. Then beat in the powdered sugar, a tea-spoonful at a time. As you proceed, flavor it with lemon juice. This will render the icing whiter and smoother, also improving the taste. You may ice the cake as soon as it becomes lukewarm, without waiting till it is quite cold. Dredge it lightly with flour toabsorb the grease from the outside; then wipe off the flour. With a broad knife put some icing on the middle of the cake, and then spread it down, thickly and evenly, all over the top and sides, smoothing it with another knife dipped in cold water. When this is quite dry, spread on a second coat of icing rather thinner than the first, and flavored with rose. Set it a few minutes in the oven to harden the icing, leaving the oven-door open; or place it beneath the stove. When the icing is quite dry, you may ornament it with sugar borders and flowers; having ready, for that purpose, some additional icing. By means of a syringe, (made for the purpose, and to be obtained at the best furnishing stores) you can decorate the surface of the cake very handsomely; but it requires taste, skill, and practice. You may first cover the cake with pink, brown, green, or other colored icing, and then take white icing to decorate it, forming the pattern by moving your hand skilfully and steadily over it, and pressing it out of the syringe as you go. An easier way is to ornament the cake (when the top-icing is nearly dry, but not quite,) with large strawberries or raspberries, or purple grapes placed very near each other, and arranged in circles or patterns. Be careful not to mash the berries.
Warm Icing.—This is made in the usual proportion of the whites of four eggs, beaten to stiff froth, and a pound of finely powdered loaf sugar afterwards added to it, gradually. Then boil the egg and sugar in a porcelain kettle, and skim ittill the scum ceases to rise. Take it off the fire, and stir into it sufficient orange juice, lemon juice, or rose-water, to flavor it highly. Flour your cake—wipe off the flour, put on the icing with a broad knife, and then smooth it with another knife dipped in cold water. For this icing the cake should be warm from the oven, and dried slowly and gradually afterwards. Warm icing is much liked. It is very light; rises thick and high in cooling, and has a fine gloss. Try it. The mixture called by the French ameringue, and used for macaroons, kisses, and other nice articles, is made in the same manner as icing for cakes, allowing a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar to every beaten white of egg.
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One of Mrs. Goodfellow's maxims was, "up-weight of flour, and down-weight of every thing else"—and she was right, as the excellence of her cakes sufficiently proved, during the thirty years that she taught her art in Philadelphia, with unexampled success. Therefore, allow for a pound cake a rather small pound of sifted flour; a large pound of the best fresh butter, a large pound of powdered loaf sugar, ten eggs, or eleven if they are small; a large glass of mixed wine and brandy; a glass of rose-water; a grated nutmeg, and a heaped tea-spoonful of mixed spice, powdered mace, and cinnamon. Put the sugar into adeepearthen pan, and cut up the butter among it. In cold weather place it nearthe fire a few minutes, till the butter softens. Next, stir it very hard with a spaddle till the mixture becomes very light. Next, stir in, gradually, the spice, liquor, &c. Then beat the eggs in a shallow pan with rods or a whisk, till light, thick, and smooth. Add them gradually to the beaten batter and sugar, in turn with the flour; and give the whole a hard stirring at the last. Have the oven ready with a moderate heat. Transfer the mixture to a thick straight-sided tin pan well greased with the best fresh butter, and smooth the butter on the surface. Set it immediately into the oven, and bake it with a steady heat two hours and a half, or more. Probe it to the bottom with a twig from a corn broom. When it shrinks a little from the pan it is done. When taken out, set it to cool on an inverted sieve. When you ice it, flavor the icing with lemon or rose.
It should be eaten fresh, as it soon becomes very dry.
Pound cake is not so much in use as formerly, particularly for weddings and large parties; lady cake and plum cake being now substituted. A pound cake may be much improved by the addition of a pound of citron, sliced, chopped well, dredged with flour to prevent its sinking, and stirred gradually into the batter, in turn with the sifted flour and beaten egg.