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 the _side_ of 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 pinching it together. Sift powdered sugar
over them, and send them to table on a large china dish.
CREAM TART.--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?
ORANGE COCOA-NUT.--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
nice _impromptu_ addition 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. With _milk_ they 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.
LEMON TAFFY.--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 rises add 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.
CHARLOTTE RUSSE.--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 best
Russia 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 egg to 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.
ICE CREAM.--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 of _real_ rich 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 in half 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.
WATER ICES OR SHERBET.--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 nearly in 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 fine _ripe_
apples 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. _Orange_ sherbet
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.
FLOATING ISLAND.--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.
FINE CAKES.
PLUM CAKE.--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
get _them_, 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 short quick 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.
ICING.--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 to absorb
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 it till 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 a _meringue_, 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.