Place half a pound of maccaroons or Naples biscuits at the bottom
of a large glass bowl. Pour on them as much white wine as will
cover and dissolve them. Make a rich custard, flavoured with
bitter almonds or peach leaves; and pour it when cold on the
maccaroons; the custard may be either baked or boiled. Then add a
layer of marmalade or jam. Take a quart of cream, mix with it a
quarter of a pound of sugar, and half a pint of white wine, and
whip it with rods to a stiff froth; laying the froth (as you
proceed) on an inverted sieve, with a dish under it to catch the
cream that drips through; which must be saved and whipped over
again. Instead of rods you may use a little tin churn. Pile the
frothed cream upon the marmalade in a high pyramid. To ornament
it,--take preserved water-melon rind that has been cut into leaves
or flowers; split them nicely to make them thinner and lighter;
place a circle or wreath of them round the heap of frothed cream,
interspersing them with spots of stiff red currant jelly. Stick on
the top of the pyramid a sprig of real flowers.