Recipes for high-class cookery

^ lb. ground almonds ^ lb. icing sugar. 1-2 eggs. Vanilla, ratafia. Orange-flower water. Lemon juice. Prepare the almond paste first. Clean the fruit ; cream butter and sugar, and beat in the eggs singly with a little flour ; stir in the fruit and the remainder of the flour with the spices, baking powder, and salt. Have it of a [ 207 ] stiff consistency. Put half the mixture into a papered tin ; place a layer of almond paste on this, and remainder of mixture on top. Bake in a very steady, moderately hot oven two and a half to three hours. When cold, place the rest of almond paste on top, and decorate with balls of icing if desired. Dust with icing sugar. Almond Paste. — Pound almonds well ; add sugar and flavourings and enough slightly beaten egg, and mix to a firm consistency. SPONGE CAKE. 4 eggs. I 4 oz. castor sugar. 3^ oz. flour (dried and sieved). Grease a cake tin, and dust it with a teaspoonful of castor sugar mixed with one teaspoonful of rice-flour. Beat eggs and sugar over hot water till creamy, then quickly mix in the flour. Half fill the prepared tin, and bake the cake in a moderate oven for about one hour. [ 208 ] SULTANA CAKE. 8 oz. flour 6 oz. butter. 6 oz. castor sugar 4 oz. sultanas. Grated rind of half a lemon. 2 oz. candied peel. 1 teaspoonful baking powder. 2 eggs. A little milk. Prepare and bake as for Plum Cake. SHORTBREAD. 4 oz. flour. 4 oz. butter. 2 oz. rice-flour, 2 oz. castor sugar Sieve the flour, rice-flour, and sugar into a basin, add the butter, and work all together with the hand till of the consistency of short crust. Form into a round cake either with the hand on the pastry-board, or in a shortbread mould. Place the cake on a greased and papered tin ; prick it well, bake it in a good steady oven till beginning to colour, and allow it to crisp off slowly for about one hour. [ 209 J WALNUT CAKE. 10 oz. flour. 8 oz. sugar. 4 oz. butter. 2 oz. walnuts. Pinch of salt. ^ oz. baking powder. Milk if necessary. Vanilla essence. 3 eggs. Cream the butter and sugar, and beat in the eggs with a little flour ; stir in the walnuts broken in small pieces and the remainder of the flour, baking powder, and salt. Bake for one and a half hour. When cold, decorate with glac^ icing, and with walnuts, butter icing, etc. N.B. — This mixture may be cooked in two sandwich-tins, and the two halves fixed together with a little walnut - butter icing before being iced. Almonds, hazel-nuts, pine kernels, etc., may be substituted for the walnuts. [ 210 ] WINE FINGERS. 3 oz. flour. 2 oz. butter. 1^ oz. sugar. i yolk of egg. i tablespoonful sherry. Decorate. — Chopped almonds. Rub the butter into the flour, add sugar, and mix to a firm paste with the yolk of egg and sherry. Roll out thinly and cut into •fingers. Brush with white of egg, and sprinkle with chopped almonds ; bake in a fairly hot oven till brown and firm, twelve to fifteen minutes. N.B. — These biscuits may be decorated with small pieces of cherry, angelica, etc., or they may be decorated with royal icing before being put into the oven. MISCELLANEOUS. [ 218 ] ANCHOVY BUTTER. 1 oz. butter. Colouring. 1 dessertspoonful Cayenne, anchovy paste. Pound all together and pass through a hair sieve. LOBSTER BUTTER. 1 oz. butter. | 1 oz. live lobster spawn.