The encyclopædia of practical cookery

Chocolate Layer Cake.— Rub lib. of softened butter with lib. of flour and cornflour, mixed in equal quantities, and lib. of moist sugar, and work in the whites of fourteen eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly ; then squeeze in a little lemon-juice, add f breakfast-cupful of milk, and flavour with essence of lemon to taste, beating well again. Make an icing of lib. of caster sugar boiled in f pint of water for five minutes, add 3oz. of grated Chocolate, and boil again until a little dropped in cold water will set hard like candy ; then beat in quickly four eggs, and stir over the fire for another five minutes. Flavour with vanilla, and beat it up occasionally while cooling. Fill. a mould in layers alternately with the cake mixture. Bake in a quick oven, and turn out for use. Chocolate Meringues. — Put the whites of three eggs into a basin with lib. of finely-crushed loaf sugar, and beat well for about fifteen minutes, or until the mixture is white and firm like icing ; then add three more whites, putting them in singly and beating one up well before another is added ; next mix in 2 teaspoonfuls of extract of vanilla and 3oz. of grated Chocolate. Put the mixture into a biscuit-forcer, let it drop on to a well-buttered baking-sheet, place the meringues into a slow oven, and bake gently for a few minutes. Take them out when done, let them get cold, slip them off the baking-sheet, and they are ready for use. Chocolate Mousse. — Put three cakes of Chocolate in the oven for a few minutes to soften them. When soft, work the Chocolate to a paste with a few table-spoonfuls of syrup flavoured with vanilla; warm it, and add gradually the white of one egg, whipped and sweetened, and 14 pints of whipped cream' slightly flavoured with vanilla sugar. Pack a quart domeshape mould in pounded and salted ice, fill it with the mixture, put a cover on, and ice on the top of that, and leave it for an hour. Before turning the mousse out, dip the mould in tepid water. Chocolate Pastilles.— (1) Melt 8oz. of Chocolate in a small sugar-boiler, add a few drops of essence of vanilla and loz. For details respecting Culinary Processes , Utensils, Sauces, <kc., referred to, see under their special heads. Chocolate — continued. of caster sugar, and mix them over a slow fire. Shape this into olives. (This is done by taking sufficient paste between the forefinger and thumb of the right hand to make a small filbert ; put this in the palm of the left hand, and roll it with the index finger of the right in the shape of an olive.) When all the paste is used, roll the pastilles in white nonpareil comfits (“hundreds and thousands”), then place them in rows on a sheet of paper on a plate, and dry them in the screen. They must only be dried in a very moderate heat. (2) Put 8oz. of fine Chocolate in a saucepan, and stand it in a moderate oven to soften. Dissolve joz. of gum arabic in a little hot water, mix it with the Chocolate, and stir them both over a slow fire until quite smooth, then add 2oz. of caster sugar ; mix this well, and lay out the pastilles by dropping them from the spout of the sugar-boiler, using a curved piece of wire to cut each pastille off neatly as it drops upon a sheet of polished tin.