The new century cookery book

1749. Gateau Surpris aux Fraises.—S eggs, 8 oz. caster sugar, 10 oz. sifted flour, 8 oz. ground and sifted almonds, 10 oz. butter, chocolate icing and royal icing, 10 wafer cornets, about 1 quart strawberry ice cream, 1 oz. chopped pistachio, custard for filling cornets. Break the eggs into a copper bowl or basin, add the sugar, and whip well for a few minutes. Stand it over a stewpan with boiling water and beat vigorously with a whisk for about twenty minutes. Butter and flour a large saute-pan or deep square baking-sheet. When the mixture is sufficiently worked stir in by degrees the sifted flour, the sifted ground almonds, and the butter (melted) ; mix carefully but well ; pour into the tin and bake in a moderately heated oven from twenty-five to thirty minutes. When cold cut out as many rounds as are required, but they must be cut successively smaller and smaller. Stamp out the centre of each round thus obtained to form rings about an inch or one and a half inch broad, leaving the largest and the smallest ones whole. The largest will form the bottom and the smallest the top of the ‘gateau.’ Have some apricot jam made liquid, place the large round on a dish, spread the tops and bottoms of the rings with apricot jam and fix them together, commencing with the largest, so as to form a pyramid. Allow the gateau to set and coat the outside with chocolate icing. Ornament with royal icing to taste. Do not fasten the top piece. Fill the cornets with a previously prepared custard (creme patissiere), sprinkle the tops with chopped pistachio kernels, fasten them by means of a little icing in a row round the gateau. When the dish is wanted for table, remove the top piece and fill with well-frozen strawberry ice cream ; replace the top, and serve. The chocolate icing can be substituted by strawberry fondant or orange fondant icing. 1750. Gateau a la Heine. — Cream | lb. of fresh butter with ^ lb. of caster sugar ; add one by one six yolks of eggs, 4 oz. ground almonds, and 4 oz. of fecula (potato flour), flavour with vanilla or lemon, and stir in the beaten whites of 3 eggs. Lastly add gill of whipped cream and a few candied violets or orange flowers. Butter a spiral-shaped mould, and dredge with fine sugar ; fill up, and bake in a moderate oven. When done unmould, mask with apricot marmalade, and ice with maraschino icing. Decorate tastefully. 1751. Cornets de Nougat dla Creme. — ^ lb. sweet almonds,. % lb. sugar, \ lemon, 1 gill cream, vanilla sugar, pistachio kernels for garnish. Blanch, peel, and shred the almonds finely, put them on a bakingsheet, and bake in a cool oven a fawm colour. Put half a pound of caster sugar in a copper pan, add the strained juice of half a lemon, cook until it is a light brown, add the shredded almonds, stir well, and let boil again,. Pour quickly on to an oiled marble slab, stamp out some very thin circles about two and a half inches in diameter. Wrap each quickly round an oiled cornet mould, put in a second mould so as to keep in shape. Remove when cool, whip the cream, sweeten with a little vanilla sugar ; fill the cornets with this, sprinkle with a few chopped pistachio kernels, and serve. The edges of the cornets look better if garnished with little beads of royal icing. These cornets can also be filled with ice cream or any kind of sweet custard, and will thus make a pleasant change.