Puddings and Pastry à la Mode

very thin, then colour the others red with cochineal, brown with chocolate brown, and a small portion green with a little vegetable green, and bake ; when done take off the paper, take the plain piece and trim it into two even sheets, thinning it down with a sharp knife ; take the coloured portions and cut them up into even and uneven shreds, together with about the same proportion of any kind of stale sponge-cake ; mix them well together ; now take about one pound of jam, and add to it one pint of water and a little essence ; put into this sufficient stale cake-crumbs to make into a paste that will bind the whole together ; add in the shred cake and a sprinkle of syrup. Lay out the two plain sheets and spread them with jam, lay on now the paste on one sheet and about one inch in thickness, press it down firmly and evenly all over, and lay the other sheet on top, press and trim round, and cut into pieces two and a half inches long by three-quarters wide, and ice over with pink or white fondant, and marble it, if white, with a feather dipped in cochineal. Sago Tarts. Take three tablespoonfuls of sago, steam and stew gently in a pint of milk ; when cold add two eggs well beaten with sugar to taste, add a teaspoonful of lemon-juice or any fruit syrup, put into patty-pans lined with puff-paste. Tapioca may be used instead of sago. Semolina Quenelles. Stir four eggs, five ounces of semolina, a grate of nutmeg, a pinch of salt, and five ounces of fresh butter all together. Take a dessertspoonful at a time of this paste and poach in boiling water, when the quenelles will be ready for use ; dust castor sugar over and serve red-currant jelly sauce round. Snow Rice Cream. Put into a stew-pan four ounces of ground rice, two ounces of sugar, a few drops of essence of ratafia, or any other essence, with two ounces of fresh butter, add a quart of milk, boil from fifteen to twenty minutes till it grows a smooth substance, though it must not be too thick ; then pour it into a mould previously oiled, set on ice and serve when cold ; it should turn out like jelly. The rice had better be done a little too much than under. Spanish Fritters. Soak the crumb of a French roll and divide it into three, soak it in milk, dip it into batter, and fry in sweet oil ; before they are quite cooked dip them into batter again and fry till done, drain them, sprinkle hundreds and thousands over them, and pour some syrup round and serve. Spanish Pudding. Mix a spoonful of flour with the yolks of three eggs and half a pint of cream ; put it into cups and stir in two ounces of citron, cut thin ; bake and turn out in a dish. Steam Pudding. Boil a pint of fresh milk with some lemon-peel and cinnamon to taste, four eggs, the whites beaten and strained ; mix as if for baked custard, put all into a covered basin or mould ; set in a saucepan with the water half up, and boil for about twentyfive minutes. Strawberry Meringue Pudding. Line a dish with puff-paste ; at the bottom of the dish spread a layer of strawberry jam ; pour in a custard made with two ounces of butter stirred over a fire till quite smooth, adding gradually half a pint of milk and one ounce of sugar ; when it is thick (it must not boil) turn it into a basin, and when nearly cold add the yolks of two eggs ; put this on the jam and bake one hour ; whip the whites of the eggs quite stiff with a tablespoonful of castor sugar, and put on the top ten minutes before sending to table. It should be put back in the oven for a minute after the whip is on, to set it and give it a slight brown colour. Strawberry Pudding. See Pineapple Pudding, substituting strawberries for the pineapple, and adding besides three or four drops of cochineal. Strawberry Tart (open).