Surprise Cygnet Cake

Ingredients

• forty eggs
• lqt. of jelly
• 4 wineglassfuls of maraschino
• four ripe peaches
• 2oz. of angelica
• 2oz. of citron
• 2oz. of currants
• 2oz. of Smyrna raisins
• 3 wineglassfuls of brandy

Method

1. 1

   Make a large sponge cake, bake for about two hours and a half.

2. 2

   Shape it to resemble a swan, ice it with white royal icing, and mark it with a fork to imitate feathers.

3. 3

   Prepare the neck and head from confectioners’ paste and bake.

4. 4

   Fill the body with jelly, maraschino, and peaches.

5. 5

   Serve with vanilla cream ice mixed with soaked fruits.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The encyclopædia of practical cookery (1890) by Theodore Francis Garrett, page 51. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Surprise Cygnet Cake. — To the groat Soyer we are indebted for many marvellous dishes, but the following is not less worthy of attention than others : Make a large sponge Cake, using forty eggs, and bake about two-hours-and-a-half in a large shallow tin dish or dish-cover ; the next day shape it with a knife to resemble the body of a swan, leaving a space down the front of the breast for the neck. Cut out the interior from the bottom to within lin. of the surface; :ce it over with white royal icing, and when the icing is almost set mark it in imitation feathers with the prongs of a fork. Shape the neck and head out of confectioners’ paste, cut the neck in halves lengthwise and lay it, the cut sides down, on a buttered baking-sheet. Model each half of tho head separately, and lay it the same way as the neck, that is the flat side downwards. Bake these in a moderate oven. When done, join them together with a paste made of white of egg and flour, scrape the bottom of the neck quite flat, ice it over with white icing, and, when on the verge of setting, ruffle it to look like feathers with the prongs of a fork, and keep it in a warm temperature till dry. Mix with lqt. of jelly, 4 wineglassfuls of maraschino, and four ripe peaches For details respecting Culinary Processes, Utensils, Cakes — continued. cut in quarters ; pour it into the dish, filling it to tho inner rim, and stand in a cool place till set. When ready to serve, pour 3 wineglassfuls each of brandy and maraschino into the body of the swan, and fill it up with vanilla cream ice, in which has been previously mixed 2oz. of an- gelica and 2oz. of citron cut in small squares, 2oz. of currants washed, and 2oz. of Smyrna raisins

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.