Fine Cakes and Sauces

Ingredients

• four ounces of butter
• four ounces of the best flour
• three ounces of sugar
• two ounces of butter
• a teaspoonful of orange-flower water
• an ounce of butter till very smooth
• a pound of butter to free it from excess of salt
• a pound of powdered sugar
• a pound of dried
• four eggs
• one ounce of powdered sugar
• six eggs
• three quarters of a pound of butter to free it from excess of salt
• three quarters of a pound of powdered sugar
• ten eggs
• one half
• salt

Directions

1. _Madeleines._--Four ounces of butter, four ounces of the best flour, three ounces of sugar, a teaspoonful of orange-flower water, the yolks of four eggs, and rind of a lemon. Beat butter, sugar, and yolks of eggs together, then add the other ingredients; grate in the rind of half a lemon, and add the well-beaten whites of eggs last of all. Fill little moulds that have been buttered with washed butter, cover the tops with split almonds and sifted sugar; bake from thirty to forty minutes in a moderate oven. These cakes are sometimes served hot with apricot sauce.

2. _Chestnut Croquettes._--Boil fifty sound chestnuts; take them out of the shells; reject all imperfect ones; keep the large pieces aside; pound the crumbs and most broken pieces with an ounce of butter till very smooth; then mix in a _small_ cup of cream two ounces of butter and one ounce of powdered sugar; put the whole into a double boiler, and stir in the beaten yolks of six eggs. Let the mixture set. When cool, make it into balls; in the centre of each ball put a piece of the chestnut you have laid aside, dip the balls in fine cracker meal and eggs, and fry a very pale yellow. Serve with sifted sugar.

3. Very pretty cakes, very easily made, which come under the French term _petits fours_, may be given here.

4. _Petits Fours._--Make rich cake mixture thus: Wash three quarters of a pound of butter to free it from excess of salt; squeeze it dry in a cloth; beat it with the hand till creamy; add three quarters of a pound of powdered sugar; beat till light; then beat in ten eggs, one by one, and sift in a pound of dried and sifted flour. When all are well beaten together, the paste or batter is ready for use. Line some shallow pans (those used for making rolled jelly-cake are best) with buttered paper; spread a layer of the mixture just as you would for jelly-cake, but much thicker, as when baked the sheets should not be more than the third of an inch thick. Bake slowly. When done, remove from the oven, but leave the cake undisturbed till cold. If the sheets are large, they may be cut exactly in half, spread thinly with some stiff marmalade or jelly; quince or apricot is best, but any rich flavor with some tartness will do; lay one half on the other, and press closely and very neatly together. Do each sheet of cake in the same way, varying the marmalade if you choose. Have ready a bowl of icing (either boiled French icing or what is called royal icing). Dust the top of the cakes with flour, which must be brushed off again, as it is only to absorb the grease. Flavor the icing with vanilla, and lay it on the centre of the cake; let it run over it, aiding with a knife dipped in water (shaking off the drops, however). The icing needs to be very neatly done, and must not be thicker than a twenty-five-cent piece. Now color the icing in the bowl pink, with a little cochineal, add a drop or two of extract of bitter almond or of lemon, either of which will agree with the vanilla that was in the white icing; then ice another sheet of cake in the same way; a third may be done with chocolate icing.

5. The beauty of these cakes will depend on the way they are cut. You may choose to make them tablets an inch wide and three inches long, or in lozenge shape--the true diamond--but in either case the cutting must be exact. The best way to have it so is to mark the lines very lightly with the point of a penknife on the icing, using a measure. Trim off the edge of the cake with a sharp knife, so that it is neat all round, no excess of marmalade oozing out, or tears of icing running down. Then warm a sharp carving-knife (I am supposing the cake is on a board), and cut through the lines you have marked, without hesitation, so that there may be no crumbs or roughness, which slow, over-careful cutting causes. When cut up you should have, if neatly done, an assortment of very delicious and ornamental cakes.