Neapolitan Cake Gateau Napolitaine

Take one pound of fine flour that has been sifted, rub into it half a pound of good butter till quite smooth, and mix into it half a pound of castor sugar, half a pound of very finely-chopped blanched sweet almonds, four raw yolks of eggs, three large tablespoonfuls of orange flower water, and about twelve drops of essence of vanilla, and work it into a very stiff paste with cream or milk; roll the mixture out about a quarter of an inch thick, and stamp out of it rings about six inches in diameter outside. Place these rings on a wetted baking-tin, and prick them all over with a pricker or fork, brush over lightly with new milk, put them in a moderate oven and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes till a pretty fawn colour; take them from the tin and put them separately on the table to be pressed under a board with a heavy weight on top and leave them till cold. Arrange them one on top of the other with a little apricot or any nice jam between each ring; when all the pieces are placed together trim off all round any irregular pieces from the outside. Prepare an Apricot glace (see recipe 'Baba a la Parisienne'), or of any other nice jam, and, by means of a paste brush, brush the cake all over with it; let this get set and then place it on a paste bottom (vol. i. page 40) ornamented with Royal icing (vol. i.), and then ornament the cake with the icing by means of a forcing bag and pipe, and garnish with little pieces of dried cherries and angelica or any other nice fruit, and dish up on a pretty dish-paper. This cake can be served for a dinner sweet or for any cold collation, and may be filled with whipped cream sweetened and flavoured, or with ice or iced souffles.

Baba A La Parisienne Baba A La Parisienne

Prepare a Baba mixture (vol. i. page 327) and put it into a trois freres mould (that has been buttered and papered, and the pipe filled with a raw potato with a band of buttered paper round it), to about three-fourths its depth; place the mould on a baking-tin, and stand it in the screen for about one and a half hours, at the end of which time the mixture should have risen to twice its original size; put it into a moderate oven, and bake for about forty-five minutes; then remove the papers and potato, and turn out the baba on to a pastry-rack; soak it thoroughly with syrup (vol. i. page 42) flavoured with a liqueur; then mask it entirely with apricot glace, and sprinkle round the bottom some finely-chopped blanched pistachios, and with a forcing bag and small rose pipe ornament the cake tastefully with Royal icing (vol. i.), in two colours, pink and white, and decorate it with dried cherries, strips of cut uncrystallised angelica and walnuts, or filberts (when in season), prepared as below; then dish up the baba on a silver dish and fill up the centre with a macedoine of fruits, and stiffly-whipped cream that is sweetened with castor sugar and flavoured with vanilla essence. Serve for a dinner sweet.