The Complete Confectioner (1800)/Ornaments
Clip off the white from the red bud, and dry it in the sun; to one ounce of which, finely powdered, take one pound of loaf sugar; wet the sugar in rose water, (but if in season, the juice of roses) boil it to a candy height, put in the powder of roses, and the juice of a lemon; mince all well together, put it on a pie plate, and cut in into lozenges, or make it into any figures you please, as, men, women, or birds; and if you want ornaments in your dessert, you may glid or colour them, as in the wormwood cakes.
Take a very large deep china dish, first make some calves-foot jelly with which fill the dish about half the depth; when it begins to jelly, have ready some Naples biscuits, macaroons, and the little cakes called matrimony; break an equal quantity of these in pieces, and stick them in the jelly before it be stiff, all over very thick; pour over that a quart of thick sweet cream then lay all round, currant jelly, raspberry jam, and some calves-foot jelly, all cut in little pieces, with which garnish your dish thick all round, intermixing them, and lay on them macaroons and the little cakes, being first dipped in sack; then take two quarts of the thickest cream you can get, sweeten it with double refined sugar, grated into it the rind of three large lemons, and beat it up with a whisk; take off the froth as it rises, and lay it in your dish as high as you can possibly raise it.
Take four calves feet, set them on the fire in a saucepan, or pot, that will hold two gallons of water; and let them boil till they come to pieces, or two parts wasted, or till the jelly, by taking little out, be as stiff as glue; strain it through a sieve, when cold take off the fat at top; then take two quarts of this jelly, one quart of mountain wine, the juice of six large lemons, half a pound of double refined sugar, and the whites of six eggs, beat to a froth; mix all together, let it boil, and run it through a jelly-bag into a bowl, on a good quantity of lemon peel; throw what quantity you want into your dish, and pour the rest into another dish, so that you may cut it out when cold to garnish your trifle with.
Take a quart of very thick cream, sweeten it with fine sugar, grate in the peel of two lemons, and half a pint of sweet white wine; whisk it well, till you have raised all the froth you can, pour a pint or quart of thick cream into a china dish, according to its depth; take two French rolls, slice them thin, and lay them over the cream as light as you can; then a layer of fine calves-foot or hartshorn jelly; roll them over the currant jelly, then put the French rolls, and whip up your cream, lay it on as high as you can, and what remains pour into the bottom of the dish; garnish the rim of your dish with different sorts of sweetmeats, jellies, and ratafia cakes; this looks very ornamental in the middle of the table.
Blanch two pounds of almonds, beat them well in a mortar, with a little canary and orange flower water, to keep them from oiling; make them into stiff paste, and beat in the yolks of twelve eggs, leave out five of the whites, put to it a pint of cream, sweetened with sugar; put in half a pound of sweet butter melted, set it on a furnace or slow fire, and keep it constantly stirring till it is stiff enough to be made into the form of an hedge-hog; put it int a dish; add a pint of cream, and the yolks of four eggs beat up; sweeten with sugar to your palate; stir them together over a slow fire till it is quite hot; then pour it round the hedge-hog in a dish, and let it stand till it is cold, and serve it up; or a rich calves-foot jelly made clear and good, poured into the dish, round the hedge-hog: when it is cold, it looks pretty, and makes a neat dish: or it looks handsome in the middle of a table for supper.
Bake or scald eight or nine large apples; when cold, pare them, and pulp them through a sieve; beat this up with fine sugar; put to it the whites of four or five eggs that have been beaten, with a little rose water; mix it a little at a time, and beat it till it is light; heap it on a rich cold custard, or on jelly.
Take the whites of two eggs, and mix them up with two ounces of chocolate scraped; pile it on a thin custard or jelly.
Form a lump of paste into a rock three inches broad at the top, colour it, and set it in the middle of a deep china dish; set a cast figure on it, with a crown on its head, and a knot of rock candy at its feet; then make a roll of paste an inch thick, and stick it on the inner edge of the dish, two parts round; cut eight pieces of eringo roots, about three inches long, and fix them upright to the roll of paste on the edge; make gravel walks of shot comfits round the dish, and set small figures in them; roll out some paste, and cut it open like Chinese rails; bake it, and fix it one either side of the gravel walks with gum, and form an entrance where the Chinese rails are, with two pieces of eringo root for pillars.
First take care, at a proper time of the year, to save the stalks of the fruit with the stones to them; then get some neat tins made in the shape of the fruit you intend to make, leaving a hole at the top to put in the stone and stalk, so contrived as to open in the middle to take out the fruit; you must also have a frame of wood to fix them in: in making the tins care must be taken to have them extremely smooth in the inside, lest by their roughness they mark the fruit; as also that they are made of exact shape to what they represent, for a defect in either will give deformity to the artificial fruit; then take two cow heels and a calf's foot, and boil them in a gallon of soft water to rags; when you have a full quart of jelly, strain it through a sieve, put it in a saucepan, sweeten it, put in some lemon peel, with perfume, and colour it to the fruit you intend to imitate; stir all together, give it a boil, and fill your tins; put in your stones and the stalks just as the fruit grows; when the jelly is quite cold, open your tins for the bloom, and carefully dust powder blue.
Take the shapes of a half moon and five or seven stars; wet them, and fill them with flummery; let them stand till they are cold, then turn them into a deep china dish, and pour lemon cream round them, made thus: take a pint of spring water, put it to the juice of three lemons, and the yellow rind of one lemon, the whites of five eggs, well beaten, and four ounces of loaf sugar; then set it over a slow fire, and stir one way till it looks white and thick; if you let it boil it will curdle; then strain it through a hair sieve, and let it stand till it is cold; beat the yolks of five eggs, mix them with your whites, set them over the fire, and keep stirring it till it is almost ready to boil, then pour it into a bason; when it is cold, pour it among the moon and stars; garnish with flowers. It is a proper dish for a second course, either for dinner or supper.
Fill your large fish moulds and six small ones with flummery; take a china bowl, and put in half a pint of stiff clear calves-foot jelly; let it stand till cold, and lay two of the small fishes on the jelly, the right side down; put in half a pint more jelly, let it stand till cold, and lay in the four small fishes across one another, that, when you turn the bowl upside down, the heads and tails may be seen; then almost fill your bowl with jelly, and let it stand till cold; lay in the jelly four large fishes, fill the bason full with jelly, and let it stand till the next day; when you want to use it, set your bowl to the brim in hot water for one minute; take care, that you do not let the water go into the bason; lay your plate on the top of the bason, and turn it upside down; if you want it for the middle, turn it upon a salver; be sure you make your jelly very still and clear.