Naples Sponge.
6 eggs. Use the yolks for custard.
1 quart of milk.
2 large cups sugar, and same quantity boiling water.
1 package gelatine soaked in 2 cups cold water.
Juice of a lemon and half the grated rind.
1 stale sponge-cake cut into smooth slices of uniform size.
2 glasses sherry.
Dissolve the soaked gelatine in the hot water. Add a cup of sugar and the lemon, and stir until the mixture is clear. Set aside in a shallow pan to cool. Meanwhile, make a custard of the milk, the yolks, and the other cup of sugar. Stir until it begins to thicken, when turn into a pitcher or pail, and put away until the “sponge” is ready for table. Whip the whites very stiff, and beat into them, a few spoonfuls at a time, the cooled gelatine. Spread the slices of cake, cut of a shape and size that will fit your mould, upon a flat dish, and wet them with the sherry. Rinse out a pudding or jelly mould with cold water, put a thick layer of the “sponge” in the bottom, pressing and smoothing it down, then one of cake, fitted in neatly; another of the sponge, proceeding in this order until all is used. The upper layer—the base when the sponge is turned out should be of cake.
Serve in a glass dish with some of the custard poured about the base, and send around more in a sauce-tureen or silver cream-pitcher.
Season the custard with vanilla.