Whisk a quart of good cream with 6 oz. powdered sugar, a glass of white wine, the juice and grated peel of 1 lemon, and a little cinnamon. Take off the froth as it rises, and lay it on a sieve, reversed, over a bowl. This should be done early in the morning, or the day before, that the froth may be firm. Place in a deep trifle dish 3 or 4 sponge cakes, some maccaroons, and ratafia cakes, also a few sweet almonds blanched and split, then pour over enough white wine, with a little brandy, to moisten them; when the wine is soaked up, spread over the cakes a layer of raspberry jam, or any good preserve, and pour over that a rich and boiled custard. Heap the whip lightly on as high as the dish will allow. The preserve used or left out, according to taste.
Gooseberry or Apple Trifle.
Scald the fruit, and pulp it through a sieve, sweeten it, and put a thick layer in a glass dish. Mix ½ pint of milk, ½ pint of cream, and the yolk of 1 egg, scald it over the fire, stirring all the time, add sugar, and let it become cold, then lay it on the fruit, and on it a whip, as directed in the last receipt.—Or: scald, pulp, and sweeten the fruit, then stir it over the fire, into a thin custard: when cooked enough, pour it into a glass dish, to get cold. If apple, grate nutmeg and cinnamon, or lemon peel, over the top, add also lemon juice, and lay a whip on the top.
A Tipsy Cake.
Put a stale sponge cake into a deep china or glass dish, pour round it some raisin wine or Marsala, and brandy to your taste, but enough to saturate the cake: when it is soaked up, strew sifted sugar over, and pour in the dish a rich custard. Ornament the top of the cake by sticking a light flower in the centre, or bits of clear currant jelly; or, sweet almonds blanched and split.
Crême Patisserie.
Boil a quart of new milk with cinnamon and lemon peel. Rub a heaped table-spoonful of flour quite smooth with a little cold milk; stir the boiled milk, by degrees, into it; add 5 eggs, and sugar to taste. Stir it over a slow fire till it thickens; pour it into a dish, and stir it slowly a few minutes. Flavour with vanilla, orange-flower water, ratafia, or brandy. This is flavoured with tea or coffee, in the following manner: put a heaped table-spoonful of green tea into the milk, boil it up, cover the saucepan, simmer it a few minutes, then strain it. This will give a strong flavour of tea. For coffee: make a breakfast-cupful of very strong coffee, and put it into the milk just before it boils: use no other flavouring ingredient, and sweeten the cream sufficiently.—Or: boil in a pint of thin cream, the peel of a large lemon grated or pared very thin, sugar to taste, and a very small piece of cinnamon. Work up a table-spoonful of flour with the juice of the lemon; pour the boiling cream to it, by degrees, and stir it over the fire till the flour is cooked; pour it into a dish, and stir slowly till nearly cold; garnish with candied sweetmeats.
Chocolate Cream.
Boil a quart of cream, having first scraped into it 1 oz. scented chocolate; add nearly ¼ lb. lump sugar, and 8 whites of eggs; whisk well, and, as the froth rises, take it off, and put into glasses.
A Plain Cream.