Blanch and pound the almonds with the lemon juice. Put through a fine sieve. Add the whites and sugar. Beat well together. Stir over the fire for two or three minutes. Take off and colour with green colouring. Put the whipped cream in the centre of a dish. Put the almond paste through a coarse sieve and arrange it lightly around the cream. Decorate with sugared fruit (see [p. 165]).
Orange Charlotte
¹⁄₂ oz. gelatine
1 cup powdered sugar
¹⁄₂ pint orange juice
1 scant cup water
4 eggs
Lady fingers
Soak the gelatine. Boil the juice, water and sugar. Skim. Beat the yolks thoroughly. Pour the syrup over them slowly, beating hard all the time. Put into a double boiler and stir the mixture till it thickens. Dissolve the gelatine in as little boiling water as possible. Put the mixture in a good-sized basin and strain the gelatine into it, beating continually. When cool, but not hard, stir in the whites beaten to a stiff froth, and beat altogether till it begins to thicken. Then pour the mixture into moulds lined with lady’s fingers. This Charlotte can be made with the juice of any fruit, tinned or fresh.
*Pain aux Fruits
1 pint of fruit pulp
1 oz. gelatine
1 gill cold water
1 gill hot water
Crush some apricots, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, or pine-apples. Sweeten and add a little liqueur and lemon juice, and, if liked, blanched and chopped almonds. To each pint of fruit use one ounce of gelatine which has been soaked in one gill of cold water and dissolved in one gill of hot water. Stir well together until the mixture begins to set. Pour into a china mould. Serve with a rich custard or cream.
*Pine Apple Meringue
¹⁄₂ pint cream
1 cup grated pine-apple
4 table-spoons sugar
¹⁄₂ oz. gelatine
7 meringue cases
Whip the cream. Dissolve the gelatine in a very little boiling water. Strain it gradually over the cream, whisking it continually while doing so. Stir in the grated pine-apple and the sugar. Beat in a cold place until the mixture begins to set. Then arrange the meringues and cream in layers. Garnish with crystallised fruits.