Get some egg shape moulds, fill them with a mixture made as recipe No. 11, only using fine florador instead of semolina. When cold, turn in thus—cut into thin chips some pale lemon and orange peel, so as to resemble straw as much as possible. Take off all the sugar, put the chips in a glass dish (a round one is best), form them as much as possible like a nest, and lay the eggs in them. Serve with a nice custard in custard glasses separately. This is a pretty dish when well made. Some use jelly cut in strips instead of the peel, but it must be very carefully done to look nice.
26. Fancy Sweets.
One pound of Coombs' Eureka Flour, half a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter; mix these well together, then add four eggs, yolks and whites separately, the whites beaten to a stiff froth; mix with enough milk to make the consistence of stiff whipped cream. Take out a third of the mixture, and colour a nice pink with cochineal, and flavour with a few drops of almond essence, also put in a few blanched almonds cut in half; the rest of the mixture flavour with lemon, and put in some glacé cherries cut in half. Well butter a square and shallow cake tin, pour in half the plain mixture with cherries, let it spread and flatten, then pour the pink mixture on the top of that, let that also spread and flatten, and then pour the rest of the cherry mixture on the top; smooth with a wet knife and bake till set and a nice colour. Leave it for about ten minutes, and turn out. Let it get quite cold, then cut it into small squares; smooth the top of each by cutting it quite even. Then pour over each an icing made thus—half a pound of confectioners' sugar, with about two tablespoons of water, stir well; just let it boil up, and cover the tops of the cakes smoothly; then sprinkle over the top with pink chip cocoa-nut, hundreds of thousands, pistachio nuts, or crushed crystallised violets, each cake with a different decoration. This is a pretty dish, and very nice.
27. Sago Jelly.
Boil a quarter pound of small sago in one quart of water till quite clear and thick—if too thick add a little more water—but it must be very thick and stiff. Now add a half pound of sugar, the juice of three oranges strained, a drop or two of oil of oranges, a pennyworth of saffron that has been dissolved in a wine glass of boiling water and strained, some almonds blanched and cut into thin strips. Mix all well together, and pour into a plain mould that has been rinsed with cold water. Let it get quite cold and set, and turn out on a glass dish. Decorate with chow-chow according to fancy.
28. Sweet made of Bread.
Cut some slices of stale bread of a close texture, stamp it out in neat rounds, soak it in one egg well beaten in a small cup of milk, fry in lard a golden brown. Now cover over each any kind of jam that is liked best. Cover with whipped cream and ornament with a sprinkling of pink chip cocoa-nut, or to make it of two different colours the cream can be coloured with a few drops of cochineal, and ornament with white chip cocoa-nut. This is a very simple and pretty sweet.
29. Chestnut Souffle.
Boil about thirty chestnuts in water till soft. Remove the shell and outer skin; pound the nuts in a mortar with a few drops of orange flower water. Well beat the yolks of three eggs. Add them to the chestnuts with enough sugar and almond flavouring to taste. Stir into the paste about one pint of milk. Now beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and stir in gradually. Pour the mixture into a soufflé dish and bake a nice colour. Serve direct from the oven, as a soufflé falls in getting cold, and is spoilt.