Take eight Carlsbad wafers of oblong shape. Stand them on end around the outside of a cylindrical mold, and carefully stick the edges together with sugar cooked to the crack, or with royal icing (see page [483]). Make the octagon as regular as possible. When the edges are well set place it on a foundation either of puff-paste or of layer cake cut to the shape of the form. Ornament it with dots of royal icing pressed through a pastry-bag and tube onto the edges. Just before serving fill the center with whipped cream, or with czarina cream, or with whipped jelly and fruits, or whipped jelly and meringue, or with any of the mousses. The wafers quickly loose their crispness, so the form must not be filled until the moment of serving.
A filling may also be made for this Charlotte of any of the Charlotte Russe mixtures, molding them in a form smaller than the form of wafers, and when unmolded the ornamental form placed over it, and whipped cream piled on top. In this way the wafers will not be softened.
STRAWBERRY CHARLOTTE
Cut large firm strawberries in two lengthwise; dip them in liquid gelatine, and line a plain mold, placing the flat side against the mold. If the mold is on ice the jelly will harden at once, and hold the berries in place. Fill the center with Charlotte filling No. 1, or with Bavarian cream, or with pain de fraises.
GÂTEAU ST. HONORÉ
This is a combination of puff-paste, cream cakes, glacé fruits, and whipped cream. It is said to be the triumph of the chef’s art, yet one need not fear to undertake it when one has learned to make good pastry and to boil sugar. It is an ornamental, delicious dessert, and one that can be presented on the most formal occasions. First: Roll thin a very short or a puff-paste, so when baked it will be one quarter of an inch thick only. Cut it the size of a layer-cake tin; place it on a dampened baking-tin, and prick it with a fork in several places. Second: make a cream-cake batter (see page [474]); put the batter in a pastry-bag with half inch tube, and press out onto and around the edge of the paste a ring of the batter. With the rest of the batter make a number of small cakes (two dozen), forming them with the tube into balls one half inch in diameter. Brush the ring and balls with egg, and bake in a quick oven; then fill them with St. Honoré cream (see [below]). Third: boil a cupful of sugar to the crack, and glacé some orange sections and some white grapes (see glacé fruits, page [516]). Fourth: with some of the sugar used for the fruits stick the small cream cakes onto the ring, making an even border; on top of each cake stick a grape, and between them a section of orange. Place a candied cherry on each piece of orange, and one below it, if there is room. Other candied fruits and angelica may be used also, if desired, and arranged in any way to suit the fancy. Fifth: make a St. Honoré cream as follows: scald one cupful of milk in a double boiler; turn it slowly onto the yolks of six eggs, which have been well beaten with one and one half tablespoonfuls of corn-starch and a cupful of powdered sugar. Return to the fire until it begins to thicken or coats the spoon, then remove, and flavor with one teaspoonful each of vanilla and noyau, and stir in lightly the whites of eight eggs beaten very stiff. Cook it one minute to set the whites, beating all the time. When cold, turn it into the gâteau. Whipped cream may or may not be piled on top of the St. Honoré cream.
