This section is from the book "Common Sense In The Household. A Manual Of Practical Housewifery", by Marion Harland. Also available from Amazon: Common Sense in the Household.
Make a light paste as for apple dumplings or valise pudding, roll in an oblong sheet, and lay oranges (sweet ones), peeled, sliced, and seeded, thickly all over it. Sprinkle with white sugar; scatter a teaspoonful or two of the grated yellow peel over all and roll up closely, folding down the end to secure the syrup. Boil in a pudding-cloth one hour and a half. Eat with lemon sauce.
Wash and stone the cherries, or pick the currants from their stems. Make some good light crust, roll it out a quarter of an inch thick, and cut for the bottom a round piece about the size of a tea-plate. You can use the top of a tin pail for a cutter. Spread your fruit upon this, and sprinkle with sugar, leaving a half inch margin all around. Roll out a second sheet an inch less in diameter than the first, lay it carefully upon the fruit, and turn up the margin of the lower piece over the edge of this. Spread this, in turn, with fruit and sugar, and cover with a third and lessening round; proceeding in this order until the sixth and topmost cover is not more than three inches across. Have ready a conical cap of stout muslin adapted to the proportions and dimensions of your pile; dip it in boiling water, flour inside, and draw gently over all. It should be large enough to meet and tie under the base without cramping the pyramid.
Boil two hours, and eat with sweet sauce.
 
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