Royal Diplomatic Pudding. (Miss Parloa.)

Make lemon, orange, or wine jelly, using only two thirds of a pint of boiling water, that it may be stiff enough to mould.

Strain it into a pitcher. Place a two-quart mould in. a pan of ice water; pour in jelly half an inch deep. When hard, put in candied fruit in some fanciful design. Cut cherries in halves, and cut plums to represent leaves, and arrange them like a cluster of cherries; or cut the cherries smaller, and design a. branch of barberries. Fasten each piece of fruit in place with a few drops of the liquid jelly, and when hard add jelly to cover the fruit. When this is hard, place a smaller mould in the centre on the jelly and fill with ice. Pour the remainder of the jelly between the two moulds, adding it slowly, and dropping in fruit here and there, if you choose, until the mould is full. When the jelly is all firm, remove the ice, and add warm, not hot, water to the smaller mould, and take it out carefully, without breaking the wall of jelly. Fill the space with a Bavarian cream (page 356). Make a rich soft custard with the yolks of Jive eggs, half a cup of sugar, and a pint of milk; strain, and flavor with vanilla. When ready to serve, dip the mould in warm water, put a dish over it, and invert dish and mould together. Remove the mould carefully, and pour the soft custard around the pudding. Make the soft custard while the jelly is hardening; and do not put the materials for the Bavarian cream together until the small mould is removed from the jelly, and the cavity ready for the cream. Do not turn out of the mould until just before it goes to the table, as the slightest jarring breaks the jelly. A coffee cup within a quart bowl, and a small pail within a larger one, have been successfully used by those who had no moulds.

Fig. 48. Royal Diplomatic Pudding.

1 If granulated gelatine, use 2½ tablespoons.

A variety of dishes may be made by using the different colored jellies and fruits; and any of the creams stiff enough to mould can be used as filling. Snow Pudding, or Creme Diplomate and Wine Jelly, Norfolk Cream and Lemon Jelly, Orange Sponge and Orange Jelly, are attractive combinations. It may also be made in two sizes of small moulds, serving one mould to each person.

Gateau St. Honoré

Line a pie plate with thin puff paste, prick with a fork, and bake light brown. Make a cream cake paste (see Index), press it through a pastry bag round the edge of a jelly cake tin, and bake the remainder in balls the size of walnuts. Place the puff paste on a plate, and spread with raspberry jam or orange marmalade. Lay the border of cream cake paste on the edge, and press it into the marmalade. Fill the centre with any kind of Bavarian cream. Garnish with the cream cake balls and fruit. Use orange sections with orange marmalade, and candied cherries and plums with raspberry jam.

Sponge cake or feather cake, baked thin in a round tin plate, is more delicate than puff paste as a foundation for the gateau.

Gateau De Princess Louise

Bake sponge drop mixture or feather cake or snow cake in jelly cake tins. Cut the centre from one cake, leaving a rim one inch and a half wide. Put jelly on the remaining cake, lay the rim on the edge, and fill the centre with Bavarian cream. Garnish with candied fruit. Frost the rim if you prefer.

Chantilly Baskets

Dip the edges of soft flexible macaroons in syrup, prepared as for crystallized fruit, and form them into a basket on a fancy plate, something as children shape a burr basket. A rim and handle of pasteboard aid in keeping the shape. When dry, fill with any fancy Bavarian cream.

Andermatt Cream

Cook half a cup of washed rice in one cup of boiling water until the water is absorbed; then turn it into the double boiler with three cups of boiling milk. Steam it until tender. Stir in one heaped cup of a mixture of preserved fruits. When cool, stir in one pint of thick cream whipped stiff, and turn it into a melon mould. When firm, turn out, and serve with sponge cake.