Make a biscuit preparation with a pound of sugar, having two ounces of it flavored with vanilla (No. 3165), eight ounces of flour and four ounces of fecula sifted together; three-quarters of a pound of roasted and pounded filberts, twenty-two egg-yolks, six beaten whites and a grain of salt. Bake in a slack oven on a baking sheet covered with paper, having it at least half an inch thick, and when done put aside to cool for twelve hours. With seven or eight egg-yolks, some sugar, six gills of milk and a piece of vanilla, prepare an English cream (No. 42):. as soon as it thickens remove and mix in a quarter of a pound of roasted chopped filberts, and pour it at once into a glazed vessel, working till cold; then strain through a tammy and return it to the saucepan to beat on a slow fire for two minutes to have it lukewarm; remove once more and incorporate into it. without ceasing to stir, one-half pound of fresh butter divided in small pats; the cream should now be quite consistent and slightly frothy; divide it into two parts, and color one with carmine mixed with a little syrup so that it acquires a pinkish hue, leaving the other half white.

Have a hexagon (six-sided) shaped cardboard pattern and with it cut three or four pieces from the prepared biscuit; split them through their thickness, mask them over with apricot marmalade (No. 3675), and reconstruct them as before; fasten these pieces on a thin Genoese bottom a third of an inch wider than the biscuit, and on this, with the remainder of the biscuit cut thin and also masked with apricot)) raise an even pyramid, cut hexagonally; cover it as well as its base with a thin layer of the butter cream. Roast in the oven half a pound of filberts cut up small: when removed besprinkle with fine sugar, and when nearly cold apply them in smooth layers against the thickness of the base on which the pyramid stands, pressing them down with the blade of a knife to equalize the surface, leaving no open space whatever between. Introduce a part of the white cream into a small fancy socket pocket (Fig. 179), and push on the surfaces of the pyramid small, plain, close flowers. strictly following the divisions of the hexagon; next to these push some pink flowers, alternating the shades, in the different compartments.

When the pyramid is entirely covered push a large rose on top, having the two colors mixed, then with a smaller socket surround the base of the cake with small roses made of the two colors. Keep the cake for a quarter of an hour on ice to have the cream harden superficially, and on removing slip it carefully on a napkin, and serve at once, for the buttered cream must remain hard.

Fig. 595.