This section is from the book "The Epicurean", by Charles Ranhofer. Also available from Amazon: The Epicurean, a Complete Treatise of Analytical and Practical Studies on the Culinary Art.
Cakes ten to a pound.
Prepare A Frolle Paste (No 136); keep it in a cool place on ice for twenty minutes. Cut about fifteen good apples in four, peel, shred them small and cook partially, while tossing them over a brisk fire, in a pan with some butter, sugar and vanilla added, then set aside to cool. Roll out two-thirds of the paste, not too thin, four inches wide and about the length of the baking sheet on a floured table; roll it over the rolling-pin to unroll on a baking sheet and cut it away straight; surround the edges with a narrow raised rim, and put in a moderate oven to half bake and leave till quite cold. Then fill the center with the cooked apples and finish exactly the same as the gooseberry cakes (No. 3309).
Line a few tartlet molds with fine foundation paste (No. 135); fill them level to the top with almond frangipane (No. 44), and lay a well-drained competed half apricot (No. 3691) over each; bake in a moderate oven, and when done and partly cold dress an imitation apricot made of Italian meringue (No. 140) on top of each one. Place them again in the oven to dry the meringue, and then let cool. When cold glaze over with a yellow rum icing (No. 102), fasten a stalk of angelica into each, and rub each one with a little carmine on cotton to color it.
Cut two ounces of candied fruits into small dice, such as citron, orange peel, preserved pears and a few cherries; add to them as many currants and raisins well washed in hot water, picked and cleaned. Prepare a small baba paste as described in No. 129, and when ready to mold stir in the fruits. Butter some small baba molds, fill them half full with the paste, and leave to rise; when entirely full push into a hot oven to bake; unmold as soon as done, and dip them into a hot thirty-two degree syrup well flavored with vanilla and rum (No. 102).
Choose eight fresh eggs; break the whites into a basin and the yolks into a bowl; into the latter mingle two ounces of powdered sugar flavored with grated lemon peel (No. 3165), and beat it up with a spoon until it becomes white; add a grain of salt to the whites, beating them very stiff. and mix them slowly with the yolks, sifting four ounces of good flour over the whole; lastly add a gill of well-drained whipped cream, and with this preparation fill some oblong paper cases (Fig. 548) three-quarters full; range them on a thin baking sheet, glaze the surfaces with fine sugar, and cook for twenty-five minutes in a slack oven.
Line ten boat-shaped tartlet molds with sweet paste (No. 136), and cook them white. Peel ten small, ripe, short bananas, cut off both ends and plunge the fruit into a boiling twenty-five degree syrup; remove the pan at once from the fire, and let the bananas cool off in this syrup, then drain. Cover the insidesof the un molded boats with apricot marmalade (No.:3675), and lay in each one half a banana, the rounded surface uppermost, brushing it over several times with vanilla apple syrup; garnish both sides with apple jelly (No. 3668).
 
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