Page:Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats.djvu/64

54 icing very carefully with a penknife. Or you may cut it in squares first, and then ice and ornament each square separately.

FRENCH ALMOND CAKE

Blanch the almonds, by scalding them in hot water. Put them in a bowl of cold water, and wipe them dry, when you take them out. Pound them, one at a time, in a mortar, till they are perfectly smooth. Mix the sweet and bitter almonds together. Prepare them, if possible, the day before the cake is made.

Put the whites and yolks of the eggs, into separate pans. Beat the whites till they stand alone, and then the yolks till they are very thick.

Put the sugar gradually to the yolks, beating it very hard. Add, by degrees, the almonds, still beating very hard. Then put in it the essence of lemon. Next, beat in, gradually, the whites of the eggs, continuing to eat for some time after they are all in. Lastly, stir in the flour, as slowly and lightly, as possible.

Butter a large tin mould or pan. Put the cake in and bake it in a very quick oven, an hour or more according to its thickness.

The oven must on no account be hotter at the top, then at the bottom.

When done, set it on a sieve to cool.