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Plum Cake, Rich, Icing For

Rich plum cakes are much improved if they are covered with almonds and sugar icing. They may then be used as Twelfth-cakes. The almond paste is made as follows. Blanch and peel half a pound of almonds. Pound them in a mortar to a smooth paste, and whilst pounding add a few drops of orange-flower water to keep them from oiling. Mix with them one pound of powdered and sifted loaf sugar, and add sufficient white of egg to make a soft paste. Bake the cake and let it get cold. Spread the almond paste smoothly over it, and when it is hard cover with sugar icing about a quarter of an inch thick. To make the sugar icing, take the whites of two or, if necessary, three eggs, and do not beat them. Mix with them two pounds of icing sugar to make a stiffish paste that will not run, and add a few drops of lemon-juice occasionally. Mix, but do not work, the icing, and spread it evenly on the cake with the hands, which should have been dipped in cold water, put it in a cool oven or hot-screen until it is dry and hard. Ornament it in any way that fancy suggests. Raised and mottoed ornaments may be fastened upon it, or a small portion of the icing may be made thicker with a little more sugar, and then be squeezed through the small end of a piece of paper twisted in the form of a sugar-bag, to make a piping.

PLUM CHEESE, MADE FROM PLUMS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED FOR JELLY. Skin and stone the plums from which the juice has been strained. Weigh them, and boil them until dry. Mix one pound of powdered loaf sugar with every three pounds of fruit, and boil it again until the pulp leaves the sides of the pan with the spoon. Press it into shallow moulds, cover it as jam is covered, and store in a cool dry place. Time to boil, one hour and a quarter to boil the fruit by itself, half an hour to boil it with the sugar.