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Princes' Pudding
Beat two ounces of fresh butter to a cream. Add a table-spoonful of sifted sugar, and the well-whisked yolks of three eggs and the white of one. Crush an ounce and a half of macaroons to powder. Stir this into the pudding, and pour in two table-spoonfuls of brandy. Beat the pudding for some minutes, pour it into a well-buttered tin, and bake in a well-heated oven. Turn it out before serving, and garnish with apricot or strawberry jam. This pudding may be served either hot or cold. Time to bake, ten to fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 10d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A tiny, very rich baked custard held together by crushed macaroons rather than flour. The whole thing is over in a quarter of an hour, so have the tin buttered and the oven up before you start beating.
- "A well-heated oven"Probably a fairly brisk oven, somewhere in the region of 400F (200C), though the book gives no temperature and Victorian oven descriptions are imprecise. The pudding is shallow and bakes in ten to fifteen minutes, so a cool oven will leave the centre loose.
- Macaroons means almond macaroonsVictorian macaroons were the crisp almond-and-egg-white kind, closest today to Italian amaretti or amaretti secchi. Coconut macaroons are a different sweet entirely and will not crush to the dry powder the recipe wants. An ounce and a half is about 40g.
- Quantities in modern termsTwo ounces of butter is 55g (half a stick); a tablespoon of sifted sugar is about 12g of caster or icing sugar. Note how little sugar there is he macaroons carry most of the sweetness, and the jam finishes it.
- The tinThe recipe gives no size; a small plain mould or deep tin is meant, and the mixture is a small one. Butter it heavily and, if you want a clean turn-out, dust it with a little sifted sugar or fine macaroon crumbs as well.
- Beating is the leaveningThere is no flour, no baking powder and no whisked white folded in, so the only lift comes from air beaten into the creamed butter and yolks. The instruction to beat "for some minutes" after the brandy goes in is the hinge of the recipe; skimp on it and you get a dense sweet omelette.
- The lone egg whiteThe recipe gives no reason for three yolks to one white, but the effect is enough white to bind without making the pudding rubbery. Save the two spare whites rather than adding them.
- Turning outLet it stand a few minutes out of the oven before inverting; straight from the heat it is fragile.
- Yield"four or five persons" implies small portions of a rich sweet. By modern standards this would serve two generously, or four as a small dessert with the jam and some cream.
Cassell's is full of puddings named for rank Queen's, Duke's, Princes' and the names usually signal richness and small size rather than any royal connection that can be documented. What marks this one out is that it is built on bought macaroons: almond macaroons appear to have been a common grocer's line by the later nineteenth century, and cookery writers leaned on them as a ready-made source of almond flavour and dry crumb, in trifles, charlottes and puddings like this one. The costing of 10d. is typical of Cassell's editorial method, which priced nearly every dish so a household could judge it against the week's budget and 10d. for a pudding serving five put this firmly among the small luxuries rather than everyday fare. The brandy, the yolk-heavy mixture and the jam garnish all belong to the same tradition of concentrated, spoon-sized richness served at the close of a formal dinner.