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Venetian Cake

Blanch, dry thoroughly, and pound to a smooth paste seven ounces of sweet almonds and one ounce of bitter almonds. Whilst pounding, add a few drops of orange-flower water to keep the almonds from oiling. Mix a pound of flour with the almonds, and break into the mixture half a pound of firm cool butter. Rub four or five large lumps of sugar upon the rind of a lemon. Crush this to powder, and put with it additional sugar to make up the weight to half a pound. Work all the ingredients to a smooth paste with the well-beaten yolks of three large eggs or four small ones. Roll the paste to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, place it on a baking-sheet, and bake in the oven till it is firm and lightly and equally browned. Take it out, let it get cold, and divide it into six or seven portions of equal size. Spread jam of different colours upon all of these but one and lay them one upon the other, placing the one without jam upon the top. Ice the top of the cake, and ornament with coloured sugar. By way of variety, instead of cutting the cake into portions of an equal size, cut a large piece for the bottom, and the remainder gradually smaller and smaller, so that when the slices are placed one upon another a border an inch deep may be left round each. This border may be ornamented with jam of different colours.