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Thanksgiving Surprise
Bake sheet of coffee fruit-cake; when cold cut into rounds; cut same size pieces from sheet of Bavarian cream; place on top; cover with red raspberry jam; then with a meringue; brown delicately; garnish with raisins cooked in sherry; flavor Bavarian with vanilla and have it firm before cutting.
This is an assembly formula rather than a full recipe: it assumes you already have coffee fruit-cake, Bavarian cream, jam and meringue in hand, and gives no quantities or temperatures. The hinge is temperature control — a gelatin-set Bavarian will slump the moment it meets a hot oven.
- Set the Bavarian hard firstThe instruction to have it firm before cutting is the whole trick. Pour the Bavarian into a shallow sheet pan no more than 3/4 inch deep and chill at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, so it cuts cleanly with a cutter dipped in hot water.
- Browning without meltingDo not bake these through. Brown the meringue under a broiler at full heat for 30-60 seconds, or with a kitchen torch, keeping the assembled rounds on a chilled tray. Any oven hot enough to take the top color will also soften the cream underneath.
- Use a cooked meringueA plain raw-white meringue barely browned leaves the egg white essentially uncooked. A Swiss meringue (whites and sugar warmed over water to 160F before whipping) or an Italian meringue with hot sugar syrup holds its shape better under a broiler and removes the question.
- Coffee fruit-cake'Coffee' in a cake title of this period often indicates strong brewed coffee used as the liquid rather than a coffee icing, though the usage is not consistent. Any firm, close-grained fruit cake or even a good pound cake with candied peel will stand in; a crumbly cake will not survive cutting into rounds.
- Cut sizesRounds of 2 to 2 1/2 inches are the practical range for a plated dessert. Cut the cake about 1/2 inch thick so the base does not overwhelm the cream.
- Sherried raisinsSimmer raisins in sherry for 5 minutes, then let them cool in the liquid so they plump. Drain them well before garnishing or the syrup will bleed into the meringue.
- Assembly order and timingCake, cream, a thin layer of raspberry jam, then meringue. Warm the jam slightly so it spreads without tearing the cream, and assemble no more than an hour before serving.
- YieldA 9x13 inch sheet of cake and a matching sheet of Bavarian will give roughly a dozen or more rounds at 2 1/2 inches, with trimmings left over.