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Fruit Mousse Layer Cake
1 tablespoon gelatine 2 tablespoons cold water 4 tablespoons boiling water 2 cups double cream, whipped stiff 2 tablespoons powdered sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup chopped nuts any fruit desired 2 egg whites, beaten stiff 1 cake Soften gelatine in cold water and dissolve in boiling water. Whip cream. Add sugar, vanilla, gelatine, nuts and fruit and lastly fold in egg whites. Cover bottom of tray with sponge cake or golden flakes and pour mousse over top. Let stand in electric refrigerator for 3 hours. Serves eight to ten
A frozen-tray dessert from the first decade of home electric refrigeration, built on whipped cream, gelatine and uncooked beaten egg whites. The egg whites are the problem: nothing in the method takes them above room temperature, and the mousse is then held cold for hours before being eaten.
- Why it failsThe two beaten whites are folded in raw and never heated at any stage. Shell eggs can carry Salmonella, and chilling suppresses growth rather than eliminating it, so a cold-set mousse gives the bacteria no lethal step at all. Use a current no-cook mousse recipe instead of adapting this one.
- Double creamIn this context probably means the richest cream on hand, closest to modern heavy whipping cream. Two cups roughly doubles in volume when whipped, which is consistent with a yield of eight to ten.
- The gelatineOne tablespoon is a little more than one modern quarter-ounce envelope, which measures about 2 1/4 teaspoons. Softening in cold water then dissolving in boiling water is still correct practice; the liquid must be cooled to lukewarm before it meets cold whipped cream, or it sets in threads.
- "Tray"Most likely the metal tray from the refrigerator's ice compartment rather than a serving platter, though the recipe only says to let it stand in the refrigerator. A loaf pan of similar dimensions is a workable substitute.
- Golden flakesAn unexplained period term used here as an alternative cake base. Sponge cake, ladyfingers or plain cake crumbs fill the same role.
- "1 cake" in the ingredient listThis is the sponge cake for the bottom layer, not an additional component. The method makes that clear only in passing.
- Three hoursThe recipe calls for the refrigerator, so three hours is a gelatine set rather than a freeze. In a modern freezer the same mixture would firm up considerably harder in that time.