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Ice-Cream Sandwiches
Devil's food, angel cake, sponge cake, butter cake, or eclair or cream-puff shells may be the foundation of many a delicious ice-cream sandwich. Between thin slices of any of the cakes, or between halves of pastry shells, place a serving of ice-cream of a flavor to blend well with the cake. Brick ice-cream, of course, is the easiest to cut. Cover with chocolate, butterscotch, marshmallow, or fruit sauce, either hot or cold, and top with nuts of various kinds, coconut, or pieces of fresh or canned fruit. For example, between thin slices of gold or white cake place a serving of vanilla ice-cream and three or four tablespoons of crushed fresh strawberries. Over the whole pour plain marshmallow sauce or whipped cream and garnish with several tablespoons of crushed strawberries. Fill a cream-puff shell with peach ice-cream and pour over it a peach sirup, topped with whipped cream. Chocolate or vanilla ice-cream placed between layers of white cake or angel food is delicious covered with a thick fudge sauce.
This is a formula rather than a fixed recipe: cake, ice-cream, sauce, garnish. The one thing that decides whether it works is temperature control, since the ice-cream has to be hard enough to hold a cut edge while the cake stays soft enough to bite through.
- Brick ice-creamA brick was ice-cream frozen in a rectangular mould or paper carton, then sliced crosswise into flat slabs. Modern pints do not slice cleanly; instead, spread softened ice-cream about an inch deep in a parchment-lined loaf pan or square tin, freeze solid for at least 4 hours, then turn out and cut into cake-sized pieces.
- Freeze the assembled sandwichesAssemble on a chilled tray and return the sandwiches to the freezer for 30 to 60 minutes before saucing. Cut and served immediately, as written, they slump at once.
- Gold cakeGold cake is a butter cake made with egg yolks only, the counterpart to a white cake made with whites. Any close-crumbed butter or pound cake substitutes; slice it about 3/8 inch thick, since anything thinner tears when pressed onto frozen ice-cream.
- Angel cake and spongeThese are the hardest to use because the open crumb compresses. Cut them with a serrated knife and freeze the slices for 20 minutes first, which firms the crumb and reduces crumbling.
- "Sirup"The period spelling of syrup. A peach sirup here means the canning syrup from tinned peaches, reduced slightly, or fresh peaches cooked briefly with sugar until saucy.
- Marshmallow sauceIn period kitchens this was made from marshmallows melted in a little hot water or milk, or from a boiled sugar syrup beaten into egg white. Jarred marshmallow creme thinned with a spoonful of hot cream gives the same effect.
- Hot sauce on frozen fillingThe recipe allows the sauce hot or cold. If you use a hot fudge, butterscotch or fruit sauce, pour it just before serving, as it will soften the ice-cream quickly.
- YieldThe strawberry example given describes one serving: two slices of cake, one slab of ice-cream, and three or four tablespoons of crushed berries, with a further unspecified 'several tablespoons' for the garnish.