No. 3029

Cupola a la Madison

Coupole a la Madison

Butter a cupola-shaped mold and fill it three-quarters full with savarin paste (No. 148); let rise in a mild temperature, and as soon as it reaches the top of the mold push it into a slack oven to bake; when the cake is done unmold it on a grate, cool well, replace it in the mold and pare flush with the bottom; unmold again and cut an incision all around at three-quarters of its height, with a small kitchen knife, keeping its point toward the center; carefully lift off the lid and empty out the interior, leaving the sides half an inch thick; fill the empty cake with fine paper to prevent it from losing its shape; replace the lid and cover it with a very thin layer of apricot marmalade (No. 3675) and ice it with fondant (No. 58) flavored with kirsch. After this icing is well drained slip the cupola on a dish and decorate the center of the lid with a handsome rosette of angelica and candied orange peel, cut to represent crescents, arranging them alternately; place in the center a large cherry and surround the crescents with a wreath formed of angelica lozenges and candied cherries laid between. Range around the base of the cupola a circle of fine brandied greengages. Prepare a compote of pears cut in four, drain and cut them up into thin slices, adding as many preserved cherries (demi-sucre) well washed in hot water, and mingle the whole with the same quantity of white apple marmalade, reduced and flavored with kirsch. Ten minutes before serving lift off the lid from the timbale, remove the paper and fill it up with the very hot preparation; replace the lid and keep the whole hot for a few minutes; serve with a sauce-boat of apricot kirsch sauce (No. 3001).

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For the Modern Kitchen

A hollowed yeast-cake dome, iced and filled with hot fruit at the last minute — Delmonico's version of a savarin. Nearly all the difficulty is in the structure, not the flavors.

The hinge: cool completely before cuttingSavarin paste is a wet, elastic yeast dough that tears if handled warm. Let the baked dome cool fully — several hours, or overnight — before cutting the lid and scooping the crumb, or the half-inch walls will collapse.
"Slack oven"A cool oven, roughly 300-325°F. A rich yeast dough this size wants gentle heat so the center bakes through before the crust hardens; bake until a skewer comes out clean.
Savarin pasteNo. 148 is a yeasted batter dough of flour, eggs, butter and milk — essentially baba dough without the raisins. Any modern savarin or baba recipe works. Fill the buttered mold no more than three-quarters and let it rise just to the rim; further and it will dome over and spill.
The paper fillingStuffing the hollow cake with crumpled parchment before icing is a support, not a garnish. Without it the walls slump under the weight of warm fondant. Count the paper out as you remove it — nothing is worse than serving it.
Fondant icingNo. 58 is poured fondant: sugar syrup cooked to soft-ball, worked until opaque, then rewarmed to barely lukewarm with kirsch. Commercial rolled fondant is not a substitute; a thin kirsch-flavored water icing gives the closest effect.
Candied fruitsAngelica (candied stems of Angelica archangelica) is now a specialty item; candied green citron peel is one possible stand-in for the green lozenges and crescents. "Demi-sucre" cherries are lightly candied ones packed in light syrup -- rinse them in hot water as directed to remove the sticky coating.
Brandied greengagesGreengages are a small green-gold plum, in American markets briefly in late summer. Brandied plums or good mirabelles in syrup do the same job around the base.
The filling and the timingCook the pear compote, apple marmalade and cherries ahead and reduce the mixture until it is thick enough to mound on a spoon. Fill only ten minutes before serving, as instructed: a loose or early filling soaks the walls and the dome slumps.
YieldNo mold size is given; a cupola mold of roughly 1½ to 2 quarts would serve eight to ten. Bring the apricot-kirsch sauce to the table separately and hot.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's for most of three decades, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, and this entry shows his method of building set pieces out of standard components — savarin paste, apricot marmalade, fondant, apricot-kirsch sauce, each carried by number from elsewhere in the book. The base is a savarin, the ring-shaped yeast cake generally traced to the Julien brothers' Paris pastry shop in the 1840s and named for the gastronomic writer Brillat-Savarin, itself a descendant of the rum-soaked baba. "Coupole" is simply the French for dome or cupola, describing the mold rather than any dish of origin; the Madison in the title, like the Douglas and dozens of other proper names attached to Ranhofer's entremets, is not tied to any documented inventor. The elaborate mosaic of angelica crescents, candied peel and cherries on the lid belongs to a period when a hot dessert was expected to arrive looking architectural.