In the little town of Richmond, England, is a small pastry shop widely known for its cheese cakes. It is said that the original recipe for them was furnished by a maid of Queen Elizabeth, who had a palace at Richmond. In the neighboring city of London the cakes are in great demand, and the popular opinion there is that the only place to get them is the shop mentioned, where they are made somewhat as follows: One cupful of sweet milk, one of sour, one of sugar, a lemon, the yolks of four eggs, a speck of salt. Put all the milk in the double boiler and cook until it curds; then strain. Rub the curd through a sieve. Beat the sugar and yolks of eggs together, and add the rind and juice of the lemon and the curd. Line little patty pans with puff or chopped paste, rolled very thin. Put a large spoonful of the mixture in each one, and bake from fifteen to twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Do not remove from the pans until cold. These are nice for suppers or lunches as well as for dessert.
Mix one pound currants, one drachm nutmeg, mace and cinnamon each, a little salt, one pound of citron, orange peal candied, and almonds bleach'd, 6 pound of flour, (well dry'd) beat 21 eggs, and add with 1 quart new ale yeast, half pint of wine, 3 half pints of cream and raisins, q: s:
Take a peck of fine flower, and three pound of the best Butter, work your flower and butter very well together, then take ten Eggs, leave out six whites, a pint and a halfe of Ale-yeast: beat the Eggs and yeast together, and put them to the flower; take six pound of blanched Almonds, beat them very well, putting in sometime Rosewater to keepe them from Oyling; adde what spice you please; let this be put to the rest, with a quarter of a pint of Sack, and a little saffron; and when you have made all this into Past, cover it warme before the fire, and let it rise for halfe an hour, then put in twelve pound of Currans well washed and dryed, two pound of Raisins of the Sun stoned and cut small, one pound of Sugar; the sooner you put it into the Oven after the fruit is put in, the better.
Take halfe a pound of Almonds blanched in cold water, beat them with some Rose-water till they doe not glister, then they will be beaten; if you think fit, lay seven or eight Musque Comfits dissolved in Rosewater which must not be above six or seven spoonfuls for fear of spoyling the colour; when they be thus beaten, put in half a pound of Sugar finely sifted, beat them and the Almonds together till it be well mixed, then take the whites of two Eggs, and two spoonfuls of fine flower that hath been dried in an Oven; beat these wel together and poure it to your Almonds, then butter your Plates and dust your Cakes with Sugar and Flower, and when they are a little brown, draw them, and when the oven is colder set them in again on browne Papers, and they will looke whiter.
Reserve two egg whites for icing. Cream butter, add sugar slowly, beating well. Add flavoring and yolks of eggs which have been beaten until pale yellow. Beat three egg whites until light and add alternately a little at a time with the flour which has been sifted with the baking powder. Mix well and bake in greased loaf pan in moderate oven about one hour. Cover with ornamental frosting made with the two remaining egg whites.
Make plain cake, saving out one-third of batter and adding to it 1-1/2 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate. This chocolate batter is then dropped by spoonfuls into the white batter after it is put into the pan.
Make the "French Cream" recipe, and divide into three parts, leaving one part white, color one pink with cochineal syrup, and the third part color brown with chocolate, which is done by just letting the cream soften and stirring in a little finely grated chocolate. The pink is colored by dropping on a few drops of cochineal syrup while the cream is warm and beating it in. Take the white cream, make a flat ball of it, and lay it upon a buttered dish, and pat it out flat until about half an inch thick. If it does not work easily, dip the hand in alcohol. Take the pink cream, work in the same way as the white and lay it upon the white; then the chocolate in the same manner, and lay upon the pink, pressing all together. Trim the edges off smooth, leaving it in a nice, square cake, then cut into slices or small cubes, as you prefer. It is necessary to work it all up as rapidly as possible.
Take some bacon and put in a hot frying-pan, and cook till it crisps. Then lift it out on a hot dish and put in the oven. Break six eggs in separate cups, and slide them carefully into the fat left in the pan, and let them cook till they are rather firm and the bottom is brown. Then take a cake-turner and take them out carefully, and put in the middle of the dish, and arrange the bacon all around, with parsley on the edge.
Nine pound of flour, 3 pound of sugar, 3 pound of butter, 1 pint emptins, 1 quart milk, 9 eggs, 1 ounce of spice, 1 gill of rose-water, 1 gill of wine.
At noon the day before baking, take half a cup of corn meal and pour over it enough sweet milk boiling hot to make it the thickness of batter-cakes. In the winter place it where it will keep warm. The next morning before breakfast pour into a pitcher a pint of boiling water; add one teaspoonful of soda and one of salt. When cool enough so that it will not scald the flour, add enough to make a stiff batter; then add the cup of meal set the day before. This will be full of little bubbles. Then place the pitcher in a kettle of warm water, cover the top with a folded towel and put it where it will keep warm, and you will be surprised to find how soon the yeast will be at the top of the pitcher. Then pour the yeast into a bread-pan; add a pint and a half of warm water, or half water and half milk, and flour enough to knead into loaves. Knead but little harder than for biscuit and bake as soon as it rises to the top of the tin. This recipe makes five large loaves. Do not allow it to get too light before baking, for it will make the bread dry and crumbling. A cup of this milk yeast is excellent to raise buckwheat cakes.
