L'Opera cake/gateau is a 20th century recipe with Ancient roots. Not unlike Tiramasu.
The practice of layering cakes with sweet substances (honey), intoxicating liquors (wine) andaccented with nut flavorings (almonds) was a particular favorite of ancient middle-eastern cooks. The Romans adopted/adapted this recipe and took it with them when they conquered Europe. It isno accident that 16th century English cooks created "trifle." Chocolate and coffee were introduced to Europe in the16th-17th centuries but (due to economics) were not incorporated into recipes until the 19thcentury. According to the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson (p. 748)sponge cake was also created in the 19th century. Also related to L'Opera gateau are Genoise (almond-flavored sponge with variousdecorations and fillings) and Savoy (sponge made by beating egg yolks and whites beatenseparately). About sponge cake.
"Opera gateau is an elaborate almond sponge cake with a coffee and chocolate filling andicing."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated, [Clarkson Potter:2001] (p.814)
"A classic for the past twenty years, the Opera was created for those who unabashedly choosechocolate and butter cream over fruit desserts. What makes this low, flat cake more modern thanany of its predecessors is its shape (usually square or rectangular), and its undecorated sides thatshow all the layers. L'Opera is traditionally composed of layers of Biscuit Joconde, an almondsponge, that have been thoroughly soaked with coffee syrup...Some pastry shops decorate the topwith the word Opera, written in panach with all the swirls that the French love so much..."
---New French Baker, Sheila Linderman [William Morrow:New York] 1998 (p. 66)
"Opera cake. This is a classic chocolate-coffee cake that I believe was first made in the 1930s foran important French-American reception held at the Paris Opera."
---La Nouvelle Patisserie, Jean-Yves Duperret [Viking:New York] 1988 (p. 155)
MADELEINES (sponge recipe)
The food historians haven't quite determined the exact origin of the Madeleine as of yet. Theirconnection to Marcel Proust is his reference to them in the opening lines of his autobiographyRemembrances of Things Past. Proust's original text.
"In culinary lore, Madeleines are always associated with Marcel Proust, whose autobiographicalnovel, Remembrance of Things Past, begins as his mother serves him tea and "those short,plumplittle cakes called petit* madeleines, which look as though they had been molded in the flutedscallop of a pilgrim's shell." The narrator dips a corner of a little cake into the tea and then isoverwhelmed by memories; he realizes that the Madeleines bore "in the tiny and almostimpalpable drop of their essence, the vast tructure of recollection." ...But Madeleines had existedlong before Proust's boyhood. Numerous stories, none very convincing, attribute their inventionto a host of different pastry cooks, each of whom supposedly named them for some particularyoung woman. Only three things are known for sure. One is that Madeleine is a French form ofMagdalen (Mary Magdalen, a disciple of Jesus, is mentioned in all four gospels). Another is thatMadeleines are always associated with the little French town of Commercy, whose bakers weresaid to have once, long ago, paid a "very large sum" for the recipe and sold the little cakes packedin oval boxes as a specialty in the area. Finally, it is alow known that nuns in eighteenth-centuryFrance frequently supported themselves and their schools by making and selling a particularsweet...Commercy once had a convent dedicated to St. Mary Magdelen, and the nuns, probablywhen all the convents and monastaries of France were abolished during the French Revolution,sold their recipe to the bakers for an amount that grew larger with each telling."
---Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [OhioUniversity Press:Athens] 1998 (p. 178)
"Madeleine, a small French cake associated with the town of Commercy in Lorraine...Legendsabout the origin of the name are critically discussed by Claudine Brecourt-Villars [Mots detable,mots de bouche, Paris:Stock 1996]. Madeleines have earned themselves an immortal place inliterature, as the taste on one dipped in limeflower tisane provided the basis for Marcel Proust'scelebrated reference to them, and the phrase a madeleine of Proust...The name madeleine hasalso been applied, for reasons which are obscure, to an English product: a small individualsponge cake in the shape of a truncated cone, covered in jam and dessicated coconut, andsurmounted with a glace cherry."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.468)
"Madeleine...The origin of this seashell cake so strictly pleated outside and so sensual inside"(Marcel Proust) is the subject of much discussion. It has been attributed to Avice, chef toTallyrand, the French statesman, who had the idea of baking a pound-cake mixture in aspicmoulds. Other authorities, however, believe that the recipe is much older and originated in theFrench town of Commercy, which was then a duchy under the rule of Stansilaw Leszczynski. It issaid that during a visit to the castle in 1755 the duke was very taken with a cake made by apeasant girl named Madeleine. This started the fashion for madeleines (as they were named by theduke), which were then launched in Versailles by his daughter Marie, who was married to LouisXV. The attribution of the cake to Madeleine Paumier, cordon-bleu to a rich burgher ofCommercy, seems doubtful."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated [Clarkson Potter:NewYork] 2001 (p. 709)
"Madeleine...A chronicler of the history of pastry-making ways that the great pastry-cook, Avice,when he was working for Prince Talleyrand, invented the madeleine. He had the idea of usingtot-fait or quatre-quarts mixture for little cakes baked in an aspic mould. M. Boucher and Caremeapproved of the idea. He gave the name of madeleines to these cakes.' (Lacam, Memorial de lapatisserie.). Other authorities, however, hold that far from having been invented by Avice, theselittle cakes were known in France long before his time. They believe that they were first made atCommercy, and were brought into fashion about 1730, first at Versailles and then in Paris, byStanislas Leczinski, father-in-law of Louis XV, who was very partial to them. The recipe forMadeleines remained a secret from a very long time. It is said that it was sold for a very large sumto the pastry-makers of Commercy who made of this great delicacy one of the finest gastronomicspecialties of their own."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagne, edited by Charlotte Turgeon and NinaFroud [Crown:New York] 1961 (p. 603-4)
Recipes for madeleines have changed over time:
[1890's]
"1290. Madeleines
These are made with the same kind of batter as Genoese cakes, to which currants, dried cherries,candied peel or angelica may be added. When the batter is ready, let it be poured into a sufficientnumber of small fluted or plain dariole or madeleine moulds (previously buttered inside); thesemust be placed on a baking-sheet spread with some charcoal ashes, to the depth of half an inch,and then baked in an oven of a moderate heat. When they are done, turn them out of the moulds,and dish them up in a pyramid form. These cakes may also be partially emptied, then filled up withsome kind of preserve, and the small circular piece, removed previously to taking out the crumb,should be replaced."
---Francatelli's Modern Cook, Charles Elme Francatelli [David Mckay:Philadelphia] 1890s(p. 442)[1941]
"French Madeleine
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups butter, melted
Rum, if desired
Vanilla extract or lemond rind
Work the eggs and sugar in a double boiler until creamy and lukewarm. Remove from the fire andbeat until cold. Add the flour gradually, mixing with a wooden spoon, the butter and the rum, ifdesired, vanilla extract or grated lemon rind. Butter and flour the Madeleine molds, fill them 2/3full. Bake in a hot oven about 450 degrees F. Yields 24 to 30 small Madeleines."
---Cooking a la Ritz, Louis Diat [J.B. Lippincott Company:Philadelphia] 1941 (p.424-5)
[NOTE: Mr. Diat also offers a recipe for "Viennese Madeleine," which includes marzipan, eggs,sugar, vanilla extract, melted butter and cornstarch.]
About sponge.
Lady Baltimore Cake
Lady Baltimore cake descends from the light egg-white tradition of lady cakes. Delicate, smooth, and creamily iced, they were popular from the mid-19th century forwards. As one might suspect, there are several recipe variations. Although the name suggests this is a traditional Maryland confection, evidence strongly suggests the cake originated in Charleston, South Carolina. Lord Baltimore cake is an egg-yolk rich counterpart of questionable origin.
What is a Lady Baltimore Cake?
"Lady Baltimore Cake. A moist, pure white, three-layer cake made with a filing of chopped pecans, raisins, and other dried fruit, such as figs, and a billowy white frosting, usually made with boiled icing. The cake, which uses egg whites only, not yolks, in the batter, has a delicate fine-grained texture. Lady Baltimore cake is a traditional cake that was originally a specialty of the city of Charleston, South Carolina."
---International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections, Carole Bloom [Hearst Books:New York] 1995 (p. 169)
For whom was it named?
"Lady Baltimore Cake...A legendary dessert, famous throughout the South. This cake is said to have originated with the first Lord Baltimore's wife, for serving at afternoon teas."
--- Chesapeake Bay Cookbook: Rediscovering the Pleasures of a Great Regional Cuisine, John Shields [Aris Books:Berkeley CA] 1990 (p. 59)
Where did it originate?
"Lady Baltimore Cake. A white cake filled with nuts and raisins and covered with a vanilla-and-egg-white frosting. There are several stories of how the cake was named, but he most accepted version concerns a cake by this name baked by a Charleston, South Carolina, belle named Alicia Rhett Mayberry for novelist Owen Wister, who not only described the confection in his next book but named the novel itself Lady Baltimore (1906). In American food (1974) Evan Jones noted that 'it may also be true that the 'original' recipe became the property of the Misses Florence and Nina Ottolengui, who managed Charleston's Lady Baltimore Tea Room for a quarter of a century and annually baked and shipped to Owen Wister one of the very American cakes his novel had help to make famous.'"
---Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1997 (p. 179)
"Despite the fact that the original Lady Baltimore was a yellow cake, the version most Americans now accept as the classic is a silver cake made with plenty of stiffly beaten egg whites. Even James Beard, the dean of American cooking, offers the egg-white version in American Cookery (1972). Charleston Receipts (1950) prints both versions. When did the shift from whole eggs to whites occur? The earliest whites-only Lady Baltimore I could find appears in Good Housekeeping's Book of Menus, Recipes and Household Discoveries (1922). It calls for nine egg whites, confectioners' sugar instead of granulated, and rose extract for flavor. Nearer the Lady Baltimores of today is the one in All About Home Baking, a slim volume of recipes put out by General Foods in 1933. Here, Lady Baltimore is introduced as a 'butter cake which uses egg whites only.' My hunch is that General Foods publicized its Lady Baltimore in Swans Down Cake Flour ads, possibly on package labels, too, which would explain why silver cake versions have eclipsed the whole-egg original."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 426)
"Each year at Christmas time hundreds of white boxes to out of Charleston to all parts of the country bearing the round, the tall, the light, the fragile, the ineffable Lady Baltimore cakes. There are several ladies of old descent who make an excellent living baking these famous cakes.You have seen Lady Baltimore cakes on many a menu, but it usually means something altogether different from the real Charleston delicacy. By no stretch of the imagination could this cake be called economical, but its goodness makes one willing to forget its eight eggs!"
---200 Years of Charleston Cooking, recipes gathered by Blanche S. Rhett, edited by Lettie Gay [Random House:New York] 1930, revised edition 1934 (p. 172)
[1930]
"Lady Baltimore Cake (The original recipe)
Beat one-half cupful of butter and two cupfuls of sugar to a cream. Add three-fourths of a cupful of sweet milk slowly to this mixture, stirring steadily. Sift two heaping teaspoonfuls of the baking-powder with two and one-half cupfuls of flour. Stir the flour into the sugar, butter, and milk, and stir until smooth. Beat the whites of eight eggs to a stiff, dry froth. Fold these carefully into the batter, add a few drops of almond extract, and turn into three greased layer cake tins. Bake in a moderately quick often. Filling: Boil three cupfuls of sugar with one of the water for ten minutes. Beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth. Pour the syrup upon these eggs, beating steadily until a meringue is formed which will spread. Flavor with vanilla. Add two cupfuls of raisins, seeded and torn, or cut in pieces, not chopped, and two cupfuls of English walnuts and almonds, mixed and chopped fine. One-half of this rule is sufficient for the filling for three layers, if more plain frosting is made for top and outside of cake."
---Old Southern Receipts, Mary D. Pretlow [Robert M. McBride & Company:New York] 1930 (p. 114-115)[1930, 1934]
"Lady Baltimore Cake II
It was this recipe which was used at the Woman's Exchange when Owen Wister wrote Lady Baltimore.
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten egg yolks and beat well. Mix and sift the flour and baking powder twice, then sift slowly into the first mixture, adding the milk gradually. Fold in the beaten egg whites last of all. Bake in three well-buttered layer cake pans in a moderately hot oven (375 degrees F.) for about twenty-five minutes. When the layers are baked, our the soft filling given below on each layer before you put on the hard filling. It is this filling with the indefinite flavor which makes this cake so distinctive.
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnut meats
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract.
Put the sugar, walnut meats and water into a saucepan and cook to the very soft ball stage (234 degrees F.). Remove from the fire and let cool until lukewarm (110 degrees F.). Add the flavorings and beat until slightly thickened before pouring on cake.
For the hard filling use
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
Juice of 12 lemon
1 cup chopped raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
bring the sugar and water to the boiling point and cook until it will form a firm ball (246 degrees F.). Pour slowly over the stiffly beaten egg whites, beating constantly, and continue beating until cool, adding the raisins, nuts, flavoring and lemon juice as it begins to harden.--Alicia Rhett Mayberry."
---200 Years of Charleston Cooking (p. 174-175) [NOTE: This book also provides two additional Lady Baltimore Cake recipes.][1932]
"Lady Baltimore Cake.
One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, one cup of milk, three and a half cups of flour, two teaspoons of baking powder, one teaspoon of rose water. Add the whites of six eggs. Bake in three layers in hot oven. In the icing add a cup of raisins and nuts (pecans preferred), and about five figs cut fine or in thin strips.--Mrs. William T. Delaplaine, Frederick County"
---Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland: An Anthology from a Great Tradition, Frederick Philip Steiff [G.P. Putnam's Sons:New York] 1932 (p. 217)[1990]
Lady Baltimore Cake
Makes one 9-inch cake, serves 8
1 cup (1/2 pound) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk
6 egg whites
Lady Baltimore Filling and Frosting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. In another bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add extract to milk. Add a little of the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture and mix in. Then stir in a little of the milk. Alternately add the remaining dry and wet ingredients in small amounts until both are completely incorporated. Beat until a smooth batter is formed. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into the batter, one third at a time. Pour into 2 greased and floured, 9-inch round cake pans. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes in pans, then turn out onto rack and cool completely. Prepare frosting and filling while cake layers are cooling, then fill and frost.
Lady Baltimore Filling and Frosting
4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped raisins
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
8 figs, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Cognac
In the top pan of a double boiler, combine egg whites, sugar, salt, cream of tartar, and water. Beat with electric beater over simmering water until soft peaks form. This takes 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from water and beat in vanilla. Continue beating until the frosting is stiff. Put aside half of the frosting. Beat into the remaining half of the frosting the raisins, nuts, figs, and Cognac. Use this mixture as a filling between the 2 layers of the cake. Ice the entire cake with the reserved frosting."
---Chesapeake Bay Cookbook (p. 59-60)
LORD BALTIMORE CAKE
What is Lord Baltimore Cake? A richer egg-yolk intense version of popular Lady Baltimore Cake most likely *invented* by food companies to promote their products.
"A light-textured golden cake baked in three layers and filled with a mixture of boiled icing blended with crushed macaroons, chopped pecans or almonds, and candied cherries. The cake is frosted with billowy white boiled icing. The story is that this cake was created to use up the egg yolks leftover from making Lady Baltimore Cake."
---International Dictionary of Desserts (p. 178)
Where did it originate?
"I haven's been able to pinpoint the arrival of Lord Baltimore Cake; certainly I've found no recipes for it in early-twentieth-century cookbooks. Earlier cookbooks either. Presumably this cake was developed to use up all the yolks left over after making the silver cake version of Lady Baltimore."
---American Century Cookbook (p. 427)
The legend of origin:
"Lord Baltimore Cake...After sampling his wife's egg white-laden cake...Maryland's firs t governor, Lord Baltimore, notces the large amount of egg yolks her ladyship was letting go to waste. After giving her a sound tongue-lashing, the governor snatched the yolks form his wife and dashed off to the kitchen looking for the manor's head cook, Miss Florine. Putting their heads together, Lord Baltimore and Florine worked into the wee hours of the morning sipping sherry and perfecting a yolk-rich cake. As the sun was rising, and with the sherry nearly gone, Lord Baltimore and MIss Florine, in a fit of culinary ecstasy, threw everything but the kitchen sink...into the mixing bowl to provide a filling for their masterpiece. The result was a richly textured cake and one of the most festive fillings since the Queen of Sheba's birthday cake in 900 B.C. During my research I was unable to confirm the complete accuracy of the details of this historic occasion. Since my grandfather recounted this tale at every Fourth of July cookout, however, I am sure it is very close to what actually happened."
---Chesapeake Bay Cookbook (p. 102)
[1933]
"Lord Baltimore Cake
Recipe makes 3 8-inch round layers or 2 8X8X2 inch square layers
Temperature: 365 degrees F. Time: about 30 minutes
1 3/4 cups Pillsbury's Sno Sheen Cake Flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
8 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk.
1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
2. Cream shortening and sugar thoroughly.
3. Beat egg yolks until thick and light colored. Add to creamed mixture and beat smooth. Add flavoring and mix well.
4. Add flour mixture and milk alternately. Beat well.
5. Bake in greased pans, lined with waxed paper, in moderate often.
6. Invert on wire rack to cool. When cool, spread Lord Baltimore Filling between layers and sprinkle powdered sugar on top, or cover with Boiled Frosting.
Lord Baltimore Filling
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
2 tablespoons macaroon crumbs
1/3 cup chopped almonds
10 Maraschino cherries, cut fine.
1. Boil sugar, water, corn syrup and salt tot eh firm ball stage, or 248 degrees F.
2. Pour slowly over stilly beaten egg whites, beating constantly.
3. Beat until frosting is cold and holds its shape. Add flavorings. Spread between layers as it begins to stiffen.
4. Roll macaroons until pulverized; add with cherries and nuts to filling.
5. Cover cake with Boiled or Seven Minute Frosting, which my be delicately tinted. Garnish with a border of cherries.
For the Inquiring Cook: An all egg yolk cake must be beaten very vigorously from beginning to end. Incorporate all the air possible throughout the mixing."
---Balanced Recipes, prepared under the personal direction of Mary Ellis Ames, Head of the staff of Pillsbury's Cooking Service [Pillsbury Flour Mills Company:Minneapolis MN] 1933 -(recipe card #44)[1990]
"Lord Baltimore Cake
Makes one 9-inch cake, serves 8
2 1/4 cups flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup (1/2 pound) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon lemon or vanilla extract
Lord Baltimore Filling and Frosting
Candied cherry halves, for garnish
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F,
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light in color and creamy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, and mix well. Alternately, add the dry ingredients and the milk in small portions to the batter. Mix well. Add the extract and mix well. Pour the batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch cake pans. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes in pans, then turn out onto rack and cool completely. Prepare frosting and filling while cake is cooling, then fill and frost. Garnish with cherry halves.
Lord Baltimore Filling and Frosting
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites
Pinch salt
1/21 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup macaroon crumbs
1/2 cup chopped black walnuts
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chopped candied cherries
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon sweet sherry
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil until a syrup forms, about 10 minutes, In a bowl beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form Pour a little of the boiling syrup into the egg whites and beat well. Continue cooking the syrup until thin threads form from the tip of a spoon that is dipped in and then pulled out of the syrup (about 230 F. on a candy thermometer). Beat the syrup into the egg-white mixture. Ad the vanilla. Continue beating until the frosting is stiff and forms tall peaks. Transfer two thirds of the frosting to another bowl and put aside. Beat the macaroon crumbs, walnuts, almonds, cherries, lemon juice, and sherry into the remaining one third of the frosting. Use this nut mixture as a filling between the layers of the cake. Ice the entire cake with the reserved frosting."
---Chesapeake Bay Cookbook (p. 102-103)
"Ladyfinger. A light sponge-cake biscuit. The name comes from the usual shape of the confection, which islong and narrow, light and delicate...The word often appears in the possessive, "Lady's finger,"and the plural, "ladies' fingers," and was first mentioned by John Keats in his poem The Cap andBells (1820). Ladyfingers have long been a popular confection in America, where some recipescall for the pastry to be pushed through a pastry tube."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:NewYork]1999 (p. 179)
"Boudoir biscuits are in effect the same as sponge biscuits or sponge fingers, ladyfingers (N.America) and savoy biscuits (an older term). They are long, finger-shaped, crisp sponge biscuitsbased on whisked egg and sugar mixtures with a crystallized sugar topping. In France they arealso called biscuits a la cuiller. Helen J. Saberi (1995) has investigated the history and significanceof the unusual name "boudoir biscuits'. Although boudoir entered the English language fromFrench long ago and its application to these biscuits could therefore have arisen in England, itseems clear that the French were the first to use the name. Boudoir comes from the French verbbouder, to pout, and normally refers to a woman's private room where she would receive only herintimate friends--who could pout and nibble sponge fingers as much as they wished in thiscloistered environment."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davison [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.90-1)
"Ladyfingers are dry, airy cakes, often with a sugar crust which are made by piping a stifflywhipped egg-and-flour batter into diminutive oblongs. The sponge batter used for lady fingerswasdeveloped in Europe by the seventeenth century to produce Naples or Savoy biscuits. Introducedto colonial America under those names, the cakes were often baked in specially designed tins orpaper cases of varying sizes and shapes. The term "ladies' fingers" was used in America no laterthan the 1820s, although recipes for Savoy biscuits, in which one puts the batter "into the biscuitfunnel, and lay it out about the length and size of your finger."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [OxfordUniversity Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 25)
The line from Keats read thusly:
"Fetch me that Ottoman, and prithee keep your voice low," said the Emperor; "and steep somelady's-fingers nice in Candy wine."
Ladyfingers and similar products are used to compose English trifles, Zuppa Inglese, andTiramisu. Notes here.
A SURVEY OF LADY FINGER RECIPES THROUGH TIME:
[1828]The other food sometimes referred to as "Lady fingers" [by the British] is okra. If this is the foodyou want, check
"Biscuits a la Cuilliere. Take a silver spoon, and use the same paste as above (Savoy Biscuits,cold). To dress savoy biscuits, and biscuits a la Cuilliere, you must glaze them with fine sugar, andbake them in a very temperate oven."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, English facsimile 1828 reprint [ArcoPublishing:New York] 1978 t(p. 417)[1869]
Finger Biscuits.
Break 6 eggs; put the whites in the whipping bowl, and the yolks in a basin; To the latter add 1/2lb of pounded sugar, and stir for five minutes; Whip the whites very firm; then put them in thebasin containing the yolks, adding 5 oz. of sifted flour; mix thoroughly. Take a sheet of stiffpaper, and shape it into a funnel; secure it with sticking paste; and when dry, fill it with the biscuitpaste; close the top, by folding over the paper, and cut off the end of the funnel, making anopening 3/4 inch diameter; Force some of the paste out of the funnel, on a sheet of paper, in theshape of a finger 3 inches long, 1 inch wide; leaving an inch space between each biscuit; dredgecome sifted sugar over them; put them on a baking-sheet, and bake in a moderate oven for tenminutes; let the biscuits cool on the paper; then take them off, and dress them on a dish; Thebiscuits are flavoured by the addition of vanilla, lemon, or orange flower."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low,Son, & Marston:London] 1869(p. 204)[1875]
"Lady Fingers. Whisk four fresh eggs thoroughly, the whites and the yokes separately. Mixsmoothly with the yolks three ounces of powdered sugar and three ounces of flour, add thewhites, and afterwards a quarter of a pint of rose-water. Beat all together for some minutes. Haveready a well-buttered baking tin, form the paste upon it with a spoon in "fingers," three incheslong and three-quarters of an inch wide, sift a little powdered sugar over them, let them stand fiveor six minutes to melt the sugar, then put them into a moderate oven, and bake until they arelightly browned. When cool, put them in pairs, and keep them in a tin canister closely covereduntil wanted for use. Time to bake, about twenty mintues. Probable cost, 8d. Sufficient for twodozen fingers."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin &Co.:London] 1875 (p. 352)
