Angel food cake and icing recipe
Sift together on a paper half a pound of flour, two ounces of corn starch and half a pound of powdered sugar. Beat in a copper basin the whites of ten eggs (with a wire whip) to a very stiff froth, reserving the yolks in a bowl in the ice box for ice cream or any other purpose desired).
Remove the whip and then with a skimmer in the right hand, and with the left hand lift up the paper containing the ingredients and gradually drop the contents into the basin, thoroughly mixing with the skimmer for five minutes, adding meanwhile a gill of maraschino.
Have a plain round two-quart cake mold with a tube in the center. Lightly butter and flour the inside all around, then place the preparation in the mold and put it in a very slow oven to bake for two hours and a half. Remove from out the oven, lay it on a table and let cool for at least three hours, then carefully run a thin knife all around the mold so as to easily detach the cake from top to bottom of the mold.
Place a wire grate over the mold, turn it upside down, remove the mold, then glaze the cake with the following recipe:
Pour into a saucepan two gills of water with twelve ounces of powdered sugar. Thoroughly mix with the spatula for two minutes, then place the pan on the hot range and stir all well until lukewarm. Then take off the range, lay the pan on the table, then pour in half a gill of good brandy. Mix well together for two minutes and then pour this glaze over the cake, evenly spreading all round with a knife.
Let dry for twenty minutes, and then decorate with the following glace royale: Pour into a bowl the white of one egg with six ounces of extra fine sugar. Briskly beat with the spatula for five minutes. Squeeze three drops of lemon juice and sharply beat again for ten minutes longer. Make a paper cornet, transfer the glace into it, and close the upper part with the hand. With scissors, cut away a small piece from the point an eighth of an inch long, then gently press down the glace on the cake, artistically decorating the top and all around, giving, if possible, an angel shape on the surface. Let dry for two hours. Have a silver dish with a fancy paper over it. Lay the cake over and serve.
