Gâteau de Milan
Take half a pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter, quarter of a pound of sugar, one whole egg, one yolk, a little salt, a grated rind of lemon, and a teaspoonful of rum. Place the flour on a pastry board; form it into a hillock with a hole in the centre; put into this the butter, sugar, and eggs, lemon rind, beaten egg, and rum. Mix with the hand with butter and sugar, then the flour and eggs and make all into a ball. Roll it out to the thickness of little more than a quarter of an inch, form into little cakes with a cake cutter; arrange them on a baking-sheet of paper lightly buttered, brush them over lightly with the yolk of the egg; bake in a steady oven for about[Pg 134] fifteen to twenty minutes. These cakes will keep well for some days if kept in a closed tin.
Note. It is a golden rule worth remembering that all biscuits or rusks (also cakes) will keep perfectly crisp if kept in a closed tin. Cakes, of course, should not be placed under any cover till quite cold.
The same cake mixture as for Gâteau de Milan may be treated in the following manner to make quite a different cake.
Instead of cutting the mixture into small cakes, make two rounds only of the same size and thickness. Place them on a buttered baking tin, but do not allow them to touch. From one of these pieces cut a round out of the centre with a small cake cutter. Bake them in a steady oven till they are a beautiful light brown colour; let them get cold. Upon the piece that is not cut in the centre spread a layer of smooth jam, place the other piece over it, trim the edges to have both exactly the same size; on this border spread some more jam, then sprinkle with a little sugar, not finely powdered but in grains. Arrange on a dish and fill the hole in the centre with a little fruit jelly.