Apple Cake, or German Tart

Instructions

1. Work together with the fingers, ten ounces of butter and a pound of flour, until they resemble fine crumbs of bread.
2. Throw in a small pinch of salt, and make them into a firm smooth paste with the yolks of two eggs and a spoonful or two of water.
3. Butter thickly a plain tin cake, or pie mould (those which open at the sides, see plate, page 344, are best adapted for the purpose).
4. Roll out the paste thin, place the mould upon it, trim a bit to its exact size, cover the bottom of the mould with this, then cut a band the height of the sides, and press it smoothly round them, joining the edge, which must be moistened with egg or water, to the bottom crust; and fasten upon them, to prevent their separation, a narrow and thin band of paste, also moistened.
5. Next, fill the mould nearly from the brim with the following marmalade, which must be quite cold when it is put in.
6. Boil together, over a gentle fire at first, but more quickly afterwards, three pounds of good apples with fourteen ounces of pounded sugar, or of the finest Lisbon, the strained juice of a large lemon, three ounces of fresh butter, and a teaspoonful of pounded cinnamon, or the lightly grated rind of a couple of lemons.
7. When the whole is perfectly smooth and dry, turn it into a pan to cool, and let it be quite cold before it is put into the paste. In early autumn, a larger proportion of sugar may be required, but this can be regulated by the taste.
8. When the mould is filled, roll out the cover, lay it carefully over the marmalade that it may not touch it.
9. When the cake is securely closed, trim off the superfluous paste, add a little pounded sugar to the parings, spread them out very thin, and cut them into leaves to ornament the top of the cake, round which they may be placed as a sort of wreath.
10. Bake it for an hour in a moderately brisk oven; take it from the mould, and should the sides not be sufficiently coloured put it back for a few minutes into the oven upon a baking tin.
11. Lay a paper over the top, when it is of a fine light brown, to prevent its being too deeply coloured. This cake should be served hot.
12. Proportions: Paste: flour, 1 lb.; butter, 10 oz.; yolks of eggs, 2; little water. Marmalade: apples, 3 lbs.; sugar, 14 oz. (more if needed); juice of lemon, 1; rinds of lemons, 2; butter, 3 oz.: baked, 1 hour.
13. Note: instead of the paste leaves, some ready-baked leaves of almond-paste (see page 355), either plain or coloured, may be fastened on with a little white of egg after the cake is taken from the oven.