Princesse Marie de Orleans Suprise Bombe

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

This glamorous late Victorian dish is a relative of Baked Alaska Pudding, though it is far nicer to eat. A luxurious white coffee ice cream is concealed in a meringue casing and served with a peach purée. The suprise is a delicious centre of sponge cake soaked in maraschino..

Princess Marie d'Or1eans Surprise Bomb

Prepare and freeze a white coffee ice ('Book of Ices,' page 13), and when frozen put it into a plain bomb mould with a pipe, and place the shape into the cave to freeze for two and a half hours; remove the lid and pipe, and fill the hollow space with pieces of fresh sponge cake steeped in Marshall's Maraschino Syrup; then turn out the ice on to a layer of sponge cake that is placed on the centre of the dish, and by means of a forcing bag with a large rose pipe cover it well in an ornamental style with a stiff meringue mixture prepared as below, and sprinkle it with Marshall's Icing Sugar. Stand the dish containing the bomb in a tin with water, and place it in a quick hot oven to brown the outside of the meringue, or glaze it with a salamander, and serve it immediately with a purée of peaches (prepared as below) round the base. MERINGUE MIXTURE FOR PRINCESS MARIE D'ORLEANS SURPRISE BOMB. - Take four large or six small whites of eggs and whip well with a pinch of salt, then add half a pound of castor sugar, stirring it into the egg with a wooden spoon, and use. PURÉE OF PEACHES FOR PRINCESS MARIE D'ORLEANS SURPRISE BOMB. - Pound to a purée six fresh or tinned peaches with a gill of rose water and two ounces of castor sugar; add a little of Marshall's Liquid Carmine and a wineglassful of Silver Rays ruin; tammy or rub through a sieve, and keep on ice till required.

The white coffee ice is created by infusing whole coffee beans in simmering cream. The earliest English recipe for this spectacular ice is in Borella's The Court and Country Confectioner (London: 1770). Mrs. Marshall's version from page 13 of The Book of Ices is given below.

White Coffee Cream Ice: very delicate (Crème de Café blanche).
Take a quarter of a pound of fresh roasted Mocha coffee berries, and add them to a pint of cream or milk; let them stand on the stove for an hour, but do not let them boil; strain through tammy; sweeten with 3 ounces of sugar. Freeze and finish as for vanilla cream ice.

Toasting the meringue with a red hot salamander produces a much better finished product than baking it in the oven. The kitchen is filled with the delicious smell of caramelising sugar. The salamander was a versatile and useful piece of kitchen equipment made extinct by the grill. However, no modern electric or gas grill could compete with a heavy traditional wrought iron salamander heated red hot in the fire.

This superb ice cream bombe is another recipe from Agnes Marshall's book Fancy Ices. The meringue could be baked in an oven, or as here, seared with a red hot salamander.

The semi-frozen ice cream mixture is transferred to a plain bombe with a pipe. The pipe is part of the lid and creates a large hollow in the ice cream which is filled with the maraschino saturated sponge cake.

The small round of sponge cake is also used to support the bombe on a dish. This prevented the underside of the bombe from melting if oven baking method was used.

The white coffee ice bombe filled with the maraschino soaked sponge. The bombe mould has a little screw which allows the air to enter so the ice can be removed easily.

The title page of the second edition of Borella's The Court and Country Confectioner (London: 1772). Borella put his coffee beans into a little bag before infusing them in the hot cream. He was the confectioner to the Spanish Ambassador and worked in the Embassy in Manchester Square where the Wallace Collection stands today.