Marquise Alice

1. Leave the gelatine sheets to soak in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes.
2. Place the sponge fingers on a serving cake plate and sprinkle them with the cognac or rum.
3. Into the mixing bowl put together the sugar, the instant coffee and the egg yolks. Beat with a wooden spoon to make a light and creamy mixture, as you remember from childhood memories when our mothers offered us the sweet creamy mixture with the egg yolk and sugar!
4. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it will almost come to boiling conditions.
5. Pour little by little the milk in the mixture to incorporate, stirring it continuously, as again, when our mum wants to make avgolemono for the soup!
6. Immediately after this, pour the soaked and squeezed gelatine and stir over a low heat, about 2 minutes, until it dissolves thoroughly and have a light creamy texture that still it has not thickened. It looks like a warm custard cream in pouring conditions.
7. Pour it in a stainless steel pan and cover the surface with cling film immediately, so it does not form a thick crust on top.
8.  Leave it at room temperature to cool and turn slightly into cream. Then  fold in a cup of cream fresh with soft stirring. As soon as it has the texture of a light creamy mix and seems that it can be spread, start building the dessert.
9. Pour half of the mixture in a 23 cm. round shallow base for tarts.
10. Place on the top the sponge fingers like the sun rays and fill the blanks with the remaining sponge fingers. Then cover with the rest of the mixture.
11. Put it in the fridge for 1 hour.
12. Garnish with whipped double cream. In Greece, where we cannot find it,  I prefer the brand called Morfat beaten in the mixer with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar or for convenience I buy some, around 600 gr.! Spread enough of the whipped cream over the top and sides and with the palette knife make it even to all of the dessert. Put the rest of your whipped cream in a piping bag and make rosettes at equal distance between them, all around the edges. We make our own piping bag for the strawberry jam. Take a square piece of greaseproof paper, make it like a cone, cut a little from its edge so the strawberry jam will pour out like a line. Leave a soft line of the jam half way on each rosette.
13. Put the dessert into the fridge and serve after some hours. Only with champagne and bossa nova!

Ideas: Another idea instead of the double cream for the garnish on top is to cover the moulded custard and cream mixure with ready-made vanilla icing and use the remaining whipped cream from the mixture to make the rosettes on top.

I discovered this recipe in the book, The Cookery Year, published by the Reader’s Digest Association, 1973.