Required: Six large apples. The rind of a lemon. Three eggs.

Three ounces of moist sugar. Pastry.

Peel, core, and slice the apples, put them into a saucepan with the sugar, thinly pared lemon-rind, and just enough water to prevent them sticking. Let them stew until they are tender, then rub them through a sieve.

Roll out the pastry; any pieces you happen to have by you will do. Line a pie-dish with it, or, if preferred, line the edge and an inch or two down the side only with it. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs, beat up the yolks and stir them into the apple. Put the mixture into the dish, and bake it in a moderate oven for a quarter of an hour. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a very stiff froth, heap it up roughly over the apple in the dish, sprinkling it with castor sugar, and decorate with a few glace cherries and strips of angelica. Put the dish back in the oven for a few minutes until the white of egg is set and of a pretty biscuit-colour, then serve at once.

If possible, decorate the edge of the dish with stars or other fancy shapes of pastry. These should slightly overlap each other, and should be brushed with a little white of egg or water before putting them in place.