The Elegance of the Hedgehog

His name is Humperdinck.  One of my colleagues made him to adorn our table; after all, if you could afford it, the eighteenth-century meal functioned as much to delight the eye as the palate.  Humperdinck is made from marzipan and slivered almonds.  Wouldn't you love such an adorable, edible center piece on your dinner table?  And, lest you think we just did this without documentation-- or if you want one of your own-- here is the recipe from Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy:

"To make a Hedge-Hog: 

Take two pounds of blanched almonds, beat them well in a mortar, with a little canary and orange-flower water, to keep them from oiling.  Make them into stiff paste, then beat in the yolks of twelve eggs, leave out five of the whites, put to it a pint of cream sweetened with sugar, put in half a pound of sweet butter melted, set it on a furnace or slow fire, and keep it constantly stirring, till it is stiff enough to be made in the form of a hedge-hog; then stick it full of blanched almonds, slit and stuck up like the bristles of a hedge-hog, then put it into a dish; take a pint of cream, and the yolks of four eggs beat up, sweetened with sugar to your palate; stir them together over a slow fire till it is quite hot; then pour it round the hedge-hog in a dish, and let it stand till it is cold, and serve it up; or a rich calf's foot jelly, made clear and good, poured into the dish round the hedge-hog; when it is cold, it looks pretty, and makes a neat dish; or it looks pretty in the middle of a table for supper."