The appearance of many candies, as well as cake, is improved by flower decorations. Ornamental frosting, either cooked or uncooked, color pastes, a few sheets of stiff paper, and a pair of scissors, are all the outfit required. With a pastry bag and a tin rose tube, wedding and anniversary cakes may be decorated in conventional patterns with white frosting, and candies, like cream mints, can be shaped. Other decorations may be made with fondant, almond paste, and tiny candies.

Practice is required to secure artistic results, but any one with ordinary ability and patience can do excellent work. Pictures of cakes, and those seen in the windows of first-class caterers, or designs drawn on paper before putting on the decorations, will help to secure good results.

Holidays, birthdays, and other anniversaries may well be remembered with appropriate candies or cakes.

Uncooked Ornamental Frosting

Whites 2 eggs

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Sifted confectioners' sugar

Put eggs in a large bowl, add two tablespoons sugar, and beat three minutes, using a perforated wooden spoon. Repeat until one cup of sugar is used. Add lemon juice gradually, as mixture thickens. Continue adding sugar by spoonfuls, and beat until frosting is stiff enough to keep in shape after being forced through a pastry bag and tube. Color as desired.

With a pastry bag and variety of tin tubes, or with paper tubes, candies or cakes may be ornamented as desired.

Boiled Ornamental Frosting

1 cup sugar½cup water

¼teaspoon cream of tartar Whites 2 eggs

Lemon juice

Put sugar and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, bring to boiling point, wash down sides of saucepan with a piece of cheesecloth or a pastry brush dipped in cold water, add cream of tartar, cover, and boil three minutes, uncover, and let boil without stirring.

Beat whites of eggs in a large shallow pan with wire whisk until light but not stiff, and slowly add a spoonful of the boiling syrup, continuing the beating. Then add another spoonful of syrup in the same way, and a third spoonful. Continue beating the eggs until the boiling syrup spins a long thread, remove from fire, and add syrup in a fine steady stream to the egg mixture, beating constantly.

Set the dish containing the frosting in a dish of boiling water; the upper pan should fit tightly over the pan of hot water in order that steam may not escape. Gently fold the mixture over and over until it is stiff enough to hold its shape.

Remove from the water, and very gently and slowly fold the frosting over and over until it is cool. Cover with a piece of damp cheesecloth. Frosting may be used at once, or will keep until the next day. With a variety of tubes and colors, beautiful and artistic decorations may be made on candies and cakes.

Paper Tubes for Decorating

A pastry bag of heavy drilling with a hole in the end through which can be inserted tin tubes with different kinds of openings, may be used for ornamental frosting, but sheets of linen foolscap paper, or strong thin typewriter paper, are quite as satisfactory. Cut the paper diagonally across, making two pieces measuring 8 X 11 X 14 inches. Shape the tube by taking one corner of the paper

Decorated Candies and Cakes 195

(1) in the right hand and the other corner (2) in the left hand, and rolling the paper around, making a cornucopia with a very sharp point at (3). The point of the funnel should be the center of the longest side. It may take some practice to learn how to hold and roll the paper, but it is really very easy to do when once understood. Turn in the edges of the paper at the open end of the cornucopia to hold it in shape, and cut an opening at the point.

For stems, dots, and writing, clip off the end of the paper funnel with a pair of scissors. For leaves, press the point of the funnel flat, clip off one fourth inch from the end, clip off corners, making another point, and make a slit one eighth inch long in each point. For some flower petals, clip off the point of the funnel, and cut the end in the shape of the letter W. For fine decorating, cut a small opening; for large full roses, or heavy fluting, cut a deeper slit. Have a paper tube for each color of frosting. With these tubes, almost any kind of ornamental frosting work may be done on candies or cakes.

How to Use Ornamental Frosting Half fill a paper funnel with frosting, bring edges of open end together, and fold over twice, that frosting may not come out at the top. Hold the funnel in the right hand with the little finger toward the point of the tube and the thumb and forefinger closed tightly above the frosting. Force the frosting gently through the hole in the end of the tube by squeezing with the right hand and guiding with the left hand.

Allow the tube point to rest lightly on the surface to be decorated. Conventional designs may be attempted at first, and soon it will be possible to make flowers and leaves. Colors should always be very delicate, and designs on candy should be small and dainty. Do not use a tube after it has become soft and out of shape at the point.

How to Color Frosting

Divide frosting into several portions, putting each portion on a saucer. Remove a bit of color paste from jar with a toothpick or steel skewer, and place on one side of saucer. Mix with a very small portion of frosting, then gently fold, not stir, into remaining frosting. Color each portion. Forget-me-nots