Maple Nut Creams

4 tablespoons maple syrup

1 cup confectioners sugar

6 tablespoons chopped nuts

Put maple syrup in a small bowl, add sifted confectioners' sugar a tablespoon at a time, stirring until smooth, and adding sufficient sugar to make candy stiff. Knead until smooth. Shape in small balls, and roll in nut meats.

Frosted Nuts

1 teaspoon corn syrup

2 tablespoons boiling water Confectioners' sugar

Few drops maraschino or vanilla nuts

Put corn syrup, boiling water, and one fourth cup sifted confectioners' sugar in a saucepan or bowl, and stir until ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Then add another quarter cup of sugar, and beat vigorously until thick and smooth. Continue adding sugar, one fourth cup at a time, and beating between each addition of sugar, until about two cups of sugar have been used.

Flavor with maraschino cordial or vanilla. This frosting should be kept at an even, lukewarm temperature while it is being made, and the saucepan or bowl should be frequently placed in a larger bowl of hot water. The beating of this frosting should continue for about twenty minutes.

Dip walnuts, filberts, Brazil nuts, or hickory nuts, one at a time, into the frosting, and remove with a fork or candy dipper to an oiled marble slab or to waxed paper.

Orange Cream

Grated rind½orange

I tablespoon orange juice

1 teaspoon lemon juice Yolk 1 egg

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Before cutting the orange, wipe carefully, and grate the yellow part only from the skin; then cut the orange in two and extract the juice.

Mix rind and fruit juice, let stand ten minutes, and strain. Add slowly to the egg yolk, and when well mixed add sugar gradually until stiff enough to knead. Knead until smooth, and use for date, nut, prune, or cherry creams, or for centers of chocolates or bonbons.

Prune Creams

Large prunes Orange juice

Orange fondant or orange cream Granulated sugar

Wash prunes, soak until plump in orange juice to cover, then steam until soft. Drain, remove stones, fill prunes with fondant rolled into balls a little larger than a prune stone, close the prunes, and roll in granulated sugar.

Decorated Peppermints

White 1 egg

½ tablespoon cold water

2 drops oil of peppermint Confectioners' sugar

Put white of egg, cold water, and peppermint in a bowl, beat until very light, and add sugar a tablespoon at a time, beating between each addition, until mixture is stiff enough to hold its shape. Reserve one third of the mixture, and add sugar slowly to the remainder until it is stiff enough to knead. Work it with the hands until smooth, put on a board, roll out one eighth inch thick, and cut with a small round cutter.

Decorate with the remaining mixture, colored pink, blue, lavender, yellow, or green, forced through paper tubes, making tiny roses, forget-me-notch, violets, or sweet peas, with stems and leaves on each mint.

Children will amuse themselves for hours making original designs with different colored frost-ins, and will exhibit their results with the greatest pride at the close of the happy afternoon. Half a dozen paper cones may be provided as described on page 194, and filled with different colored frosting If color pastes are not at hand, a bit of melted chocolate may be used in one portion, the yolk of an egg in another a color tablet from a box of gelatine, dissolved in a few drops of water, will answer very well to color a third portion.

Potato Cocoanut Candy

1 medium sized potato

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

2 cups shredded cocoanut 1 teaspoon vanilla Chocolate

Cook potato in boiling water until soft, and force through a coarse sieve or a potato ricer.

There should be half a cup of potato. To this add sugar, cocoanut, and vanilla, working together until well mixed. Press one inch thick into small bread pan, and spread top with a thin layer of melted bitter chocolate or sweet chocolate. When chocolate is firm, cut in small squares. This can be varied by using nuts or fruits instead of cocoanut.

Uncooked Strawberry Creams

½ cup strawberries

Sifted confectioners' sugar

½ teaspoon lemon juice

Wash and hull strawberries, sprinkle with half a cup of confectioners' sugar, and let stand half an hour. Mash, rub through a fine sieve, add lemon juice, and stir in, a tablespoon at a time, enough more confectioners' sugar to make mixture stiff enough to shape. Make into small balls, and roll in granulated sugar, or roll out in a sheet one fourth inch thick, cut with small round cutter, and roll in sugar, or dip in melted coating chocolate.

Other fruit, or syrup from a well-flavored jar of fruit, may be used instead of strawberries.

Walnut Creams

Fondant

English walnut meats

Use any of the recipes for cooked or uncooked fondant, color and flavor as desired, shape in small balls, using one tablespoon of fondant for each ball. Press half of a walnut meat firmly on each side, and roll edges in granulated sugar, either plain or colored.

Maple, vanilla, or coffee flavor are good, or raspberry flavor and pink color paste may be used.

Pecan Creams

Follow recipe for Walnut Creams, using pecan nut meats in place of walnuts.