To begin this basket first have an oval board ten and a half inches long by six inches wide; all around this oval bore holes a quarter of an inch in diameter and one inch apart from each other. Cut as many pieces of wire four and a half inches long as there are holes perforated in the board; straighten and envelop them in cooked sugar to form into sticks three-sixteenths of an inch thick. After these sticks are cold dip the ends of each one separately in melted sugar and fasten them in the holes in the board. Now prepare some pulled sugar as described in No. 3618; take a little of this at a time and pull it into strings a quarter of an inch thick, and with these braid the basket as high as the top of the sticks. Pull two sticks with the same sugar, only slightly thicker than those used for braiding the basket and a little longer than half the circumference of the basket; fasten these two sticks together and twist them so as to imitate a thick rope; flatten this partly and fasten it at once on half of the edge of the basket, then pull two more sticks the same as the others, twist them the same way to obtain another thick rope, flatten it also and fasten it to the other half of the basket's edge.

To make the handle pull three strings of sugar the same thickness and twenty inches long, braid them together and as soon as this is done bend the plait so as to shape the handle and when it is cold attach it to the basket. The two covers are made as follows: Pull two strings of sugar five-sixteenths of an inch thick, and bend each one so as to form a frame the shape and size of the opening of the basket, then pull more strings and while they are still hot fasten them diagonally on to these frames, and on top of these fasten others, crossing them in such a way that they form a lattice work. When these covers are finished attach them solidly against the handle of the basket. Trim around the base of the basket with a wreath of leaves, either gilded or silvered, arranging them symmetrically. Fill the basket tastefully with cherries made of almond paste (No. 125) and leaves of pulled sugar.

Fig. 746.