This section is from the book "Soyer's Standard Cookery", by Nicolas Soyer. Also available from Amazon: Soyer's Standard Cookery.
Three cups of sugar, one cup of milk, two teaspoonfuls of butter, one teaspoonful of vanilla.
Put butter in saucepan; when melted, add sugar and milk. Stir, to be sure that sugar does not adhere to saucepan, heat to boiling-point, and boil without stirring thirteen minutes. Remove from fire, and beat until of right consistency to spread; then add flavoring and pour over cake, spreading evenly with back of spoon. Crease as soon as firm.
 
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