The housewife's referee

Strawberry Short Cake. — Beat thoroughly the yolks and whites of three eggs ; add a cup three-quarters full of castor sugar, and the juice of a lemon. Beat again and add a teaspoonful of boiling water; continue beating, adding slowly a cup of flour well dried and sifted. Beat quickly and pour into jelly cake tins. Bake for ten or fifteen minutes, and when done spread with well-sweetened strawberries, and put two cakes together ; serve with whipped cream when cold. Strawberry Sponge. — Soak half an ounce of leaf gelatine in half a pint of water for a couple of hours ; put into a saucepan the thin rind of half a lemon and the strained juice of a pound of strawberries ; add five ounces of loaf sugar, and stir over the fire till it has boiled up for five minutes. Strain when cold, but not set. Whip up with a whisk till it becomes quite light and frothy ; then put it into a damped mould, and turn out. A little cochineal improves the colour. Sucre à la crème (Canadian)). — To every pound of maple sugar, allow one pint of fresh cream ; break the sugar into small pieces, and put it with the cream into a white-lined saucepan. Put the latter on a fresh fire, and boil the cream and sugar together for an hour; stir constantly in one direction. When the boiling is over take the saucepan off the fire, and continue the stirring until the mixture cools THE housewife's KEFEREE and begins to thicken. Then pour it into buttered soup plates or flat dishes, and put it to harden. Butternuts chopped into small pieces and mixed in during the boiling are a great improvement. Walnuts can also be used. Surprise Sweet for Children's Christmas Party. — Make some puff paste ; put it into a basket mould, and bake it. When cooked turn it out, and fill it with a number of little puddings the size of greengages. Make a meringue mixture and place on the top, sprinkling over a few hundreds and thousands " ; round the handle twist long pieces of citron, culminating with a sprig of red-berried holly on the top. Talmouses aux Pistaches à la crème. — Line some tartlet pans with puff paste and bake ; when done take a savoy bag with a plain small tube, fill it with well-beaten, sweetened and flavoured cream, and lay in rings round the tartlet cases already baked; then put in the centre a pyramid of pistachio conserve, dust sugar over and serve. To make the pistachio conserve, blanch, dry and pound up a quarter of a pound of pistachio kernels in a mortar ; put a quarter of a pound of sugar and one gill of water into a stewpan and boil up ; add one ounce of butter to the pounded kernels, with some essence of Tangerine orange, a few drops of apple-green colour. Then beat up the whites of three eggs, and add to the mixture on the fire ; stir till it thickens, when it is ready for use. Taste and Come Again Pudding. — Pare and core some apples, and fill the centres with butter, sugar, and candied peel. Mix sugar and water and brush over the apples, and sprinkle grated and sifted breadcrumbs over that have been previously rolled in butter, which is done by putting the crumbs in a pan with bits of butter and set in a hot oven, turning them every now and again till the crumbs are brown. Bake the apples, and baste them whilst cooking with some sugar and water kept in a cup on the stove. Serve with custard and powdered sugar.