Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

icing, as described in Hilda's Where is it, pp. 105-6, or as follows — Vanilla Icing. — Take i large cupful of white sugar, and put it in a clean enamelled saucepan, with just as much boiling water as will melt the sugar, adding this little by little. Stir over the fire and let it boil till it threads off the spoon. Beat the white of i egg, flavour when well whisked with half a teaspoonful of vanilla or lemon, and put into a round basin, over which pour the boiling syrup— beating all the time. When nearly cold, spread this over the tops of the little cakes. Another thing the children are very fond of, and which is always an item of the birthday menu, is transparent honeycomb gingerbread. Honeycomb Gingerbread.— [This is from a manuscript lecipe-book of i835> which belonged to Mrs. Longley, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury of that name, and from which a friend has copied and sent me some very good recipes.] Ingredients — lb. flour. ^ lb. treacle. 6 ozs. moist sugar. 4 oz.s. fresh butter. Ginger to taste. Boil the treacle, butter and sugar together 5 minutes, and then mix in the flour and ginger. Pour into a wellbuttered dish. When cold, cut in thin slices and lay in a tin to bake. This is more like “ Brandy snacks.” Marmalade. — The marmalade used for one of the spongecakes as mentioned above was made from the following recipe, kindly given by Miss Adeane, of Llanfawr, Holyhead, from amongst her Welsh recipes. MARMALADE. “ MEBOS ” Mai'ch “ Mrs. Marshall’s Marmalade ” — 12 Seville oranges. 3 lemons. Divide the oranges into quarters and slice them all through into thin slices. Put the pips into a basin. To each pound of fruit add 2\ pints of water. Let all stand 24 hours. Then boil the mixture slowly till the fruit is perfectly soft. Let it stand again 24 hours. Meantime cover the pips in the basin with water and keep them covered for 48 hours, then strain out the pips and add the water to the marmalade mixture. Weigh this, and to every pound of fruit add i lb. sugar. (The recipe says lbs. sugar, but we have found i lb. enough.) Boil all together slowly and steadily till the juice forms into a jelly. This is generally in if hours’ time, but the exact time can easily be known by putting a little into a saucer to cool. The mixture must boil till the jelly forms. March 18. — Crystallized “ Mebos.” — I have to-day been crystallizing some “ mebos,” the dried and salted ripe apricots, the recipe for which is in Hilda's Where is it, p. 4. The mebos itself can be had at any grocer’s at the Cape, and to crystallize it you make a thin syrup of sugar and water, and pour when boiling hot over about 50 mebos. When they are soft take them out and drain them. Then rub each into crystallized sugar and roll up. They will keep well in jars in a dry place, and it makes a very pretty dish for dessert. Or I cup of sugar and i cup of water just boiled and poured over the mebos soaks it. It is then strained and rubbed into the sugar. In Hilda! s Where is it, we say lime-water, but this boiling hot syrup is much better. March 20. — A friend has sent me- an interesting list of March CIRCULATING LIBRARY cookery-books, with remarks on them. How glad one is to know the names of good books on cookery. So I shall transcribe it as I receive it. She says —