Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

Stir all well together and roll out thinly. Cut into fancy shapes, or with a small round tin. Egg over and strew with sugar mixed with pounded almonds. . Cocoanut Biscuits (Miss May Van Renen’s). — 6 ozs. sugar, stirred well together with yolk of one egg. ^ lb. desiccated cocoanut. The whites of four eggs. ' Mix well and shape in small pyramids. Bake in a moderate oven. Chocolate Icing (Miss May Van Renen’s).— Put ^ lb. grated chocolate with 3 tablespoonfuls of cold water in an enamelled saucepan ; boil five minutes, then stir in 6 ozs. icing sugar. Let it just come to a boil ; take off the fire, stir well, and spread over any cake you wish to ice quickly. Sponge-cake and this in layers and the icing also over all would be excellent. Dec. BLACKBERRIES. CURRANT JELLY December 28. — As I have said, we get blackberries the end of December, and shall be glad to know how to make blackberry puddings and jelly. Blackberry Pudding (Mrs. Smith’s). — Line a dish with slices of bread-and-butter, and put a layer of blackberries with lots of sugar, another layer of slices of bread-andbutter, and so on till the dish is full ; bake it for an hour, and serve with custard. Mulberries done in this way are very good also. Blackberry or mulberry fool is delicious made like gooseberry fool with cream. Blackberries. — The ancients are said to have believed that both the fruit and flower of the blackberry were preventives against the bites of serpents ! — and in Northamptonshire I am told the young shoots of the bramble eaten as salad are supposed to be of use to fasten loosened teeth ; perhaps some one would like to try ! Blackberry Jelly (Miss Adeane’s). — Take the fruit before quite ripe, put it in a pot and tie up close and place it in a kettle of water. Leave the fruit so till it is reduced to a pulp, then strain, and to a pint of juice put i lb. powdered sugar. Boil to a jelly and put up for use. Blackberry jelly makes excellent sandwiches for tea. Currant Jelly. — A similar way of doing currants is from a French recipe ; but a variety is given to the usual red currant jelly by adding to whatever quantity you take of the very reddest red currants half the amount of white ones and a quarter of the quantity in raspberries. The fruit is pressed through a sieve which leaves the skins and seeds behind, and the pulp, which has not passed the sieve, is then put with a very little water into a preserving-pan on the fire to swell, and then strained through a linen cloth, the juice of it added to the first juice. Weigh the juice, and add the SAVOURY JELLIES Dec. same weight of sugar to it, and leave it to stand two hours. Then boil it up and skim. After that boil twenty minutes on a moderate fire, by which time it should be a clear thin jelly, ready to pot. White currants may be done alone the same way, but should be flavoured with a little lemon-peel. Savoury Jellies. — For lunch or breakfast in hot weather nothing is more acceptable than a cold meat jelly. The savoury meat jelly which is not cleared is of course very simple and made quickly. The aspic or clear requires more attention, but will not be found difficult by any cook who will carefully follow the instructions given in the following recipes.