Home dissertations

Over one pound of the best white sugar, pour just enough water to dissolve the lumps. Take the whites of three eggs and beat them a little, but not to a stiff froth, and add these to the sugar and water. Put it in a deep bowl, and place in a vessel of boiling water, and beat the mixture. It will at first become thin and clear. When it becomes quite thick, remove from the fire and continue the beating, until it becomes quite cold and thick. Then spread it on with a knife. It will be perfectly white. FROSTING. To the white of one egg add a teacup of powdered sugar by degrees, beating with a spoon. When all has been added, stir in a tablespoon of lemon juice. If the white of the egg is large it will require a very full cup of sugar, and if small, a rather scant cup. The egg must not be beaten until the sugar is added. This gives a smooth, tender frosting, which will cover one small sheet of cake. The same amount of ingredients, prepared with the whites of the eggs unbeaten, will make one-third less frosting than it will if the eggs are beaten to a stiff froth before adding the sugar; but the icing will be enough smoother and softer to pay for the extra quantity. It may be flavored with half a teaspoon of vanilla. CHOCOLATE ICING. Beat one and two-thirds cup of sugar into the unbeaten whites of two eggs. Scrape two squares of Baker's chocolate and put it with one-third of a cup sugar and four tablespoons of boiling water into a small frying-pan. Stir over a hot fire until smooth and glossy, and then stir into the beaten whites and sugar. With the quantity given two sheets of cake can be iced. PASTRY. Two pints of flour, one and a half pints of butter, chopped in the flour ; a half pint of cold water. Mix with a knife. The dough should be dry and handled as little as possible, keep it very cold ; roll out and bake in a quick oven. TART PASTE. Rub half a pound of fresh butter into a pound of flour ; add the yolk of an egg, a little lump of sugar, and enough milk to mix it properly. PUFF PASTE. One quart of pastry flour, one pint butter, one tablespoon salt, one tablespoon sugar, one and a quarter cups ice-water. Fill a large pan or bowl with boiling water, and a moment later substitute cold water, leaving the bowl half full. Wash the pint of butter in this water, and work with the hands until light and wavy ; this frees it from buttermilk and salt and lightening it, so that the pastry will be more delicate. After shaping the butter into two thin cakes, put it in a pan of ice-water to harden. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together, and with the hands rub a third of the butter into the flour ; add the water, stirring with a knife, and continue stirring quickly and vigorously until the paste becomes a smooth ball. Sprinkle the molding-board lightly with flour ; turn the paste on the board and pound it quickly and lightly with the rolling-pin. Be careful not to break the paste. Roll from you and to one side ; or if you prefer to roll from you all the while, turn the paste round. When it has been rolled down to the thickness of about quarter of an inch wipe the remaining butter, break it into bits and spread these on the paste. A light sprinkling of flour should follow, and the paste should be folded, one-third from each side, so that the edges meet.