Household hints

Aunt LWs Custard, — Make a plain boiled custard, and when nearly done stir in grated chocolate to suit the taste. Serve in small china cups, putting the white of an egg on the top if you choose. Frosting. — Cooked frosting: Two cups and a half of sugar, two thirds of a cup of water ; boil until it candies — that is, until it will drop from the spoon in threads, or will harden in cold water ; then add the whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth ; stir it briskly for a few minutes until it is perfectly smooth. Add the juice of one lemon. This is enough to put between the layers of a medium-sized cake, and will also cover the top and sides. When you wish to frost the top and sides only, one cup of sugar and one egg will be plenty. Common Frosting.^— Beat the white of one egg to a stiff froth, and stir pulverized sugar into it until it is thick. When spreading frosting over a cake use a knife, and dip it into hot water if you have any trouble about making the frosting smooth. Set the cake into the heater for four or five minutes. You may add to this frosting some whole blanched almonds, and flavor the frosting with almond extract. If you wish to frost the top of the cake only, put the frosting on, and then pin a piece of clean white paper around the cake to prevent its running over the sides. Candy, — It is perfectly natural, as everybody knows, for children to beg for lumps of sugar from the time when the baby first connects sugar with the bowl till years later when he is allowed to help himself. It is entirely legitimate that they should have in moderation the sweets they crave, and which in a large measure supply their bodies with needed heat. They enjoy wonderfully well having sweet things made at home in whose making they can assist, and during holiday week, at least, it is not hard to indulge them. Let them at least have pop-corn balls and molasses candy. These balls are easily made. Pop-corn Balls. — Boil some molasses until it will harden in cold water, then pour it over the pop-corn ; take it into a cool room, butter your hands, and roll the corn in the proper shape. Chocolate Caramels, — One cup of sweet milk, one cup of molasses, half a cup of grated chocolate, a piece of butter the size of a walnut ; stir constantly, and let it boil until it is thick, theii turn it out on buttered plates. When it begins to stiffen mark it in squares, so that it will break readily when cold. Cocoanut Caramels. — Two cups of grated cocoanut, one cup of sugar, two table-spoonfuls of flour, the whites of three eggs beaten stiff ; bake on a buttered paper in a quick oven. White Candy. — One quart of granulated sugar, one pint of water, two table-spoonfuls of vinegar ; boil just as you do molasses candy, but do not stir it. You can tell when it is done by trying it in cold water. Pull as if it were molasses candy. Have a dish near by with some vanilla in it, and work in enough to flavor it as you pull. Put it in a cold room, and the next day you will have delicious candy. Molasses Candy. — One cup of molasses, two cups of sugar, one table-spoonful of vinegar, small lump of butter ; flavor with vanilla. Try it in cold water ; if it will break it is done. Pull ! Tirza^s Chocolate Creams. — Two cups of granulated sugar, half a cup of milk. Boil just five minutes. Then take it from the stove and stir till it is stiff ; then drop on buttered plates, and leave till cold. While it is cooling break a square of Baker's chocolate in small pieces in a bowl, and set it over a tea-kettle in which the water is boiling. After it is melted, then take the drops and with a fork roll them in the melted chocolate ; then lay on the plates till cold. FRUIT.