HOME INTERESTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3515, 26 July 1921, Page 50

HOME INTERESTS.

GENOESE PASTRY. (For very special occasions.) Half a pound of best white flour, Jib of best butter. Boz of caster sugar, seven eves. Melt the butter and skim it carefully. Sieve, the flour and stand it in a warm place. Break each egg separately into a teacup, and pass them on into a big basin, where you sieve the sugar over them. Stand this basin over a pan of boiling water and beat witei one of those whisks which turns round and round for 15 minutes. This kind of whisk goes faster than any other sort. If you. are using a wire whisk, you will need to beat for 25 minutes, if you ore using a spoon or fork, for three-quarters of an hour. The mixture must be quite light and frothy, perfectly white, and covered with little bubbles. Take the basin off the hot water, and stir in the flour and butter a little at a time, adding each alternately. Use a wooden spoon for this, and. go very gently. If you l»at, hard, you will knock out again all ihe a j r which you so painfully worked into your oak© during the long boating. Line a bioYorkshire pudding tin with buttered paper” pour in the mixture, and bake in a quick oven for about 20 minutes. As soon a 3 it is nicely risen and just coloured, cover it with a sheet of greased paper, to keep it from browning any more. If too much browned it is not very handy for decorating. Turn out on a sheet of sugared oawr. and stand it on a oalce-wire to cool. The depth of the cake mix' ure, when poured into the tin" must depend on the purpose for which you want to use it. In no case should th? Yorkshire pudding tin be more than half-full. The following dainties can then he made. JELLY FINGERS. Cut the coke into small fingers. Melt a pot of red-currant jelly in a very liny amount of boiling water, mixing well till you get a sini ot b niix i ure 111 st soff enough to spro:i d Paint it. over the fingers with a pastry brush 1 and roll them in as much desiccated co-coa-nut as they can pick up. Lot tlic-m dry before serving COFFEE CAKES. Gut the cake into fingers. Melt Jib of icing sugar in three tablespoonfuls c,f the strongest possible black coffee; melt the sugar with the coffee in a tiny enamel pan stirring it carefully and taking great oar-’ not to let it boil. When the icing is so f| enough, take up the fingers, one at a time on the point of a knife, hold them over the pan, and pour the icing on to coat th„m Stand them on a cake-wire*, with a plate underneath to catch the drippings While still damp, decorate each with a 'strip of angelica or half a. blanched almond It is a. good plan to keep the pan of Iciim in a larger one of hot water while it is in use so that it may not set. PINK CREAM CAKES. Cut the cake into any fancy shapes that you like. Beat up togcdier in a bowl the white of ono egg, one table-spoonful of redcurrant jelly, one tablespconful of thick redplum jam—with all the bits of skin taken cut, —and two tablaspoonfuls of castor sugar Keep on beating till th© mixture is so'thick that the spoon will stand up in it; then put a pretty pile of it on each piece of cake, if you us© two teaspoons and practise a little first you will find that you can easily work the little- pil© o.f cream up into quite a neat pyramid shape. Keep these cakes in a cool place all lire time you arc handling- them. ALMOND PASTE CAKES. Cut the cake into fancy shapes, mailing it so thin that two pieces can be clapped together. Now mix together. A quarter of a pound of ground almonds, 2oz of icing sugar, 2oz of castor sugar, th© yolk of an egg, and a few drops of brandy. Break the egg into a basin, add tho brandy, and then stir in enough almonds and sugar to make a rather

soft paste. The quantities that I have told you ai-e not exact; they can’t lie, because eggs vary so much m size, and what is enough for one won’t be enough for another. Work tire paste well with your fingers till it is quit© smooth, spread it between the cakes, and clap them together. Spread it also on top. Blanch a few almonds, chop them roughly, and brown them in the oven. Spread them on the paste while still wet, and press them so that they may stick.