Around-the-world cook book

MEXICAN KISSES Brown sugar, 2 cups. Sweet milk, i^ cup, Butter, 1 heaping tablespoon, English walnuts (broken in bits), 1 pound. Put the sugar, and milk in a stewpan, and cook gently till a little dropped in cold water will ball when rubbed in the fingers. It will take about 10 minutes to reach this stage. Stir constantly while boiling as it scorches easily. Add the butter, and as soon as melted, remove the pan from the fire and beat steadily till the mixture is creamy, and a bit granulated. Then stir in the walnuts or other nutmeats, beat hard, and turn into buttered pans, and set away to harden in a cool place. GUM-DROPS Gum arabic, 1 pound, White sugar, 1 pound, Cornstarch and flavoring. Granulated sugar, Coloring if desired. Dissolve the gum arabic in a pint and a half of water, strain, and add the pound of white sugar, and heat till all the sugar is dissolved. Flavor to taste, and color all, or a part of it if so desired. The flavoring and coloring should be added to the mixture while it is warm. When about the consistency of honey, fill a shallow pan with cornstarch, then take a rounded stick, the size the gumdrop is desired to be, and make little indentations in the cornstarch. Fill a thin-lipped pitcher with the mixture, and pour it gently into these starch-molds, cutting the stream with a wire. When all the molds are filled, set the pan in a warm place for several days, till the drops are hardened enough to handle ; then take them out of the molds and dampen them a little, and shape in granulated sugar. LEMON-DROPS Lemon-juice, Loaf sugar. Squeeze some lemon-juice into a pan and with it mix some of the best loaf sugar, pounded and passed through a sieve. Make a paste so thick that it can scarcely be stirred, and place it in a porcelain saucepan over a hot fire, and stir for about 5 minutes with a wooden spoon. Then remove it from the fire, and drop from the point of a knife, upon waxed paper — ordinary writing paper will do. When cool, the drops may easily be removed from the paper. Peppermint drops may also be made in the same manner, by substituting the essence of peppermint, also orange-drops made by substituting the juice of oranges. CANDIED MINT LEAVES Prepare fondant, and when the syrup is boiled, so that it ** hairs," remove it from the fire, stir a little, and dip each small spray of mint into it, laying them afterwards on buttered paper to harden. CANDIED VIOLETS Candied violets may be prepared in the same way as candied mint leaves. The syrup may be colored by using grape juice, and the stems made green with spinach leaves crushed, and the juice added to fondant. DECORATING CAKES Crystallized mint leaves, and violets, and candied fruits may be formed into most attractive decorations for cakes. TO FASTEN CANDLES ON CAKES Push a hot hat-pin, or a knitting needle into the bottom of the candle ; remove, and put in a wooden toothpick while the wax is still soft. After the wax is hardened around the toothpick the candle may be easily placed in position on the cake. MAEEONS GLACES Fresh chestnuts, 1 quart, Butter, 2 teaspoons. Lemon-juice, 2 tablespoons. Syrup Sugar, 2 quarts, Vanilla bean, 1-inch length.