Cookery for every household

Another simple decoration is to spread a thin coating of jam or jelly over the cake, and then to sprinkle with browned or coloured almonds, cocoanut, pistachio nuts, &c., or a mixture of these. This is very suitable for the sides of cakes where the top only is iced. When a more elaborate decoration is wanted, one of the various icings may be used. With a large cake it is very usual to ice the top only, and then to 2 P decorate with preserved fruits, bon-bons, or icing in two colours put through a forcing bag. Any decoration may be fixed in place with a little soft icing. A fancy band of paper is often used for decorating the sides of the cake, and this is tied into position with a pretty piece of ribbon. Small wafer biscuits can be used in the same way, a little very thin icing should be put on first to make them stick, and then a ribbon put round and tied in a bow. Pleasing effects in colour must always be studied. Light and delicate colours are preferable to the darker shades, which are apt to suggest “something painted.” Small Fancy Cakes In the decorating of little fancy cakes there is a wide range for individual taste and arrangement. With the help of the icings and decorations above described, or even odds and ends of icings, the variety of pretty cakes which can be made is endless, and it is just these pretty little cakes which cost so much, and which add so immensely to the attractiveness of an afternoon tea-table. The making and decorating of these cakes require the same amount of taste and ingenuity as any other fancy or artistic work, but it is wonderful how many new inventions can be made with a little careful handling and some goodwill. Most of the small fancy cakes are made up from Genoese pastry, sponge cake, Madeira cake, chocolate cake, orange cake, or any other plain cake mixture. These are sliced and cut in small fingers, diamonds, rounds, heart-shapes, &c., and iced or made into sandwiches. Two different cake mixtures may be put together, such as pink and white, chocolate and white, chocolate and pink, orange and pink, and so on ; and for spreading purposes jam, marmalade, soft almond paste, thick flavoured custard, clotted or whipped cream mixed with chopped nuts, sieved jam or pieces of fruit, Vienna icing, fondant icing, and so on, may be used. Then a coating of icing or a little piping in icing put on the top with some other form of decoration. The following are a few examples of what may be done : 1. Genoese pastry made into a sandwich with raspberry jam, and cut into fancy shapes. Coated with chocolate or white fondant icing, and decorated with leaves of angelica and caramelised hazel nuts or grapes, the stalks being marked in with a little chocolate icing. 2. Sandwich of orange cake spread with marmalade, iced with yellow glace, and decorated with caramelised sections of orange, and a little chocolate icing to mark the seeds. 3. Sandwiches of chocolate cake spread with pink Vienna icing, a piping of Vienna icing on the top and a few silver dragees. 4. Sandwiches of Madeira cake spread with soft almond paste. Spread the top with almond paste, brush over with white of egg, and decorate with chopped pistachio nuts or browned almonds.