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Cake Confectionery and Little Sweets
DELICIOUS bonbons may be made with cake and fondant, and then there are many little sweets that are so closely allied to candies that they may well be included in a book on candy-making. To make these confections one needs to have fancy little cake cutters of all kinds, such as heart, star, round, diamond, leaf, bird and animal shapes. If these are not readily obtained a tinsmith will make them for you if you tell him just what you desire. You will also need a pastry bag with a finely pointed tube, and tiny gem pans. BONBON CAKES The cakes that are best for making bonbons are the sponge cake, pound cake and angel food cake: these should be at least twenty-four hours old, and then can be cut up into any shape desired without breaking or crumbling. Scoop out little balls, using a vegetable scoop, from any of these cakes and dip in melted fondant favored with different flavors and colored in different colors. If you are planning a luncheon or entertainment it is nice to have these little cake bonbons to help carry out the color scheme. Angel food cake cut in fancy shapes and dipped into pink or rose fondant flavored with rose extract is good. Sponge cake is nice dipped into yellow fondant flavored with orange or lemon, or into chocolate fondant.
This is a method rather than a measured formula: stale cake, cut small, dipped in warmed fondant. Everything depends on the temperature of the fondant and the dryness of the cake.
- The hinge: fondant temperatureMelt fondant in a bowl over barely simmering water and keep it just warm; the usual modern guideline is about 100-110F. The recipe gives no figure. Overheated fondant loses its gloss and sets grainy and dull; too cool and it drags and coats too thickly.
- Thinning the fondant"Melted fondant" should flow like heavy cream. Loosen it with a teaspoon at a time of hot water or plain sugar syrup, not with more heat.
- Vegetable scoopThis is what we now call a melon baller or small ice cream scoop, about 1 to 1 1/4 inches. A #100 or #70 disher gives the same result.
- Gem pansGem pans are the period name for small individual cake or muffin tins; a muffin or mini-muffin tin is the nearest modern equivalent. The recipe lists them among the equipment without saying what for, presumably for baking small cakes rather than for dipping.
- Twenty-four hours old is not optionalTwenty-four hours old -- Fresh sponge, pound or angel food cake tears on the cutter and sheds crumbs into the fondant, which then thickens and clouds. The recipe asks only that the cake be at least twenty-four hours old; it does not say how it should be kept.
- Dipping and drainingDrop each piece in, lift on a dipping fork or two-tine fork, scrape the underside on the rim of the bowl, and set on parchment. Work in small batches so the fondant does not cool and set in the bowl.
- Colors and flavorsUse oil-based or extract flavorings sparingly; alcohol-heavy extracts added in quantity can seize fondant. Gel colors give the pale rose and yellow described without thinning the coating.
- CuttersThe tinsmith is no longer needed. Small aspic or cookie cutters cover the heart, star, diamond and leaf shapes; cut cake cold from the refrigerator for the cleanest edge.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. As a rough modern estimate a 9-inch layer will give a few dozen small pieces, and dipping needs a bowl holding a good surplus of fondant. Best eaten within a day or two, in paper cases.
These are essentially petits fours glacés, which French confectioners classified as petits fours glacés to distinguish them from the dry petits fours secs. Their appearance in a candy book is telling: fondant was often made at home rather than bought as a specialist product, so a cook with leftover cake and a bowl of fondant had a party sweet within an hour. The insistence on matching the fondant to a color scheme reflects the era's luncheon and reception culture, where refreshments were expected to echo the flowers and table linen. The reference to a tinsmith making cutters to order is a reminder that such shapes could still be commissioned locally, though cutters were also widely sold by mail-order catalog by this date.