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Transparent Dessert Cakes

Take a large cake (almost any kind will do), cut it into slices about the third of an inch thick, and stamp these into any fancy shapes, such as diamonds, squares, hearts, stars, rounds, etc. Spread a little good jam over them, having previously hollowed the surface a little to keep the jam from running over the sides. Boil half a pound of refined loaf sugar with half a pint of water to the second degree. When this point is reached, take it from the fire and set the bottom of the saucepan in a basin of cold water: as soon as the sugar begins to thicken beat it from the middle against the side of the pan for a minute or two, and add very gradually one-eighth of a pint of maraschino or Curacoa and two or three spoonfuls of clear syrup. Spread a little of this preparation over the jam upon the cakes, and as each cake is masked lay it on a drainer in a dish, and when this is full place it in an open screen for a few minutes to dry. In order to ascertain when the sugar has reached the second degree, skim it carefully, dip a perforated spoon into it, and blow the sugar off into the pan. When it has boiled long enough large bubbles will form on the holes of the skimmer (see directions under SUGAR BOILING).