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For the Children's Party
For a children's party buy one pound of animal crackers and one pound of Graham crackers. Use two cups of powdered sugar, add two tablespoons of butter, and vanilla to taste, then add enough water or milk to make a very thick stiff paste. Put a good tablespoon on each Graham cracker, then stand the animal cracker upright in the middle of it. When these dry, they are quite firm. They please the children and make an effective table decoration. A little coloring added to this frosting makes them prettier. A row of the animal crackers marching in solemn procession around the birthday cake is always enthusiastically greeted by the youngsters.-V. S., Beaumont, Calif.
This is a simple uncooked icing used as glue, and the only thing that can go wrong is a paste too thin to hold an animal cracker upright.
- Get the paste stiffTwo cups of powdered sugar with two tablespoons of butter needs very little liquid, so add it a teaspoon at a time. It should hold a peak and barely fall from the spoon; anything looser and the cracker will lean and topple as it dries.
- Powdered sugar then and nowModern confectioners' sugar is finer and contains cornstarch as an anti-caking agent. Sift it if it has lumped, since there is no cooking step to dissolve the lumps.
- Drying timeLeave them uncovered at room temperature for several hours to skin over and set firm. In humid weather it may take considerably longer, so assemble these the morning of the party rather than an hour before.
- ColoringThe "little coloring" would have been a liquid dye or a homemade vegetable tint. Gel colors are far more concentrated now; use a toothpick's worth per batch, and divide the icing into small bowls before tinting so one heavy hand does not spoil the lot.
- Graham crackersBuy the crackers that come scored into two squares and snap them apart, or the base will be too long for one animal to balance on. A single square is about the right platform.
- YieldThe batch, at a generous tablespoon each, will dress roughly two dozen or so cracker squares, well under a pound of graham crackers. A pound of animal crackers is far more than you need for the tops; the surplus is what forms the procession around the cake.
- ServingThese are meant to be looked at as much as eaten. Set them on a tray or directly on the tablecloth well before guests arrive, since moving them once set can crack the icing seal.
The recipe shows what a household economy could mean: no baking, no eggs, no fuel, and a centerpiece assembled from two boxed goods bought by the pound. Animal crackers had been made in Britain through the nineteenth century and were produced commercially in the United States from the 1870s, with the National Biscuit Company's famous string-handled circus box appearing in 1902; graham crackers descended from the coarse unsifted flour promoted by the health reformer Sylvester Graham in the 1830s, by this date long since sweetened and sold as an ordinary cracker. The contributor's address, Beaumont, California, is a reminder that such household columns pooled advice from contributors across the country, credited only by initials and town.