Center Pieces of Cooked Sugar

For cooked sugar see Elementary Methods (No. 171). It is always necessary to have sugar cooked in advance so that each time some is wanted it will not have to be prepared, especially when only a little is to be used at a time. Have some sugar cooked to "large crack" (No. 171); when it reaches three hundred and thirty degrees add to it the juice of a quarter of a lemon and leave cook to three hundred and fifty degrees, then pour it hastily on a thick marble sufficiently large to allow it to cool, then detach and set it away in hermetically closed tin boxes. To make web or spun sugar, first melt it slowly in a small copper pan, a little at a time, being careful it does not change color. This sugar is used for spinning sultanas, for making ornaments in spun sugar, or it can be used for Parisian nougat and even for candying fruits, reducing its degree by introducing a little syrup at thirty-two degrees or else some glucose. For spun sugar pieces lightly trace with a pencil on an unpolished and very lightly oiled marble the outlines of the design needed for reproduction; cover this tracing with a thread of firm royal icing, either large or small according to the size of the piece. Fill in between these threads of icing with melted sugar, white or colored; detach the piece from the marble before it is thoroughly cold, as then they are apt to break easily. Instead of using royal icing the tracing can be outlined with a thread of spinning sugar of a different color from that used in the inside; put all the pieces together, attaching them in four, six, or eight, and ornament them here and there, when fastened, according to taste, with candied fruits, bonbons, or else small cakes, almond paste, etc.; decorate with flowers or leaves made of sugar molded in oiled tin molds, dipped in sugar cooked to "crack," lightly cooled in its pan, then hung by a wire to hooks slightly apart so they cannot touch one another. Unmold as soon as they begin to cool and place on grates until ready for use. Sheaves can also be made (an imitation of sheaves of rye or wheat) in very finely drawn sugar, fastened with an imitation band prepared with the same sugar. These sheaves may be colored or white, according to the taste; the sugar should be cooked to three hundred and thirty-five degrees. Pieces may also be decorated with pulled sugar flowers.