No. 3634

Chariot of Swans

Le Char des Cygnes

This piece is made entirely of gum paste (No. 3624), the swan is molded in a two-piece plaster mold, the two halves of the swan are fastened together, the crevices filled with softened gum paste, then thoroughly dried. Wash off with a sponge and imitate the eyes and beaks with a brush.

The shell is also molded in a dry plaster mold and is decorated on the outspread parts with designs of gum paste bronzed or gilded. On the thin end of the shell stand a Cupid made of gum paste; the ring encircling the swan is of gum paste, the reins of silk and the harness of satin ribbon; the whole is made to stand on an oval bottom cut the size of the dish it is served on. The waves are made of royal icing (No. 101) tinted a pale green. Fill the chariot with iced candied fruits, candies, or else ice cream or water ices.

← No. 3633 Chariot of Doves Large Show Pieces No. 3635 Cornucopia, Horn of Plenty →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This is a construction, not a batter: a gum-paste pièce montée whose only truly edible payload is whatever you spoon into the shell. Everything below is about the sequence of drying, assembly and moisture control.

The hinge: dry, then assembleAssemble, then dry -- Ranhofer's order is to fasten the two molded halves together, fill the crevices with softened gum paste, and only then dry thoroughly.
Gum paste (No. 3624)Nineteenth-century gum paste is confectioners' sugar and starch bound with gum tragacanth soaked in water, kneaded stiff like modeling clay. Modern commercial gum paste or a tylose-based sugar paste behaves the same way and is far more reliable; treat it as sculpture medium rather than food.
Plaster moldsDry, unsealed plaster of Paris was used precisely because it wicks moisture and releases the paste. If you are working today, food-grade silicone molds do the same job without the questions raised by porous plaster picking up dust and old pigment. Never use a plaster mold that has held anything but sugar.
Bronzed and gilded decorationThe bronzing powders of the period were finely ground copper-zinc alloy, not food. If you want metal on the shell, use edible gold or silver leaf, or a food-grade lustre dust, and keep it on surfaces nobody is expected to eat.
Royal icing waves (No. 101)Egg white beaten with confectioners' sugar until it holds a peak, tinted pale green here. Spread and stipple it on the oval base while soft, then let it set hard — several hours at least, overnight in humid weather.
Humidity is the enemyA finished gum-paste piece will soften and slump in a damp room. Dry the components in a warm, airy place, store the assembled chariot in a sealed box with silica gel or rice, and keep it away from the range.
Filling the shellCandied fruits and candies can sit in the shell for hours. Ice cream or a water ice cannot: line the cavity with a chilled metal or foil liner and fill it at the last possible moment, or the sugar shell will dissolve from the inside.
Scale and serviceThe base is cut to the platter, so the platter dictates the size.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its "Large Show Pieces" chapter belongs to the tradition of the pièce montée generally traced to Antonin Carême, who treated pastry architecture as a branch of design and published plates of ruins, temples and rotundas in sugar. By Ranhofer's day the grand banquet still expected such objects on the buffet: they were looked at far more than eaten, and their function was to signal the ambition of the kitchen. The swan-drawn chariot with a Cupid at the prow draws on Venus iconography, the bird being one of her attributes in classical myth, and it appears here immediately after a chariot of doves (No. 3633).