FOR THE CHILDREN'S PARTIES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 78, 20 December 1940, Page 45

FOR THE CHILDREN'S PARTIES

HRISTMAS is a very special time for children, and there are always lots of parties given to them during these holidays. What fun it is, too, in country districts, when all the "srown-up children" come home for Christmas, bringing with them their own youngsters to run wild on the farm, just as they themselves used to do. What eagerness to "get together" with old schoolmates on adjacent farms, also home for Christmas! What a comparing and a showing-off of offspring;. and what eager descriptions of one youngster’s amazing progress at the piano, and another’s absolute gift for making toy aeroplanes. Parties are the order of the day everywhere, so here are some suggestions for wholesome but attractive party dishes. Candlestick Biscuits These make a pretty table, for one is put in each guest’s place with her name written across it in coloured icing, and the little candle is lighted as the children file into the tea-room. Corn‘flour may be used in place of arrowroot if preferred. Beat 4 oz. of butter and 2 oz. sugar to a cream, add 1 well beaten egg. Mix in 8 oz. flour, 2 oz. arrowroot, and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Knead well, roll out fairly thin, and cut into rounds. Bake about 12 minutes. When cold, ice with different coloured icings. In the centre of each biscuit place a marshmallow or similar sweet, cut to represent a candle-holder, and insert a small candle. Banana Roosters Choose curved bananas. Insert a toothpick or wooden match in one end to represent a beak, and in the other end, stick a few feathers, or strips of coloured paper, for a "tail." Now insert two toothpicks for legs, and set it upright by each child’s plate. The Crinoline Lady This looks fine in the middle of the table. Make a good madeira mixture for the cake, and cook some of it in a pudding basin, and the rest in a small baking powder tin. When cooked, turn them out and leave until quite cold. Then stand the basin-cake upside down,

which will represent the crinoline half of the lady when iced. Upon it, stand the baking powder tin cake, which will form her body; and on top of it, fix a small doll’s head and arms-you can buy a celluloid doll and dismember it. Now your artistry may have full play in the icing of the lady. First cover her with white icing, and then trim the crinoline with coloured festoons, and true-lovers’ knots, and frills and so on. The bodice can have buttons and frills; and you can make any varieties of colour by buying the three primary colours (sold in cartons), and blending them as you like. Put a bonnet on the lady’s head. This cake looks nice on one of those flat glass plates with a high stand. The Ship Cake This is also made with a good plain madeira mixture" for the main part of the cake, and is really only a variation of the "crinoline lady" idea, which can be applied in many different ways, according to one’s ingenuity and with any makeshift equipment. A deep tin meat-dish can be bent and pulled out longways to make the shape of the hull of the boat-pointed at one end for her bows, and blunt at the other. Cook the main cake in that, and small baking powder or pepper tins for the funnels. Port holes are made by fixing in round jubes, or other sweets, tiny flags can be made or bought; also little sails. I

am hoping that some reader will work out this idea, make something special and send us a picture of it, together with a description of all the contrivances and inventions. Madeira Mixture Here is a good mixture to use for these two cakes: Half a pound of butter; 60z. of sugar; cream these together,

then add 4 eggs one at a time, 10 on flour sieved with 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and the grated rind of 1 lemon. Here is another show winner: Half a pound of butter; 1 large cup of sugar; 2 large level cups of flour; 4 eggs well beaten; 1% cup lukewarm milk; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; 1 small teaspoon soda} (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) pinch salt; and essence of lemon. Cream butter and sugar well; add beaten eggs gradually, Dissolve the soda in 1 teaspoon boiling water and mix with the lukewarm milk. Add. Sift flour, cream of tartar and salt, and add. Cook in greased tin in moderate oven for one to 14% hours. Little Boats A fleet of these can surround the "ship cake," and can be made quite wholesome as well as pretty. You can buy boat-shaped patty tins. Pastry for Boats.-Eight ounces of flour, 4 oz butter; 2 dessertspoons icing sugar; about 4 tablespoons milk, and a pinch of salt. Scarcely any baking powder is needed, if any. Sift the dry ingredients and flake the butter up finely, before rubbing it in with the tips of the fingers. Bind with the milk, roll out thinly, and line the ungreased boattins. Prick the pastry with a fork. Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes, Filling for Boats These must not be put in till the boats are quite cold. Fruit Jelly: Stew any small fruits, such as loganberries, raspberries, gooseberries, or strawberries. See that the fruit stays whole. Strain out the syrup from them and with the syrup and hot water, make some jelly of the appropriate colour from good jelly crystals. When the jelly is cold, but not set, fill the boats with the fruit, pour a little liquid jelly over it, and leave to set. Put in little sticks for mast or pieces of spaghetti; and make sails with white paper. Raspberry Cream: Put a little raspberry (or other) jam in the boat. Cover thickly with whipped cream, or mock cream, and stick in prettily shaped sails made by rolling out the scraps of pastry very thinly, cutting them into shapes and baking. Mock Cream for above filling: One teaspoon gelatine; 4% lb. butter, 142 tablespoons sugar (% oz.); 442 saltspoon cream of tartar; pinch of salt; 3 tablespoons boiling water, vanilla or lemon essence. Pour hot water on gelatine. Stir until dissolved. Put butter, sugar, salt and flavourings in a basin, cream a little, add cream of tartar, then dissolved gelatine. Whip well for about ten minutes, until it looks like whipped cream. Mock Cream Filling: Half a pint of milk; 34 oz. beat cornflour; 1 oz. butter; 1 oz. castor sugar. Mix cornflour with a little cold milk. Put the rest on to heat, add the cornflour, stir till boiling. Cook 3 minutes, stirring all the time; leave till cold. Cream butter and sugar. Whip cold cornflour, then beat into mixture gradually, Butternut Creams Half a pound of butter; 42 cup sugar; 40z. nuts; 244 cups flour; 2 eggs; 1 oz. crystallised cherries. Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolks and beat well. Work in flour (I add a little salt and one level teaspoon baking powder, but they are not in the recipe). It is best to use the hands for this. Make into a firm dough, Have the nuts chopped ready in a saucer, and the whites (one will do) of egg in another. Also the cherries halved or quartered as desired. Roll small pieces of the dough into balls, dip into the egg white (unbeaten), press into the nuts, and place on a cold oven

tray. Put a piece of cherry in the centre of each, Moderate oven 12 minutes. Half this quantity makes one trayful, and they are very pretty for parties, Gingerbread Men Twelve ounces of flour; 7 oz. treacle; 1 egg; 3 oz. brown sugar; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon mixed spice; 2 oz. butter; and a pinch of salt. Sieve the flour, spice salt and baking powder into a bowl. Mix the brown sugar in well with these dry ingredients. Melt the butter and treacle together, then add the egg well beaten. Stir all this well into the dry ingredients, and mix to a soft dough. Flour the hands, and mould into shapes, Four pieces are required for each man-head, body, two for arms and one extra long makes both legs. Place the men on a greased slide, and bake for about 15 minutes, or until brown,