FANCY PARTY DISHES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 82, 17 January 1941, Page 45

FANCY PARTY DISHES

Y page of suggestions for children’s party dishes a week or two ago met with so much interest and approval, that I am following it up with some idea for older people’s parties. Some of them may sound a little expensive, but you need only make one or two of these, and balance up with some cheaper dishes. Food for Fairies This is a delicious cold sweet, and very simple to make. Lady Bledisloe was served with this when in New Zealand, and pronounced it a great success. Whip two pints of cream to a stiff froth, sweeten it a little, and flavour with vanilla. Now stir in thoroughly two dessertspoons of gelatine dissolved in water, and cool. When this is mixed, you must "get busy" and work very quickly, because the mixture sets so soon. Put a layer of the cream at the bottom of a glass dish, cover with a layer of apple or red currant jelly, and then tiny macaroons. Repeat the layers of cream, jelly and macaroons, ending-always with one of cream. Sprinkle the top with very finely chopped nuts, cherries, and angelica, and the result is delicious. Danish Apple Cake This is a very old traditional recipe. It is both cheap and easy, but oh! so nice, and so "out of the ordinary." You will probably need cake-forks when serving it. Prepare 4 cups of apple puree (but don’t make it too sloppy) and 3 cups of breadcrumbs. Next butter weli a cake tin with a loose bottom, and sprinkle it with breadcrumbs and brown sugar. Now melt Ib. of butter and add the three cups of breadcrumbs, mixed with brown sugar to taste. After mixing well, remove from the fire, and put a good layer of the mixture into the cake tin, next put a layer of the apple puree, then more crumb mixture, and then a layer of strawberry conserve. Now put en another layer of the crumbs, then more puree, and finish with crumbs. Dust over with ‘cinnamon, and bake in a moderate oven for an hour, or a little more, depending on the depth of the cake. Turn out and serve cold, covered with whipped cream, and decorated with pieces of apple jelly, or a little of the strawberry conserve. Caprice Cake with Coconut Paste This is well-named as to appearance, with its pretty pale green, all-over

icing, and its pink and cream draughtboard slices. It takes two cups of flour:

two teaspoons baking powder; %4 cup sugar, a pinch of salt; 4 tablespoons butter; 2 egg whites stiffly beaten, 1 cup milk; ¥2 teaspoon vanilla. Cream the buttes, add the sugar gradually, and beat untii light and fluffy. Add the sifted flour, baking powder and salt alternately with the milk, a little at a time. Beat thoroughly after each addition, then add vanilla. Lastly, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Divide the batter, and colour one half pink with a few drops of cochineal. Bake in two greased and floured square sandwich tins in a moderate oven, about 20 minutes. Cool thoroughly, then cut each layer into six even strips. Join the layers together, draught-board fashion, with strawberry filling and cover the outside of the cake with pale green coconut paste, made as follows: One and a-half cups of sifted icing sugar; 42 cup desiccated coconut; 1 tablespoon butter; % teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; % teaspoon almond essence. Cream butter, add sugar, salt and lemon juice; add _ sufficient hot water to make a smooth paste. Add almond essence and sufficient green colouring to make it an attractive shade. Add coconut, and beat well. Spread thickly on sides as well as on top of the cake. The paste should be as thick as possible. STRAWBERRY FILLING: Use this filling to stick the strips of cake together before icing. One cup sifted icing

sugar; 2. tablespoons strawberry jam; 1 teaspoon melted butter. Beat jam into the icing sugar, add the butter and sufficient hot. water to make a smooth spreading paste. Luxury Layer Cake This is really a sweet, and a real special. The "layers" must be baked a day beforehand, and then "assembled" with the fillings a couple of hours be-

fore serving. An ingenious person can easily think out any number of varieties of fillings; and, of course, cheaper recipes for the layers could be used. But this one is the real thing, and is absolutely wonderful. It was given to me by a clever "chef." Cream lb. butter thoroughly; add 4%4lb. sugar and cream well again. Stir in 4 yolks of eggs until

quite light, add a little flavouring(almond or ratafia is nice)-and 6oz. of sifted flour. No baking powder. Lastly, add the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a hot oven in four separate tins, and do not let them get dark. ASSEMBLING THE LAYERS: At the bottom, put a layer of macaroons spread with quince jelly. Then the first cake; cover with a good wine-flavoured custard. Now the second cake which is spread with apple jelly. Then the third cake, upon which is put strawberry puree; and the fourth cake is covered thickly with whipped cream. Decorate the top with strawberries and chopped angelica. Take care not to make either the fillings, or the macaroon foundation too thick. Hot Strawberry Tea Cakes Cream together 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 cup of sugar; when very light, add 1 well beaten egg and % cup milk. Next sift 142 cups flour with 2 level teaspoons baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add this to the butter and sugar mixture, and beat well. Crush a good cupful of: prepared strawberries, and fold them into the batter. Bake in patty pans and sprinkle with sugar. Serve fresh from the oven if possible, though they are quite nice eaten cold. P Sunflower Cake This is a pretty cake, quite plain, and suitable for children who love the appearance of it almost as much as the taste. Make the cake itself with 40z. of flour; 1 level teaspoon of baking powder; (Continued on’ next page)

(Continued from previous page) 2 eggs; 4oz. of castor sugar; 30z. of butter, and 2 or 3 dessertspoons milk. Line a sandwich tin with butteted paper to stand above the sides. Cream the butter and sugar, add one whole egg and stir quickly until the mixture is smooth. Whisk up the second egg and add half; you will need the other half when making the sunflower petals. Beat the mixture until smooth, then stir in gradually the flour and baking powder sifted together. Add milk to moisten, and bake in a moderate oven for about half an hour. When the cake is cold, ice with a mixture made by: mixing a teaspoon of cocoa to a smooth paste with about 3 teaspoons of hot water, and stirring in about 4oz. of sifted icing sugar, until a nice spreading consistency is reached. Flavour with vanilla. THE PETALS: This is the pretty part. Sift 2oz. icing sugar, and mix it with 2oz. ground almonds and 2o0z. castor sugar. Add the half egg saved from the cake mixture, or sufficient of it to’ make a stiff paste. Flavour with vanilla, and colour it a bright yellow. The colouring will moisten it, so be careful not to make the mixture too moist before adding it. Work it until smooth, then roll out fairly thin on a sugared board, and cut petals to resemble a sun flower, Arrange then nicely on top of the cake, making them adhere with a dab of icing. Then slightly hollow out the centre, and fill up with chocolate "hundreds and thousands" or grated chocolate. Peppernuts This is a typical Christmas recipe from Denmark. It is said that the real "raison d’etre" of these Peppernuts is to counteract any digestion troubles arising from over-indulgence during the festive season! The children are allowed to help in the making of them; they do the rolling, cutting, and the putting on trays to cook. They are also allowed to use them for counters in card games and the like. Then they can eat their winnings! One pound of flour; ilb. of brown sugar; 4 eggs; 14lb. butter; 2 tablespoons

ground almonds; 2 teaspoons of ground ginger; and 1 teaspoon each of ground cloves and cinnamon. Work well together, and roll out in long thin rolls, which are then cut into pieces as large as a big hazelnut. Bake a light golden brown. Mock Pate de Foie Gras This is for the sandwiches. It is most appetising, and of course, nourishing, and not difficult to make, and quite like the real thing, although no gooselivers are employed in the making. It is also a wonderful start for savouries, etc.-a little spread on a biscuit, then a slice of egg, and an anchovy coiled up on it! One pound of calf’s or sheep’s liver; 1lb. fat pork. Put through the mincer not less than three times, with an onion. You then mix in 2 tablespoons cornflour, and 4 tablespoons ordinary flour; salt, pepper, nutmeg and ground cloves to taste. Mix well as you would a cake, It should now be the consistency of a "wet" scone-dough. More flour may be needed; it varies according to the liver. Add an egg or two beaten, and sufficient cream or milk, to make a mixture the consistency of a cake mixture. Line a square cake tin with well-buttered paper, pour in mixture, and place in a tin containing water. Bake in a medium oven 114 to 2 hours. Don’t turn out until cold. A SIMPLER MIXTURE: Half a pound of cooked calf’s or sheep’s liver; 3 or 4 ounces of uncooked fat bacon; 1 dessertspoon chopped parsley; 1 dessertspoon grated onion; 1 egg; pinch ground mace and allspice; 1 teaspoon made mustard; pepper and salt; and some browned breadcrumbs. Put the liver and bacon two or three times through a mincer. Add parsley and different seasonings, mix well with lightly beaten egg. Grease basin, line inside with breadcrumbs, and fill with mixture. Twist a piece of greaseproof paper over the top, and bake in a moderate oven 34 hour. Cut into slices when cold. Can be steamed or baked. Must be mixed nice and smooth.