FLORAL INFLUENCE IN COOKERY

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 29, 30 December 1938, Page 18

FLORAL

INFLUENCE IN COOKERY

Daisy cakes and Floral cakes

By

Chef

N addition to the natural food derived from flowers * in the form of honey, floral influence manifests in cookery in many ways. This is especially true of sweets, savouries and cakes, where shape, color, flavour or decoration mean so much. HESE tempting plates of cakes are the outeome of halved blanched almonds and almond paste combined with a little versatility. Their simplicity will amaze you and once you’ve got the idea, cake decoration can be. carried still further. Much depends upon the "finishing off," and we should all rejoice that we live in days when the confectioner can eome to our aid, for lovely boxes containing cake decorations can now be bought, and our efforts made to look like the real thing. And, talking of decoration, the prize this week has been awarded to Mrs. D. M. Tyler, 6 Cains Avenue, Gonville, Wanganui, for her recipe for Festive Snowballs. "The getting ready for Christmas" effort has come and gone, and with 1939 stretching ahead of us, my sister home-cooks for this week, at any rate, are away on holiday and enjoying a well-earned rest. I do appreciate. the support you have given these pages during the past year, and thank you all for your encouraging messages for their future, and I sincerely wish all my sister home-cooks a happy and prosperous New Year. oS

Floral Cakes ‘EFALF-CUP butter, % cup sugar, 2 * eggs, $ cup milk, 2 level cups self-raising flour, pinch of salt, yellow or red colouring, few dr ops rose esSence or rose water, 4 cup apricot jam, jb. almond yellow cake topping or few chopped pistachio nuts. , :Cream the butter and sugar, gradually’ add beaten eggs, milk, .es‘sence, selfraising flour sifted.‘with salt, and cook mixture in’ small paper patties in moderately hot oven for 12 to 15 minutes.. When eold, brush surface with warmed jam. Colour almond paste ' pale pink or yellow, roll thinly and cut into rounds the size of sixpence. Arrange 5 to 6 on top-of. each cake to form petals, turning the edges a little. Place a little jam in centre and sprinkle with coloured cake topping or chopped pistachic nuts. Daisy: Cakes JIPHREE eges, pinch of salt, 1 cup self-raising flour, 3 tablespoons hot water; 2? cup sugar, 1 teaspoon

butter, chocolate icing, blanched almonds, 1 egg yolk, 2% teaspoon vanilla essence, sifted icing sugar. Add salt and whisk eggs lightly, stir in sugar and whisk to light thick froth. Stir in sifted flour, then butter dissolved in hot water and pour mixture into a’ buttered ‘ flour-dredged swiss roll pan. Bake in moderately hot oven for 20 to 25 minutes and lift on to cake cooler. Cut cold cake into squares or rounds, coat with chocolate icing and arrange blanched halved al"monds, daisy-shape, in .centre of each. Mix egg yolk and vanill, ‘with sufficient icing sugar to form a thick paste, drop a little into the centre of each daisy and leave . until firm. Rose Filling ONE cup crystal suger, 2 cup boiling water, 1 egg white, pinch of salt, 4 teaspoon rose essence or water, 2 tablespoons each of chopped nuts and drained cherries. Dissolve sugar in water in saucepan, boil without stirring until syrup "spins a thread" (230 degrees Fahr). Add salt to eggwhite, whisk to stiff froth, then add syrup gradually, beating until mixture begins te thicken. Add. flavouring, nuts and cherries, and few drops colouring if required. Stir until thick enough to spread, and use for layer or small cake fillings. Apple Roses SIX red apples, 1 cup seeded raisins or stoned prunes, 3 cup chopped: nuts, 1 tablespoon orange juice, 1 teaspoon butter. Mix chopped raisins or prunes, nuts, orange juice and butter. Wash, dry and core apples, leaving a small wedge at base of each, and fill cavity with prepared mixture, Cut each apple into eight sections, about an inch deep, and place on buttered baking dish with about 4 cup water, or in steamer over boiling water. Cover with buttered paper and steam or bake slowly until tender, but quite whole, turning each incised section down while cooking. Serve as an accompani--ment to roast pork, or as dessert with whipped cream. ‘Tulip Salad SIX tomatoes, 1 cup diced cucumber or celery, mayonnaise or salad dressing, salt and cavenne, 1 ioathyigs ghaqetedetyiag ale ts

small can salmon or crab meat, 1 tablespoon cream, 1 tablespoon cream cheese, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, shredded lettuce. Seald tomatoes, remove skins without breaking the flesh, then cut each in quarters to half its depth, and carefully remove the centres. Combine celery or cucumber with mayonnaise, season with salt and cayenne, and partly fill tomatoes with mixture, turning back the sliced sections to resemble petals. Arrange on shredded lettuce on

salad plates, with mounds of sea‘soned salmon or crab meat between. Combine cream cheese and cream, season with salt and cayenne, shape into small balls, dip in chopped parsley, and garnish the salad. Temptation Salad TT7WELVE small new potatoes, 21b. ham (cooked), % cup shredded cheese, 1 bunch spring onions, 1 lettuce, mayonnaise dressing. Boil potatoes and allow to cool. Cut potatoes into thin slices. Mince ham and chop onions, mix together with ham and _ cheese. Dress with mayonnaise dressing and serve on lettuce leaves, Enough

for Six:

~Mrs.

E.A.

B.

. (Dargaville).

Preserved Strawberries TAKE equal weights of fruit and fine sugar. Lay fruit on a large dish and sprinkle half the sugar over, shake gently in order to coat with sugar. Next day make the other half of the sugar into syrup, using one pint of red currant wn

juice (instead of water) to each pound of strawberries, boil fruit slowly in this until jellied. Large berries, not over-ripe, are the best.

-VWirs.

R.A.

C.

(Maungaturoto).

Royalty Sponge BEAT the yolks of ,4 eggs, with 8 cup of sugar, add (sifted together)’ % cup of flour, 4 cup of arrowroot, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, fold im the-stiffly-beaten egg-whites and cook in 2 sandwich tins in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes. Put on wire to cool. Mix a packet of strawberry jelly crystals in 1 breakfast cup of water and put to set in a tin the same size as sponge. When it begins to set, arrange in it 12 strawberries cut in halves. Put the jelly on one half of sponge, spread with whipped cream and put other sponge on top. ice-top with thin pink icing ‘and, with angelica, make a wreath of holly leaves. Delicious and dainty.

-VNirs.

C.S.

L.

, (St. Albans).

Sunbeam Cake HALF-POUND butter, 6 eggs, pinch salt, 3lb. sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 3lb. sultanas, 402. peel, 1202. flour, a few almonds and any flavouring. Almond or lemon is best for this cake. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, then beat in the eggs one by one, then add fiour sifted with baking powder and then fruit, peel (sliced thin) and essence. Bake in a mod-

erate oven about 2 hours.

Mrs:

A.M.

W.

(Pine Valley).

Fruit Squares SHORT CRUST: lb. butter, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 cup wholemeal, 1 teaspoon baking powder, pinch salt, cream butter and sugar, add egg, then flour and baking powder, Cut mixture in half and roll one haif out on a piece of greasproof paper. Spread with filling, then put the other half of rolled short erust on top. Bake about 20 minutes in moderate oven. When cool, dust with icing sugar and cut into squares. Filling: 202. sugar (raw sugar can be used if desired), 1 tablespoon wholemeal, juice and rind of a lemon, 4 cup water. Put all in a saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring

all the time, and boil for two minutes, then add 1% cups dried fruits (raisins, sultanas, mixed fruit, ete.). Mix well and when cooled a little,

spread on short crust.-

-Mrs.

C.

K.

(Matamata).

(Turn to next page.)

FESTIVE SNOWBALLS This Week’s | Prize Recipe FILL a pudding basin with mincemeat, cover with paper and steam 2} hours. | Cool, stir up well, and roll | into balls. Now roli each in > soft white icing, made with gelatine, and dust with castor sugar. Wrap each pudding in cellophane, with a sprig of holly sticking out of the top, and tie round with cord.-

Mrs

D.

T.

(Wanganul).

| ‘The Weeks Recipes -Continued from previous page.

Rum Junket JTNGREDIENTS: 1 tablespoon rum or rum essence, 1 quart milk, i dessertspoon sugar. Method: Heat until lukewarm, then add 1 teaspoonful rennet; leave. until set. Delicious with cream or

any Kind oi fruit.-

Mie6

G.

(Cara-

rona).

Pineapple Tart ABOUT lb. good short crust, 1 tin pineapple, 1 lemon rind and juice, 3 eggs, water, 14072. arrowreot, loz. sugar, pinch salt, 1 teaepeon butter, log. castor sugar or icing sugar. Roll out good short erust thin, prick all over, brush with beaten egg or white. Cook in moderate oven for 20 minutes, Put liqnid from pineapple and enough water to make pint on to boil, with ‘butter, grated rind and juice of lemon. Mix arrowroot, sugar and galt ; with a little of the Hquid | Ww SRE UR DUES ee ae

smooth and break in egg-yolks, then beat well. Stir this into Haquid till boiling and cook three minutes. Add shredded pineapple; .put all this into the pastry shell. Beat whites of eggs to stiff froth :-and pile on top of pineapple filling. Sift castor or icing sugar .on ‘top and put in oven to set. Serve.cold with

cream:

-Miss

P.

J.

(Timaru).

Bo-Peep Cutlets (00K 2 large sHiced onions-in butter for a few minutes and put them with 4lh. sliced potatoes in-a rather deep buttered fireproof dish with a small cupful of beef stock, ‘salt and pepper. Cook 40 minutes in a fair oven. Now brown on both sides in butter or dripping, some well trimmed lamb or mutton cutlets, bury them in potatoes and onions. Put dish in oven and cook till cutiets are nicely done and potatoes golden brown on top (about

half an hour).

Mre:

G.

R.

(Rua-

waiy'

Royal Rice Custard WASH 1 large cup of rice and put ‘on ‘to ‘boil ‘gently in 2 cups of ‘milk, boil titl tender, .adding more — ‘hot milk if necessary. Add small shake of cinnamon .and very little sugar. Allow ‘to cool-a little. .Pre- | pare -pietish by buttering well and ‘sprinkling with .sugar. Arrange halved orange sections over bot--‘tom. Beat yolks of 4 eggs and ‘teaspoon ‘of custard powder with 3 cup or more milk to makea sloppy mixture. When mixed with rice, add dessertspoon butter. Sprinkle -eoconut over orange sections in dish, pour in a portion of rice, and as you fill. the dish, 4 a section dipped in coeonut. here. and there. Beat whites with tablespoon sugar (icing or castor) and when the custard has cooked in: moderate oven, sprinkle with ground nutmeg and put meringue: ‘over, with sections of orange. ! Sprinkle with coconut and put to: gat ins-slow oven. ‘Delicious coh. :

with cream

~Miee

P.

J.

(Timaru):