CAKE AND CONFECTIONS
ICING
Take one pound of powdered or flour sugar (not the common pulverized) and the whites of four eggs. Put the sugar to the eggs before you beat it at all; then beat till it is stiff. Spread it on the cake with a wet knife, wetting it in cold water each time you use it. Set it in front of the stove to dry, or in an oven with the least particle of heat. The cake must be nearly cold. You can flavor the icing with rose, orange, or lemon; if the latter, add a very small portion of grated rind. It is much nicer to add sugar to eggs before beating than afterward.
CHOCOLATE ICING
To one pound of fine loaf sugar add half a pint of cold water; boil over a brisk fire until the sugar, when pressed with the fingers, presents the appearance of strong glue; add six ounces of grated chocolate; flavor with vanilla.
TO MAKE ICING FOR CAKES
Beat the whites of two eggs to a froth, then add to them a quarter of a pound of white sugar, ground fine like flour; flavor with extract of lemon or vanilla; beat it until it is light and very white, the longer it is beaten the firmer it will become. No more sugar must be added to make it so. Beat the frosting until it may be spread smoothly on the cake. This quantity will ice quite a large cake over the top and the sides.
FROSTING FOR CAKE
To each egg used take ten teaspoonfuls of finest powdered sugar, and a teaspoonful of lemon extract. Beat quickly, and allow at least five minutes for each spoonful of sugar. The excellence of icing depends on the purity of the powdered sugar and the rapidity of beating given the eggs; it is much to be regretted that the most of powdered sugar is adulterated with foreign materials, especially with the white earth called “Terra Alba,” which causes the sugar to harden like stone, and prevents the cake and frosting from being, as it should be, light and good.