Candy-Making Revolutionized: Confectionery from Vegetables

by Mary Elizabeth Hall

FOR THE CATERER

Vegetable candy opens up a new field for the caterer. It furnishes him material that is not only cheaper but better than that with which he has been accustomed to work. Not only are the results better, but they are achieved by the expenditure of much less effort. Potato fondant can be made to assume clear outlines without the hour after hour beating required by the traditional French methods. Moreover, the caterer's customers can have the satisfaction of knowing that the pretty things that they are buying are not made with the help of plaster of Paris or other ingredients of which the less there is said the better!

The caterer should take particular note of the illustration facing page [138]. It will suggest many of the uses to which the new mediums can be put. The caterer, also, should read with particular care the chapter relating to decorative candy. Chapter and illustration together will furnish him with ideas as to how he can make use of this discovery in his own profession. Of course, for success, absolute familiarity with the processes of vegetable candy-making is essential.

There are a few definite points which should be borne in mind, however, by the person who wishes to use vegetable candy in catering. Flowers can be wired and used as bouquets. As will be seen from the illustration facing the next page, to hold candles for use on birthday cakes there is no need to use the objectionable wire cups. Smaller flower cups made from potato fondant can be substituted. An excellent method is to use them in the border. There, they are not only useful but highly decorative. Nor need there be used cups made from starch, plaster of Paris, or other inedible mixtures.

The possibilities of using potato fondant as the base for fancy cups to hold ice creams and ices are unlimited. For instance, the fondant can be molded into cups of conventionalized flower designs. The caterer should remember that these cups should be dipped one or more times in a crystal syrup. This will not only make them resemble somewhat the ever popular spun sugar, but will tend to make them impervious to the melting ices or creams. As a result, the fondant itself will retain its crispness. A similar use is for novel containers for salted almonds and nut meats.

One great advantage of the use of objects made from vegetable candy is that they may very easily be made to follow the color schemes used at luncheons or dinners. The color may be very easily applied to the exterior or may be worked into the mass itself before it is molded. Just how these operations should be followed will readily be seen by re-reading Chapter VIII, [division III],

"DECORATIVE CANDIES FROM POTATO FONDANT."

For instance, if pink is the color for the luncheon, wild roses easily suggest themselves as promising decorations. The form of the wild rose lends itself readily to cups,—the larger ones for ices and the smaller for nuts. If the function is a birthday, wild roses may well be used for candle cups on cakes. If not a birthday, and decorative icing is desired for large or small cakes, nothing could be prettier than the roses. They can be used either as a border of conventional regularity around a large cake or in the center of small, round cakes covered with white icing. As a flower decoration, candy wild roses can be placed in a vase in the middle of the table. To carry the place cards, there may be a butterfly alighting upon each rose cup holding nuts. These butterflies can be made of vegetable candy, water color paper, or bolting cloth; whatever their material, they must be wired, or glued, with a few drops of crystal syrup, to the edge of the rose.

If, however, the luncheon is to be violet, other decorations can be used. The center piece may be a large bunch of pop-corn violets. At each plate there may be French baskets, made from potato fondant colored pale violet, filled with cocoanut violets. To give the idea that the baskets have just come from the florist's, to each there may well be tied a card bearing the name of the guest. In this instance, it would be well for the ice to be served in a fondant basket and capped with a few violets.