Make a mixture as for cream cakes; put it into a pastry-bag with a tube of three eighth inch opening. Press the batter onto tins (floured as directed for cream cakes) in strips three and one half inches long, and a little distance apart, the same as lady-fingers. Egg the tops and bake in a slack oven about thirty minutes. Cut open one side and fill with cream filling made the same as for cream cakes. Make a chocolate icing No. 2 (page [485]); dip the éclairs into it, covering them one half. For vanilla or coffee éclairs use fondant icing, page [485]. Flavor the filling with vanilla or coffee, the same as the icing.

CAROLINES

Make small éclairs two inches long, using a tube with opening no larger than a pencil. When baked run a wooden skewer through them, leaving an opening at each end, so the filling will go all the way through. Put the filling in a bag, and press it through the carolines. Cover the top with fondant icing. Have the filling flavored with coffee.

FANCY SMALL CAKES

MERINGUES AND KISSES

Add a half saltspoonful of salt to the whites of three eggs; beat them, and add gradually, while whipping, three quarters of a cupful of powdered sugar. Continue to beat until the mixture is smooth and firm enough to hold its shape without spreading when dropped in a ball; add the flavoring of lemon-juice or any essence. Place the meringue in a pastry-bag and press it through a tube into balls of the size desired onto strips of paper laid on a board that will fit the oven. With a wet knife flatten down the point on top left by the tube, and sprinkle them with sugar. Put them into a very slack oven, and let them dry for at least an hour; then remove from the papers and either press in the bottoms or scoop out the soft center and turn them over to dry inside. If small kisses, it is better to give them plenty of time to dry, so none of the center has to be taken out. They can be removed to the warm shelf if the oven is giving them too much color. They should be only slightly colored on top and dried all the way through. For large meringues to be filled with cream, use one and a half tablespoonfuls of meringue for each piece. Make them an oblong shape. Place them in an oven hot enough for cake and watch them closely until they have formed a light-colored crust; then remove and take out the soft center or press in the bottom, and turn them over to dry inside. These meringues may be dried like the kisses, but take longer time, as they are larger. When a board is not at hand the papers holding the meringues may be laid in biscuit-tins, a second tin placed like a cover over the top, and set on the shelf over the range for several hours. This serves very well where the fire is too great for the ovens to be cool. There is no difficulty in making meringues if the eggs are sufficiently whipped. They soon become stiff when whipped after the sugar is in. They must be dried rather than baked. If the meringues stick to the paper turn them over, slightly moisten the paper, and it will soon come off. Make kisses small and stick two together with white of egg. When very small they are good with a little jam or jelly between them. Large meringues can be filled with ice-cream or with whipped cream just before serving them, and two placed together.

One quarter cupful of powdered sugar is needed for the white of each egg.

LADY-FINGERS