Sugar work and decoration

The small ball from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): a finger test for sugar; when it can be rolled into a soft ball between wet fingers, the stage is reached.

The large bubble from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): a sugar test where you blow through a slotted spoon; when bubbles grow larger and harder, it is ready.

The sugar test "the large ball": the same finger test as the small ball, but the sugar now forms a larger and harder ball.

The sugar test "the small crack": the sugar sticks to the finger and teeth but breaks with a light sound.

The sugar test "the large crack": the sugar snaps like glass; take it off the heat at once. Lemon juice or glucose prevents crystallization.

Rum icing from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): powdered sugar stirred with lemon juice and rum, spread on with a knife dipped in hot water and dried briefly.

Icing for piping from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): egg white, powdered sugar and lemon juice stirred stiff and piped through a pointed paper cone.

Glazing sugar: sifted powdered sugar is kept in a perforated dredger, sprinkled over pastry and melted in a hot oven to a glossy caramel.

Green glaze from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): pounded pistachios with confectioners' sugar, orange and lemon juice, optionally tinted greener with spinach.

Clarifying sugar from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): sugar dissolved in water, clarified with egg whites, steeped 10 minutes and strained through a cloth.

Chocolate icing from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): chocolate melted over a water bath, mixed with powdered sugar and egg whites until thickly runny.

Spun sugar I from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): sugar boiled to the hard crack stage with cream of tartar, spun into fine threads over an oiled knife.

Spun sugar II from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): sugar boiled to hard crack with glucose, flung into threads over an oiled rod and set around the dessert.

Sugar icing from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): confectioners' sugar, egg white and lemon juice stirred 20 minutes to a snow-white, thick icing.

Sugar boiling from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): how to boil sugar and judge the stages by finger test, from thin thread to caramel, with temperatures.

Sugar grains from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): crushed loaf sugar sifted twice, optionally tinted and dried in a lukewarm oven as cake decoration.