SWEETS CRYSTALLISING MY THOUGHTS OF YOU

Carefulness, neatness and deftness were the qualities required for the making of sweets. Nowadays, shops have displays of plastic bags of all kinds of sweets, as well as boxes of chocolates, cartons of wrapped slices of flavoured fondants, bars beyond count of all kinds of chocolate. To think of making sweets at home, would now be considered quaint, old-fashioned at best.

It is quite within the memory of many today, however, when kitchens were well stocked with all that was required for making fudge, caramels, toffee of various kinds, coconut ice, marzipan fruits, jellies and that elite class of all sweets, the Opera Creams. Open the wooden drawers of any kitchen cabinet in most quite modest, or even humble kitchens, and pans, marble slabs, caramel cutters, glass rolling pins, sugar thermometers, special dipping forks, would all be arranged in orderly rows, ready for the next session of sweet making. Fancy, hand-made boxes were also prepared, all with little frill paper cases, and cut-out flower decorations from old Christmas or Birthday cards, often with a sentimental verse, carefully printed on the inside of the lid of the box. Often imagination would have run riot, with coverings of expensive chenille, or some left over velvet or cretonne. These would be filled with an assortment of two or three offerings of the previous day's chosen cooking work.

Pictures of kittens, pretty cottages, or pastoral scenes were much favoured subjects for use to cover often quite large hand-made cardboard containers of stuffed dates, caramel almonds, golden toffee, raisin fudge, and, of course, that crown of specialities, the Opera Creams, glittering in exciting shades of violet, creme-de-menthe, and best of all, white.

ROSEMARY GOULDING