for use. If the sugar is properly applied, candied fruit, well
packed, will keep for several weeks without injury.

Pack soft candies in layers separated by waxed papers backed by
cardboard. Remember that the best-made confections will be unappetizing
when presented or served unattractively.

In pulling taffies or other candies, corn starch may be put to good use.
No definite rules can be given, because the temperature and the humidity
of each pair of hands--to put the case euphemistically--are different.
Each time the material is pulled, the candy-maker should dust her hands
as lightly as possible with the corn starch. A moderate amount of it
worked into the mass will do no harm, but care must be taken not to use
so much that the candy becomes starchy. Moreover, a heavy coating of the
starch does not protect the hands any more than does a light dusting.

While the candy is being pulled, it should be handled as little as
possible. Let the candy's own weight over the hook do the real work. To
avoid "bunchiness," the confectioner must keep the mass moving in
uniform thickness--a difficult task, success in which comes only from
practice.

II

FOR THE CANDY-MAKER'S TABLE

For real success in candy-making the amateur needs a few small utensils
similar to those that have long been used by confectioners. The advice
which follows can be as well applied to old-fashioned candy making as to
the new sort.

A copper bon-bon dipper, really nothing more than wire twisted so as to
outline a spoon, will be found convenient for any sort of dipping likely
to be attempted in the home kitchen. The wire dipper is a much more
satisfactory tool than a silver fork, the implement usually recommended
for this purpose.

Get fourteen inches of copper wire--preferably number eighteen--heavy
enough to bear a few ounces of weight without bending, but soft enough
to be shaped easily by the fingers. A quarter-pound spool should not
cost over ten cents. Grasp the wire five inches from one end and bend
it double at that point. The double strand--which makes the handle--will
then be five inches long, and the single four. Out of this single
strand, beginning half an inch from the end of the doubled strand, form
a loop three-quarters of an inch long. Twisting the wire round the
forefinger or a small empty spool will make the loop. Wind the two
inches of wire left free about the two parallel strands, carrying it up
as far as it will reach.