Roll the
paste thin, cut out the leaves, using the point of a knife or a tin
cutter, and model the veins. A small, blunt, wooden tool,--even a clean
orange stick will do--should be used to make the depressions that are
the veins. After the leaves have dried on waxed paper, dip into a
crystal cooked to two hundred and twenty-five degrees. Drain them on a
wire rack and dust them evenly with granulated sugar. It is well to use
a thin bladed knife to lift the pieces. See the small box in the middle
of the illustration facing page 98, and No. 1 in the frontispiece.

II. VIOLETS

=Violets.=--In hot weather violets do not take kindly to the "candying"
process, and in cold they are expensive and hard to get. There are no
such limitations, however, to pop-corn and cocoanut. "Violets" made from
them are especially good Christmas candies, because they are decorative
and can be made a month or six weeks in advance--long before the last
rush.

=Pop-corn Violets.=--Using the hard spots for centers, jam and break
well-blown kernels of pop-corn until they resemble violets, as they will
do with more exactness than would be thought. Boil one cupful of sugar
and one-third cupful of water until a syrup is formed; the thermometer
should register two hundred and nineteen degrees. After the syrup is
cool, dip the pop-corn into it, making sure that the liquid forms an
even and complete covering. As a thin crust begins to cover the syrup,
keep pushing it down into the liquid. If this is done the syrup can all
be used before it has time to harden. Immediately after the surplus has
drained off, dredge lightly with powdered sugar, into which has been
worked violet coloring paste, previously moistened with a few drops of
violet extract, or even water. In this case the colored sugar should be
a shade or two lighter than is desired for the finished product, as the
syrup darkens the color.

Note No. 2 of the frontispiece.

=Cocoanut Violets.=--Mix the white of an egg, one-half cupful
confectioner's sugar--the kind sometimes known as XXXX--and one-half
cupful of Irish potato prepared as directed above. This makes more candy
than the home confectioner ordinarily has use for, but directions for a
smaller amount cannot well be given owing to the practical impossibility
of dividing an egg. An easy way out of the difficulty, however, is to
use as much of this mixture as is desired for the violets and to save
the rest for use in making potato fondant