On Ornamental Entremets, Stands, and Borders, Piped in Royal Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the paste
Prepare 3 pounds of very stiff confectioners' paste.
Divide the paste into seven parts for different pieces of the stand.
Roll out four pieces for the graduated circular shelves.
Form three tubes to support the shelves from the same paste.
Finish the stand
Paint the stands with gum-water and let it dry.
Coat the stands with thin royal icing and sprinkle with coloured granite sugar.
Decorate with gum paste or piped royal icing designs.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Confectioners' paste
- Forms the rigid structure of the shelves and supporting tubes once dried.
- Gum-water
- Gives a thin glossy coat that helps the dried paste hold its finish.
- Thin royal icing
- Adds a hard, smooth coating that sets to a crisp surface for the sugar to adhere to.
The step that matters
Rolling and forming the paste while very stiff. Very stiff paste holds its shape without sagging or cracking as the shelves and tubes are formed. Paste that is too soft slumps and loses its graduated circles, while dry paste cracks at the edges. Keeping each piece evenly thick helps the finished stand stay level and sturdy.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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