Name: Birds in Gum Paste
Ingredients: gum paste; green paste; liquid carmine; feather of a quill

Birds in Gum Paste

Ingredients

gum paste
green paste
liquid carmine
feather of a quill

Directions

Make the body of the bird using gum paste as you would for animals.
Carve the wings from wood according to the size of the bird, then paint them.
Flatten a ball of gum paste between your fingers and thumb, then shape it on a marble surface.
Use a modeling tool to create random stripes on the paste, resembling a leaf.
Attach the shaped paste to a calyx made from green paste, rolled into an olive shape and cut to create five or six marks.
Once the flowers are assembled, sprinkle them with red by dipping a hair pencil in liquid carmine and flicking it over your finger.
Insert a quill feather into the center of the flower for a more natural look.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.