[Sca-cooks] Sugar Plate/Paste; Stained Glass Sugar

[Rob Downie]

The stained glass candy is simple and beautiful, but never really used in
period as far as I,ve seen.  If that doesn't bother you, all you need are
hard candies in various colours ( lifesavers, etc.) hammered down to a
powder.  I've seen this done two ways: Either make a cookie background
with cut aways where you want the glass (like champleve enameling), or
spread your powdered candies on a sheet of aluminum foil and cut out the
designs after your oven melted "glass" comes out of the oven.  It only
takes a couple of minutes to melt, use a medium heat and keep a close
watch!

The first method makes it tricky to do large areas of "glass".  The
second method Is used to make windows in gingerbread houses that you glue
in place with royal icing.  In my experience, it's quite a pain to mix
different colours together in a pattern, the edges blurr any way.  If
your design is made of easy enough components, you can cut them to shape
and attatch with icing.  You could even backlight it with a candle to get
a real stained glass window effect!

Both the sugar plate and the stained glass sugar should last for weeks or
more as long as you don't let them get exposed to humidity.  One thing to
beware of with the sugar paste is that it dries very quickly.  You have
to keep unused portions covered while you work.

Faerisa

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> I recently came into a bunch of old "Compleat Anacronists" and "TIs"
> from an old friend. "TI" issue 103, summer 1992, has an article by
> Alys Katharine (Elise Fleming) (known to this list) which has some
> suggestions for making the stuff.
>
> So I am toying with the idea of making one or two Sugar Plate
> sotilties for a feast i'll be cooking in September. One would be the
> arms of the Principality of the Mists which will need to be white (no
> problem), green (not hard), blue (a little tougher with natural
> vegetable products - i'll see if i can find dried cornflowers aka
> batchelors buttons). The other, a musical instrument (a hammer
> dulcimer - for specific reasons - i'll simplify it).
>
> I'm also consulting the Florilegium on the topic, many of the
> articles are also by Dame Alys.
>
> Now, a few questions:
>
> Any suggestions for natural blue coloring besides cornflowers? I
> don't care if it isn't exactly heraldic blue.
>
> I'm also intrigued by the "stained glass" sugar, but i'm only finding
> scattered mentions in the Florilegium. Anyone here have any
> experience? (seems many are made of melted "Life Savers") I might
> make the device of the guest of honor instead of the musical
> instrument...
>
> Realistically, how far ahead of time can i make these?
>
> Any other helpful hints? things to beware of?
>
> Anahita
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