Sugarwork Pyramids and Pièces Montées

Catherine Beecher described a clever way to avoid the trouble of making a cake in her The Handy Cook Book of 1873. She boiled sugar to the candy stage and used it like paint to cover a large cone made of cardboard. The cardboard was first buttered, then “set it on the table, and begin at the bottom, and stick on this frame with the sugar, a row of macaroons, kisses, or other ornamental articles, and continue till the whole is covered. When cold, draw out the pasteboard form, and set the pyramid in the center of the table with a small bit of wax candle burning within . . . it looks very beautifully.”² The glow is luminous, like a snow lantern.