Tasty Treasures

Did someone say treasure?

This little booklet, a 1972 translation of a French children's craft book, certainly is one.

Yes "YOU CAN MAKE" the recipes inside; whether they would be all that tasty is another question. But the whimsical period designs are something else.

Behold: "Crummy & Crochety"...
...Pies that are bought or baked, then decorated in different funny-face schemes.

Recipes and directions are complicated enough to keep the kids very well-occupied, although I can't see most of these being made without adult supervision.

Among the first items are these candle holders made from fruit, to "Welcome your guests with pretty twinkling lights..."The cat looks like its apple peel tail is ready to catch fire, any second.

Here's the "Melon Martian"—Not merely decorative:

Cut the top off a... melon... scoop out the fruit... Mix the fruit with ice cream or sherbet. Fill the melon with the ice cream mixture, then sprinkle with nuts and raisins or whatever you like.

"Camel caravan"—

"A shepherd, his sheep, and a camel are on their way—to your tummy."

Somehow, I can't see edible results coming from young fingers recreating this tableau of cookie structures, caramel corn sheep with melted chocolate holding on their almonds heads, etc. And if the text hadn't mentioned it, I never would have identified the thing on the right as a palm tree.

"Animal antics" are drink decorations made from assorted fruit and vegetables, accented with maraschino cherry pieces, bits of drinking straws, and toothpicks.

Fish:

Clockwise: water beetle, porcupine, walrus.
And a production taking up several pages: "Pastry men on the munchmobile"—

"Remember, your Pastry Man doesn't have to look like the one in the photograph. If you prefer, a Pastry Lady or even a Martian with elephant ears will be every bit as nice."

And, voilà! Ce jeune homme: a natural in the kitchen.

He models the project in several pages of photos and directions:


Steps 1-15 yield the pastry man; 16-18 cover the second batch of dough, cut into shapes for filling in the mobile:

Our artiste adds the finishing touch.

The true gem of this book is the "Magic Menu." With mock dinner courses made of sweets, "It won't be hard to lick these platters clean."

Shades of a Francophone painter! ... The not-eggs are canned apricot halves, atop a dish of whipped cream.

If this "fish" is less than convincing...

... It's followed by this pièce de résistance—

"This isn't really a chicken, but it certainly looks like one, doesn't it?"

Made from sponge cake layers held together with jam, and cut into a chicken shape, with ladyfingers for drumsticks...

And how else to end a French meal?

"The Camembert cheese is made from whipped cream (see Recipe section) mixed with several crushed vanilla wafers. If you have an empty Camembert box (or any cheese box) wash and dry it carefully and fill it with the "cheese." Sprinkle with powdered sugar to make it look like the crust of a real Camembert."