The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-01-06
A Twelfth Night Party.


Twelfth-Night parties are given on the
night of the 9th of January, not only for
boys and girls, but for those of maturer
years,-~ho enjoy little nonsense now and
then. These parties take on fancy dress
aspect. A king, queen and court attend
ants of all kinds were chosen at the old
fashioned Twelfth-night parties, and the
same idea is reproduced in recent parties
of this kind.
A few days after Christmas nearly all
the confectioneries are filled with Twelfth
Night favors which pull apart to
disclose bonbon and two characters, which
are supposed to be the characters which
the lady and gentleman who break the
candy apart are to assume for the evening
The objection to this arrangement is that
several persons may get the same charac-
ter, and it does not tend to the harmony
of party to have several rival kings and
queens. The best plan is to have as many
characters as there are boys and girls, either
written on slips of paper or illustrated on
gay cards, and let all draw for them. The
king and queen are crowned in the regular
children's party in due form, and are con-
Quoted to raised dais at the end of the
room by the master of ceremonies, who in
troduces to their majesties the various
characters. one by one. These then take
their places at the sides of the dais After
all have been introduced, the king and
queen lead off With dance, and in all the
games that follow they take the lead.
There is a large Twelfth Night cake at the
supper, which should be rich pound cake,
with abundance of fruit. In different
parts of this cake are placed a ring, six
pence, thimble and bean When the
cake is first cut, as it should be by the
queen, it is passed around, and each indi-
vidual, following her cuts off slice. The
one who receives the ring will, according
to the superstition, be speedily married, the
one who receives the sixpence may expect
speedy riches, but the recipient Of the Thin
bic must be content with spinster or
bachelor life, as the case may be, while the
recipient of the bean will be king of the
Twelfth Night for the following year
1t is not easy to get colored cards repre-
senting the characters of Twelfth Night,
but anyone clever with pencil and brush
can sketch those from old prints of kings,
queens and other court characters. A
good receipt for Twelfth Night cake is as
follows
Cream cup of butter, and add three
cups Of sugar, the yolks of six eggs, cup
of sweet milk and teaspoonful of soda
and two teaspoonfals of cream of tartar,
sifted with four cups of pastry flour. Add
five whites of eggs and large cup of rails
ins. Bake the cake in large, round pan,
putting in the ring, the sixpence for which
a ten-ccnt piece may be substiiutedD the
bean and the thimble, just before the cake
goes in the oven. Ice the cake heavily ON
top and side, ornamenting it if you have
skill TO do so with wreath of fancy icing
on the edge. Put wreath of candled
cherries or some other bright red fruit,
which will not stain the icing, around the
cake, and fix miniature Christmas tree in
the emiddle of it. Regular, Twelfth Night
cakes also have figures of the king, queen
and knave, which may be made of paper
and copied from the figures on playing
cards The cake is improved by wreath
of candied lines outside the wreath of red
cherries. Any decorations in the Christ
mas colors Of red and green are as appropri-
ate to this festival of Twelfth Night, or Old
Christmas as to Christmas itself.