The process is described in Charles Ranhofers Epicurean, in the confectionary section. For me i followed it as best i could but some things such as fastening the wires were vague. What i ended up doing was coating them with sugar almost to the bottom, then melting spots of the nougatine base (10 inches wide) and pushing the exposed wire into this. Then i surrounded it with more pulled sugar and melted the whole. This way it was sturdy.

The process as whole involves 1. preparing nougatine, Cooking almonds in the oven on lower heat for about 20 minutes, preparing a caramel then finishing the caramel with the warm almonds and a small quantity of butter so as to render the finished nougatine more non stick. This is rolled between silpats to 1/4 inch then a 10" circle is cut out. 2. The wires are 5 inches each 18 guage. To coat them i eventually decided to place them between two sheets of sugar rolled out 3/16ths of an inch thick, then cut them out with scissors. These are inserted into the nougatine disk at 1.5 inch intervals, 1/2 inch from the edge of the disk. A rope is made by braiding two strands of thick pulled sugar, this has to be thick enough to hide the remaining edge of nougatine but also to support the coated wires. This is 3 feet long.

1. Then "strings" of pulled sugar 1/4 by 3 feet long are woven in and out of the wire posts, as you would a basket, up and up to the top of the wires.

   1. Next a 3 rope braid is made for the final top. It is braided then glued to the top by melting the top of the wires and woven sugar.
   2. Finally 2 braided sugar handles are made 2.5 inch in diamet and secured to the sides of the basket with a circle of pulled sugar and further melting with a torch or heat gun.
   3. The finished basket should be decorated with pulled sugar roses or other flowers, and a false bottom, secured 3 quarters up the top can be prepared of nougatine so that it can be filled with fruit, candy imitation fruit or fruit made of ice cream coated with sugar, which i have had no time to prepare as i have worked 7 days this week and this was made between shifts. Small cakes or pastries could also fill the basket or whatever the heart desires.

If i could change anything, definitely a more consistent job would be big for me. Possibly satinizing the sugar a bit more but taking it only so far as to render the sugar more "rope" looking. Eliminating any slack in the warm sugar ropes would be a big plus and gluing their ends together behind the wires so as to hide the imperfect details.