Fondant 101

Last week I finally got to take a class at my local cake supplies store. I've worked with fondant with zero knowledge on how to properly handle it. I typically made cut outs and let them "dry" which wasn't really stiff. Anyway, I'd attended some tastings and informational classes before and they kept saying "no, fondant doesn't taste awful if you know how to use it." Oh really? Fine, I signed up for the class... and made this:

We covered a cake (foam of course), made a bow and practiced cut outs.

It wasn't super easy but definitely easier than I thought it was going to be.

She even had these cool texture mats you rolled the fondant out onto so there was a patter on our bows.

We also learned what to use to flavor the fondant and how thin to roll it so it stays soft and almost melts into the buttercream frosting underneath. We tasted an almond fondant on a piece of pound cake and it was great: still soft, melted into the frosting underneath, delish!

I can't wait to try this on my own. I think I'll start small with a two layer, 6" cake. Or maybe even just the decorated discs on top of some cupcakes. Stay tuned!

Cakes!

I love decorating cakes. And I love when people ask me to decorate cakes. I've only taken one class on cakes and a few on other desserts (cookies, chocolates and cupcakes! Oh my!) so I don't feel SUPER confident with cakes but I definitely feel better with each cake. 

This one is a wedding cake I made for a family friend. White cake (did you know you can't use yolks in the cake batter to get a cake super white?) with white frosting and purple scrolling. She topped it with flowers from the bouquets. Pretty!

This one was for a birthday at a baby shower so the colors matched the baby shower theme. Green and brown was a little odd... all I could think of was branches... but scrolling is always pretty lol. It's a safe go to.

And I threw this one in for good measure. I made it for my grandma's birthday. It's the cupcake pan decorated as a flower covered cupcake. I made the purple flowers out of royal icing a few days before. 

Too cute right?

Anniversary Cake and Frosting Images

I had the honor of making a 25th wedding anniversary cake for a coworker of mine. It was a surprise too so it was that much better!

I'be always liked images on cakes. Yes, it's kinda cheesy but who doesn't love eating someone's eye, nose or ear? The kids especially always want a "part" of someone!

So I got a hold of this beautiful pic from their wedding album, very sneaky like, and took it in to have a rice paper made. When I got there the clerk told me they make the images on a "fondant type frosting" sheet that has much better resolution than rice paper.

Of course I went with the frosting sheet and it was beautiful! (I apologize for the pics I have posted. At the time they didn't seem to dark, then again it was 11pm!) Until I had to put it on the cake... it was almost stretchy when I removed it from the sheet it was adhered to. It gave me a panic attack and tore just between their heads. Luckly that part was black and any little white that showed through I tapped with a toothpick dipped in black food coloring.

Crisis averted.

Anyway, I'll have to research how to better apply this type of decoration because it really was beautiful. Just like the couple!!

Happy Anniversary Dan and Vikki! 

Chocolate Roll Out Cookie Dough

Now, a good homemade sugar cookie is a classic. But sometimes we want a little something... more. So here is a great chocolate "sugar" cookie roll out dough. You can roll it out, cut it and frost them if you want! I think I might do these at Christmas instead of my usual sugar cookie! This recipe I use is from the Martha Stewart Magazine (yes I'm the girl who tears pages out of magazines whether they are mine or not, keeps them until she forgets then finds them and is giddy like a kid on Christmas!)

INGREDIENTS

2 2/3 Cups flour

1/3 Cup cocoa powder

3/4 Teaspoon baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon salt

2 Sticks unsalted butter

1 Cup sugar

1 Egg

2 Teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Beat butter and sugar in a mixer until fluffy. Add in the vanilla and egg. 

2. Add all the dry ingredients slowly until it forms a dough ball. 

3. Chill for a few hours, I did it over night. 

4. Preheat oven to 350F. 

5. Roll out the dough with a little flour and cut desired shapes.

 6. Put cut shapes on a non stick baking sheet or parchment paper.

7. For the small sized cookies I made, I baked the cookies for 7 minutes. Larger cookies will need a few more minutes. 

I thought the cookie was a little plain as is so I dipped the edge in chocolate gnache. You can buy it already made in a store or make your own. I did option 1. These are soft and have a rich dark chocolate taste to them. I took a few to work each day and my sweet tooth was definitely satisfied!! Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone is enjoying today with friends or family... or like me, relaxing with some good food. Since I had to work all weekend I didn't have time to come up with something red white and blue but here is my recipe from last year!

Red white and blue sugar cookies!!

And if I had the time (maybe I'll just make it this weekend!) the recipe I have been eyeing...

Here is the link.

Either way, I'm happy just to be home and having my BF grilling up some ribs for dinner, followed by ice cream and some lazy tv watching!! 

Happy 4th!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day out there to all the dads! I had a great brunch with my dad and family. I cheated and bought a fruit bowl! Sometimes you just want to cheat lol

Swung by my mom's to wish my stepdad a happy Father's Day and drop off a nice treat for him...

Who doesn't love a giant cookie cake?!

I'm not posting a recipe because you can get if off any chocolate chip bag. Just use a shallow pan and a lot of grease so you can pop it out. A little frosting and bam! Better than going to the Nestle store and standing in line for one!

Butterfinger Cupcakes?!

So did you see how large that Crushed Butterfinger bag was in my last post?! Yea, needless to say I have some of that left over after making some brownies. 

So, it's a good thing I have cupcakes (regular and minis!) at the ready. I keep already baked cupcakes in the freezer, wrapped in plastic wrap then in a freezer bag. They thaw in minutes, literally, and are still moist if you froze them as soon as they cooled! Smart!!

This isn't really a recipe but a quick suggestion on how to use up ingredients.

First I heated up my ganache I buy already made. Get it nice and runny.

Have a bowl of crushed candy, extra sprinkles, etc at the ready too.

Dip the cupcake in the ganache...

Then in the candy...

Easy, quick and yummy! Half the plate was gone before the end of the night!

Sometimes you just need a quick snack!

Butterfinger Brownie

Candy in my brownie? Uh... yes please! 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup crushed Butterfinger (This is the amount I used but next time I will probably double it)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter and then stir in cocoa until well blended. Remove from heat.

2. Add in the sugar and stir well.

3. One by one, slowly mix in the eggs. Make sure the mix isn't still hot. You don't want to cook the egg.

4. Stir in the vanilla, flour and salt.

5. Now add the candy and mix well.

6. In a greased pan, spread the batter and sprinkle a little more crushed candy on the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Yea, it wasn't out of the oven long before I took a big piece. The crushed Butterfinger was crushed pretty fine so I could have added some more to the batter but the crust on top was delish!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Shells

 I love chocolate shells filled with just about anything. In fact, where I work sells really small ones made for cream liquors that people buy up around the holidays. 

A few months ago my Gram gave me these two Wilton silicone flower cupcake molds. I put them in my pantry and thought that I'd make some flower cupcakes when summer was here. Well, I came across them while cleaning and thought... chocolate shells! Duh!

It's easy. In a glass bowl or double boiler, melt some chocolate. I used dark chocolate ;)

Scoop some melted chocolate into each mold. I guessed the amount and added some more to cups that didn't seem full enough.

I held the mold and tilted the chocolate around and around and around and around.... you get the point. I did it until the chocolate barely moved anymore. I put the mold in the fridge to set.

Then ta da! They popped out of the silicone mold very easily. A little cracking at the tops of the shells but you can cover that with your filler...

I made two types... a mud cup and chocolate with strawberries.

Both used a fudge chocolate pudding from a box.

For mud cups you use crushed Oreo ( I found peanut butter Oreos... aside from being delicious they looked more like dirt!) and a gummie worm.

And for the second kind I just topped the pudding with slices of strawberries.

YUM!

I kept them refrigerated but before you serve them you should take them out to come a little to room temp. It makes eating the chocolate shell easier.

Red and Green Popcorn with Chocolate Dipped Rice Krispies

These are two of my favorite Christmas treats to make because there is hardly any work to do. Plus, who doesn't love something covered in chocolate?! 

Chocolate Dipped Rice Krispies:

You can guess the ingredients. 

I start with one of those large sheets of rice krispie treats... 

And cut it into sticks. I got about 50 out of this one sheet.

Melt some milk or dark chocolate using the glass bowl/microwave method. You can always use a double boiler if you have one. Dip and sprinkle. Or not. Thats the great thing about these. Drizzle with red chocolate or cover in candies or crushed cookie... the options are endlessly delicious ;)

The Red and Green Popcorn is a favorite of many of the recipients of my treats. My brother tried it for the first time this year and he took a big bag home after dinner.

INGREDIENTS:

2 bags of buttered microwave popcorn
1/2 pound red chocolate
1/2 pound green chocolate
2 brown paper bags, grocery size

1. First pop the first bag of popcorn and pour in a bowl. Put the popcorn in the paper bag and leave the kernels in the bowl.

2. Melt the red chocolate in the microwave in a glass bowl. When melted through, pour in the bag with the popcorn. Fold over the top and shake!!!

3. Spread over a sheet pan and let cool.

4. Do the same with the green chocolate, the second bag of popcorn and the second brown bag.

Once it's cooled you can break it up a little bit and mix the two colors together. The sweet and salty is so good and looks really cute in a bowl. And, again, you can do any colors you'd like for any holiday you'd like!

Too cute! I bet little kids would love this!

Swirl Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie

This is a great treat. Every Thanksgiving my mom makes pumpkin cheesecake and it is (in my opinion) way better than pumpkin pie. Then I found this recipe at Cookie Madness, a blog I frequent, and I had to try it! 

INGREDIENTS

Pumpkin Cheesecake

12 ounces softened cream cheese

6 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin

1 large egg plus 2 tablespoons beaten egg (weird huh?)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 1/2 table spoons flour

Brownie

2 sticks butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups melted semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line a 9 inch square pan with foil. (I used an 8 inch square and had a little batter left)

2. Cream the cream cheese and sugars. Add the egg, vanilla, pumpkin and spice. Slowly add the flour and set aside. 

3. In a separate bowl cream butter, salt and sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla. 

4. In a microwave safe bowl (glass) slowly melt the chocolate chips. I do 30 second bursts in the micro followed by stirring for 30 seconds.

5. Add chocolate to the butter, salt and sugar bowl (from step 3). Stir in the flour with a scraper or spoon.

6. Pour all but a cup of the brownie batter into the foil lined pan. Top with all the cheesecake batter. Plop in the last of the brownie batter on top in a wave pattern. Swirl with a knife if desired! 

7. Bake for 50 minutes. The cheesecake will still be jiggly but the brownie batter will be set. It's hard to tell but take a good look at it and give it a gentle jiggle. :)

Refrigerate for at least a few hours. I did mine over night and it was perfect!

The pumpkin cheesecake brownie was a huge success and so freakin delicious I will make it again before Christmas!

 See, it's not too late to use that extra can of pumpkin in your pantry!