Grad Weekend!

Congratulations to all the graduates who finished (or are just beginning) one of the most important journeys you will ever take in your lives. May you have a great summer and go on to greatness!! And for all of you who are just off for the summer, enjoy! Be safe and make it a memorable one!

The only cake I remembered to take a picture of, made for a coworker's son's high school graduation! :)

Happy Baking!

Crystal

Wishing For Spring...

In honour of the snow storm going on outside this evening, I decided to make good work of the fondant from the previous tutorial and call upon spring for some inspiration. Despite my dislike of butterflies, I adore bumblebees. Perhaps the weather will see these cute little cupcakes and bring spring a little early. Perhaps? Or am I simply wishing?


Early this morning before leaving for work, I took the fondant out of the fridge to give it several hours to return to room temperature. After a bit of kneading, the first thing was to decide how many colors I'd be needing. Luckily, daisies are mostly white, so that saved me from having to color a chunk of fondant. My other two primary colors will be yellow and black (for the flower centers, and to make the bees.)

As I mentioned previously, there are two ways to color marshmallow fondant. The first is to color an entire batch when you melt the marshmallows, the second is to take a small ball of already-prepared fondant and color it by adding the color and kneading it. 


But first, the white needed to be rolled out and made into cute little daisies:

I cut out enough to make 9 double-layer daisies. I could also have done 18 single daisies, I just like the way the double ones pop off the cupcake. 

Next, I had to color some white fondant into yellow:

It doesn't look too pretty to start, but with a little work

and a lot of upper arm strength, I got it a nice bumblebee yellow:

Next, the black. I didn't take any pictures of the black fondant process because working with dark colors tend to result in your hands getting dyed the color you're working with..


Exhibit A:

So once I had all my colors and shapes figured out, it was time to make some cupcakes! A little purple dye gave them a nice, springy feel. A little tip is that if you don't have enough batter to fill all of your spaces in your pan, put a little bit of water in each of the empty cups so that they don't burn. 

While the cupcakes were cooking, I assembled my bees and flowers! I gave the petals a little depth by simply pressing down each one with the tips of my fingers. Then I doubled them up with a little bit of water in between to hold it all together. The bees are just yellow ovals with two black stripes and wings which are actually cut off daisy petals :) 

How cute are they?!

A little green icing on the top of each cupcake and the result was an adorable call out: Oh spring? Come out, come out wherever you are!!

Happy Baking!


Crystal 

Fun with Fondant

There's nothing prettier than a celebration cake covered in a smooth, colorful fondant. Once thought of as a difficult decorating technique saved for professional bakers and cakers, fondant has now become an easy, creative way to give your special cakes that final "wow" factor.

Marshmallow fondant is a sweet, easy-to-make version of it's more complicated brother that anyone can make at home. All it takes is some patience, lots of arm power and your imagination and you can make even the simplest cake spectacular.

Marshmallow Fondant

It all begins with a few basic ingredients:

 

You'll also need some: 

For the sake of this tutorial, I'll be making a ball of white fondant. However, you can add color to the white after it's completed. Alternately, if you're making an entire batch of the same color, you can add your color to the batch of marshmallows right at the beginning. 

First, we melt the marshmallows:

Put them in a microwaveable bowl and pop them in the microwave for 30-45 seconds to start until it looks like a big, sticky mess!

Don't microwave it too long, just until it's almost melted then stir, stir, stir until it become smooth (and still sticky!) 

Add a few cups of icing sugar:

and stir until it starts to form a dough.

Once it gets hard to stir, start to work the dough with your hands, much like you would with bread dough. You'll have to add another few cups of icing sugar. Eyeball it and remember that this dough can take a lot of sugar. 

Work the dough in the bowl until it becomes manageable. Once you can pick it up in a ball, sprinkle some icing sugar on your counter top and continue working the dough. Add icing sugar as needed, but be sure not to put too much or else your dough will get dry and crack. 

Keep working it until you get a slightly sticky, smooth ball of fondant:

If you're anything like me, the icing sugar will be everywhere by now...

Once your fondant is all smoothed into a ball, get some Crisco and plastic wrap. 

Cover your hands in Crisco and, in turn, cover the ball of fondant. Then, double wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until a few hours before you're ready to use it. Give it a couple of hours to come back to room temperature. Knead it a little and then it'll be ready to roll out and cover your cake!

Ingredients

Bag of miniature marshmallows
About 1/2 kg of icing sugar


Crisco 


Enjoy!!


Crystal