Sum Sum Summer Time!

Last night I made some very yummy fondant covered cutout cookies for a friend at work.  These are really easy to do- just make your standard cut out cookie dough, bake them and let them cool.  While you are baking you can start to make your Marshmallow fondant and it's easier than you think.  You just take mini marshmallows and melt them with a little water in the microwave then add powdered sugar.  Here is the recipe I use, a word of advice- mix it as much as you can in the bowl with a spatula.  If you don't get it workable in the bowl you will have a sticky mess on your hands. 

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces miniature marshmallows (4 cups not packed, or half of a 16-ounce bag)
• 1 pound powdered sugar (4 cups), plus extra for dusting
• 2 tbsp water
• Food coloring or flavored extracts, optional

Preparation:

1. Dust your counter or a large cutting board with powdered sugar. Place the marshmallows and the water in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and expanded.
2. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. If some unmelted marshmallow pieces remain, return to the microwave for 30-45 seconds, until the marshmallow mixture is entirely smooth and free of lumps. If you want colored or flavored fondant, you can add several drops of food coloring or extracts at this point and stir until incorporated. If you want to create multiple colors or flavors from one batch of fondant, do not add the colors or flavors now. Instead, refer to step 6 below for instructions.
3. Add the powdered sugar and begin to stir with the spatula. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes impossible to stir anymore.
4. Scrape the marshmallow-sugar mixture out onto the prepared work surface. It will be sticky and lumpy, with lots of sugar that has not been incorporated yet--this is normal. Dust your hands with powdered sugar, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.
5. Continue to knead the fondant until it smoothes out and loses its stickiness. Add more sugar if necessary, but stop adding sugar once it is smooth--too much sugar will make it stiff and difficult to work with. Once the fondant is a smooth ball, it is ready to be used. You can now roll it out, shape it, or wrap it in cling wrap to use later. Well-wrapped fondant can be stored in a cool room or in the refrigerator, and needs to be kneaded until supple before later use.
6. If you want to add coloring or flavoring to your fondant, flatten it into a round disc. You might want to wear gloves to avoid getting food coloring on your hands during this step. Add your desired amount of coloring or flavoring to the center of the disc, and fold the disc over on itself so that the color or flavor is enclosed in the center of the fondant ball.
7. Begin to knead the ball of fondant just like you did before. As you work it, you will begin to see streaks of color coming through from the center. Continue to knead until the streaks are gone and the fondant is a uniform color. Your fondant is now ready to be used or stored as outlined above.

Another tip, when rolling out the fondant- make sure you check every few rolls to make sure it's not sticking to your surface.  You may need to lift it and add more powdered sugar to your surface so that it doesn't stick,  There is nothing more annoying than getting it rolled out all nice just to find it's stuck to your surface and having to start all over.  Once you have it rolled out you can use your cookie cutters to cut out the covering.  I simply brush the top of the cookie with corn syrup to attach the fondant to the cookie.  If the shape is a little to large for the cookie just use your hands to mold and shape it to fit the cookie.  You can then use royal icing to add some color to the cookie.  I ended up messing up one of the butterfly cookies so I used a gum paste flower I had left over from another project to cover it up.  Let the cookie sit out for a while to allow the Royal icing to set up.  Next step...  Grab a glass of milk and enjoy!

Aloha!

So no step by steps here but I wanted to get this posted considering I have been slacking like crazy.  This is a cake that I made for a Luau themed going away party for a friend.  She wanted angel food cake with strawberry filling.  Just to make it fun I took the cake batter and divided it up into 6 different bowls and died them each a different color...  Pink, blue, green, purple, orange & yellow.  I then covered the cake in butter cream frosting and let each tier chill in the fridge to harden up the frosting.  The night before I had make all the decorative elements that I could place on after decorating.  I used white chocolate to make seashells and gum paste to make all the rest.  The flowers, surf board and palm tree were made out of gum paste.  Let me tell you, it took 3 tries on the palm tree but I finally got it right.  For the trunk of the tree I took a small wooden dowel and wrapped it in gum paste and then just used a tooth pic to texture it.  I then made the leaves out of gum paste with floral wire in the middle- I found this tip online.  It's best to do these things a day or two in advance because they need to harden and they wont go bad anyway.  I used marshmallow fondant to cover it, airbrushed everything for color and used royal icing for the piping (it was my first time piping so be nice, lol).  The "sand" is just brown sugar.  Here is how it came out...

Cake Balls/Pops!

Am I behind on posting or what!  It has been a crazy week.  This is a project I did last week and thought you guys would enjoy this, it's a great one to do with kids too.


Here is everything you will need...
~Cake mix and whatever ingredients it calls for
~Frosting
~Chocolate (I used chocolate chips because it's what I had at home but I would strongly suggest using baking chocolate since it makes for better presentation)  Get creative with this, use pink, purple or whatever color you want.  Michaels and most other craft stores will sell pre-colored baking chocolate. 
~Sprinkles or whatever you want to use to decorate
~Wax paper
~Bowls for mixing
~Spoon
~Baking sheet

Start by baking the cake and letting it cool, then cut around the edges so that you do not have any hardened pieces in your mix.  Cut the remainder of the cake into small squares, this makes it easier to work with.

Place your cake squares into a bowl and use your hands to break them up into a fine mix (obviously make sure your hands are clean for this).  Then take about 5 tablespoons of your frosting and add it to the cake. 

Use your hands again to knead the frosting into the cake mix, much like when making meatballs.  The mixture should work up into a mix that you can work with and mold into balls.  If you need to add more frosting go right ahead.

Lay out your baking sheet and put wax paper over it.  take small mounts of your cake mix and make it into little bite size balls and place them on your baking sheet.  I then place my sheet with the cake balls on it in my freezer for about 30 minutes, they are much easier to cover with chocolate like this since they will be harder.

Once your cake balls are almost ready to pull out of the freezer you can begin melting your chocolate.  You can use either the double pot method or a microwave but you have to be very careful with a microwave.  If using one, heat in 30 second intervals and stir often to get the right consistency.  If you over heat, the chocolate will actually harden up again.  If you are using baking chocolate just follow the directions on the package.  Take your balls one at a time and dip them in your chocolate, a serving spoon will be a big help here.  Once it is covered place it back on your wax paper covered baking sheet and decorate with sprinkles if you like.

Wait for the chocolate to harden, eat and enjoy!  Mine obviously aren't as pretty as they could be because I used chocolate chips but they were still yummy!

You can also make these into Cake Pops simply by inserting lollipop/sucker sticks into the balls before freezing them.  This also makes it easier when dipping them into chocolate.  You can also use a block of foam to put the ends of the sticks into and stand them up so that they dry better without a flat end on them from resting on the wax paper to harden.  Both the sticks and foam can be purchased at your local craft store.