How to make/color/cut fondant!

Fondant!

I have had a few people ask me how I make fondant flowers and fondant covered cakes. Fondant is actually really easy to make, and homemade tastes so much better than the wilton pre-made fondant. I hope this tutorial will help you out!

Ingredients:

1 lb. candy coating white chocolate

3/4 c. corn syrup

4 lbs. powdered sugar

8 tbsp. hot water

1 c. glucose (I get this at cake/candy supply stores)

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

4 tbsp. white crisco

Step 1: Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave or over a double boiler, stir in the corn syrup, set aside so it cools. It should form a pasty dough.

Step 2: Put powdered sugar in the bowl of a mixer, make a well in the center. Set Aside.

Step 3: Mix water, glucose, vanilla, salt, and shortening together in a saucepan. Heat until shortening is almost melted.

Step 4: Pour into the well of powdered sugar, use dough hook and mix until incorporated, about 4 minutes. Add white chocolate mixture to mixing bowl a tablespoon full at a time, until incorporated. Step 5: When mixture is too hard to mix, take it out and turn on a powder sugar dusted surface, knead in the remaining powdered sugar.
Wrap very tightly in plastic wrap, then place in a ziplock bag. It will get somewhat hard, but kneading it will loosen it up. Use within a month.

To color fondant:

Use a toothpick and smear some gel color into the fondant, knead until well incorporated

Stamp out with a fondant cutter, use a rounded tool to make impressions.

Lay on a cooling wrack and press in the middle to shape. Small paint holders or egg cartons can also be used to help shape flowers.Finally, pipe a center, dust with luster dust or sanding sugars. Dry overnight.

Twilight Cake/Cookies and Party!

Last fall, one of my co-workers, Cindy, began reading the Twilight series. She eventually talked the 3 of us into reading the series, and we were all hooked. For about 2 months, we were talking about Twilight 24/7!

Cindy's birthday was December 31, and Vickie wanted to get a carboard cutout of Edward to put in the office, but it wasn't going to be shipped on time. Vickie told me about it, and I said how about we do it on Valentine's Day.

Well the ideas snowballed, and we decided to have an all out Twilight themed Valentine's Day party. We surprised Cindy with it, and it was so much fun.

In this post, I'm going to have directions to make the Twilight cake, which has many elements, and took me all week to make (but could probably be made in one marathon day)!

To plan the perfect Twilight party, we had the cutout, a cake, cookies, apples with caramel and chocolate dip, "Blood" punch, then for decorations we had red, black and white balloons, red and while tulips (like the New Moon cover), banners with the Twilight font, and we listened to the Twilight soundtrack all day.

So here is how to make the cake, with the cookie decorations, fondant, icings, cake, filling, and assembly.

This post will be LONG, with lots of photos!

Twilight Cake!

I made this cake over 4 days, each day I did a part of it, taking about 3 hours each day.

Day 1 was making the sugar cookies and royal icing.

Step #1 - Cookie Decorations

My Famous Sugar Cookies!
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tbsp. lemon zest
5 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Powdered sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes.
Add in eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly.
Add in vanilla, almond, and lemon zest.
Beat for 10 seconds.
Add in baking powder and salt, beat again.
Add in flour 1 c. at a time, mix for 15 seconds between each addition.
Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.
Chill dough for up to a week in the fridge, or roll out and cut right away.
Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for about 7 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom.

This recipe made about 50 cookies - I made 6 small sized of each cover icon (3 total cookies, on sticks, sandwiched), and 4 large to give away to my co-workers. Then I also made 16 skinny hearts (8 total cookes on sticks)

To make the sugar cookies, I used the following

Twilight Apple - pumpkin cookie cutter, bottom pinched in to make it apple shaped

New Moon Tulip - upside down tulip cookie cutter

Eclipse Ribbon - cancer ribbon cookie cutter

Breaking Dawn Chess Piece - I used a baby bottle cookie cutter with the sides cut out

To make the cookies on sticks, I rolled them out really thin, brushed warm water on the top, then pressed the other cookie on top. These baked for about 9 minutes.

I made 3 (only used 2 though) in case one broke or the icing was messed up.

I made a large batch of Royal Icing to ice the cookies, and to pipe on the cake:

Wilton Royal Icing:
3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons warm water

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).
NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.

I put half the icing in one container, left white, and the other half in another container, and dyed it red with Christmas Red gel food coloring.

I filled bags with each icing, then piped the outside edges of each cookie.
I made sure the bags still had lots of icing in them, then I added a few TBSP of water to the containers holding the icing so I could use it to flood the cookies. You want it to be like maple syrup in consistency.

I like to use squeeze bottles to fill my cookies, it's easier to control the flow.

To make the tulips, I filled them with white, then made 3 stripes of red with the flooded red in a squeeze bottle. I used a toothpick to make the red run like feathers.

Since the apples and tulips have a few elements, I left them with just the icing. With the ribbon and chess pieces, since they're somewhat plain, I used sanding sugars to give them a bit more dimension. Make sure you sprinkle them right away or the icing will dry and it won't stick.

It's optional to pipe leaves on the apples, they don't need it, but it does add some color. Use folled fondant to make the stem (which we'll make later...) Here are the final cookies with the cooresponding books. Let the cookies dry overnight to harden.

I made Chocolate Frosting for the cake on night 2, here is the recipe:

Chocolate Frosting
1 cup butter
3/4 c. Dutch process cocoa
6 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream Butter, add in cocoa powder and mix together on low. Add vanilla.
Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.

Keep refrigerated until use.

I covered this cake in Chocolate Rolled Fondant. I used my white chocolate recipe, but subbed in dark chocolate candy melts and some cocoa powder. It cracked much easier than the white chocolate fondant, but it tasted much better!

Chocolate Rolled Fondant: (For photos of steps, see this post)

1 lb. dark chocolate candy coating
3/4 c. corn syrup
1 c. Cocoa Powder

3.5 lbs. powdered sugar
8 tbsp. hot water
1 c. glucose (I get this at cake/candy supply stores)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. white crisco

Step 1: Melt the chocoalte chips in the microwave or over a double boiler, stir in the corn syrup, set aside so it cools. It should form a pasty dough.

Step 2: Put 3/4 of powdered sugar and cocoa powder in the bowl of a mixer, make a well in the center. Set Aside.
Step 3: Mix water, glucose, vanilla, salt, and shortening together in a saucepan. Heat until shortening is almost melted.

Step 4: Pour into the well of powdered sugar, use dough hook and mix until incorporated, about 4 minutes. Add white chocolate mixture to mixing bowl a tablespoon full at a time, until incorporated.

Step 5: When mixture is too hard to mix, take it out and turn on a powder sugar dusted surface, knead in the remaining powdered sugar.

Wrap very tightly in plastic wrap, then place in a ziplock bag. It will get somewhat hard, but kneading it will loosen it up. Use within a month. (Do not refrigerate)

I made a Red Velvet cake with creamcheese filling for the Twilight cake. I used this recipe.

Red Velvet Cake (original recipe for cupcakes):

15 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
13 ounces granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 1/4 teaspoons vinegar (white or apple cider can both work)
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 cup water

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside.
In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oil, sugar, and buttermilk until combined. Add eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix on low, scraping down sides occasionally, and mix until just combined. Be sure not to over mix, or the batter will come out tough.

Line 2 8" and 2 10" cake pans with parchment and spray with nonstick spray.

Pour batter into 1 8" and 1 10" pan. Make another batch and fill other pans.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Cool for 10 minutes, invert and cool until room temperature.

Cream Cheese Filling:

1 8oz. brick of cream cheese

1 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 c. milk

Cream together all ingredients, beat until smooth.

Use a serrated knife to level out cakes. Fill with creamcheese filling, then ice with chocolate buttercream.

Roll out fondant, cover cakes.

Decorate cake with icing and cookies!

For conversation heart cookies, see recipe and instructions HERE!

Kristine's Wedding Cake

My sister's wedding cake was the first wedding cake I made. Kristine is a chocoholic, so we knew it would have to be chocolate with raspberry and chocolate mousse fillings. I used Ina Garten's chocolate cake recipe exactly, a raspberry filling I made (following the basic fruit filling recipe) and the mousse is a traditional recipe. I covered it in white chocolate fondant.

Ina's Chocolate Birthday Cake

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder (I use penzeys dutch process cocoa)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (Starbucks sumatra)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Chocolate Mousse

4 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

12 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups cold whipping cream

1 tsp. vanilla

Whisk egs and sugar in a metal bowl set over a double boiler, whisk constantly for about 5 mins or until a candy thermometer reaches 160 degrees. Remove bowl from water, use an electric mixer and beat mixture for 10 minutes until cool and thick.

Place chocolate over double boiler and melt until smooth.

Beat whipping cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form.

Pour melted chocolate over eggs and fold together, fold in cream a bit at a time.

Cover and chill for at least 4 hours.

White Chocolate Fondant

1 lb. white chocolate cand coating

3/4 cup corn syrup

4 lbs. powdered sugar

8 tbsp. hot water

1 cup glucose

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

4 tbsp. white crisco

Melt coating in a pot, add corn syrup. Stir to combine and spread on plastic wrap to cool.

Put powdered sugar in a bowl and make a well in the center. Set aside.

Mix glucose, vanilla, salt and vegetable shortening in a saucepan. Heat until shortening is almost melted. Pour into powdered sugar, stir until thick with a spoon. Pour onto counter and knead smooth. Knead the two mixes together and add more powdered sugar until it reaches a dough like consistency.

To store, wrap in plastic wrap and put in a plastic bag.

Fondant will be somewhat hard when it sets, knead it out slowly to bring it back to original consistency.

from www.cincicakeandcandy.com

Our Wedding Cake

I love gingerbread, so I decided to make half of our wedding cake gingerbread, and half red velvet. I varied a bit from a recipe at foodnetwork.com for the gingerbread. I filled each cake with a cream cheese mixture that I bought. When it comes to cakes that will be worked on for a few days, I don’t like to use homemade cream cheese filling because I worry it will spoil. The cream cheese filling at the Cincinnati Cake and Candy Company is amazing though, especially when I add a little flavor to freshen it up. I added minced crystallized ginger to the gingerbread cake, and cherry to the red velvet. I used a red velvet recipe from foodnetwork.com as well. For this cake, I followed the recipe exactly.

Gingerbread Wedding Cake

1 cup vegetable oil, like soy, peanut, or corn
1 cup sugar
½ cup mild molasses
½ cup full flavor molasses
2 large eggs
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ tablespoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1 cup water
1 tablespoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a stand mixer, beat together the oil, sugar, and molasses. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth.

In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves. On low, beat the flour mixture into the wet mixture until evenly combined.

Heat water in a mug for 1 minute, stir baking soda in water with a fork and beat the water into the batter until just combined.

Pour batter into 2 9” well greased pans. Bake the cake in the center of the oven, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

Slice each layer in half to make 4 layers.

Ginger cream cheese filling

1 tube of cream cheese filling from Cincinnati Cake and Candy Company http://www.cincycakeandcandy.com/
¼ cup crystallized ginger, finely minced

Whisk ingredients together in a bowl, set aside

Sylvia’s Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 ounces red food coloring
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans. In a medium bowl or on a piece of waxed paper, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Beat in eggs one at a time. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk. Beat in food coloring and vinegar, then add vanilla. Spread the batter evenly in the pans. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

Cherry Cake Filling (or you can use a can of cherry pie filling)

1 16 oz. sack frozen cherries, thawed and chopped, juices reserved
½ cup sugar
4 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. cornstarch

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium, add all ingredients, bring to a low boil. Stir constantly, about 10 minutes, until no longer milky looking.

Cool at room temperature.

To fill the red velvet cake, I swirled the cream cheese and cherry in each layer.

I iced the cakes in stardard white buttercream (see Maggie’s Wedding cake) and used white chocolate fondant, which I will post later!

JJ's grooms cake was a carrot cake with walnut cream cheese filling, iced in buttercream and covered in fondant. It was so much fun making his cake and everyone loved it. Charm City has nothing on me...

The recipe I decided on was for cupcakes from wilton.com's website. I tried out a few, we found this one to be the most moist. We had tried some with and without vanilla extract, and we decided we like the cakes without the vanilla best.

Carrot Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
4 cups freshly shredded carrots
2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking soda; mix well.
In large bowl, beat eggs with electric mixer until foamy; add oil in a thin stream and beat well.
Add flour mixture to egg mixture; mix well.
Fold in carrots and nuts.
Pour into well greased pan.

1 recipe made the car, and 1 for each of the 3 layers.

Make sure you use fresh grated carrot, it makes a world of difference and keeps the cake especially moist.

It's Tax Day!!!

I could not be happier that tomorrow is the tax deadline. I am an accountant, and it has been crazy at work! For the first time in my life, I worked a 65 hour week... so I'm ready to celebrate! Our office has a wine and cheese party every year at lunchtime on April 15, so I thought I'd make a fun cake. There was nothing I could think to make because really, accountants are boring! This was the only thing I could come up with - an adding machine.

I had planned to work on this over the weekend, but I had to work, so it was a last minute thing. I didn't have the ingredients I needed to make fondant, so I covered the cake in just buttercream, and made the keys out of fondant. The tape is made out of gumpaste, and the screen is a chocolate bar. I filled it with chocolate mousse, and iced it in almond buttercream. The cake is a chocolate cake, the recipe is found here. I made a 1/4 sheet cake, cut it in half, and stacked it. I'll post some pictures tomorrow of the inside if I remember to bring my camera to work! I used this recipe for Kristine's wedding cake, it's a delicious recipe!

Becky's 21st Birthday Cake!

My sister is turning 21 on October 11, howver she'll be studying abroad in Geneva, Switzerland, so we had a surprise 21st birthday party for her over the weekend. Her favorite beer is Heineken Light, so I made her a Heine cake. I asked her what her favorite cake flavors would be because I had a cake to make for a wedding shower as well, and I she told me I should make lemon cake with a strawberry creme filling. So I used that flavor combo for her!
I used this recipe for lemon verbena cake, I used Dorie's pastry cream recipe, halved, mixed with 1/2 c. fresh pureed strawberries, and my standard buttercream and fondant.

This is the pastry cream, no cake photo!

Weekly Menu & Some Changes...

Our kitchen will be experiencing some big changes! My husband and I have decided to eat mostly vegetarian. There are many reasons for this change, including animal welfafe, impact to the environment, overall health benefits, and food costs. We'll most likely eat meat once a week or so, but we'll see how it goes.
Also, I have made the decision to limit my TWD posts to about 2 per month rather than every week. We just have too many sweets around!
I hope that you'll still frequent my blog, and I encourage everyone to consider adding more vegetarian meals into your rotation!

On the menu this week:

Tex-Mex Rice Bowls
Portabella Mushroom Burger, Garlic Broccoli
Asparagus and White Bean Penne with White Wine Gorgonzola Sauce
Boca-Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes, Light Creamed Spinach
Stuffed Bell Peppers, Salad

Also on the menu:

Pumpkin's Birthday Cake

Also, the Tea Party Menu:

Edible Arrangements
Fabulous Sugar Cookies
White Cake with Honey Buttercream
Chocolate Cake with Mocha Buttercream
Fondant Tutorial – Flowers!
Caprese Skewers with Balsamic Reduction
Tomato and Goat Cheese Sandwiches
Cucumber and Herbed Cheese Sandwiches
Caramelized Pear and Walnut Cream Profiteroles
Gorgonzola stuffed Olives wrapped in Pastry

Shredded Chicken with Artichoke and Red Pepper Tapenade

Mock Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake

***This recipe has had a re-do, visit this post to see my second attempt at Mayan Harvest Bake***

About two months ago, Kashi was offering coupons to try one of their frozen dinners for free, so I signed up. I got a coupon for a free Kashi frozen entree about 2 weeks ago. I looked at what they had at Kroger, and chose the Mayan Harvest Bake. It sounded like many of my favorite ingredients in one dish, and it was free!

This was hands down the best frozen dinner I've ever had. It tasted fresh, healthy, and delicious! The flavor combinations were very innovative and I just kept thinking about it over and over. I decided to try to recreate it at home and make it for dinner this week.

I might go back and make a few changes, but it was a very close replica. Next time I might pan fry the plantains as well as make the sauce a little more saucy (with more veggie stock), it was pretty thick. I used quinoa rather than the seven grain polenta, and it made it a little more dry, but I did like the quinoa.

Mock Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake

1 c. prepared quinoa

1 15 oz. can organic black beans, drained and rinsed

1 sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 plantain, sliced into long planks

4 c. kale, chopped

1/4 c. pepitas (I only had almonds, but Kashi used pepitas)

ancho chili sauce:

1 tbsp. EVOO

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves

1 c. tomato puree

2 tbsp. tomato paste

1 tbsp. ancho chili powder

1 tbsp. sugar in the raw

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cumin

1/4-1/2 c. vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Puree onions and garlic in a blender with stock.

Add tomato puree, tomato paste, onion puree, sugar and spices to a small soup pot.

Heat over medium for 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

Scatter sweet potatoes on a baking sheet lined with parchment, roast for 15 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium, add chopped kale, a few tbsp. of water and a sprinkle of salt.

Wilt down and toss for 5-10 minutes.

Spread prepared quinoa in a baking dish, top evenly with black beans.

Top with cooked kale and sliced plantains.

Take potatoes out of the oven, scatter around baking dish.

Top entire casserole with sauce.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until bubbly.

Sprinkle with pepitas.

A Year Ago: How to make/cut/color fondant (a tutorial), Vanilla cupcakes with honey buttercream

Lobster Carrot Birthday Cake

Since the theme for Popie's 80th Birthday Party was Seafood, and my mom had lots of lobster elements, we decided a lobster cake would be perfect. I thought it would be hard to make a cake shaped like a lobster, and it would be smaller, so I decided to make a sheet cake, and then top it with a lobster. I made the lobster out of rice krispie treats and covered it in fondant. I used random things to help mold the parts, like bowls and wine glasses. I thought it would look cute if I made the lobster a party hat and then had his claws holding the 80 candles.


Grandma told me his favorite cake is carrot with cream cheese icing - which is also JJ's favorite, so I used my favorite carrot cake recipe. We tried out 4 different ones last year before out wedding and decided that we don't like vanilla and any other spice besides cinnamon. We also like a higher carrot ratio, and a bit of sour cream for tenderness!


The party was SO fun, we had a blast. The only thing is - I don't like seafood, so I was the designated bartender and waitress!

Carrot Cake

2 c. granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

4 eggs

3/4 c. vegetable oil

1/4 c. sour cream

2 c. all purpose flour

4 cups freshly shredded carrots

1 c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a stand mixer, beat sugar, oil and sour cream. Add in eggs one a a time. When combined, add flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Fold in carrots and nuts. Pour into a greased and parchment lined pan.

Bake for 1 hour.

Popie and Mom cooking the Mussels and Clams

The tables set for dinner

Popie with his lobster head....he can't open his eyes in photos... seriously!

It took him 2 tries to blow out 2 candles!