Sugared Productions Blog

Owl Cupcake Toppers

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Hello Sugar friends!

I hope your new year is getting off to a great start! I have hit the ground running in 2013, with many new projects in progress. We are still working on our new membership area that we hope to open in a few months. It is a huge  project to build, and it is taking a bit longer than we anticipated, but I promise it will be worth the wait!  I am also eyeball deep into preparation for our next DVD filming date next month. It is going to be another DVD on some gorgeous gumpaste flowers, buds, and leaves. Stay tuned to our blog and newsletter for all the scoop!

Since I am so swamped under, I have not had time to work on any blog projects. My dear friend Vik the Chef has come to my rescue by putting together this wonderful guest blog project for owl cupcake toppers. So with no further delay, take it away Vik :

 

These cute Fondant Owls are perfect for decorating cupcakes or cookies.

They utilize common cutter shapes and the sizes can be customized to suit any project.

Cut the bodies of the owls with a round cutter from light brown fondant mixed with a bit of Tylose. Let dry overnight. Allowing these to harden overnight will keep the grease content of your buttercream on the cupcake from softening the fondant owl upon contact.

Using a Food marker make wavy lines to suggest feathers.

Attach two teardrop shapes cut from dark brown fondant for the wings.

Attach the two white fondant circles for eyes.

Use a small piping tip to cut circles from blue fondant for the irises.

A small triangle shaped piece of Yellow fondant forms the beak.

Create female owls by adding a small flower shape with a non pareil center.

Use an edible food marker to finish the eye with a pupil.

Place on your cupcakes or cookies!

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Vik The Chef is a Sugar artist from Toronto Ontario with a background in Professional Culinary cuisine. Her cakes feature hand made fondant, sugar flowers and highly detailed custom designs. In 2011 she participated as an assistant on the Canadian filmed Cake Walk series, achieving a first place win against two other teams. Please visit www.vikthechef.ca to view more of her beautiful work.

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How cute are those owl toppers?  

Thank you Vik for such a fun and easy cupcake idea!

If any of you would like to submit a project for a guest blog post, please contact us at sugaredinfo@aol.com

Happy caking!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductons.com

Bronwen Weber Mini Classes in NOLA

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Bronwen is coming back! Yay!

 

 

Location: Ochsner Kenner Medical Office Building 7th floor auditorium
108 W. Esplanade, Ave Kenner, LA 70065 (near New Orleans airport)
 
The three mini classes are $120 each and include all supplies needed. The demo is $50, and the proceeds for this will be donated to a charity. (*see below).
 
We are taking payment in full at this time. No refunds available unless you find a replacement for your spot.
 
Saturday, January 26, 2013 9 am – 1 pm:
Contemporary piping: a smattering of the most current piping styles and combinations, using the trusty tips we have all come to know and rely on.
 
Saturday, January 26,1013 2;30 pm – 6;30 pm:
Fondant techniques: a variety of texture and coloring techniques for fondant and modeling chocolate. Easy to follow instruction for amazing faux finishes and more, using tools and materials most decorators already have. Students need only an apron, towel and a desire learn.
 
Sunday, January 27,2013 9 am – 1 pm:
Modeling chocolate sculpting: Learn to use tricks and avoid pitfalls in basic modeling and novelty fondant covering, and make a small dog as well. All materials included, bring a playful attitude and your confidence.
 
Sunday, January 27,2013 2;30 pm – 4;30 pm
Demo: Structure and special effects: Learn the basics of gravity defiance, and avoid costly mistakes. Make pastry spin and erupt, or at least smoke a little bit! A fun and informative demo for a good cause. All proceeds from this demo will be donated to support Klinefelter Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder that affects males, causing global developmental disabilities.
 
If you want to attend, please let us know which classes, and we will send you a Paypal invoice for the total. You can pay with a Paypal account or a credit card. email: info@sugaredproductions.com
 
Hope to see you there!
 
 
 

Cookie Cutter Gift Boxes

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Sooooooooo, tomorrow is the last day of school. Do you have the gifts for the teachers ready? No? So you did not listen to me a few weeks back when I warned you to get going on the holiday projects. I told you if you did not get with the program it was going to come back to bite you. And here it is the night before the last day of school before Christmas break with no teacher gifts.

–

–

Oh… so sorry folks, I was talking to myself again. (I do that a lot.)

BUT we still have time to pull this off!

Run, don’t walk, to the hobby store and grab some cookie cutters, cardboard boxes, and ribbon.

Then run, don’t walk, (it’s probably faster to drive) to the grocery and get sugar, flour, eggs, and vanilla. (Or buy the premade sugar cookie dough. I won’t tell if you do.)

Roll that dough out, and bake the cookies inside the cutters.

 

After fully cooled, throw those puppies in a gift box, ribbon it up and voila!

 

 

Fastest homemade teacher gift everrrr!

You saved the day! Your kids will not look like losers showing up at school with nothing for the teachers. Now they won’t fail next semester. And you are supermom in the eyes of your offspring.

You can thank me later.

Get in the car and go. Now!

All Purpose Sugar Cookies:

Ingredients:

  • one cup softened butter
  • one cup sugar
  • one large egg
  • 1tsp vanilla
  • 3 cups sifted flour
Directions:
  • cream sugar and butter till light and fluffy
  • add egg and flavoring and mix
  • add flour one cup at a time until just incorporated
  • kneed on counter just until smooth
  • roll out, cut, and bake at 325 until set but not brown (9-12 minutes)

Happy baking!

Sharon

Peppermint Fudge

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Hey guys!  We don’t have much time!  Only one more week.  Are you ready?

 

Me either.

 

 

 

Still need some  ideas for quick and easy goodies? Yeah, me too.

 

 

How about some super easy Peppermint Fudge:

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 4 C. confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 1/4 t. vanilla extract
  • 12 oz. Ghirardelli White Chocolate baking bar ( I used almond bark from the grocery)
  • 1 C. crushed peppermint candy canes
Directions:
Line an 8 inch square baking dish with waxed paper and set aside. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla at medium speed until smooth. Melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until smooth.Stir the chocolate into the cream cheese mixture and add the crushed candy canes. Reserve a couple tablespoons to sprinkle on top. Spread the mixture into the prepared basking pan. Chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours. Cut to package or to serve.

 

If you want to form the fudge inside cookie cutters to make a cute gift, press the cutters into the fudge while still soft.

 

 

Make sure the cutter is pushed all the way through to the bottom. I added a few more crushed candies inside the cutter. After it was chilled and set, I just broke away the large pieces to  reveal the cutters with the fudge inside.  The outside of the cutters did need to be cleaned off, but that was quick and easy with a paper towel.

 

 

Minty snowy flakes.

 

Bag them up and they make a great little gift or party favor.

The parts of the fudge that was in the pan surrounding the cutters can be cut into squares. Nothing goes to waste! Yay us for being lazy busy and smart!

 

At first I thought the candy canes might not give it enough minty flavor, but  once it was all set up, it was plenty strong enough. They were yummy, creamy, with that delicious cream cheese undertone.

Give peppermint fudge a try and let me know how you like it. I am now going to go do that laundry. Maybe.

Happy Holidays!

Sharon

Roly Poly Santa Cookies

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Hello sugar friends!

You know that laundry that was waiting for me because I was making marshmallows? Yeah, well, I didn’t do it. I made cookies instead!

You know by now I have been extra lazy busy this season. So lazy busy in fact, that I can’t even come up with my own original cookie idea. This one I saw on the cover of the Taste of Home Christmas Cookies magazine at the grocery store. Cuteness overcame me at the checkout line. These Santas had to be made. At my house. In my kitchen. By my hands.

The originator of this project is Mrs. Andrew Syer from Oakridge, MO. I love Mrs. Syer. Mrs. Syer rocks. Mrs. Syer is the bomb.com. Not only did she come up with an amazingly cute Santa cookie, and she made the cover of the Taste of Home magazine, but she also got me out of doing laundry. Mrs. Syer is my new BFF. Or at least she would be if she knew I existed.

 

 CUTENESS CLAUS!!

ROLY POLY SANTA COOKIES:

Ingredients:

  •  1 cup softened butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbs milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • red food coloring
  • mini chocolate chips
Directions:
  1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla; mix. Add flour and mix well. Remove 1 3/4 cups dough and tint red.
  2. Assemble Santas on ungreased cookie sheet or parchment paper: Roll ball of red and flatten to create body shape. Do the same with the white dough to create the head. Then add hat shape. Add shapes for arms, hands and feet.
  3. Insert the mini choco chips upside down for eyes and buttons.
  4. Bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes until set but not browned.
  5. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pan to cool fully.
  6. Use royal icing to pipe fur, trim and beard; use white non pareils if desired on top of the piping.

 

Check out naked Santa. Here is what he looks like before baking.

 

On some of them I brushed the body with piping gel and sprinkled on red sanding sugar. Santa got bling!

I used a tip 2 for the clothes trims and a 14 or 16 (I can’t recall, sheesh) for his hat trim and beard. A red jimmie was used for his mouth.


Ho Ho Ho!

 He’s coming! You better be good!

These were easy and fast; the kids would love to make these. Give them a try.

Now I am off to go friend Mrs. Syer on Facebook.

Merry Christmas Ya’ll!

Sharon

Homemade Marshmallows

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Heya Sugar friends!

I’ve got another installment of the I’m too lazy busy to make complicated goodies this year blog series!

I have always wanted to try homemade marshmallows but just never got around to it. The other night I just had a notion to give it a try. (You know, when I really should have been doing laundry. Inspiration hits at the oddest times, doesn’t it?) My younger son loves marshmallows, and I wanted to see if homemade were as good or better than store bought.

 

 

Recipes with cooked sugar can be intimidating for lots of folks, but I am here to tell you this was really easy and fun to do. Did not take a lot of time either. I am not a cook by any stretch of the imagination, so if I could do it without having to call 911, you can too!

Ingredients:

  • 2 teaspoons butter
  • 2 envelopes plain gelatin powder
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp clear vanilla flavoring
  • assorted colored sugars and sprinkles
Directions:
  1. Line a pan with foil and grease it liberally with butter. I used a 9 inch square pan to get tall marshmallows I could cut into cubes.
  2. In a mixer bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup of the cold water and set it aside.
  3. In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt and the rest of the water. Bring to a boil, while stirring occasionally. Bring to 240 degrees on a candy thermometer or to soft ball stage.
  4. Remove from the heat and gradually add to the gelatin with mixer on low speed with whisk attachment. Turn up to high speed and beat until it is thick and fluffy and doubled in volume. It will look similar to marshmallow cream you get in the jar, but a but thinner. This takes about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix in well.
  5. Spread into foiled pan with a buttered spatula. Cover with foil and let sit overnight.
  6. Lift the foil out of the pan and peel away from the marshmallow. It will come away easily as the marshmallow should be very firm at this point.
  7. Cut into squares with a non serrated knife greased with butter. Clean the knife under water, wipe dry, and re-butter before each cut, in order to get clean pretty edges on the marshmallow cubes.
  8. Roll them in sprinkles or colored sugars. If you do not want to add sprinkles, just roll them in powdered sugar and shake off the excess.
Note: soft ball stage is the point when cooking the sugar, that you can drop a small amount with a spoon into a glass of cold water, and you are able to gather up the sugar with your fingers and roll it into a flexible ball. This really works and is easy to do. I found my candy thermometer broken in my utensil drawer, and I used the soft ball method to make this batch. They came out great. Don’t be scared to do it that way if you do not have a candy thermometer.

 
 

 The 2 inch deep cake pan after marshmallow was spread in.

 
 

The next day the foil came away easily from the sides of the marshmallow as you can see here. Then I just proceeded to cut it into cubes and garnish them.

 

EASY

 

These would be so cute on your holiday dessert table. Or even as a nice homemade gift. (You would have to make them close to gift giving day because I am not sure how long they last with no preservatives in them.)

Or how about dipping them in mint chocolate to make hot cocoa stir sticks:

 

And just for fun……….

I had a little bit of the mixture left over when I filled the square cake pan, so I put that in another pan. It made a shallow sheet of marshmallows, which I experimented with cutting with cookie cutters.

 

 It worked great!

 

 I just greased the cutter well with butter and cut them out. Worked like a charm!

 

How cute are these wintry trees?

And they tasted great too! The texture was perfect. Every bit as good as the ones from the bag, if not better. So if you guys have been wanting to try this, I encourage you to do so. Let me know how they turn out for you.

I gotta run now, that dang laundry is still sitting there.

Or maybe I need to make some Christmas cookies right now………

Happy Holidays!

Sharon

Christmas Tree Brownies

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It’s time to start thinking about holiday yummies! Yep. Time to face it. Denial will not stop the 25th from coming any faster. You better get with it or you will be sorry in a few weeks…..Oh sorry, I was talking to myself again…..

All through this season, I am going to continue my current blog theme of super easy projects that pack a lot of wow factor. Because if you are like me, you are super lazy busy this year. Honestly, my goal is just to get it all done, and try to have some fun along the way. And eat a bit of yummy food. And taste a few special sweets. And have a cocktail. Or two. Or 20.  Oops, talking to myself again, sorry. 😀

Ok, so do you guys know that Pier One commercial where the cute nick knacks “speak to” the lady shoppers and they have to buy them? (Love those commercials.) Well, it actually happened to me. I walked into Michael’s last week, and right at the front display were these precious Christmas tree ramekins. They started speaking to me in that cute nick knacky squeaky voice: “Ooooooh, please take us home! Think of all the cute things we can do together! We can be candy dishes! Or ring dishes by the sink! Or creme brulee ramekins! Or water bowls for Lucy! Please pleeeeeeeese take us home!” Well, I was sold, but when I looked at the price of $1.50 each, I bought about 298 of them. Yes, you read that right. $1.50  each!

Soooooo, you can thank me later for posting this so early in the season, so you can run to Michael’s to stock up on these dishes before they sell out. Well, don’t try my Michael’s cuz I bought them all, oops. (They also had precious little loaf pan shapes in other colors and designs as well.)

 

And this is what I made:

 CUUUUUTE OR WHAT??

 

They are oven safe (booyah!), so I baked brownies right in them. When they come out the oven they will be puffed up a bit, so press them flat with a paper towel as soon as they come out. After they fully cool, decorate with your favorite piping tips. EASY.

 

This was petal tip 104. Rows of ruffles in alternating colors. Fun. Fast. Festive.

 

Star tip 18.  A bunch of rosettes with some sprinkles. Cute. Quick. Quirky.

 

Star tip 18 and layers of shells. Finito. Belissimo. Bravo. Prettio.

 

These could easily be:

  • individual desserts at your fabulous holiday dinner party
  • boxed or wrapped in gift bags for the teachers, bus driver and mailman
  • sold for money (yeah baby!)
  • thrown together real fast for a blog post.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture. (That has nothing to do with this post but I wanted to use this Photoshop element.)

 

You will be a hit when you make these. Your children will get straight A’s the rest of the year. The bus driver will drop your kids off in your garage. The mailman will hand deliver your mail every day, forever. You might even make a million dollars! No need to thank me; I find joy just in helping you guys out. 🙂

So, RUN now to go get your cute ramekins and tell them I sent you. Of course they will respond, “Sharon who?” But just ignore that, and then take your 378 ramekins home and make cute stuff!

Happy baking!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Note: This post was originally posted  in 2012, so these exact ramekins may no longer be available. But I usually see something similarly cute each year.

Buy One Get One Free DVDs!

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Happy Black Friday Everyone!

 

Are you stuffed today? Are you shopping?

 

Please don’t forget that our BIG BOGO DVD SALE

ends at midnight  tonight!

 

See why our top quality professional DVDs are the gold standard in the industry, and shipped all over the globe. See why our customers rave about the detailed and easy to follow instruction. Beginner to advanced, we have the instruction you need to help you advance your skills and solve your decorating problems.

 

 

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL

 

BUY ONE DVD AND GET ONE FREE

(OF EQUAL OR LESSER VALUE)

 

ENDS MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!

NO QUANTITY LIMIT

 

To claim your free dvd, please do not put it in the shopping cart or

you will be charged for it. Please enter your choice for the free

 DVD into the comment box upon checkout.

 

*take advantage of this never before seen offer;

 it won’t be offered again anytime soon

 

THANK YOU!

 

SHOP HERE

 

I will see you here next week with some cute Christmas goodie ideas!

 

Happy Shopping,

Sharon

 

Black Friday Sale (BOGO)

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

Mark your calendars for our never before offered BUY ONE DVD GET ONE DVD FREE offer.

 

Our top quality professional DVDs are the gold standard in the industry, and shipped all over the globe. See why our customers rave about the detailed and easy to follow instruction. Beginner to advanced, we have the instruction you need to help you advance your skills and solve your decorating problems.

 

Want to have deliciously sturdy cakes that bake up evenly and hold up well to decorating? Our Back to Basics DVD will show you how, plus many more techniques such as cooling, leveling, torting, filling, freezing, making icing, and building a beautiful dessert style cake.

 

 

Perfecting the Art of Buttercream will show you how to solve all your  smoothing problems. You will learn how to obtain perfectly smooth and level cakes, with sharp corners and top edges, as well as preventing the dreaded middle bulge and blow outs.

 

 

Flawless Fondant shows you the keys to perfectly smooth and even fondant application on 5 different shapes and sizes of cakes. Learn to troubleshoot problems and fix mistakes. 

 

 

Successful Stacking will take the fear out of stacking multi tiered cakes. I will show you my method of stacking, which will allow you to have very tiny borders, or no borders at all, with no cake boards showing! I will also teach you how to get minimal damage to the icing as you stack, and how to repair the little you might get.

 

 

Want to know the secrets to perfect package cakes? Then Boxes and Bows is  the DVD you need. Four complete  package cakes and 5 different types of bows are taught, down to every tiny detail.

 

 

Totally Topsy Turvy will take all the mystery and fear out of making this popular cake style. I will lead you through every single step: filling and carving, ganaching and applying fondant to the tiers, stacking, and fully decorating from top to bottom.

 

 

You will absolutely blow away your friends and customers when you make this 3D designer purse with champagne bottle and sweet chocolates. The Sweet Luxuries DVD will show you how to make this stunning cake from A to Z.

 

 

Would you like to learn how to make a stack of books in cake that will be mistaken for the real thing?  Book Smarts shows you everything you need to make the cake, the wooden cake board, grad hat, and edible frame with photo. Bonus section is edible business card.

 

 

Sheet Cake Secrets will show  you how to successfully transfer an image onto your cake using 4 different methods: run sugar, frozen buttercream transfer, chocolate transfer, and royal icing transfer. Three complete cake projects also include all other decorating including piping, airbrushing, and making flowers. 

 

 

Our Sugarpaste in Bloom duo will teach you how to make an abundance of amazing flowers. Learn all the basics of gumpaste flower making, and end up with a garden of 17 gorgeous  flowers, both realistic and fantasy.

 

 

 

BUY ONE DVD AND GET ONE FREE

(OF EQUAL OR LESSER VALUE)

OFFER GOOD THURSDAY AND FRIDAY ONLY

(but if you order today I won’t tell anyone)

NO QUANTITY LIMIT

 

To claim your free dvd, please do not put it in the shopping cart or

you will be charged for it. Please enter your choice for the free

 DVD into the comment box upon checkout.

 

*take advantage of this never before seen offer;

 it won’t be offered again anytime soon

 

SHOP HERE

 

 

THANK YOU AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

 

Thanksgiving Tutorials

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Gobble Gobble my sugary friends! 

 

Thanksgiving is next week!  ACK! I am not ready!  So much to do between now and then, and then we go right into the Christmas rush. ACK! I am not ready!  😯

 

I thought it might be helpful to you guys to put together a post here with Thanksgiving tutorials from the archives. Might spark a few ideas as you crank up for all the T-day festivities. Click on the title below each photo to get to the tutorial:

 

 

TURKEY CAKE BALLS

 

 

PILGRIM PUMPKIN MINI CAKE

 

 

 

 

3D TURKEY COOKIES

 

 

 

PUMPKIN PIE CAKE

 

 

PERFECT PUMPKIN ROLL

TURKEY CAKE TOPPER (LINK)

 

 

 

TIPS FOR PERFECT CAKE BALLS

I want to take this opportunity to tell you how thankful I am for all of you. For your business, your encouragement and loyalty, but mostly for your friendship. You all have enriched my life in ways I could never adequately explain. I wish you and yours a beautiful, peaceful and Happy Thanksgiving.

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

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