Vanilla Candy Cane Cupcakes

Santa Got Stuck-SugarEd Productions

Peanut Butter Christmas Tree

Christmas Ornament Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread House from Sweetopia

Stocking Cake Pops

Ruffle Christmas Tree

Snowglobe Cupcakes

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!

xx Sharon

The post Christmas Tutorial Roundup appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

Hello, it’s me again-

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. And now that means we are in full on holiday season mode.

A wonderful time of year most of us love, but it comes with it’s own level of stress, right?

Too much to do and not enough time?

And as perfectionists and artists, we worry about doing everything perfectly for everyone.

Sound about right?

We try to be the best we can be at our craft, but sometimes we put undue stress on ourselves in the process.

Especially during the holidays. Which got me thinking back…

In my previous life, when caking was still a passionate hobby, (but before it became my full time business), I was a Registered Nurse. A job that carries a lot of responsibility (and pressure) – which I took very seriously.

I have always been a perfectionist, always trying to do better, be better; reach that brass ring that really is unattainable.

So I spent a lot of my nursing career (and my life) kind of beating myself up for not being perfect.

Then one day in the lunch room, I noticed that the management had put up a poster next to the table.

“Strive for excellence not perfection.”

Wow, I can honestly say it was one of those life moments that just hit me over the head like a loaded piping bag. “The powers that be” had given me permission to be imperfect. Had told me that being very good was good enough. That trying to always improve was an honorable goal, but it’s OK to not be flawless

That day really was a turning point for me. I have carried that message in my mind and heart ever since, and applied it to all areas of my life: parenting, being a wife, friend…

…….and caking.

I always strive to do my best in my decorating and teaching. I always try to learn more and improve my skills. But I no longer beat myself up if each cake is not perfect, because perfection in cakes, as in life, is simply not possible.

I now embrace the fact that cakes have backs for a reason

We are always our own worst critics, and sometimes that strips the joy out of the hobby we love. And I don’t want that for you.

Therefore, I give you permission to not be a perfect cake decorator.

Strive for excellence – not perfection. Love your work at the level it is today. Welcome the joy it brings to other people in all its imperfect glory.

And have fun. Cuz that’s really what it is all about.

Especially during the holidays — cut yourself some slack.

If all your cakes, cookies and other goodies don’t come out as perfect as you hoped for, it’s OK. They are still wonderful and the recipients will love them.

You are juggling a lot. And doing it well.

Give yourself a big ole pat on the back.

I do.

Happy holiday baking,
Sharon

The post Are Your Cakes Perfect? appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

Materials

• any pre-made , pre-assembled ginger bread house or the one you baked.  This year you can find great variety of houses in Costco, Target, Wilton.com
• Fondant
• Icing colors (blue, pink, red, yellow, green, brown)
• sharp knife or x-acto
• Stiff but still sticky royal icing
• pipin gel
• ruler
• small round cutters
• fine tip decorators brush
• flat tip decorators brush
• rule
• pizza/fondant cutter
• yellow sour drops
• 9 inch roller pin
• small silicone molds (buttons, leafs, bows )
• royal icing dots (multiple sizes)
• Red Sugar Pearls
• Scale cutter
• christmas lights (optional)
• Fine tip edible paint markers.

Instructions

• If you bought a preassembled house cut out the frontal, and side windows. If you are making your own , before you bake it cut out all the windows.  You can cut them all out or just some of them.

• Make some patterns in paper with the same measurements of your house
• Using the circle cutters and brown fondant, cut out one ring to decorate your round widows if you have them.

Roll out white fondant and cut out the 2 pentagons or squares to cover the front and back of the house. Place the pieces on separated powder sugar-cornstarch dusted paper

Tint fondant in soft blue, roll it out 1/16 ” thick and cut out diamonds, then attach them to the front and back pieces

• Use the house patterns to cut out the spaces for the windows .

• Apply piping gel to the house front and back, and attach the fondant pieces.

• *If you didn’t cut out all the windows: Roll out the yellow sour drops very thin, and attach them to the window spaces.

• Cover the sides with white fondant and cut out the windows spaces,  procede to cover them with yellow sour drops if needed.

• Roll out blue fondant as wide as your house sides and 1/16? thick. Cut strips 1/2 in tall.

• Attach the strips to the house, starting from the bottom and trimming the excess.

• Attach the house to a base using stiff royal icing. In my case I cut a hole in the cardboard base because I’m going to place a little light inside the house.
• The house would look close to this at this point.

• If your house has additional pieces like  a door or porch, continue the process decorating those.
• Cut out the shape of the door and trimmings in red fondant

• Attach those pieces to the house.

• Decorate the round windows

• If you opened the  front and side windows, add fondant to the lower part of the frame or to the 4 sides if you like.

• Attach the chimney to the roof if you have one and cover it with soft blue fondant.
• Roll out white fondant and cut out scales. Attach them to the roof starting from the bottom edge cover it completely.

• Use multiple small molds and make small figures to decorate de roof.

• Finish the roof edges with 1/2 scales.

• Decorate the door adding a little roof in fondant.

• Cut out white fondant strips to cover the exposed ginger bread on the sides .

• Add trimmings to the windows and poke little holes on the corners to simulate nails.

• Finish your roof attaching the little fondant shapes and royal icing dots. Finish yor chimney if you attached one.

• Cut out red fondant strips, cut the edges and attach them to the windows lower trim as ribbons

• Mold or cut out little leaves in green fondant and attach the leafs and red sugar peals to the window ribbons, roof,  roof edges, and chimney. Add leaf to the edges of the roof in the front door too.

• Add the final details like a bow in the top of the roof.

• Insert the light (optional)
• And add a bow to the door roof, use edible markers and pains the details in the windows and door.

• Cover with stiff royal icing  and a spatula the house base and use sour drops to shape a little walkway.

• Add decors to the landscape and a ribbon to cover the base’s edge.

And your done!

Ella Buitrago MS is an Engineer, Cake Decorator and Sugarpreneur owner of the Ella Sugar Boutique. She is a software engineer from Colombia, has a Master in Information Technology form Harvard University. Her love for the sugar arts started when she was a teenager; she took culinary clases in high school, she self-taught the fondant preparation, royal icing piping and more, until she came to UU.EE and took independent clases in the arts.  From 2010 to 2012 she worked as a freelance cake decorator at the Decorating Room for Wilton Inc before moving to the Boston area. Read more here…

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How seriously cute is this little house. All the similar gingerbread houses we make over the years; this is such a fun and new approach. I’d love to see yours!

Happy Holidays!
Sharon

The post Gingerbread Cottage Tutorial appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

Are you thinking about your holiday sweets yet? I haven’t, but I just started looking around the inter-webs to see what I could see.  So while I was at it, I rounded up some fun ideas from around the net to help get you into the Christmas spirit!

Red Velvet Yule Log by Kraft

Christmas Tree Cupcakes bu Just a Taste

Marbled Christmas Ornament Cookies by Sweetopia

Bakerella’s Snowman Cake Pops by Bakerella

Easy Peppermint Marshmallows by Betty Crocker

Christmas Tree Cake Tutorial by i am baker

Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Tree by Chef by Night

Oh man, I don’t think I can choose.

I hope that these treats get you inspired for the holiday season!! Happy Baking!

Sharon

The post Christmas Treats Tutorials Roundup appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

I’ve really got the Christmas spirit, and I have a gift for you. Actually, I have two!

I’ve put together a FREE PDF tutorial bundle for two of the most popular ones in my online school.

The “famous” ruffled Christmas tree cake was a viral hit. You may have seen it floating around the internet. (It’s my most stolen cake photo

How about this squeezably cute Santa figure? I want to pinch his rosy cheeks! Created by the insanely talented and Cake International Gold Award winner, Rhu Strand, exclusively for our online school.

Just click on the red button below to request your copy. Please note that sometimes the email that delivers the PDF bounces or gets lost in cyberspace. Just drop me a note at support@sugaredproductions.com if yours doesn’t arrive.

You’ll see an offer for a $1 trial to my online school, and I hope you join me. But know that is totally optional, and the PDF is my gift to you whether you join or not

The PDF will arrive in your email inbox within 15 minutes, and I’ll also send you some emails over the course of the next week or so that are packed with even more tutorials, valuable cake decorating info, stories and a super special offer. It’s going to be a fun week, so keep an eye on your inbox! (You can opt out anytime you wish.)

Ready to get your holiday gifts?

Send My Free PDF!

Happy Holidays!!

Sharon
SugarEd Productions Online School
 

NOLA Photography http://bentzphotography.com/

The post Free Holiday Tutorial Bundle appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….. everywhere you go!”

Christmas trees in store windows and displays, candy canes, twinkling lights, Santa…  This time of the year makes me happy. Spending time with loved ones, eating, giving presents and seeing the smile and joy on people’s faces as they open them, eating, and enjoying the traditions that our family shares, baking the goodies, and oops, almost forgot – EATING!

I have some great tutorials for you, both from SugarEd Productions as well as our Contributors from our Online Sugar Art School, and some really cute ideas found from other great bloggers.

Please enjoy!

From SugarEd Productions:

Creamy Peppermint Fudge

Edible Holiday Place Cards

Roly Poly Santa Cookies

Homemade Marshmallows

Christmas Tree Brownies

From The Partiologist:

Gingerbread Sleigh Ride

Christmas Ornament Cake Pops

Goodie Goodie Gumdrop Cake Pops

Yule Logs

From Hungry Happenings:

Reese’s Cup Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Treats

Handmade Chocolates using Chocolate Transfer Sheets

Note: the following tutorials are available free of charge  in the Facebook shops of the creators. Click on the tutorial thumbnails to download the tutorial files.

From Eileen Fry Cakes:

Sugar Poinsettia

From Delicious Deliveries:

White Duck Snow Shoes

From La Bella Torta:

Gingerbread House

From Haniela’s:

Christmas Poinsettia Meringues

From Fat Girl Cakes:

Cookie Tower Centerpiece

I hope some of these will inspire your creativity, dress up your holiday table, and possibly help with your Christmas shopping  From all of us here at SugarEd Productions, we wish you a joyful and blessed Holiday Season, and a happy and prosperous New Year!

Sweet Regards,

Sharon

The post Christmas Tutorials Roundup appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

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

Happy baking!

Sharon

The post Cookie Cutter Gift Boxes appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

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

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

The post Peppermint Fudge appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

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

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

The post Roly Poly Santa Cookies appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.

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

 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

The post Homemade Marshmallows appeared first on Sugared Productions Blog.