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Are Your Cakes Perfect?

December 13, 2016 by Sharon Z 1 Comment

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

Thanksgiving Tutorial Round Up

November 22, 2016 by Sharon Z Leave a Comment

Hey there! Turkey Day USA is just a few days away!

Here’s a few of our favorite Thanksgiving treats from around the web to get you inspired!

Mini-Pumpkin-Pies

Mini Pumpkin Pies

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Hidden Turkey Cake

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Turkey Dinner Cupcakes

Fall Cookies

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Pilgrim Pumpkin

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Nutter Butter Truffles

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Silly Turkey Cookies

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Buttercream Turkey Cake

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Pumpkin Rice Krispies Treats

That’s it for the round up! And I hope you got some inspiration from these tutorials.

I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Sharon

12 Easy and Spooktacular Halloween Desserts

October 25, 2016 by Sharon Z Leave a Comment

Halloween — a time for crafty costumes, scary home decor and fun Halloween games. But if we are honest, the best thing about Halloween are the treats! Candy is easy to grab at your local market. But if you want to dazzle your party guests or want to have your family participate in a creative kitchen project, you’ll need to step up your spooky game!

That’s why Shari’s Berries has created these 12 easy to make Halloween treats with things you can easily get or already have at home. Scary donuts, peeping grapes and coconut little witches are waiting to be made. Your young (and old) little vampires will have a blast with these, so make sure to whip up a couple batches of each.

How to Spookify Your Treats

All of them took less than 20 minutes to make, unless of course you plan to bake your own cookies and cupcakes. We were excited to find edible googly eyes but using small marshmallows for eyes was also fun! Wanna set up all your easy halloween treats on a dessert table? Check out these dessert table ideas.

Here are some simple instructions for each treat:

Graveyard Shift: We took plastic (but you can use glass) cups and filled them with chocolate and vanilla pudding. Next we crumbled up a chocolate cookie and used that for the “dirt”. Top it with a bisuit cookie and use frosting to write on it. Add some fun decorations such as worms and plastic body parts, and you’ve got yourself a grave!

BeWitching: Dress up a marshmallow! Soak some coconut flakes with green food coloring and use a bit of the orange frosting to place it on the marshmallow. Layer the cookie, peanut butter cup and chocolate kiss to make her hat.

Ghostly Party: Take a pretzel stick, melt some white chocolate and dip! For the eyes, we used black frosting, but you can also use an edible black marker.

Mummy I’m Scared!: Place half a banana on a skewer stick and dip in dark chocolate. Wait until it dries a bit then take a spoon, dip it in white chocolate and start adding it over the dark chocolate to create the mummy bandage. Place googly eyes, or draw them in with frosting.

Skeletons in the Closet: Take a lollipop stick and dig it into a cupcake. Layer three white pretzels and add half a marshmallow for the head. Break two pretzels for the arms and place inside the last pretzel.

Spooky Rice: For these we molded puffy rice into a rectangular shape. Added ears for the cat. A gummy work for the head of the pumpkin and decorated with glitter, chocolate and frosting. For a fun Frankenstein treat check out Whipperberry!

Donut Fear: We took some plastic fangs and placed directly in the middle of the donut. The red frosting takes it to the next level!

Fangtastic: If you’ve got strawberries and dark chocolate, then you are set. Simply dip and decorate!
Peeping Grape: No need to be wary of these grapes, they are good for you! We used a bit of frosting to get the googly eyes to stick and added some “veins” with red frosting.

Spider Attack: These took less than 10 minutes to make. Simply break thin pretzel sticks, dip in chocolate and form them into little spiders. Eyes optional.

Monsters Under My Bed: We took toaster pastries (and a variety of other cookies), covered them in chocolate frosting and placed marshmallows where desired. Small marshmallows cut in triangles are great for the teeth!

Now that you’ve seen how easy to make these are, which will you be making first? If you have guests that aren’t able to indulge in your awesome treats, send a little spooky love their way with one of our treats from the Halloween collection.

*Original post: http://www.berries.com/blog/12-easy-make-spooky-treats

Fall Scarecrow Tutorial

October 24, 2016 by Sharon Z 3 Comments

Fall is my favorite of year. A little reprieve from the heat and humidity den here in the South. The promise of holidays, family gatherings and great food to come.

And I love Fall colors and decor. And Fall cakes.

So here’s a little tutorial for you for this cute and easy Scarecrow figure. By our very own Rhu Strand, Sugarcraft Teacher, for SugarEd Productions.

Supplies:

dresden tool
scalpel
ball tool
shell tool
stitching tool
bamboo skewer or similar
cocktail sticks
circle cutters
scissors
paint brushes
ruler
6” cake drum
superglue
small piping nozzles for cutting circles
something to help you make a hole in the board – braddle or maybe a small screw that can be screwed in and out
blue sugarpaste – 100g
white paste – 150g
dark brown sugarpaste – 20g
mid brown sugarpaste – 50g
light brown sugarpaste (straw) – 70g
small amounts of black / red / green sugarpaste
food colouring for painting shirt
Edible glue

note: all sugarpaste has a stiffening agent added – tylose, gum trag, cmc etc

Cover the cake drum with paste. Make a hole in the middle with either a dowel or screw. Fix the bamboo skewer with super glue firmly into the hole on the underside.

Roll two 10g balls from the dark brown paste. Mark a line of stitching and glue to the board on either side of the skewer. These will be the shoes. Roll a 2” x 3/4” rectangle and use the shell tool to texture and cut into paste.

Fan the straw into small circles and place onto the shoes.

Roll 2 x 100g of blue paste into 4 1/2” sausages, or one long sausage and cut it in half. Mark creases into the bottom of the trousers with the veiner end of the dresden tool.

Insert cocktail sticks into the feet to help support the leg. Place leg onto cocktail sticks and glue to the Scarecrow support post (skewer).

Repeat for other leg. Glue top parts of legs together, only using a small amount of glue so that the paste is tacky. Put a stitching detail down the side of the legs – leave to dry.

Tear-drop 50g of white paste to about 21/2” long x 2/1/2” wide at the top. Flatten with the palm of your hand. Mark in creases with the dresden tool, put stitching detail down the front and add buttons with a small piping nozzle. Starting at the neck, gently twist a skewer down through the body to create a cavity.

Slide the body down onto the legs.

Paint a criss-cross of lines onto the shirt body to create a checkered effect, Do not worry over the painting; it does not need to be perfect – it will give movement to the shirt.

Make some more straw and arrange around the neck in a few layers.

Roll a pea-size ball of light brown and pop over the skewer to make a neck. Roll a small rectangle of white and wrap around for the collar; trim to right size. Paint the collar – you will see that I have now decided to paint over the shirt to give a base color too – leave to dry.

Roll 2 x 30g of white for the arms to about 21/2” long – trim these down if necessary. Use the ball tool to make a cavity at the wrist end of the sleeve.

Dip a cocktail stick into some glue and insert into the body at shoulder height. Leave to dry to give it some strength. Glue the remaining cocktail stick and insert arm onto it; glue at body.

Repeat the paint effect on the arm and insert straw into the wrist cavity.

Roll and cut some small rectangles for the dungaree bib and pocket. Add stitching detail and glue to body. Cut three narrow strips, add stitching detail, and glue two for the straps. Then add on the waistband. Make two buttons with a piping nozzle.

Roll 40g of light brown paste into a ball. Add eyes cut from black with a piping nozzle – the white dots are also cut from a piping nozzle. A red nose – very small triangle and mouth from finely rolled black. Add in stitches and pink dusting powder to the cheeks.

Cut skewer down to accommodate the head. Add more straw around neck if necessary. Add a strip of straw around the head for hair. Choose a circle cutter larger than the head and cut a circle from the mid brown colored paste. Shape over the head and add a strip to define the crown.

Cut some squares and add as patches.

Have fun using these techniques to create your own scarecrow!!

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Self taught with a background in creative crafts, sugarpaste became Rhu’s chosen medium after rediscovering it making her children’s birthday cakes. Founding Pimp my Cake with Mama Rhu in 2009, Rhu was soon asked to teach at a local college, and this progressed to teaching from home in 2011. She now teaches full-time in the UK, as well as being invited to teach internationally.

Rhu’s pages: Facebook, Website, French Cake Breaks

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Fall Tutorial Roundup

October 5, 2016 by Sharon Z 1 Comment

Hi sugar babies! It’s Fall!! Here are some of our favorite treats from around the web to get you inspired for the season!

Fall Leaves from Sweet Ambs

Scarecrow Cake Pops from Bakerella

Pumpkin Spice Bites from Bru Crew Life

Pumpkin Pie Cake from SugarEd Productions

Pumpkin Cinammon Chips from Baker By Nature

Frosted Pumpkin Bars from Liluna

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies from Our Best Bites

Autumn Basket Cake from SugarEd Productions

I hope these tutorials inspire you to get into the season!

Happy Baking!
Sharon

Mardi Gras Give-away!

February 9, 2016 by Sharon Zambito 91 Comments

HAPPY MARDI GRAS EVERYONE!

Since it is Mardi Gras day down here in the Big Easy, I thought you might enjoy learning about another one of our unique culinary creations. I have recruited my big sister Barbara to do a guest blog entry on making a king cake. Barbara is the inventor of the original King Rock (more on that later). In addition to that, she is just the best big sister ever. She looks after me. She is an accountant by profession, so she helps with my business finances, taxes, and all that other icky stuff I have no clue about. She also comes on some of my cake trips with me to help me out with my demos and my vendor table. She is one of the most energetic, social, and fun to be with people I know. She is a very cool chick and I love her tons. So now I present to you… Barbara…..

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Hi, I’m Barbara, Sharon’s sister, and she’s asked me to do a guest blog. This is me getting ready for Mardi Gras, which this year falls on February 24.

(Note from Sharon: I have this same outfit and yes we do wear this when we go parading.)

Speaking of Mardi Gras, that brings me to the topic of the day. I am not a cake decorator. I see some of the magnificent pieces of art that you all do and I am in complete awe. But, I am here today to talk about the king of all cakes – the King Cake.

If you are not from the New Orleans are, you might be asking yourself “what is a King Cake?” A king cake is a brioche-style cake similar to a coffee cake that is served throughout the carnival season in New Orleans. The carnival season begins on the 12th Day of Christmas, the Epiphany (January 6), which is the day the three kings visited the Baby Jesus. It is believed that it took the three kings 12 days to find their way to the stable. The carnival season ends on Mardi Gras Day, which is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

The king cake is circular, representing the circular path the three kings had to take to ward off King Herod, who was seeking them so that he could kill the Christ Child. The king cake is typically decorated with colored icing and/or sugar. The three colors are purple, green and gold, the colors of Mardi Gras, which represent justice, faith and power. I’ve also heard that the three colors represent the three gifts presented by the Magi (gold, frankincense, and myrrh.) Within each cake is hidden a small plastic doll, which represents the Baby Jesus. (In olden times, it used to be a porcelain doll, or a bean or pea.)

King Cake parties where all the rage when I was growing up. Whoever was lucky enough to get the doll in their piece of cake would be named king (or queen) of that party and had to throw the next party. Today, this tradition is very prevalent in offices throughout the city where the person who gets the doll must bring the next cake. King cake sales are so prosperous that many bakeries in New Orleans are more profitable during the carnival season than they are for the entire rest of the year.

The making of a king cake should not be taken lightly. Since this is a yeast sweet bread, it has to be kneaded and left to rise twice, and is a day-long commitment. There are many bakeries that make excellent king cakes, so why in the world would anyone want to make their own? Just for the fun of it!!

My introduction into making home-made king cakes came many years ago. I found a recipe and tried it out on my family. Geez almighty, it was horrible. It came out heavy and hard as a rock, so much so that they called it the King Rock. My other sister, Janice, told her office mates about it and they accused her of exaggerating – that it couldn’t possibly have been that bad. So, they asked me to make a cake for their office party. Much to my dismay, it was just as horrible, but everyone was so polite and complimentary so as not to hurt my feelings, but I knew it was a bomb. I hope to think that I have gotten a little better at it over the years, but it is still tricky. I continue to try out new recipes and techniques, as I continue my search for perfection.

The recipe below is a really good one. It produces a light, but moist cinnamon cake. A few pointers for success: You have to get the yeast at just the right temperature (105 to 115 degrees) and let it foam for at least 10 minutes. You have to be careful not to add too much flour and not to over knead it. The dough should be slightly sticky, but elastic and able to hold its own shape, but never firm.

You have to be careful not to over bake it or it will be dry. I now use an instant-read thermometer, which should register 195 to 200 degrees for doneness.

The recipe is below. Basically, this is what you do. It’s much like making a bread dough. Let it rise till double in bulk and then roll out into a rectangle.

Here’s what it looks like rolled out with the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on:

Then roll up each piece into a long string.

Pinch the edges together so that the filling doesn’t ooze out. Flatten down the pinched edge afterwards so that it lays flat.

Twist the two strings together.

Form into a circle on a baking pan.

Let rise until double in bulk.

This is what it looks like right out of the oven.

Let cool and then decorate with a glaze and colored sprinkles.

See the baby’s head?

And that’s me with my cake.

You can do these in a variety of ways. You can divide the rectangle of dough into thirds and braid it like this. I rolled these strings in the cinnamon sugar to get it on the outside, rather than on the inside.

This is what it looked like after it was left to rise, baked and decorated. This one raised a lot and was very light and airy.

This one was filled with cinnamon sugar, raisins, and pecans. If you put a lot of “stuff” in your cake, it won’t rise as much.

You can also use other fillings, such as cream cheese filling, apple pie filling, lemon pie filling, cherry pie filling, etc. But I don’t like those. They turn out too sweet for my taste and the filling overpowers the taste of the cake. I’m a purist and like just a little cinnamon sugar.

So, that’s it. I hope that you all give it a try and bring a bit of New Orleans to wherever you might live. Also, if you ever have the chance to visit New Orleans during Mardi Gras, the city would love to have you. Let me just say that Mardi Gras is not only what you see in the media. Yes, there are some unmentionable things that go on in the French Quarter, but that is a very small piece of what our carnival season is about. Mardi Gras outside of the Quarter is very family oriented. The parade routes are filled with kids and families having fun. When we were little kids, my family did not miss a parade. We loved every minute of it. We would lift Sharon, the youngest, smallest and spryest of all of us, over barricades to get that all-elusive string of beads, trinket or doubloon out of our reach. Police were all over the place supposedly monitoring such infractions, but because she was so cute, the police would just look at her and us, and just shake their heads. We trained her young; you should see how she still scoops up the parade throws.

Happy Mardi Gras!

KING CAKE RECIPE:

(This recipe makes two medium size cakes.)

¼ cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 tablespoon (1 package) dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
5 ¾ to 6 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ cup warm milk (105 to 115 degrees)
1 cup sour cream
3 large eggs
finely grated zest of 1 lemon or orange
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces

Cinnamon Sugar:
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Frosting:

4 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
7 tablespoons hot water, more as needed
1/4 teaspoon almond flavoring

1) Pour warm water into small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and a pinch of sugar over the surface. Stir to dissolve and let stand at room temperature until foamy; about 10 minutes.

2) Place 1 ½ cups of the flour, the remaining sugar, and the salt in mixer bowl. Make a well and add the milk, sour cream, eggs, and zest in the center. Beat until smooth on medium-low speed, about 1 minute.

3) Add the yeast mixture and beat for 1 minute more.

4) Stop the machine and add 1 cup more flour. Beat for 1 minute.

5) Add the butter pieces and beat on low speed until incorporated.

6) Add the remaining four, ½ cup at a time, until a soft, smooth dough that just clears the sides of the bowl is formed. Switch to the dough hook when the dough thickens, about two-thirds through adding the flour.

7) When all flour is added, knead with dough hook for about 5 minutes on medium speed. (If you don’t have a dough hook for your mixer, you’ll need to turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5-10 minutes.)

8) Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and just able to hold its own shape, under 1 minute if you used the dough hook (6 to 10 kneads to smooth it out), dusting with flour only 1 tablespoon at a time, just enough to prevent sticking to your hands and the work surface. This dough will be very smooth, with a definite soft elastic quality, a little sticky, but never stiff, and will hold its shape.

9) Place the dough ball in a greased deep container, turn once to grease the top, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until double in bulk, 2 ½ to 3 hours. Do not allow the dough to rise over double.

10) Punch dough down with fist. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Let rest 10 minutes.

11) Divide the dough in half with a bench scraper, pizza cutter or knife, never tearing the dough.

12) Divide each half into thirds. Roll out to a rectangle approx. 20 x 12 inches.

13) Divide in half with pizza cutter. Brush with melted butter keeping edges dry. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

14) Roll up and pinch ends together so filling does not ooze out. Flatten pinched edge.

15) Twist two long rolled pieces together. Form into a circle and fold edges under.

16) You can insert baby trinket into cake at this point or wait until after it is baked. (I like to wait after it is baked if it is plastic.) Insert from underneath. (If you don’t have a baby trinket, use a whole pecan, walnut or other object; just be careful it is big enough that it cannot be swallowed whole.)

17) Cover with greased plastic wrap or light cloth towels and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.

18) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 20-25 minutes. An instant-read thermometer will read 195 to 200 degrees.

19) Let cakes completely cool.

20) To prepare frosting, mix melted butter, powdered sugar and flavoring; add hot water 1 Tablespoon at a time until glaze reaches desired spreading consistency. You don’t want this too thin because it will run right off the cake or too thick because it won’t drip down the side of the cake.

21) Pour frosting over cake; sprinkle with purple, green and gold colored sprinkles or colored sugar.

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Sharon again here. WOW! Was that great or what? Thanks Sis for showing me up on my own blog. Dang overachiever. (Just kidding.) But seriously, I have been trying to convince Barb for months now to start her own food blog. She is a good cook, and photography has been a hobby of hers for a long time.

UPDATE : GIVE-AWAY WINNER IS VickiN!

THANKS ALL FOR ENTERING!

Good luck and Happy Mardi Gras Everyone!

Sharon

PS We’ve got a full video tutorial on making the King Cake in our online school:

http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

Free Valentine Teddy Figure Tutorial

February 5, 2016 by Sharon Zambito Leave a Comment

Hey Sugar Babies!

Valentine’s Day is almost here. Love is in the air….. and I’m feelin’ it.

So I’ve got a free PDF tutorial for you of this cute Teddy topper:

CLICK HERE TO REQUEST IT

In the interest of full disclosure, there will be an offer to join my online school for $1 after you sign up to get the PDF.

That’s totally optional and the PDF is yours for free no matter what.

I hope you enjoy it!

Sharon

Valentine’s Recipe and Tutorial Round-Up

February 2, 2016 by Sharon Z Leave a Comment

Hi guys! Valentines Day is fast approaching and love is in the air.

And I just happen to love pretty Valentine sweets and treats. So I’ve rounded up some tutorials and recipes from around the web to help you get inspired (and help me too 🙂

Valentines Day Ombre Heart Cake

Lifes A Batch: Valentines Day Cookies

Chocolate Ding Dong Hearts

Pink Velvet Cake Pops

Red Velvet Macarons

Valentines Day Teddy Cake

Valentines Day Cupcakes

Valentines Oreo Pops

Valentines Day Brownies

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

Now go forth and maketh cute and sweet Valentine treats. I’d love to hear whatcha makin’.

Happy Caking!
Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Gingerbread Cottage Tutorial

December 17, 2015 by Sharon Z 2 Comments

Hi guys! Christmas is just around the corner! Today we have a guest post from Ella Sugar Boutique! Look at this utterly charming holiday gingerbread cottage. The best part? You can use a purchased kit and crank it up a big ole notch by using Ella’s decorating tutorial. My heart pitter patters……

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

Christmas Treats Tutorials Roundup

December 9, 2015 by Sharon Z 2 Comments

Hi guys!

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!