Sugared Productions Blog

Easter Tutorial Round Up

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Hello Sugar Friends!

 

Easter is just one week away, so I have compiled a round up of some of my favorite tutorials  for you, from both SugarEd Productions and some of my favorite blogs.

 

From SugarEd Productions:

 

 BLOSSOM BUNNY CAKE

 

 EASTER EGG BASKET CAKE

 

 BUNNY BUTT CUPCAKES

From The Partiologist:

 

 BUNNY CAROUSEL

 

 CHOCOLATE BUNNY COOKIES

“CARROT” CAKE

CARROT CAKE POPS

From Hungry Happenings:

 

 CARROT TOP CUPCAKES

 

 

 

 CANDY FILLED CHOCOLATE CHICKS

 

 

 

CHEESECAKE EASTER EGGS 

 

 

 

From the Pink Whisk:

 CREME EGG LAMBS

From Sweetopia:

 

Marian from Sweetopia shares with us her tutorial for these adorable lamb cookies, as well as her own Easter cookie tutorial round up HERE.

 

Hopefully you will find some ideas here you would like to try for your Easter/Spring spread. I want to personally wish you all a blessed and happy holiday with your family and friends. I thank you for being a part of the SugarEd family.

 

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

 

 

 

King Cake!

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Hey Sugar Friends!

It is Mardi Gras down here in New Orleans. One of my very favorite times of the year. Great family fun going to the parades and watching all the wonderful marching bands perform while trying to catch all the goodies thrown off the floats. I wish you could all come down here and experience it with me.

But even if you can’t come down and see it, you can still enjoy a bit of Mardi Gras at home by making your own King Cake! My sister Barbara is the master of homemade king cake, so let’s visit the blog archive where she will take you step by step through the process to ensure your success.

 

KING CAKE POST HERE

 

 

You can find the plastic king cake babies several places online like here.  Note: be sure to tell the king cakers to be on the lookout for the baby to avoid choking.

I hope you guys give it a try. If you do, let me know how it turned out!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Sharon

Valentine Cupcakes

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Hello Sugar Babies!

I just could not let Valentine’s day go by without sharing a little love with you guys. You all fill my heart with so much joy, I want to give a little back to you.

 

I heart you.

 

These sweet cupcakes are really easy. Just roll out your fondant and cut heart shapes with your favorite cutters. Cut out some red blossoms as well. The metal cutters pictured above I have had forever and have no idea where they came from. But I can tell you that the black heart cutters are made by Patchwork and can be found here.

 

 

While the fondant is still soft, impress your message of love with plastic hobby stamps. Note: please make sure your stamps are food safe if the item will be eaten!

 

 

Let that dry thoroughly (overnight). Then dust the impressions with a darker shade of pink petal dust with a thin pointy brush. Then a dusting of luster dust in your shade of choice finishes off the piece.

 

 

 

These cupcakes were baked in the heart shaped silicone baking cups by Wilton. I got them at Hobby Lobby. I love those cups! I use them for all kinds of stuff. (And a little birdie told me that we will have a video in the members’ area that shows you how to make a stunning dessert with these 🙂

 

 

If you don’t have stamps, or just don’t feel like doing that, you can just make pretty heart toppers for your cupcakes.

 

 

 

Love is in the air.

 

I hope you will 🙂

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sharon

Visit the Online Sugar Art School

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.

————————————————————

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

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.

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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