Tutorials Archives - Page 3 of 15 - Sugared Productions Blog

How To Stencil on Cookies with Royal Icing

September 20, 2016 by Sharon Z 7 Comments

by Krista Heij-Barber of Cookies With Character
for SugarEd Productions

Choose any shape you like. My favorite of all time is the versatile plaque shape!

The colors I chose for this tutorial are a “vintage-ish” teal color scheme. The key is to start with an ivory base. Then I added Americolor Teal and Sky Blue. If you feel it’s getting too strong or bright, add a bit more ivory. *I tend to use ivory a lot with my colors. I love how it can change colors drastically. Muting the vibrate pinks etc. Love it!!

Choose your stencils. These are my faves from The Cookie Countess and Salsa Sweets/Salsa Stencils. They can be found here: https://thecookiecountess.com https://www.facebook.com/SalsaSweets

Base flood your cookie and allow to dry at least 24hrs. If it is not dry enough, your finger will indent the cookie during the stenciling process. (Note: see our Cookie 101 tutorial in our online school to learn about icing and flooding cookies).

Then lay your chosen stencil onto of the cookie and look at all areas to make sure the stencil “ends” off the cookie the way you like. Layer on a rather thick coat of icing with an offset spatula. I recommend using a metal spatula. They are more sturdy and give you a cleaner edge for stenciling.

Wipe the spatula on a wet paper towel. Using the edge of the spatula, in long swipes, remove as much excess icing as possible. This may take 3 or 4 passes. Don’t worry about the ends, we will fix them later.

Gently remove the stencil in one quick movement.

Afterwards, you will notice these little wiggles of excess icing that have fallen between the stencil and the cookie. Use either a toothpick to remove the excess or…

… the tip of the spatula to quickly scrape off the ends.

You may also want to use only a section of a stencil. Here, I wanted to just use one line of my damask stencil. Using scotch tape, mask off the top and bottom of the area you want to stencil. I have also heard of some using “Press and Seal” wrap to mask off areas.

Repeat the process above, trying to keep the icing in the center of the area we masked off.

Remove excess icing with spatula or toothpick.

Smaller stencils do tend to be easier to use at first. Mainly because a lot of them have a small “tab” on the side that allow you to hold it easier.

If you would like to practice, you could use either a paper plate upside down or the “Notta Cookie” The Notta Cookie can be found at Karenscookies.net. It is a dishwasher safe, reusable fake cookie. I love be able to test techniques on a similar shape to a cookie!
Place stencil on cookie.
Add icing to bottom of offset metal spatula.
Layer on your icing. Not too thick, but making sure it gets into all the groves.
After you have wiped your spatula on a damp paper towel, swipe off excess icing.
Remove stencil carefully.
Beautiful butterfly! This stencil, and others can be found at designerstencils.com These cookies made a HUGE splash at my kids school. The teachers where blown away and wondered where I bought them! 😉

Stenciling can give you that big bang for little effort. Think about your colors and shapes ahead of time and the process goes super quick!

Happy stenciling!

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Merging her lifelong love of art and baking with a career in illustration and design has given birth to Krista’s immensely popular cookie business and blog. After working in illustration for 15 years, she married that skill with her affinity for baking, and Cookies with Character was created. Krista’s fun yet refined designs have helped put her stamp on the cookie world.
Krista’s pages: Facebook, Website, and Etsy shop

— Krista’s full bio here

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

September 12, 2016 by Sharon Z 1 Comment

I saw these cookies on a wonderful blog, The Repressed Pastry Chef, and knew I had to make them. So, in my quest to procrastinate from doing my cake prep last night, I figured that was the perfect time to make them. My son J and I both love pumpkin, and he likes to bake, so we made these together.

And since it is now September, we can officially commence the pumpkin recipes! 🙂

unnamed-12

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons milk
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F, line cookie sheet with silicone mat.

Cream shortening, granulated sugar and pumpkin. Add egg and mix well. Add the baking soda, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and flour and mix well. Using a small-to-medium sized disher (cookie scoop) or generous tablespoon, scoop batter onto cookie sheet. Using a wet finger, smooth points/peaks and gently press down tops. Bake 15-18 minutes then remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack and cool about 10-15 minutes before icing. To Make Icing: Cook butter, milk, and brown sugar until dissolved. Cool and add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Place a sheet of waxed paper under the cooling rack, take the cooled cookies and holding one at a time dip upside down into the icing, invert and place on cooling rack. Decorate with sprinkles while icing is still wet.

I made some a little larger than others, and I liked those better, as they were more moist. I liked them even better the next day, as they softened up a little. These are seriously dangerous to have around. They are very soft, cake-like and almost melt in your mouth. Very quick and easy to make too. Hope you try them!

unnamed-11
OK, back to work for me! Have a great week!
Sharon

Summer Treat Tutorial Roundup

August 2, 2016 by Sharon Z Leave a Comment

Hi All!

It’s officially August, however school is not back in session so to me it’s still Summer! In honor of the coming end of the season, we have some treats we want to share. Hope these give you some inspiration.

Ladybug Cupcakes by Victorious Cupcakes

Sunflower Cupcakes by Country Living

Summer S’mores Beach Cake by Framed Frosting

Fun Summer Cookies by Glorious Treats

Watermelon Cookies by Glorious Treats

Beach Ball Cake Pops by Bakerella

Neapolitan Party by SugarEd Productions

Strawberry Cupcake Toppers by SugarEd Productions

Flip Flop Cake Pops by Living Locurto

That’s our Summer treat round up. Time is running out to get our last Summer baking projects done. I’d love to hear what you are working on.

Happy Baking,
Sharon

Ways To Make Your Cake Fluffy And Moist

July 27, 2016 by Sharon Z 61 Comments

Hi all! Today we have a guest post from our friends at 247naijacakeaffairs, and they are going to give us some tips on how to make our cakes moist and fluffy!

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Making a cake is not a difficult process, but complications can arise whether you are using a premixed product or baking the cake from scratch. By altering the ingredients, however, you can eliminate a number of potential pitfalls that lead to a cake being dry and crumbly when it comes out of the oven. In some cases, making substitutions or adding one additional element is all you need to make an extremely moist and fluffy cake. Please note that it is possible for a cake to by fluffy and not moist. It is thus beneficial for you to know exactly what you want to achieve in order for the rules below to guide you. Let’s look at the points as categorized below.

WORK WITH A RECIPE

Baking is as much an art as it is a science. In order to achieve dependable results, we need to work with recipes and not use guess work. Unlike in times past when we baked merely based on what comes into our heads. If a recipe must be changed during baking, take note of those changes. That way you know what to repeat or avoid the next time you are baking that type of cake.

TYPE OF CAKE

ry0401_carrotcake

Some types of cakes like red velvet and carrot cakes are naturally moist, and in fact cakes with high liquid proportions always turn out moist. Sponge cakes are naturally fluffy, while vanilla cakes are usually not as moist and fluffy. Knowing what to expect from a particular type of cake and having good knowledge of the characteristics of various types of cakes is an asset that will help you decide on the type of cake that will fit your objective.

CHOICE OF INGREDIENTS

Cake-Ingredients

The types of ingredients you use to bake your cakes play a major role in how fluffy and moist you cake will be. Let’s consider these few tips below:

Use cake flour in place of all-purpose flour. Cake flour is flour which has been mixed with some corn starch in order to make it lighter. Cakes baked with cake flour are usually lighter and softer than cakes baked with all-purpose flour.

Use real butter in place of margarine, even if the recipe calls for it. Margarine or butter substitutes contain more water than fat. However, it is the fat in butter that helps to hold the cake together and moisten it. The excess water in margarine will evaporate in the oven’s heat, leaving you with a dry texture to your cake.

butter

Substituting some butter with oil in a recipe always leads to moister cakes. Vegetable oil reduces the production of gluten in flour, a protein found in wheat products that work as a binding agent. Too much gluten in a cake will cause it to be sticky and tough rather than moist.

Consider substituting milk for buttermilk. Buttermilk has a high acidic content which breaks down the gluten in flour, thus making cakes softer. If you are going to use buttermilk in a recipe which does not include baking soda, consider adding a little bit of baking soda to the recipe.

Blend the batter thoroughly after adding any additional ingredients called for in the recipe to ensure their full incorporation and then bake the cake normally.

MIXING THE BATTER

cakebatter

At the point of mixing the cake batter, here are a few things to consider:

If you are using the creaming method of mixing the butter and sugar first, be sure to add as much air into the mixture as possible. When air is trapped in your batter it will help make your cake light and fluffy, however, do not overdo it. 5 to 8 minutes of creaming will be enough.

The reverse is the case after flour has been added. Over-mixing after the flour has been added will make the cake dense and hard. Always use the technique of adding flour and milk in alternating additions (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour). This will guarantee that you do not over mix the batter. If you are using a stand mixer, stop the machine after most of the flour has been poured in and mix the rest using your spatula.

Separate the white from the yolk of one egg included in the recipe. Discard the white and add only the yolk to the batter. This step is necessary for only one egg, regardless of how many are used in the recipe. Egg whites are drying agents and too many will reduce the moisture content of the batter. To achieve extra fluffy cakes, especially when making vanilla cakes, separate the egg whites from the egg yolk, make the batter with the egg yolks, beat the egg whites separately and fold it into the batter in the end.

BAKING

baking

Over baking your cakes could be a problem. Below are a few tips for avoiding this:

Try dividing your batter into 2 baking pans and baking them in those separate pans instead of baking all the batter in one deep baking pan. The more quantity of batter poured in a pan, the longer you will need to bake the cake, and the more chances the cake will dry out during baking.

Be attentive while your cake is in the oven. Over baking a cake is sure to make it dry. Always bring out your cake from the oven as soon as your cake is baked. This is ascertained as soon as a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Always note the recommended baking time for the recipe you are using and start checking 8 minutes earlier.

If your cake is taking too long to bake, cover the top of the cake with parchment paper. This will not only prevent the cake from browning too much but will also prevent it from drying out.

STORING AND FROSTING

Make sure your cakes are completely cool before storing them in a fridge. Seal them properly with foil before putting them in the fridge. When cakes are exposed over time, they gradually dry out. Sealing helps to keep moisture inside the cake.

Adding syrup (eg, sugar syrup) is a great way of adding moisture to your cakes. To use, pour or spray some simple syrup over your cake slices before frosting the cake.

Thanks to 247naijacakeaffairs for this great post. I hope it helps you in your cake baking adventures!

Sharon

Ganache 101

July 5, 2016 by Sharon Z 5 Comments

Let’s talk about the basics of Ganache today. This is a popular topic, and here are some of the basics. I’ve got a list of ratios needed for each type and the different uses.

To review, ganache is a delicious (I eat it with a spoon, don’t you?) emulsion made from cream and chocolate.

So super easy to make: heat the cream, pour over chocolate bits and stir until super smooth and glossy.

The great thing about it is its versatility. This simple recipe of just 2 ingredients can be easily tweaked to use in a variety of ways: as a glaze, frosting, filling, mousse, truffles. But the most common use in cake decorating these days is to create firm chocolate shell around cakes on which to apply fondant

There are 3 factors that can be adjusted to create different end products

the ratio of chocolate to cream
what type of chocolate is used
or what temperature the ganache is when used

A thicker ganache is typically used to make chocolate truffles or the “chocolate shell” on cakes I mentioned above.

A thinner ganache is used in dessert fondues or as a poured glaze.

Allow the glaze recipe to cool, and then when it’s thicker it can be used to frost or fill cakes.

You can even whip ganache to make chocolate mousse or a whipped icing/filling.

Warmer ganache will be thin and even a liquid, but it will firm up as it gets cool.

The ratio of chocolate to cream will determine how firm the ganache gets when fully cooled.

Likewise, different types of chocolate (semi sweet, milk, white) will perform differently at the same ratio.

Here are the common ratios and uses for ganache:

-Semi sweet chocolate/ heavy whipping cream:

1:1 ratio:
glaze (warm)
dips/fondue (warm)
thin spreadable frosting (cool or room temp)

2:1 ratio:
thick spreadable icing (room temp) that will set up to a firm shell around cake. Used under fondant cakes or left naked.
cookie icing, tart filling (room temp)
truffle centers (cool/room temp)
can be whipped after cooled to create forsting for cupcakes, cakes

2.5:1 ratio:
this is my prefered ratio to create the super firm shell on a cake under fondant

1:2 ratio:
this can be whipped after cooling to create a super light and airy frosting or mousse

-milk chocolate ganache:

2:1 ratio:
glaze (warm)
dips/fondue (warm)
thin spreadable frosting (cool or room temp)

3:1 ratio:
thick spreadable icing (room temp) that will set up to a firm shell around cake. Used under fondant cakes or left naked.
cookie icing, tart filling (room temp)
truffle centers (cool/room temp)
can be whipped after cooled to create frosting for cupcakes, cakes

-white chocolate:

2:1 – 3:1: (ratio needed can vary by kind and brand)
glaze (warm)
dips/fondue (warm)
thin spreadable frosting (cool or room temp)
cookie icing, tart filling (room temp)
truffle centers (cool/room temp)
can be whipped after cooled to create frosting for cupcakes, cakes

4:1 ratio:
thick spreadable icing (room temp) that will set up to a firm shell around cake. Used under fondant cakes or left naked.

NOTES:

* Milk chocolate and white chocolate are softer then semi sweet, and will need a higher ratio of chocolate to cream to set up at the desired consistency.

* The ratios needed may vary depending on the brand and type of chocolate.

* Use real block chocolate, not chips, as they may not set up the same.

* You can infuse the cream with flavors like tea, mint, herbs, citrus.

* You can flavor ganache with liqueurs or fruit purees.

So there you have it! All about ganache and it’s many uses.

NOTE: See my post on fixing broken ganache here.

I hope you give it a try. In fact, I think I need to go make some right now.

Until next time, happy caking!
Sharon

PS. Visit my online school for a full education on making ganache and it’s many uses:
www.sugaredproductions.com

Ultimate Guide to Candy Buffets

June 29, 2016 by Sharon Zambito 14 Comments

First off, thank you to Sharon for the opportunity to connect with her readers. I’m Sarah, and I work at CandyStore.com. We have a lot of experience helping people plan candy buffets for their weddings and events. I am excited to share this great tip to get you started. Here goes!

If you’re new to building a candy buffet, you may be intimidated by the prospect of building one yourself. Don’t be. The main reason people give up on having a candy buffet at their event is not money, it’s fear*. The solution to removing that fear is here. With one tip, we can soothe this savage beast.

“Fear?” you say. I ain’t scurred. Right, I’m not talking about grizzly bear fear or public speaking-type fear.

public speaking bear

I’m talking more about the fear that it’ll take too much time to plan and fear that even after all that time it won’t turn out well. It’s that overwhelming, my-brain-just-turned-off feeling where you just think. I can’t even. But you CAN! Here’s the tip that will save you:

Size Matters

This is true in many avenues of life, even scientists agree. With candy buffets, it’s a little more nuanced. It boils down to choosing the appropriate size buffet for your event and budget. You don’t need to have a magazine cover-style Candy Buffet of the Year spread.

magazine worthy candy buffete

If building a diy candy dessert bar gives you anxiety attacks – are you ready? – use a small table.

You can see your shoulders dropping already. Your breathing is getting more relaxed. That’s it, thaaaaat’s it.

breathe

And yeah, a small table – that’s it! The beauty of a small table is that you can break it down in your mind more easily. It’s more doable in your head. It’s also less expensive, easier to plan and has just as much impact as a large table, if not more. Now that you’re nice and relaxed, here’s the rest of the plan.

The biggest decisions you have to make for a candy buffet have already been made.

What Colors Should I Use?

You know the answer already. Since you’ll likely want to match the colors of your event, that takes care of that step. Bulk candy can be bought in most general colors now-a-days and even some more specific colors like maroon and aqua. Gold candy and dust are popular and fit within many events color schemes. Just be careful with the edible stuff.

Ok, this is already gaining momentum! You’re on your way.

What types of containers do I need?

You need 3 types. Big, medium and small. There we go with the bear metaphor again, goldilocks. A nice looking candy buffet uses zones to create depth and (sometimes just the illusion of) abundance. There’s more detail in my DIY candy buffet guide here, but basically, that feeling of abundance is harder to create over a larger space. Keep the table small.

The Candy Buffet Zones

Put the small containers – bowls, platters – in front and put your individually wrapped candy bars here. Other appropriate things to put here are baked goods and desserts that don’t ‘scoop’ and wrapped items that might get handled a bit. Larger, bulkier items tend to work best here. Cookies, cupcakes, etc.

Medium containers in the middle will contain some unwrapped candy that may need somewhat gentle handling. Gummy sharks, old-fashioned stick candy, chocolate covered espresso beans. Use tongs or scoops where appropriate.

In the back you put your tallest containers. Fill them up with wrapped or unwrapped bulk candy. Depending on how tall they are scooping may be awkward if people need to reach over the rest of the display. Consider wrapped candy that’s easily grab-able by hand if this is a concern. Foil-wrapped chocolate balls are great and come in a ton of cool colors. Alternatively, use single-color gum balls or another easily scoop-able candy item.

Centerpiece Optional

If you’re getting the hang of this and your brain is flowing with ideas, consider this. An optional centerpiece. If you wanna go the extra step, use a loaded up cupcake stand as a center piece and curve your zones around it. Cupcake stand, flower arrangement, or even the event’s main cake or dessert!

cupcake stands for candy buffets

You may need a slightly bigger table for this, but by now maybe you feel like you can handle that. If not, stay small. A high and tight candy buffet looks much better than a loose-goosey arrangement on a bigger table.

Add a personal touch

This is the part you’re already good at. Once you have the layout all worked out, add some personal touches to the decor. Some ribbon around the containers, maybe some tasteful confetti will look nice, fresh flowers. A framed picture of the honored guest(s).

picture frames for candy buffets

Tie it into your existing event decor. The dessert bar doesn’t need it’s own theme, it is merely an extension of the theme of the party it lives in.

lovely purple candy buffets

Final Thought

I’ll leave you with this one last thing. There are no rules. Have fun with your arrangement. If you get overwhelmed, dial it down. If you’re feeling empowered and want some more knowledge, we put together this amazing infographic (below) from my Ultimate Guide to DIY Candy Buffets. Pin it, print it out, use it to your advantage.

I’ll be answering any questions in the comments section, so let them fly. Also love to hear about how it went! So please let me know if you used these tips and how your candy display table turned out. Love to Sharon and SugarEd Productions!

Candy buffet infographic guide step by step

(* You may be saying, fear isn’t the only reason people give up. They might also think it’s going to cost too much because they’ll have to hire someone to build the darn thing. This is a subset of the fear you have of doing it yourself. There’s no reason buying some bulk candy and some containers should be expensive. The bang for your buck is there if you can get past your fear!)

Can I Freeze Royal Icing?

June 15, 2016 by Sharon Z 5 Comments

Hi sugar friends! Today we have an awesome guest post from David at Good things by David on freezing royal icing.

This is a question I get asked quite a bit here on the blog and, much to my embarrassment, it is one that I had no answer for until I tested it myself.

It’s baking season now and many people want to get into the kitchen to ice those marvelous cookies for friends and family. I’m right there with you. Those of us who ice cookies on a regular basis inevitably end up with leftover royal icing and I’ll admit that in the past I used to dump what was left (big guilt trip, believe me!). Well, I no longer do that because I freeze what I do have left after one of my baking projects.

It’s simple, it’s easy and it works!

Unless one is icing hundreds of cookies, you may end up with leftover royal icing after making a couple of dozen cookies. Most royal icing recipes (including my own) make a substantial amount to begin with. I think it’s good to have more icing than is needed, because there are always moments when you want to add a little flourish here or there, and then there are moments when you absolutely do run out of a color and need to make more.

You can see that I truly do love to use a whole range of colors when I decorate these types of cookies. Having more options makes the job of icing sugar cookies enjoyable and absolutely easier. Again, unless I have a specific request from someone, I usually mix colors based on what I want to convey. I almost see it as artwork that allows one to express a certain kind of creativity.

Keep in mind that I tested freezing royal icing with my recipe and no one else’s.

This is what you do. Any leftover royal icing should be placed into zip-top freezer bags, giving each color its own bag. Push the icing to the very bottom of the bag and squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible before sealing it shut. You want the royal icing baggies to be well sealed. Repeat with remaining icing. Place these sealed bags into a larger zip-top freezer bag and seal shut, removing as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn.

Freeze flat on a rimmed baking sheet until you’re ready to use the icing.

You can make your icing a couple of weeks ahead of time and freeze it before your baking project. With all of the baking I’ve been doing in the past month, believe me, it has saved a lot of time doing this task early.

Note: royal icing can successfully be frozen for up to one month.

Thawing is the easiest thing of all. Remove as many icing baggies from the freezer as you will need and let them thaw on the kitchen counter. As soon as they’re malleable, they are ready to be removed from the bags.

Note: colors may separate and the icing may need to be adjusted to have the right consistency for piping and flooding. I urge you to drop the icing into a bowl to mix thoroughly with a spoon rather than putting it into your piping bag. Find out if it needs to be thinned out with a bit of water or if it needs anything else for your baking project. If the colors do seem uneven, use that spoon and bring the color back together. This is imperative!

Use as desired by filling your piping bag or squeeze bottle and decorate those cookies.

If you have followed my delicious recipe, there will be no compromise in flavor or texture.

Now you know! Royal icing can be frozen with great success.

Happy Baking!

Good things by David was started because I wanted to share some of the Good Things that have made my life a little bit easier, a little bit nicer and certainly more enjoyable. Everyone knows the phrase, “It’s a good thing”, made famous by Martha Stewart many years ago. In this blog you will find not only good things that have come from Martha, but you’ll also come across many that I’ve created over the years. It is my wish to perhaps inspire and encourage you, the reader, to try something new.

SugarEd Productions
www.sugaredproductions.com

The Cherry Hog

June 7, 2016 by Sharon Zambito 4 Comments

Some of you who have been with me for a few years may remember this story. It’s a re-post of an older blog, but I’ve gotten a lot of requests for it again, so here goes…. (read thru to the end for a quick tutorial.)

Once upon a time there were 3 sisters that grew up in the city of New Orleans with their 2 older brothers and parents. They were not exactly poor, but things were very tight, as they were living on one modest accountant’s salary. Melba, the mom, knew how to make every penny stretch. She was very frugal. There were never any treats like candy, soda, chips, or cookies in the house. Those things were reserved for very special occasions.

Since vacations were out of the budget, the family would make day trips a few times a summer to a nearby state park. The kids would swim in the Bogafalaya river and play on the sandy beach. Melba would pack an ice chest and picnic basket and they would spend the day swimming, eating, and relaxing.

On one particular trip to the river, Melba really splurged and bought a bag of fresh cherries. Not a big bag, mind you. But this was still a really special treat for the kids to get such an extravagance.

So on this particular day, after lunch, the 2 youngest sisters, Sharon and Janice, decided to go for a nice long swim, anticipating their refreshing treat of cherries upon their return. They wanted to save them for the just the right moment, to enjoy them to their fullest. So after their nice swim in the river, they happily skipped back to the picnic table, excited about the luscious fruit that awaited them. But alas, to their dismay, they discovered that their older sister Barbara (aka the Cherry Hog) had eaten them all! All of them! All that was left was a bag of pits and stems.

Needless to say the 2 little sisters were disappointed….. no, devastated….. no, scarred for life! Despite years in therapy and reading many self help books, they have not been able to work through the trauma of this event. In this tragic story they did not live happily ever after. So needless to say, to this day they give Barbara grief about it any chance they can get.

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Last week, when the whole family was invited to a friend’s house on the bayou for a Good Friday seafood boil, they took the opportunity to also celebrate Barbara’s birthday.

And here is the Cherry Hog’s birthday cake.

CH with her cake. She loved it.

Sharon and CH.

Sharon, CH and Janice.

Seafood boil of crabs , crawfish, potatoes, corn and more!

And fresh boiled shrimp! It was so yummy!

J-Man got to drive the boat!

Cherry Hog and her nephew D.

The cake was yummy and enjoyed by all. We had a wonderful day of boating, eating, and playing board games.

Note: Cherry Hog claims to have no memory of this event ever happening. Classic case of denial, if you ask me.

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HOW TO MAKE CHERRY HOG’S CAKE:

My BFF Heather gave me the great idea of using Styrofoam as the base of the cake. I used an 8 inch ball and cut it a little shorter than in half. I cut a flat bottom so it would stand up, and I used another piece of styro as “sand paper” to shape the bottom half of the cherry. (I learned that trick in a Collette Peter’s demo.)

Then I sharpened wooden dowels and drove them thru the styro and into the cake drum base for stability. I used 3, but in retrospect I could have done with just 2.

I then attached a circle of parchment paper to the top of the styro with buttercream to form a barrier with the cake.

First layer of cake in place.

I put a ball of modeling chocolate down in the hole to serve as the pit. Tee hee. Then I plugged the hole with the cake from the heating core.

Second layer of cake in place.

Carved to a cherry shape with a sharp knife. I intentionally went with a somewhat asymmetrical look, because real cherries are not perfectly round. Also makes the carving easier; I love that!

Then I applied a basecoat of thickened ganache over the whole thing. The ganache is 2 parts semi sweet chocolate to one part heavy cream. You let it cool to a thick paste consistency and then apply it just like a buttercream coat with a hot spatula. It firms up to make a nice chocolate shell; a wonderful surface on which to apply your fondant.

I smeared the whole cake with piping gel and then applied red fondant. I used a wad of fondant cupped in my hand in lieu of fondant smoothers. This works great on round and curved shapes.

I then gave the whole cake a liberal rubdown with everclear alcohol to get the excess cornstarch off before airbrushing. What??? No Crisco? I know what you are thinking. Sharon rubs down everything with Crisco! Yes, this is true, but not in the case of airbrushing. That will cause the airbrush color to not go on smoothly and you might get blotching.

After the everclear dried (took about 2 minutes) , I gave it several coats of red color. Let the coats dry in between or you will get pooling and dripping of color. Here it is still wet with color. (And I am still blowing red snot a week later.)

One more coat of color and dried.

I made the stem by wrapping several 18 gauge floral wires with brown floral tape and then airbrushed brown and green over that. I just stuck the stem down thru the center of the cake and down into the base of the styro. Note: This is not food safe, but it was for Cherry Hog so I did not care. The proper thing to do would have been to coat the part of the stem going down into the cake with chocolate and dried before inserting.

I made the beach chair with the cutter set here. I cut the pieces from white gumpaste. After fully dried I painted them with brown airbrush color mixed with everclear to make the wood look. The seat of the chair is white gumpaste. Ain’t it cute?? I love this chair! The sand is Domino’s brownulated sugar from the grocery store.

It was a lot of fun making this cake! This is when I love caking the most. A fun, challenging cake that has a special story to go with it.

Now you all go make one for your favorite Cherry Hog!

Happy Hogging!

Sharon

http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

PS. Remember you can click on the photos for a larger view.

Contributor Spotlight: The Partiologist

May 27, 2016 by Sharon Z Leave a Comment

I bet you guys all know Kim Heimbuck aka “The Partiologist”, right?

She is the super talented lady behind that amazing blog, and a frequent guest contributor for us here at SugarEd.

If you have not yet visited her blog, then run, don’t walk on over. Be prepared to spend at least a couple of hours there, though. Her blog is a treasure trove of some of the most unique creative sweets and tablescapes on the planet.

Here are just a few examples of her never ending creativity. All tutorials are available on her blog or in our online school.

Hanging Chandelier Cookies

Bridal Bouquet Cake

Spring Bonnets

Pumpkin Pie Cake

Kim’s tutorials are so great, and that’s only a few of them! You can check out these and more on our site. (Full disclosure, you do have to be a member to see them. We’d love to have you join us.)

Kim is the genius behind The Partiologist, where she showcases the parties she has hosted and how to recreate them from start to finish. In case you missed it, here is a link to her blog: www.thepartiologist.com stop by and say hello!