Valentine Oreos - no bake easy to make treats

Mr Sweet and I have been married for 21 years this April. I'm not one to push unwanted advice upon others, and I realise that a marriage spanning multiple decades is not on everyone's must have or even mildly want list but for the rest of you I will share one of my secrets.

I have never given Mr Sweet a furry toy or any type of balloon that declares how much I love him.

Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it's just not our thing and Mr Sweet seems to be happy with that.
However chocolate with hearts, and in particular easy to make treats that have Oreo cookies included in some way, do seem to be the way to my man's heart.

 

These no bake Oreo Valentine treats I whipped are pretty much store bought cookies, topped with some chocolate frosting and then a handmade fondant topper pressed on top.

They are easy enough for nearly anyone to make and pretty enough that they would even look great on a party table and you can replace the Oreos with a homemade cookie, brownies or cupcakes if you like.

No Bake Oreo Valentine Treats
I've made a quick you tube tutorial so click on the picture below to check it out before you read the instructions below:

You Tube tutorial:



You will need:
Fondant toppers (see instructions below)
Oreo cookies
Chocolate frosting
piping bag with star tip (I used #22)

Place Oreo cookies on a baking tray. Swirl on a dab of chocolate frosting. Press a fondant topper on top of the frosting.

Store in an airtight container until required. Up to 3 days.

Fondant Topper Instructions
You will need to make toppers at least one day in advance. You can make one type or a variety:

White fondant#
Red fondant#
cutters (specific cutters under each photo instruction)#
small plastic rolling pin#
cornflour (cornstarch)
brush and water

#Fondant, rolling pin and cutters can be purchased at online cake and decorating stores, ebay or craft stores.

Line a flat tray with baking/ parchment paper.

Heart Toppers
This is the easiest topper and you can find heart cutters at most supermarkets or discount stores.

Cutters required: heart cutter approx 4cm (1 1/2")

 Dust workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out red fondant until quite thin. Cut out heart shape and place on prepared tray overnight or until set.

Topper 2

Cutters required:
carnation cutter 5cm (1 5/8th")
5 petal heart cutter 2.5cm ( 1")

Dust workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out white fondant until quite thin.Cut out carnation shape and place on prepared tray.

Roll out red fondant until thin and cut out the 5 petal heart cutter shape. Brush a little water into the middle of the white carnation shape and press the red 5 petal heart shape into the middle. Leave on tray overnight or until set.

Topper 3

Cutters/equipment required:
round scalloped cutter 4.5cm (1 3/4")

heart cutter approx 2.5cm ( 1")
toothpick

Dust workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out white fondant until quite thin.Cut out round scalloped shape and place on prepared tray.

Roll out red fondant until thin and cut out the small heart shape. Brush a little water into the middle of the white scalloped round shape and press the red heart shape into the middle.Using the toothpick press a hole into each rounded scallop on the edge of the white round fondant shape.

Leave on tray overnight or until set.

 Topper 4 (pressed fondant flower)

Cutters/ingredients required:
rose/ flower cutter 6cm (1 7/8")
red sprinkles

Dust workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out white fondant until quite thin.Cut out rose shape and place on prepared tray.

Pinch off a small amount of red fondant and roll into a round Brush a little water into the middle of the white rose shape and press the red fondant into the middle and then flatten out. Brush more water all over the red middle and then shake red sprinkles on the middle of the flower.

Leave on tray overnight or until set. Once set remove excess sprinkles.

I've added this idea over at Tip Junkie's Tip me Tuesday:


 Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission. 

Marshmallow Ribbon Candy, make your own Faux Ribbon Candy

I adore the look of ribbon candy on a dessert table.

But sadly I have not been able to source it here in Australia, and although I love the look of it, I don't love my kids sticky hands all over everything after they have been eating hard candy. Ick. Or when they hoard spitty candy left overs to be stored for later. Double Ick.

So I have come up with an alternative,marshmallow ribbon candy. It's faux ribbon candy made out of marshmallow fondant, all the prettiness and way less of the Ick.


Now before I go any further I'm just going to confirm that yes marshmallow fondant is fondant that you make out of marshmallow and sugar so it pretty much tastes like sweet marshmallow. You can use it for all sorts of stuff from making faux ribbon candy to covering cookies and cakes. For recipe and instructions click here.

Marshmallow Ribbon Candy is not rock hard, it's easy to bite through but that also means little hands have a tendency to break it into smaller pieces, which may end up mashed all through your carpet. I suggest to save the mess on your floor you break into smaller pieces when handing it out for easy kiddy eating.

and because it's not rock hard you can pop it onto skewers for display. Skewering is best done before the ribbon sets hard.

Instructions after jump....

Butterfly and Blossom Birdcage cake putting it together

Sorry for anyone reading these posts that has no interest in this cake but I needed to break it down into a couple of days for my sanity. This is the last one.

I promise in a couple of days I will have a lovely non birdcage related post ready...........

Now that all the hard work has been done comes the fun part, finishing off the Butterfly and Blossom cake.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe - Oh no it can't be that easy

The pink covering this cake is marshmallow fondant

 A long, long time ago I came across a recipe for marshmallow fondant which can be used to cover a cake in place of rolled fondant.

This looks too easy to be true I thought to myself, and it was relatively easy to make, but surprisingly it worked well, tasted good and ever since that first time I have been a convert.

It is made up of....... yup you guessed right........marshmallow, and sugar and it will taste pretty much like the marshmallows you make it out of. I like to use pascals and where possible the pink and white mix ones. If you use nasty tasting cheap marshmallows, your fondant will taste like those same nasty marshmallows.

These happy little bees are marshmallow fondant with chocolate modeling paste stripes and eyes

It's not suitable for all cakes and situations, but for this butterfly and blossom birdcage cake it worked well.
It is also the recipe I use to make the lollipop cookie pops.

So if your following my instructions on the birdcage cake pictured at the top of this post, I made this fondant on day 2 (night) along with the cakes so they would be ready for icing/decorating the next day.  (Part one consists of making the decorations click here to link)

 This lollipop cookie is made by twirling different coloured marshmallow fondant together

 

Marshmallow fondant recipe

Half recipe will cover the birdcage cake which was a dome shape 14.5 cm (7 1/4 inch) tall and 19 cm  (9 1/2 inch) diameter

750 g ( 1 pound 10  1/2 oz) icing sugar sifted
475 g (1 pound) marshmallows
Crisco (available online from USAfoods in Australia)
3 tsp (1 US Tbsp) water

Pop marshmallows and water in a LARGE microwave safe bowl (this is gonna get messy and sticky). Melt in 30 second increments for 2 1/2 mins total stirring at each interval.

Scary night time photo with poor lighting, but you get the idea. Melt those marshmallows!!

Add icing sugar and mix well.

Grease surface and hands VERY well with crisco, have more ready to regrease as necessary. Knead until smooth and stretchable. If fondant is tearing add 1/2 tsp water at a time and knead again.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Microwave for 10 seconds when ready to use.

To use roll out on surface lightly sprinkled with cornflour (or icing sugar).

Notes for colouring

If you use pink and white marshmallow your fondant will turn out the pink colour of the birdcage cake. I sometimes make half batches separating the pink and white so I can colour the white however I like. It is possible to buy bags of all white pascals marshmallows.

You can add colour at the mixing or kneading stage, or leave plain and colour smaller batches as required.

I use gel colours.

Recipe update - make sure to keep the fondant in a ziplock bag or wrapped with plastic wrap when not using as it will dry out and go hard. If that happens microwave again and add a little bit more crisco. Try to work very quickly.