Sweets on a Stick Bubble and Sweet Cookbook being released soon

I know I have been a bit slow with posting on the blog lately, but I have a really, really great excuse........

I wrote a cookbook.

Yes a real live cookbook to be published in the US by a real publishing house and due for release this coming holiday season.

I'm a little bit excited.

It's focused on making sweet treats on a stick with your kids and there are a stack of new ideas and recipes that I think everyone will love, as well as some of my favorites from the blog modified for kids.

Some of the pictures inside are soooo cute if I do say so myself and I can't wait to share more information with you.


and while I'm on the self promotion here is a picture of me taken by Naomi V Photography who is totally amazing. As well as headshots like this, Naomi is available for weddings, commercial work, family portraits and newborn shots.

You might remember her she took the photo's at the Magical Forrest Tea Party and Ava's Tea Party last year.

OK.......I'm always a bit embarrassed about promoting myself so now that I'm blushing a bit I'm off to bake a batch of Christmas in July cookies for a friend.

Fancy Smancy Pink Mask sugar cookies

Pretty pink mask sugar cookies I cooked up for a bunch of pretty little girls.

Think I might call them Harlequin Heart (white and pink),  Diva (pink and gold) and Swirling Heart mask (pink and red).

I'll be doing up a tutorial for one of these and would love to know which one you would prefer the tutorial for?

Let me know in the comments.

Tahlin's Safari party, Safari Cupcakes and making black fondant

 
One of the best things about doing what I do is some of the amazing people I have met.

I have been really lucky through my work to meet a bunch of other party and sweet minded people who I have worked with on various projects and I can honestly say that to date I have yet to meet anyone I didn't like and quite a few of them have become friends I've worked with many times.

Like Daneve from Ah-Tissue who is genuinely lovely, and oh my goodness so super talented and inspirational.
A little while back I made some cookies and cupcakes for her son's Safari party. The designs were created by Daneve and her partner to work in with the theme.

The whole party was totally amazing! If you haven't seen it yet you should pop on over to her blog to see all the shots.

Here is the link to Tahlin's party on the Ah Tissue Blog.

and the photo's used in this blog post (apart from the one in the cupcake instruction section) are by Katie takes a picture.

How I made the cupcakes

The cupcakes were inspired by the beautiful invitations and were giraffe and zebra print disks of ready made fondant.

As you want them to be firm enough to hold their shape, plan to make these a few days before the party. In ideal conditions they will firm up in a day but with humidity or rain you might need a little bit longer.

Knead the fondant until pliable and add any colours then place them in a airtight container. For my safari toppers I used white background with black stripes and the giraffe was a mixture of ivory and light brown background and brown spots. Dark colours need to be made a day or so before to allow the colors to settle. (see end for black and brown fondant).

Dust your workbench with a little cornflour(cornstarch) and using a small plastic rolling pin roll out the fondant until it is a few mm thick (1/8 inch). Cut out a round shape in the size you would like the cupcake toppers to be, mine were around 6.5cm (2.6"). If you don't have a suitable round cutter you can always use the rim of a glass or cup.

Place the round cut shapes onto a parchment paper lined tray.

Now roll out the black fondant and cut out another round shape and using a sharp knife hand cut stripes. Make them messy not just straight up and down. If you are working along the circle the stripes should kinda fit into each other like mine do. When you have enough to cover the white circle (you will not use the whole black circle) arrange them onto the white disk, if needed use a really tiny amount of water* and then roll on with the plastic rolling pin very gently so you do not ruin the circle, although if you do you could just reuse your circle cutter to even it up. Cut any excess black overhang off with a knife.

*I dip my clean, for fondant use only paintbrush in the water and then dry most of it off with a paper/absorbent towel. especially when using black, red or other strong colors that easily bleed.

 (this photo by Darren Frankish - thanks Darren)

For the Giraffe print toppers, cut out a round of the ivory colored fondant, place it flat onto the parchment paper. Cut out the round of brown fondant and hand cut the spots, make them uneven and work in together. If you do not mind if the sides are not so sharply defined you could just pinch off pieces of the brown fondant and shape them into the spot shapes with your fingers which is much much faster.Adhere the spots with a small amount of water and gently press on using a plastic rolling pin.

Yup really that's how I made them and it does take a long long time. Alternately you could paint on the stripes with edible black paint or food colour.

Then I made up a batch of vanilla cupcakes and baked them in brown paper cases and topped them with vanilla buttercream piped in a swirl with a 1M tip. It was a flat swirl starting in the middle and working out to the edge. Toppers can be pushed carefully onto the top just before serving.

Colouring Fondant Black

I'm going to share a little trick with you on how I colour my ready made fondant black.

Start with chocolate fondant, yup they make chocolate fondant which I think tastes great (I use the Bakels brand), knead until pliable and then add Americolor superblack food colour until you reach the desired color. Store at least overnight to allow the colors to set.

I like this method for 2 reasons. Well technically one reason which has 2 benefits.

You use less colour which means:
1. the fondant will not get sticky (if it does get sticky you may need to add a little cornflour to the mixture and knead it in); and
2. There is less risk of a bitter food color taste.

Don't get me wrong it's still a messy process but you will use way less color and I think the fondant tastes waaaay better.

Here are a couple of places you can buy the Bakels chocolate fondant in Australia online:

Baking Pleasures

Cakes around town

and in the US I noticed that Michaels sells Wilton chocolate fondant and you can get Chocolate Satin Ice online from Sugarcraft



Oh and you know if your totally sensible and your using a lot of fondant you could just buy ready made black cause they sell that as well........but then it wouldn't taste like chocolate.

Princess Pie Pops - Decorated Cherry Pie pops

 
Poor Princess Pie Guts, there was no fairytale ending for her.

Is it wrong that this picture doesn't make me squeamish just a bit hungry?

Christina from my facebook page anointed them Princess Pie Guts pops and I kinda had to agree with her from this photo. It looked a bit gruesome. Well mostly Yummy but a teensy bit gruesome.

To make them I made a batch of cherry pie pops and then decorated them with fondant. You can buy fondant at cake shops, some supermarkets or make your own marshmallow fondant using this recipe (click here).

First I cut out the pink crowns by hand the day before using a sharp knife, decorating them and laying them out on parchment paper to dry overnight.

Then I cut out the yellow hair by rolling out the fondant thinly and pressing a round cutter down just at the top point, I didn't press it all the way through. it just gave me the impression of the rounded top and then I used the sharp knife to cut around and flicked out at the bottom to make the bobbed hair. This was then pressed onto the pie pop using the tiniest amount of water.

Then I added a couple of eyes, you can use premade eyes or make some yourself with white and black fondant or royal icing. I made my own with fondant and while I was at it I rolled some of the black fondant very thinly and made eyelashes.

I used a little bit of red fondant to make the mouth, I just pinched it into a mouth like shape and the I rolled small amounts of flesh coloured fondant into a small nose.

I mixed up a tiny amount of royal icing using premix (you can get this at woolies now) and stuck the eyes, nose, mouth, crown (which was now stiff after drying overnight) and a couple of little premade flowers I had sitting around.

Red, White and Blue Patriotic Pinwheel cookie pops

Edible Patriotic Pinwheels made out of Fondant

I've had these in mind for a while now....probably coming up to 12 months just after I missed the boat last year.

They're decorated on both sides....in different designs, which is a pretty cool idea if I do say so myself.

Also not as tricky as it seems.

and just to put some ideas into your head while your whipping some up you could use these fondant pinwheels to decorate anything. Cakes, cake pops, pies (my latest obsession). Yes if you can eat it you can pretty much stick one of these twirly whirly babies on it.

Plus you can make them any pattern you like, and if your not really into the whole double sided fondant thing you could just decorate one square of fondant with some edible food writers and draw on any design you wanted.

But before I get into the how to make these sweet pinwheels I have to say my camera is driving me CRAZY. I must buy a proper one so that I can get some lovely shots for you all. I may have mentioned it before but I am completely hopeless when it comes to anything remotely technical so ANY suggestions would be most welcome.


Oh and those cute 'ole stripy sticks holding up the pinwheel cookies are actually paper straws cut to size and popped over the top of the paper lollipop sticks.

Ingredients & Equipment to make Patriotic Pinwheels

White fondant
Red fondant
Blue fondant
Small rolling pin
Square cookie cutter
small star ejector cutter
pizza cutter  (or sharp knife)
Sharp knife
cornflour (cornstarch)
small dish of water and brush
Parchment paper cut into squares a couple of inches larger than your square cutter

Roll out the white fondant as thinly as you can and cut out square shape. Working quickly roll out the red fondant as thinly as you can and cut out square shape. Use the pizza cutter to cut the square into thin red stripes.

Using a tiny amount of water adhere the red stripes onto the white fondant square leaving an even amount of white showing between each red stripe. Gently roll over the top of the red and white stripe fondant with the rolling pin. Place the fondant square stripe side down on the parchment paper.

Still working quickly roll our the blue fondant as thinly as possible and cut out a square shape, use a small amount of water to adhere the blue square to the back of the red and white stripe square (ie the all white side).

Roll out some more white fondant and using the small star ejector cutter cut out enough stars to place on the blue fondant, use a little water to adhere if necessary.

Gently roll over the top of the blue and white star fondant square with the rolling pin. Use the sharpe knife to even up the edges and ensure the red and white stripe side and blue and white star side are flush and even, discard any excess fondant.

 
Using the sharp knife cut from the edge of each corner towards the middle slicing through both layers of fondant. Leave an area about 1cm (1/2inch) in diameter in the center that you do not cut through.

Take one of the corners of fondant and carefully pull it down towards the center, looping the fondant over, repeat for remaining 3 corners ensuring that the loops all go in the same direction.

Break off small sections of plastic wrap and scrunch into small balls to stick inside the pinwheel loops while the fondant dries. Leave a day or so until set.

Then make some round cookie pops, cover with fondant and stick the pinwheels on with a little bit of royal icing. Click here for my previous post on snowflake cookies for instructions on  how to make and cover cookies.

Pirate Pie Pop Treats - Arrrrgh Me matey's I'm Back

   
It's funny how things work out.

I've been working on a pretty huge project for someone else for a couple of months which I just finished last weekend. So I planned on having a rejuvenating me week and easing myself back into the blog, maybe a catch up of some of the fabulous things I have been lucky enough to work on in my spare time, but no baking, no siree, I had moved my kitchen aid off the bench which is code in this house for baking hiatus.

I was feeling kinda creativity sapped....nothing left.
But then it happened, 2 days into my week of me I had a stray thought that I had never seen a decorated pie pop and wondered why.

It just wouldn't leave me alone, I couldn't wait.  Those decorated pies kept calling me, so at 2am that morning I found myself up and baking a batch of cherry pie pops so they would be ready for decorating the next day. Yup Really 2am in the morning! At the time it seemed like the only sensible thing to do.

and here is my sneaking out in the middle of the night results. Pirate pie pops. The kids are wrapped in this new creation so I'm calling it a success and have already started on more.


and they're easy as pie.....here's how I decorated them.

Shiver me Timbers Pirate Pie Pops

Ingredients

Baked and cooled pie pops (6 to 7 cm or 3 inches)
Red Marshmallow/Ready to Roll Fondant
Black Marshmallow/ Ready to Roll fondant (or black royal icing)
White Royal icing (I used premix royal icing powder mixed with a tiny amount of water so that it was stiff)
Round cutter
Sharp knife
small rolling pin
10 ready made eyes (or make your own from fondant)

Roll out the red fondant until a couple of millimeters (1/8th inch) thick and cut out a round with the cutter.

Cut a straight line across it 3.5cm (1 3/8 inch) from the top to make the bandana. Then cut 2 thin long triangle to look like the bandana's knot/tie. Press the half circle onto the top of the pie and the 2 triangles at one side with the larger ends touching the edge of the half circle 'bandana'.
Take a small piece of black fondant and roll it out like a long log to make a thin strap about 5cm (2inch) long. Press it onto the pie starting about halfway across the head and draping down to the side to look like the strap of an eye patch. Roll another small piece of black fondant into a small ball and then press flat to make an eye patch, stick onto the pirate head pie across the strap where the eye should be. Roll another small piece of black fondant into a thin log about 2.5cm (1inch) long and shape into a smile, press on where the pirate pie's mouth should be. (Alternately you can do all this black fondant work with some black royal icing.)


Pop the white royal icing into a small ziplock bag and cut a tiny hole in the corner to make an easy disposable piping bag. Using the royal icing stick the premade eye into place and then pipe lots of tiny dots onto the red fondant bandana to appear like polka dots.

Allow to dry and once set you can eat straight away of store in an airtight container for a couple of days.

Vanilla Frappuccino Cupcakes

Vanilla Frappuccino Cupcakes. I know YUM how super delicious do they look.

I'm going to share something which seeings as I love sweets so much you might think is weird, but I don't like real cream. 

Buttercream I am totally into, certain types of that super fake mock cream I really like (hello jam and cream donuts) but real cream from a cow just does not do it for me.

But I love the look of it, I always want to say yes to spiraling swirls of cream when I pick up my fancy coffees but I never do and end up with flat looking although still delicious decaf treats (Ummm decaf yes :( yet another weird thing).

So to make myself feel a bit special I made up these super dooper swirly Vanilla Frappuccino cupcakes.

and then I popped them into my favourite cup.


OK so I'm going to have to show off this cup because it is my favourite and I love it. It's a Spode lidded chocolate cup, so that your hot chocolate stays warm of course......ha like mine ever lasts long enough to go cold.

Truthfully I didn't come up with the cupcake in a cup idea, totally stole it after seeing some inspiring pictures from the lovely Penny's facebook page at P.S. I love you.

But the cupcake is totally mine.

To make the cupcakes pipe coffee vanilla buttercream (recipe below) onto vanilla cupcakes using a Wilton #1M tip swirling around like your making a soft serve icecream. Practice a couple of times on the workbench if you like before you start on the cupcakes.


Sprinkle a little cocoa powder or drinking chocolate onto the top of the cupcake. I use a tea strainer to do stuff like this as it is easy to control. Just pop the cocoa into the strainer hold over the top of the cupcake and gently tap against your other hand.

Finish off with a mini straw wafer cookie, the ones in the picture are mini corinthian ones you can pick up at Woolies, but any brand will do. Make sure you pop the cookie straws in just before serving as they get soggy if you leave them in.

Coffee Vanilla Buttercream

228g unsalted butter (8 oz or 2 sticks) at room temperature
60ml milk (1/4 cup)
6 cups sifted icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3tsp instant coffee mixed with a small amount of hot water, just enough to melt it.

Pop the unsalted butter, milk and 4 cups of icing sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix at high speed until light and fluffy about 5-6 minutes. Scrape down sides as required. Add the remaining sugar one cup at a time mixing for 2-3 minutes between additions. Add the vanilla and coffee and mix well.

If the buttercream is not the correct consistency add extra milk 10mls at a time (I didn't add any extra to this one).


Any cupcake will do the Vanilla cupcake I used is the Magnolia recipe, I don't post other people's recipes here on my blog but I am sure you could find it if you searched.