Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Mwahhhh, kiss, kiss - stamping cute decorations


Quite a few people asked me about the little lips I used to decorate my tim tam cookie pops with so I'm going to quickly share my secret with you.

Stamps......




Cute little lip stamps that I picked up as part of a 6 pack with other cute stamps from Typo (Australian stationery shop).


 Then I just rolled out fondant (or gumpaste) and cut out a circle.


Popped a tiny amount of gel food colour onto the stamp and started stamp'n. 

So little effort for such a lot of cuteness.

Try to only get it on the lips (or what ever it is your stamping) otherwise you might end up with a messy one like this........


I have a bunch of these here dabber things so you can just put just a smidgen of the food colouring onto the stamp.


and to get the glittery heart look, just sprinkled on some non toxic food glitter straight after stamping while the food colour is still wet,  after it dries brush off the excess with a soft paintbrush.



Oh and make sure your equipment is food safe if someone is going to be eating it and definitely only use it for foodstuff (ie no real ink or paint).

Mwahhhhh, bye for now.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Marshmallowy Chocolate Goodness - Chocolate Marshmallow Recipe


Never been a huge fan of packet marshmallows, I can take them or leave them.

They are completely worthwhile in regards to making marshmallow fondant to cover cakes with and now that I think about it quite a few other recipes, but I guess they are more an ingredient to me than a treat.

That changed a year or so ago thanks to the wonderful blogsphere. I was reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry and they had a post on a shop called Sweetness the Patisserie and pictures of the most gorgeous marshmallows

(these are not the gorgeous Sweetness marshmallows these are my delicious but not so gorgeous version)


Something came over me, I had to have those marshmallows so I phoned up and had a bunch shipped to me.......chocolate, rose, lavender, raspberry. The customer service was wonderful and soon clouds of deliciousness came to me via Australia post. For a while my artisan marshmallow craving was satisfied.

Until recently when I have been seeing lots of gorgeous pics of guimauve (which is pretty much French for marshmallow as far as I can work out) and I was reminded of these wonderful Sweetness Patisserie marshmallows and a recipe I had copied out at the time from Chocolate & Zucchini.


I have adapted the recipe a bit, it calls for half rose and half chocolate and instead I made all chocolate.


They didn't look as lovely as I had hoped but they sure did taste good. Perhaps with a bit of practice I can improve the look. Also I'm thinking that the lighter colour marshmallows might look a little prettier.


Oh and here are a couple I wrapped in edible rice paper, and popped a food colour heart onto, less sticky but not quite as yummy I think.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

I heart sweet cookie pops - Tim Tam Cookie Pop recipe

Not so subliminal message -  I heart sweet cookie pops

I'm on a cookie pop binge at the moment.

I am giving myself a baking breather and cookie pops do not require any real cooking and satisfy my super sweet tooth, and they are fast. Yup ready to eat within an hour.


After those delicious Oreo pops the other day, I thought I would try out some Australian brand cookies and so obviously one of the next cookies of the rank was the Tim Tam.

If your not from Australia, Tim Tams are a grocery store biscuit (that's what we call cookies here) with 2 chocolate rectangle biscuits iced together with a chocolate cream and covered in........chocolate.

Ok not a lot of thought went into that flavour combination there, but it seems to have served Arnott's well as they are a bit of an Aussie icon.


And these pops don't just taste sweet and look sweet, they SAY sweet. Boy I'm as bad as Arnott's not much thought process going on here. My only thoughts are of sweeeet, sweeeeet cookie pops.


I tweaked this recipe by using my Oreo cookie recipe and checking out Not Quite Nigella's post on her Tim Tam pops.

Try these out, if you like Tim Tams I think you'll like them.

Tim Tam Cookie Pop recipe and instructions makes 10 cake pops

1 packet Tim Tams, 200grams (7  1/8 ounce)
80 grams cream cheese softened to room temp (2 7/8 ounce)
150 gram chocolate melts any flavour (5 3/8 ounce) I used white

1. Crush Tim Tams finely in food processor

2. Add cream cheese and pulse until mixture is smooth and comes together in a ball.


3. Shape mixture into balls and roll round in between your palms to shape. Mine are about 25g (7/8 ounce) each. Chill in fridge for a short time.

4. To secure sticks for dipping, melt some of the chocolate melts (I just do mine in the microwave for short bursts on med low) and dip the end of your sticks/pops in the chocolate and push into the firm truffles. Return to fridge.
5. Melt remainder of chocolate, make sure it is completely smooth. Holding the stick/pop dip truffles into the melted chocolate, allow excess to drip off and then place into a holder to set. I use blocks of styrofoam covered in plastic wrap.


Sweeeeeet!

These pops are decorated with some round fondant I cut out using the top of a large piping tip which I then decorated by hand prior to placing them on the pops.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Here is the link for instructions on how to stamp the decorations