Dessert plate on a skewer, macaron, cupcake and cake pops sticks

Found some pics from a couple of months back of some dessert skewers I made for a competition.

I didn't win........I know my mum thought I should have as well, but there are so many talented people around that that's the way the cookie crumbles, and there were some lovely entries with really great styling.

Close up of oreo truffle cookie pop

They did pop my pictures up on the blog so I was happy to see them up there.

These skewers were made from mini cupcakes wrapped in marshmallow ribbon fondant, oreo truffle cookie pops decorated with a fondant daisy and a lemon buttercream macaron.
Cupcake with Vanilla Italian Buttercream wrapped in marshmallow fondant ribbon.

The recipe for the individual portions are mostly already on the blog:

Click here for Macaron with lemon buttercream recipe

Click here for Marshmallow ribbon fondant instructions

Click here for Oreo Truffle Cookie pop recipe

Oh and I did a pink version as well, chocolate buttercake with rose vanilla Italian buttercream topped with a raspberry, raspberry macaron and tim tam truffle cookie pop. Yummo!

and yes I do have some Christmas stuff planned soon, I promise, in fact tomorrow I have the day blocked off for a bit of baking.

Update

here is the link to the contest I entered winner page http://www.pizzazzerie.com/how-tos/cupcake-skewer-contest-winner/

Hazelnut macaron with white chocolate chai ganache Mactweets 13

MacTweets Challenge # 13 is Falling in Love with Macarons, fall being the key word here.

Living in Sub Tropical Queensland a couple of months into spring I struggled a bit in deciding on a fall themed macaron. Nothing really jumped out at me, I toyed with the idea of a pumpkin filling but noticed a few of the other MacTweeters had already taken on that challenge.Nuts......



No, really, then I thought nuts...hazelnuts I would make a noisette macaron.

I searched around the blogiverse for a recipe but nothing jumped out at me so I decided to modify the recipe I already use. It felt a bit risky, but that's the kinda girl I am.....throwing caution to the winds I replaced some of the almond meal with toasted hazelnut meal.

How cute is this stand I bought from Sharnel Dollar Designs

and I LOVED them, more than almond macarons.

The fragrance of the hazelnuts as they toasted filled my house with a wonderful warmth and the finished macaron seemed a little heartier and less sweet.

I filled most of them with a white chai tea infused ganache which had a lovely taste but was a little bit too soft (I've modified the recipe a little to add more chocolate in the below recipe). The remainder I filled with a raspberry jam mix (just IXL shop bought) and those raspberry jam ones were the BEST.

I'm sorry I keep on using capitals but I'm a bit overexcited with these new macarons I came up with, I'm sure you'll love them too. Recipe after jump.....

Lolli-cake-pops tutorial and cake pop bouquet

By popular vote on my facebook page I am doing a tutorial on the lolli-cake-pops I made up.

But first I'm going to bore you with share the story of how I came up with these pops as Amanda asked how I come up with these ideas.

Saw some cute dagashi inspired marshmallows on the decorated cookie blog and I thought wow - they are super cute might try making some cake pops like this.

Timing was just before Halloween so I tried out some Halloween inspired ones. I considered these a big fail which is why you didn't see the pics. Will be going back to these with a new improved formula/process one day soon.

However while I was covering them in marshmallow fondant I saw a vision of lollipop cookie pops and that's how I got to these.
 

and while I was making these I came up with another great idea which if they work I'll share as well.

Yup that's me...... I see cake in almost everything I look at.

Then after I finished making them I was inspired to make a lollipop cookie pop bouquet by gorgeous photo's I've seen around of lollipop brides wedding bouquets.

Hint - if you are making the pops for a bouquet use real candy melts not just white chocolate like I did in my second batch as the candy melts set harder and will not smudge while your manipulating your pops around in the bouquet.

The bouquets were really cute and they would probably make a perfect little flower girl bouquet if you can stop the kids from eating them for long enough....

Oh and great news I have a cookbook being released in the US December 2011 - here is a link to Amazon, the preorder price is ah-mazing. Stacks more recipes and ideas for pops and other treats on a stick:



Anyway I know you just want the tutorial so here you go. Recipe after jump.