Thursday, November 10, 2011

A Christmas Cookie Swap 2011

Cookie by hello naomi 

I've never dreamed of a white Christmas, but many a time I have watched online as others have shared photo's of fabulous Christmas Cookies that they have swapped and hoped one day I might be participating in something similar.

Well this year my cookie dreams came true and I had the great pleasure of joining in a Christmas Cookie Swap with a group of talented Australian Cookie Decorators.

Cookies by hello naomi

The swap resembled a secret Santa whereby each decorator was provided with a name of one other person and it was their task to decorate a small batch of cookies and send them off. The guidelines were pretty simple, mostly that the cookies were all to be posted off on the same agreed date, that the cookies should be some type of Christmas theme of around 4 to 6 cookies and that no one should reveal the name of their swappee or any pictures until everyone had received their cookies.

Jordan from Polkadot Prints helped us out with some of the administration and drew out the swappee names and emailed out the addresses. Super Big Thanks to Jordan - she is such a good sport.

and my secret cookie sender turned out to be none other than the awesomely talented and sweet Naomi from hello naomi. I have been a fan of Naomi's clean simple style for many years and it was a treat to receive her package which consisted of a forest of elegant white Christmas trees and a super sweet and pretty garland of mini cookies in muted pink and green.

and I secretly sent my cookies to Kate, from Kiss me Kate. I made a set of 5 Christmas themed cookies using my babushka (nesting doll) cookie cutters.

How did I come up with such an awesome idea you might ask....well last year after I did up my babushka cookie tutorial a lovely lady called Jody emailed me with a picture of a set of Santa nesting dolls suggesting it would make a good cookie and ever since it has been in the back of my mind. I just came up with the rest to match.

I'll be doing up a tutorial for at least a couple of these cookies here on the blog soon.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this cookie swap, you were all such good sports. Here is the list of lovely decorators who joined in:

I don't have photo's of everyone's cookies yet but here are some that I managed to grab, photo and cookie credits under each photo:

Cookies and Photo by Jacki at Blissfully Sweet (cookies sent to Kylie at Three Honeybees)

Photo by Jacki at Blissfully Sweet, cookies by Noo at Dessert Menu Please

photo by hello naomi, cookie by Kiss me Kate

if you pop over HERE to flickr you will be able to see some of Kylie from Three Honey Bees pretty Christmas cookies as well.

and you'll be happy to know that the cookies I received from Naomi tasted even better than they looked. Thanks to everyone for joining in the preChristmas fun.

Cookie by Naomi at hello naomi - YUMmmmmm

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Happy Rainbow cloud cake pops


OK - I'm just gonna say it - these are pretty much the cutest pops I have made.

Rainbows + clouds with smiley faces = too cute for words....well I think so anyway.

Actually come to think of it they also look super cute without any faces as well - so I guess maybe edible+cloud+rainbows X on a stick = cute.
.

And you know what would be even cuter, it's ok I've stopped with the weird maths.

But there would be even more cuteness if they were rainbow inside. I didn't think of it for these trial ones, they are just white tim tam truffle cookie pops. But after I remembered I have a receipe in my book for a type of fun-fetti multi colored sprinkle cake pop which would look totally and completely rainbowlicious awesome.

 This cloud pop is not so happy, in fact he looks downright sad. 
This must be how rain happens :(


Oh and best news ever, my publisher just told me that they have received copies of the book, that it looks great and next week in will be in the warehouse and a few will be sent to me. Then they will be sending them out from the warehouse to the distributors and then I kinda lost track of what happens in the excitement........ but it should be out in the stores in the US and online in around a month..



I know YAY!

These particular pops are not in the book. But I use this technique in the instruction of stacks of other cute shaped pops.

OK I have to interrupt now before the instructions (and not to let everyone know that the above statement may or may not be true in regards to how rain occurs). Have you ever noticed how most of the pops in the blog pictures are Tim Tam or Oreo truffle pops - no you haven't - well I feel like I have to explain cause in real life I do make other types of cake pops, I promise.

The cookie ones are just faster - when I come up with a new cake pop idea I want to make it NOW - so I have packets of biscuits and cookies sitting around ready to go at any time. You know for cake pop decorating emergencies, it happens all the time around here.



Happy Rainbow cloud cake pops
You will need to make the fondant rainbows at least one day ahead to allow time to set. Alternatively you can leave the rainbows off and just have cloud pops.

1 batch cake or cookie pop mixture
Candy Coating (like Wilton candy melts) and copha or paramount crystals
Fondant (in rainbow colors)
Edible black pen
pink edible petal dust and brush
sharp knife
cornflour/ cornstarch
small rolling pin
water and brush
lollipop sticks
small cloud cutter (you can make a cloud cutter by taking a tin blossom (flower) cutter and squeezing the top on bottom together a little)


At least one day prior to making pops make the fondant rainbows.Dust a bench lightly with cornflour/ cornstarch roll out some purple fondant and using a sharpe knife (or cutter if you have one) cut out the shape of a rainbow half arc.

Roll out the remaining rainbow colors and cut into thin strips. Attach one strip of each color to the purple arc using a very small amount of water brushed on and then using the rolling pin gently press the colored fondant strips onto the base. Use a sharp knife to trim off any excess colored pieces to make a neat rainbow arc.

Day 2
Line a tray with parchment paper and place the cloud cutter ontop of the paper lined tray. Take a few teaspoons of the cake pop mixture and press it into the cloud cutter pressing down firmly until it is evenly packed in, turn it over to check that there are no gaps underneath. Use your fingers to gently press the mixture out of the cutter so it remains on the lined tray. Repeat with the remaining mixture.


Place in fridge to chill until firm.

Melt up a bag of white melts/ candy coating. Mix in quite a bit of copha or paramount crystals - now is not the time to be stingy you need a stack about a ratio of 1:7 for the Wilton brand to give an example (1 being the copha and 7 being the chocolate/candy melts).

I melt my chocolate in the microwave on medium low, medium is too hot and high is way too hot. If you heat your chocolate at too high a temperature it will burn and not be salvageable for dipping .Remember medium/low for short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds.

Grab a bunch of lollipop sticks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into a cloud cake pop shape so the stick is sitting in the bottom side of the cloud and the stick is parallel to the tray (see picture). Repeat for remaining clouds and then pop into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or so until the sticks are secure.


Line a fresh tray with parchment paper and place the fondant rainbows on the tray with the rainbow side facing up.

Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cloud cake pop into the melted chocolate/candy coating. Lift it up and allow as much of the candy/chocolate mixture to fall off as possible. tap gently on the side of the bowl if necessary. Before the chocolate/candy coating has a chance to set place it ontop of one of the rainbows on the tray  so that the rainbow arc is sticking out the side (see picture). Repeat with remaining mixture and allow to set still laying down on the tray.


Once set use the edible pen to carefully draw on a cute face. If you have pink petal dust you can use a brush to brush tiny little pink circles for the cheeks. Use a dry brush to wipe away any excess dust.


Updates

I used Wilton White Candy Melts for these pops
The edible pens are available in Australia at Cakes around Town and Baking Pleasures online (and lots of other places) I prefer Americolor brand
Recipe for Tim Tam pop here:http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/2010/11/lolli-cake-pops-tutorial-and-cake-pop.html

 

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Eyes without a face.... Make your own Royal Icing Edible Eyes


 
When ever I make cookies I always end up with left over Royal Icing.

If it's white or pink or some other normal colour I don't mind. I know it's wasteful, I usually throw it away. But I seem to have some kind of huge problem throwing away perfectly good black royal icing.

Maybe it's all the black food color that makes it seem so hard to do, I don't know why all I know is I really really want to use up all that extra black icing.

So here is one of the things I do.

Rows and rows and rows......and rows of edible eyes.



It's pretty easy, just lay down some baking paper/parchment paper. Pipe on rows of little white dots around the size you might like the eyes to be. I like to make mine a few different sizes.


Allow the white dots to dry, overnight is perfect, but at least for a couple of hours until set, and then pipe little black dots on top of the white royal icing dots.

Voila edible eyes

Let them set until the easily come off the paper - you should be able to lift it and shake it and they will move by themselves.


Then you can just store them in a container to use as needed.

If you use powdered egg whites and you made them hygienically these eyes should last in an air tight container for many months.

and what do I do with all those eyes you might ask. Well they sure came in handy when I was testing out ideas for Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!. Yes these eyes are perfect for all types of cake, cookie or pie pops. Whenever you need a cute little face you'll be thankful that you have these little eyes sitting around handy.