My Sweet and Saucy

Today has been so much fun for me because I had my first cooking class at Prep Kitchen Essentials, in Seal Beach, CA. What a dream place this is to teach in…fabulous food, top-notch equipment, and someone does your dishes for you too! I think I died and went to heaven! I was also so excited to have two of my blog readers come to the class! Well, I wanted to share a couple photos with you and one of the recipes too! In today’s class I taught how to make Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Cream and Fresh Raspberries, Mini Key Lime Pies with Toasted Meringue Topping, and Cream Puffs with Sweet Melissa’s Deadly Chocolate Fudge Sauce! The class was so much fun and I couldn’t help but want to share with you the Cream Puff recipe! This recipe is quite easy and so much fun for everyone. You can make these into profiteroles by substituting the whipped cream filling for a scoop of your favorite ice cream…doesn’t that sound yummy!

Servings: about 16 profiteroles/cream puffs

Pate a Choux:

adapted from The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion

8 oz. (1 c.) Water

5 ¼ oz (1 ¼ c.) AP Flour

8 T. Unsalted Butter

3-4 large eggs

¾ t. salt

Preheat oven 425 degrees

Put the water, salt, and butter in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and add the flour all at once. Return the pan to the burner and start stirring vigorously. Cook over medium heat, while stirring constantly, until the mixture forms a ball. (About 1 minute or so) Remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes, or until 140 degrees. Place the dough in a mixer bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time. Before adding the last egg check the consistency of the dough. Pinch the dough between your fingers and slowly pull apart. If the dough breaks easily, add the last egg. Continue beating for at least 2 minutes after the last egg has been beaten.

Place the dough in a piping bag with a #809 tip. Pipe the dough into small balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat. If a peak forms, then gently dab it with a wet finger.

Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temp. to 375 degrees and continue baking for 15 more minutes. The balls should feel like and hollow. Turn off the oven, open the door a crack, and leave the balls to cool for 30 more minutes.

Chocolate Fudge Sauce:

adapted from Sweet Melissa’s Baking Book

7.5 oz best-quality bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped

¼ c. sugar

½ c. plus 1 t. light corn syrup

½ c. plus 1 t. water

¾ c. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

¾ t. instant coffee or instant espresso powder

1 T. liquor (cognac, brandy, Kahlua, etc.)

Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl at 30 second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted. (You can also melt the chocolate in a double boiler set or simmering water.) Keep warm.

In a large saucepan over medium heat add the sugar, corn syrup, water, cocoa powder, and instant coffee. Bring to a boil, while whisking constantly. Once the mixture comes to a rapid boil, continue cooking for 1-2 more minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in the melted chocolate and liquor.

Whipped Cream:

1 Pint heavy whipping cream

1 t. vanilla extract

Powdered sugar to taste

Whip cold heavy whipping cream with a whisk attachment until slightly thickened. Add powdered sugar to taste and vanilla extract. Continue whipping until soft peaks form.

Once cool, cut balls in half with a serrated bread knife and place small scoops of ice cream or whipped cream inside. Drizzle the chocolate sauce on top and enjoy!

Here are some more photos from the class!

To celebrate my happy day with my blogging friends and readers I wanted to give away a free copy of Martha Stewart’s new book “Martha Stewart’s Cookies“. This is a great resource for yummy cookies and I wanted to share it with one of you! All you have to do is leave me a comment with what your all-time favorite dessert is. I am looking to figure out new recipes to try and I want to know what desserts hold a special place in your hearts. Look forward to hearing your comments!  The deadline is Saturday night!

Well since my gallery of tiered or wedding cakes isn’t as full as my sugar cookie gallery I decided I better do a couple more cakes over the next few weeks. Since I didn’t have any major event I decided to test out a few designs on a dummy cake (styrofoam cake layers). I wanted to get the most bang for my buck so I decided to cover one cake dummy in white fondant and then try out a few different designs on that one cake. The first two cake looks are quite simple, but I love that look. If you have a really nicely covered cake and a beautiful flower then I feel like you should showcase them. This look is quite simplistic and modern, but for some brides it might be the look they’re looking for. To get the flower to stay in the cake I inserted a skewer up the flower and then lodged the other side of the skewer into the cake dummy. For more simplistic, modern designs check out April Reed. She is by far one of my favorite cake designers and I am in awe of her talent!

So as you can see not too much difference between these two, but I wanted to see which flower and background I liked better with the brown.  Let me know you opinion!

After trying those two simple cake designs I thought I would try a little different design.  I get my background paper from Paper Source or Martha Stewart’s line at Michael’s normally.  Last time I was at Paper Source I fell in love with this background.  It is so funky and fun and it inspired me to make a cake design about it.

I simply rolled out my colored fondant and then impressed it with Clear Stamps by Autumn Leaves.  I also brushed the fondant with luster dust and then cut out the circles with a small circle cutter.  I attached the fondant circles with a little dab of water.

To make the gold swirls simply pipe on dots of royal icing and then adhere the gold dragees.

Thanks for taking a look!

So sorry about the lack of posting this past week…right now I feel like I am writing to a long lost friend who I haven’t talked to in a while…but when holidays come, so do my orders and therefore my time for blogging is sadly cut short. The good news is that Blue Windows, one of the stores I got my cookies into, sold out of their first order of 2 dozen Easter sugar cookies in 1 1/2 days! I was so excited when I got the call and she wanted to order 6 dozen more!!! My hand wanted to kill me after the order, but I was just so happy that they sold well that I didn’t care at all. Well enough about cookies, this post is about cupcakes…chocolate peanut butter cupcakes to be exact. I brought these cupcakes along with a dozen Coconut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting to one of my church’s outreaches this past Saturday. Baking for people is my passion and I find so much fulfillment in being able to put smiles on people’s faces and a good memory in their hearts and minds. To jazz these cupcakes up I used chocolate transfer sheet designs and cut mini Easter eggs out of them for the top of the cupcakes.

This chocolate cupcake recipe can be found at Chockylit’s Cupcake Bakeshop, which is probably one of my favorite blogs out there. She is absolutely blows me away with the great combinations she comes up with and all of the creativity that flows out of each posting. The particular recipe is one of the best chocolate cupcake recipes out there and I have used it countless times…once you try it you will be a convert too!

I decided to fill the cupcakes with leftover chocolate ganache I had from another day and think it worked out pretty well. Chocolate ganache is simply a combo of 50% heavy cream to 50% chocolate. You just heat your cream until is it about to boil and then pour it over your chopped chocolate (my favorite is bittersweet) and let it sit for a couple minutes before you whisk it till it’s thoroughly combined. You can also add a tablespoon of butter and corn syrup to the mixture when it’s still hot to give it a better flavor and more shine. If you are going to use it for a filling you need to let it cool completely until it is a thick spoonable consistency. Then just add your ganache to a pastry bag fitted with a medium size pastry tip and insert your tip into the cupcake and squeeze the filling out until you feel your cupcake expanding and the ganache comes up to the top.

I tried a new frosting this time…peanut butter frosting! This frosting from Ina Garten’s show, Barefoot Contessa, got rave reviews online at the Food Network, so I thought I would give it a try. I was definitely not disappointed! This is a delicious and extremely easy frosting to make and makes a wonderful pairing with chocolate cupcakes. I piped on the frosting using a pastry bag and a #8 tip.

I found these great new chocolate transfer sheet designs at Fancy Flours. To see how you make chocolate transfer sheet cut out’s check out my posting on Valentine’s Day Cupcakes. These kind of adornments are very impressive looking to people and yet pretty easy to make in my opinion, so I would highly recommend that you try it out!

Well, here are some more fun photos I took of the cupcakes and a photo of the Coconut Cream Cheese Cupcakes that I made for the event too! Thanks for looking!

I was so excited last week when I received an email from Melissa Murphy’s marketing agent asking me if I’d want to review her book, The Sweet Melissa Baking Book…of course my response was a quick “Yes!” I have been a huge fan of Melissa’s for a while now. I found her Zagat rated patisserie, which is located in Brooklyn, New York, online and fell in love with the photos on her website. I was then able to watch videos and get recipes from her MySpace page and have been hooked from then on. Melissa’s pies and tarts have been rated #1 by the Zagat Marketplace which is an unbelievable accomplishment if you ask me. Many of you have probably also seen her work her wonders on the Food Network Challenge: Edible Ornaments. She is such an inspiration to me and really proves that your dreams can come true.

Well once the book arrived at my doorstep I tore the box open and devoured the book page by page. My book is pretty pathetic looking now that I have marked over half the book’s pages with sticky notes…and these were just the recipes I considered baking for the blog! I have to say that this is an amazing book which will keep you baking all year long. I could name every recipe for you, but I wouldn’t want to torture you any more…my suggestion is to just go and get the book and enjoy yourself to the fullest as you ohh and ahh over every delectable recipe.

After reading the book I knew that I had to immediately try her recipe for Fluffy Coconut Cake with Passion Fruit Filling. Ever since pastry school I have had an unhealthy addiction to passion fruits. If you have never had the chance to taste one you are definitely missing out. The flavor of passion fruit is so intense and tasty that I knew I had to try her recipe for passion fruit filling. This cake turned out beautifully and left me licking my spoon over and over again as I dipped it back into the bowl of passion fruit filling. The coconut cream cheese frosting does give the filling a run for it’s money though…it is equally dream like. Well, I could go on and on about it, but I will stop and just share this delicious recipe excerpt with you…enjoy!

FLUFFY COCONUT CAKE WITH PASSION FRUIT FILLING

This is one of the most incredible layer cakes; the passion fruit curd in the center is such a delicious surprise! Your guests may not know what it is, but they will love it! Passion fruit juice is becoming more widely available in major cities, especially in specialty food stores and in the ethnic section of the supermarket. Instead of the passion fruit juice you can substitute lemon juice (just use 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice as is, without reducing), and create another great classic combination—lemon and coconut! Yummy.

There are three components to this cake, as there are in most of my split layer cakes: the filling, the cake, and the frosting. If you have some time, you can spread out making these elements over a few days and make the whole process seem almost effortless.

Note: The fluffy white cake in this recipe is a phenomenal white cake. It is astonishing how delicious and moist it is; the texture is sublime! The trick to this cake is to efficiently incorporate the ingredients as thoroughly and quickly as possible, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and to not overbeat the batter before you fold in the meringue. Your careful attention to these details will be well rewarded.

Makes one 9-inch cake

FOR THE CAKE
20 tablespoons (2 1/2) sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
9 large egg whites, at room temperature

FOR THE PASSION FRUIT FILLING
1 1/2 cups passion fruit juice
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
7 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar

FOR THE COCONUT CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup sweetened cream of coconut
3 cups sweetened coconut flakes

BEFORE YOU START

Place a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F Butter and flour two 9 x 2-inch round cake pans. Line each with a 9-inch round of parchment paper.

TO MAKE THE CAKE

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

2. In separate large bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and vanilla.

4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix well after each addition but be careful not to overmix. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix on medium-high speed for 10 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

5. In the very clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the very clean whip attachment, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until they hold medium stiff peaks.

6. Using a rubber spatula, briskly fold one-third of the meringue mixture into the batter to lighten it. Gently fold in the remaining meringue until just combined.

7. Divide the batter equally between the two prepared cake pans. Use a spatula to level the batter. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched with your finger, and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a rack to cool for 30 minutes before turning out onto the rack to cool completely.

The baked layers may be stored tightly wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for 2 days. For longer storage, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 4 days, or freeze wrapped in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil for up to 2 weeks. Do not unwrap before thawing.

TO MAKE THE FRUIT FILLING

1. In a medium skillet, bring the passion fruit juice to a boil. Turn down the heat to simmer, and reduce the fruit juice by half, about 10 minutes. (You will have 3/4 cup passion fruit concentrate.) Allow to cool. Stir in the lemon juice.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, eggs, and sugar until well combined. Whisk the passion fruit concentrate into the egg mixture.

3. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering, not boiling, water. Be sure it is not touching the water. Cook, stirring, until nappante (thick enough to coat the back of a spoon) or
185°F on a candy thermometer, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat.

4. Strain the mixture into a bowl set in an ice bath (see Note).

5. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap flush against the surface of the filling (to prevent a skin from forming). Refrigerate until cold before using.

The fruit filling keeps in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

TO MAKE THE FROSTING

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar on low speed, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until fluffy and smooth, 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

2. Add the butter and mix on medium speed until just combined, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl, 1 to 2 minutes. Do not overbeat. Decrease the speed to low and add the vanilla and cream of coconut and mix until just combined.

Use immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Let the frosting come to room temperature and beat in the mixer slightly before using.

TO COMPLETE THE CAKE

1. See How to Assemble a Layer Cake (page 91) for instructions on how to fill and frost a split layer cake.

2. After the cake is frosted, use your hands to help pat the coconut onto the sides and the top of the cake.

Once completed, the layer cake may be stored in a cake saver in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Note: An ice bath is a large bowl filled with two quarts of ice and two cups of water. A smaller bowl containing a hot liquid is set inside the bath in order to help cool down the liquid quickly.
Add more ice as needed.

PRO TIP: When you mix the ingredients for the frosting, start on the mixer’s lowest speed and quickly turn on and off a few times so the confectioners’ sugar doesn’t fly everywhere. When the ingredients come together, increase the speed to medium high.

The foregoing is excerpted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy. All rights reserved. Copyright © Melissa Murphy, 2008.

Here are a couple photos to help you visualize some techniques for assembling layered cakes. First you need to level off the dome of the cake once it has cooled. Always use a serrated bread knife when cutting cakes.

For this particular cake you also need to split the two cake layers in half, so that you end up with four thin layers of cake. Normally this is done when you have a looser filling like a cream or curd filling.

When assembling layer cakes you always put one of the flat sides on the bottom of the cake and then reserve the other flat side for the top of the cake. When adding filling to cakes you need to create a dam effect so that the filling won’t spill out onto your frosting. Place a small amount of your frosting in a piping bag and pipe a border around the outside of the cake. Then add your filling to the cake. With every layer do this same technique. When you go to frost your cake always start off with a good amount of frosting and then use a offset spatula to spread the frosting over the top of the cake so that it starts to spill over to the sides. Then continue adding frosting to the sides of the cake until you have completely covered it. Note: This frosting doesn’t have to be perfect on the sides since you are adding coconut there.

Now you just press the coconut shavings along the side of the cake and enjoy! I added robin’s eggs on top for an Easter look.

Now since I am a cupcake lover I decided to bake the cake in a smaller size pan and then use the leftover batter to make some yummy cupcakes. I filled the cupcakes with the passion fruit filling using a pastry bag fitted with a medium tip. Just stick you pastry bag into the cupcake and gently size the filling out until the cupcake expands slightly and filling comes to the top. I boxed a couple of the cupcakes up in clear boxes with Easter M & M’s and shredded paper filling.

I have been doing more cakes lately, so I thought I would share some more photos and tips with you. One cake I did was for my uncle’s mother’s 80th birthday party. She has had a passion for music all her life so we decided to go with a musical note theme. Although the outside of the cake wasn’t as elaborate as some of my other designs the cake inside was absolutely delicious…I was wishing that I was invited to the party! The bottom tier was chocolate cake (one of the best I have tried lately…don’t worry I will post the recipes tomorrow) with white chocolate whipped cream and fresh strawberries. The top tier was my favorite buttermilk cake with lemon cream and fresh raspberries….one of my all-time favorite combo’s. Both cakes were covered in vanilla buttercream.

To make the red pearl border I used a technique that I learned from Earlene Moore at the Capital Confectioner’s cake & Sugar Art Show that I went to last month. First you roll out your fondant to your desired thickness (the larger the thickness the larger the pearls) and then you cut out circles with either the top of a large pipping tip or a small circle cookie cutter (again, depending on what size you want the pearls). Next you roll the fondant in your hands to make little pearls and then add them to a plastic jar. Put a little luster dust (whatever color you prefer) in with jar with the pearls and then put the lid on. Shake the pearls in the jar until they are evenly coated with the luster dust.

To make the musical notes I used a cookie cutter that I found at a local store and then cut it out of black fondant. To make the other type of note I just cut the side part off of it and then I had two types of notes. For the sharp sign I cut fondant strips and adhered them with water. To make the symbols on top I rolled black fondant by hand and formed them into the symbols. I brushed everything with black luster dust before I added it to the cake.

I adhered the notes to the buttercream cake and then piped on “Happy 80th Birthday Mom” with leftover buttercream that I colored red. I also added little dots with the red buttercream. Thanks for looking!

My beautiful niece Melody (yes, we have the same name) turned 5 years old yesterday and I had the privilege of making her birthday cake.  She is definitely a girly girl so I thought I would do pink, purple, and green for the colors and do a flower/princess theme for the cake.  I really haven’t done many fondant cakes before, since I am not a huge fan of the taste, but I wanted the cake to look a certain way and so I thought that fondant would be the best choice for it.  The birthday girl loved the cake and so my mission was accomplished!  

I am going to share a couple techniques that I used to get some of the details of the cake…hopefully they help you out.  First, I think that covering the cake board that the cake sits on top of looks so much better when it is covered in fondant, so that it matches the rest of the cake.  I taped two cake boards on top of each other so the base would be more stable and then put a little glucose on the board to make sure the fondant stuck well (you can also use cornsyrup).  You can roll your fondant quite thin to cover the board and then you just cut off the excess with a knife.  I then added ribbon to the edge of the board to give it a cleaner look.  Simply rub your glue stick on the ribbon and adhere.

I then covered my cakes in buttercream and rolled the fondant out to about 1/8″-1/4″ thick.  I covered the cakes in three different colors of fondant to give it a fun look, but you could cover it all in the same color if you wanted.  I placed the bottom cake layer on the board and then inserted cake dowels into the cake and cut them to match the same height as the cake.  (Note: all the cakes have a cardboard cake circle under them) I then stacked the middle layer on top and doweled that too.   

I used the leftover fondant to make various sizes of flowers and then adhered them with a dab of water.  Next I made large pearls to go around the bottom.  To make the pearls you need to roll your fondant out to about 1/4″-1/2″ and then cut out circles with a small circle cutter.  You can play around with the size of the pearls depending on the thickness of your fondant and the size of your cutters.

To make the tiara I rolled out fondant to about 1/8″ thick and then stamped it with a swirly design stamp.  Next, I cut out the shape with my crown/tiara cookie cutter and trimmed the bottom so that it was straight across.  Next, I placed the tiara on a cup with a small width and let it dry for a couple hours until it was stable.  I adhered the tiara to the top of the cake with a dab of water or you can use tylose glue. I also added small dragees to the top of the tiara with a dab of buttercream to adhere.  In some of the photos you can see that later on I added a small “M” on the tiara for “Melody”.  I made this by forming fondant into the shape I wanted. 

I was going to leave the cake like this, but then I decided to add some funky leaves and dots in green and I’m really glad I did because I think it made it “pop” a lot more.

To make the leaves and dots I just colored some of my leftover buttercream green and added it to a pastry bag with a #2 tip.  Here are a couple of close up photos of the designs so you can see how I did them.

I also forgot to mention that before I piped the leaves and dots I brushed the whole cake with pearl luster dust to give it that extra shimmer and shine.  Hopefully these tips help you out next time you make a cake!

About a month ago I got my hands on the new Martha Stewart Wedding Book that is filled to the brim with gorgeous photos, recipes, and techniques. This book is a definite buy for anyone who is into cakes, party planning, or weddings. I would highly recommend it! One of the photos in the book caught my attention because it was so adorably cute, and yet seemed easy at the same time…it was the mini brownie wedding cakes. Martha did a variety of designs on her brownie wedding cakes, so be sure to check the photos out in the book, but since I have been crunched for time lately I went with my favorite look and called it a day. These would make great wedding favors or a yummy bridal shower dessert…you could even ditch the wedding idea and throw a candle on top and use them as mini birthday cakes; the ideas are endless. Anyways, I hope you try these at home because they really are a ton of fun and are definitely worth the little time and effort you put into them.

I tried out a new brownie recipe (Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies to be exact) that I found from epicurious.com and I actually got really good reviews from my taste testers (aka my family & friends), so I would recommend trying it if you get a chance. My friend said that she loved that there was chocolate chips still in the brownie…just a side note, I used mini chocolate chips instead of regular size ones since I thought they would cut better with my cookie cutters. I also baked the brownies in a slightly large pan than they recommended…a half sheet pan to be exact, although it didn’t really make too much of a difference…they would’ve been thin brownies either way. So the first step is to bake your brownies and let them cool. Once they are cool, you can cut out your desired shapes. As you can see from my photos, my brownies were a little thin, so I stacked two of the same size brownie circles on top of each other and sort of smushed them together. You can play around with the exact size dimensions to make YOUR perfect brownie cake.

Once each round has been formed you need to lightly brush the cut edges with water. Then dip the brownie rounds in sanding sugar. After the rounds have been rolled in sanding sugar you can add a small filling, frosting, or just a tiny dab of plain corn syrup to the center of the rounds so that they stick when you stack them on top of each other. Note: make sure the side that was on the bottom during baking is now on top, since it is much smoother than the other side and will make your brownie cakes look crisp and clean. Now your brownie cake is technically done, but you can add other details to it if you want. I piped on small dots of royal icing and added dragees on top so that they made a monogram, but try anything and have some fun with it!

You can package the mini brownie cakes in these plastic boxes from Garnish and they would be perfect for a gift. I also added a color cupcake liner at the bottom of the box to make the cake look even more cute. Hope you are inspired to try Martha’s idea like I was!

Life has been quite hectic these past couple of days with Valentine’s Day orders…lots of fun, but little sleep.  I thought I would share with you some of the photos of the final products I did for a couple clients.  Hope you enjoy them!  These first photos are some new cookie designs I tried out and brought to my hair dresser as an early Valentine’s Day present.  I love this packaging from Garnish and so did she!  I really think that cute packaging makes all the difference when you are selling a product or giving a gift…first impressions really do count.  Garnish also liked my idea and blogged about it again…yippee!  

Here a few more cookies & cupcakes that I did.

Here is a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie I did for a client…yummy!  It has an oreo crust, peanut butter mousse-like filling and chocolate ganache on top.  I also personalized it for him so that it would be extra special!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This was such a fun project to do!  One of my best friends is getting married in May and I am doing her wedding cake, cookies, and being a bridesmaid…lets just say it is going to be a whirl-wind of an experience, but I am so excited!  She is such a talented graphic designer and of course did all of her announcements and invitations, which had the silhouette of her and her fiance on them.  As you can see by her invitations, her colors are gray, green, and white, which is not your typical wedding colors,  but it works out fabulously here!  I added some other color designs, like the pink girl, just so I could see how other color combos worked.  These cookie cutters were custom made to match their silhouettes by the  Victor Trading Company.  They are quite large cutters, around 4-5″ in height and cost around $35 each.  The quality of the cutters are amazing and the precision of the cutter is flawless…highly recommended.  Well, in this posting I am going to try to show you how I make my decorated sugar cookies.  Since photos and words can’t always show you the whole process I am working on trying to do video postings, which would hopefully be a better visual for you.  

Here is the actual wedding invitation!  You can also check out more of her designs at her blog Karrie Pyke Designs.      

The first thing you need to do is make your sugar cookie dough.  Here is a link to one of Martha Stewart’s sugar cookie recipes.  She also has some great technique tips and helpful hints for sugar cookies and royal icing.  Once your dough is made and thoroughly chilled then you need to lightly flour your working table and the dough itself, so that the dough doesn’t stick to the table or rolling pin.

Next you need to roll out the dough to about 1/4″ thick.  I like my cookies to be thick, so that they will hold shape well when packaged and also so the customer knows they are getting a good size cookie for their money.  Once the dough is rolled out, use your cookie cutters to cut out the shapes, trying to get as many shapes out as you can.  You can put the scraps together and gently knead them into a ball and roll out again, but be careful because the more times you do this, the tougher the cookies will be.  Place the shapes onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat. Place the cookie sheet into the freezer or refrigerator until the cookies become thoroughly chilled again; this will help with the cookie keeping its shape.  When the cookies are chilled, bake them as instructed.  After baking let them cool on the pan and then transfer them to cookie racks so they can cool completely.

Now it’s time to make the royal icing.  You can also find a recipe for royal icing at the same Martha Stewart link I gave earlier.  Your royal icing consistency needs to be medium-stiff so that you can pipe the outline of your cookie.  Place the royal icing in a pastry bag that has a #2 tip in it.  Now carefully trace the outline of the cookie, while trying to be as accurate as possible.  Make sure and hold your pastry tip above the cookie, not directly touching it while you pipe, so that the frosting flows out easily and neatly as it follows the guidance of your hand.  The mistake that most people make is to hold the piping tip so close to the cookie that it creates uneven lines and bumps of frosting instead of one continuous line of straight frosting.  Practice makes perfect though.  

After the outline frosting has dried (about 5 minutes) you can now fill the center with the flooded frosting.  Take your leftover royal icing frosting and continue adding small amount of water (1 teaspoon) until the consistency is like a thick milkshake.  Another visual sign is that when you pour a spoonful of frosting into the bowl that the lines disappear within 5 seconds.  You want the frosting to be thick enough to not spill over the frosting outline, but thin enough that the frosting will dissolve into one solid finish.  Place this frosting in another pastry bag and either snip off a little of the tip of the bag or put a slightly larger tip than the #2 in it.  Now fill the cookie with the frosting, while using your tip to direct the frosting to the places you want it to go.  You can also use a toothpick to direct the frosting, like it says in the Martha Stewart article.  Once you have finished filling in all of the cookie, let it sit out uncovered overnight so that it can fully set.  

When the frosting is completely set you can add the final touches.  On one cookie, I piped on small dots of medium/stiff royal icing onto the bun of the bride and then placed pink dragees on top. On the other cookies I tied little bows and attached them to the girl’s hair with a dot of royal icing.   Be creative and the possibilities are endless! 

These cookies will keep for up to 1 1/2 weeks in a tightly sealed container.  Well, I hope I inspired you to make your own silhouette cookies and if you do, I would love for you to send me a picture so I see how great they turn out!

Hi everyone…I just wanted to let you know that Fancy Flours is giving FREE SHIPPING for the next couple of days!  The deal is good until February 8th, so jump on it!  Hope everyone is finding the inspiration to make fabulous Valentine’s Day cupcakes!  Remember, if you ever have a question or want something covered on this blog let me know and I will do my best!