Dessert Recipes

Why use expensive, cardboard-tasting commercial fondant? Luckily, there’s a less-expensive, better-tasting alternative: homemade marshmallow fondant. Homemade fondant works beautifully in cake decorating. It can be rolled into sheets for cutting by hand or with a cutting machine like the Cricut Cake.

You will need miniature marshmallows, solid shortening, and confectioner’s sugar. All these ingredients are easy to find. Homemade fondant tastes much better and costs much less than the commercial variety. It’s also easy to give homemade fondant a flavor such as vanilla, almond, cherry, or lemon. To do this, just add flavor extracts.

Homemade Fondant Supply List

Yield: about 3 pounds of fondant.

• 1 bag of miniature white marshmallows
• 2 tablespoons water
• Two-pound bag (about 8 cups) of confectioner’s sugar
• (Optional) 1 teaspoon flavored extract: vanilla, almond, or lemon are all popular.
• 1/3 cup solid shortening, plus about 1 more cup to oil your work surface, utensils, and hands.

Homemade Fondant Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Liberally grease a saucepan with solid shortening. This makes it easier to get the marshmallows out of the pan later. It’s a good idea to use a no-stick pan, if you have one.

2. Put the marshmallows and water in the pan and melt on medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a greased spoon, until all the marshmallows are melted. Alternate method: Microwave the marshmallow mixture in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat the mixture on high for 30 seconds at a time, then stir thoroughly. Continue alternately heating and stirring 3-4 times until the marshmallows are melted and smooth.

3. Clean  a space on a table top or countertop, then grease the area liberally with solid shortening. This is where you will knead the fondant.

4. Make a mound of about half the powdered sugar on the countertop. Make a well in the middle of the sugar. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the well. If you want to flavor the fondant, pour the flavored extract into the well also.

Oil your hands well (front and back) with shortening. Start kneading the marshmallows and sugar together. When the mixture gets really sticky, knead in a little shortening to reduce the stickiness.

5. Gradually add the rest of the powdered sugar. Continue kneading until the dough is flexible and smooth. Form the fondant dough into a ball.

6. Oil the fondant ball all over with shortening, then wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least several hours to set up the dough.

7. When you want to use the fondant, warm the ball for about 10 seconds in the microwave. Otherwise, it may be stiff and hard to work. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with cornstarch. Alternate method: use a pasta machine to roll the fondant.

Keep fondant in the refrigerator until you use it. Put it in an airtight container or wrap in plastic wrap.

Whenever you’re decorating any cake for any special occasion, there’s constantly something that could go entirely wrong from it. Why tempt fate, if you can discover how to  get cake decorations the RIGHT way, the first time? As a baker, it might seem that the worst section of the cake is ensuring that it rises, however it’s generally cake decorating. So what exactly is the best way to cake decorating mistake? Could it be the bulge, where your cake ends up a bit lopsided since it didn’t subside right? Is it fondant falling off the cake and taking some of the cake with it… or is it the dreaded crumb concern?

CRUMBS!

Crumbs are terrible, they always spoil a lovely cake. There isn’t any bones about it, it doesn’t matter what an adventurous cake maker efforts to do; crumbs may come between you and your perfect cake. But how would you tame crumbs? How would you keep them from going astray? The solution is the crumb coat. If you’re baking your cake, you’ll want to create a crumb coat to protect the cake from any problems. This will entail making a blend of icing and crumbs and slathering it all on the cake. This blend may prevent the cake from fallling when you’re trying to ice it, and also when you’re letting it rest. If you’ve been looking to ice your cake, you’ll observe that a soft cake will not work out properly. Cake decorating will usually work best when the cake is frozen and firm once you start working on it.

Freeze Your Cake

Freezing your cake could be the smart way to maintain it firm enough for all sorts of cake decorating, and can make your crumb coat from fallling. Once you freeze the cake, you’ll find out that the dampness stays in the cake and this will make it fine and fresh. Never start cake decorating BEFORE you freeze it, be sure you do it after the cake has been in the freezer for a while. One more thing to think about is how cold or warm your frosting is. Warm frosting may spread like butter, but delivers less options for cool sculpting if you’re cake decorating. Cold frosting could keep an even more even shape,  and can offer you that fondant sort texture that you may be longing for your cake.

Edible Cake Decorations

Whenever you’re trying to give your cake decorations the perfect flair, you’ll want to read the huge selection of edible cake decorations. Through delectable flowers you could consume to adorable little solid sugar and fruit items which may add to the cake, and syrups that can keep the cake from becoming boring and add to the deliciousness of it all. Sweet tasty cake, all yours to take; just be sure you continue on trying new methods of cake decorating so that you can keep improving your cake making!

Keep in mind what ever form of cake you are making may it be birthday cakes or anything else, make certain you read all instructions carefully.

It seems that when it comes to baking a cake, it is not only something that will have to be done by someone that knows what he or she is doing, but you will also need to make sure that the cake decorating tips you will follow will into the end let you in on some amazing results that will just blow away everyone looking at your cake.

Yes, baking a cake is not for everyone and even though it will probably taste good, you will also need to make sure that you will take a look at how the aspect of the cake stacks up in the eyes of the beholders. Tasting good doesn’t not suffice and as we all are attracted first of all by how something looks, it will surely taste better if the cake looks wonderful.

For those that want to be let in on good ideas for when they will decide to bake a cake, the cake decorating tips they can find online are to not be ignored. The occasion that you are preparing the cake for is also important, so you need to keep this in mind as well. So let us get on with the tips.

If you are looking for perfect results, then I urge you to take a look at the flower formers you can find online. For those people that want everything to be perfect until the last detail, the use of flower models is encouraged, as this way the cake will just look like one fine piece of art.

Of course, baking a cake is something that doesn’t really take everyone on the journey of their life and you will need to be a patient person to do this. Sticking to one color is also not an obligation! With so many colored cake decorating powders, you will only need to go online and look for those that you would like your cake to feature.

For those that would like get professional results at what they are doing, the cake decorating classes can be a very good help. As such, when you will delve into such classes, you will practically be aware of the things that you need to emphasize on so that the results you obtain are nothing short of amazing.

Cake decorating is not as difficult as it seems. We look at the elaborately decorated masterpieces and feel completely intimidated. Here are a few simple ideas and hints to make your cake decorating project a winner.

- Buy readymade cakes, or make your cake from a mix.

- Make sure you have several pastry bags, a coupler, a flower nail, and 6 icing tips- #824 large open star, #23 small open star, #104 small rose, #125 large rose, and #109 and #129 drop flowers.

- A turntable makes icing a cake much easier. A lazy susan will work.

- Use decorations that are already made- fresh flowers, silk flowers, ribbons, and fruit are some of the items you can use.

- Always brush fresh fruit with a glaze to seal in moisture.

- Use a decorative cake plate or platter to present your cake.

- Use Ganache icing.

Ganache

1 pound semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream or evaporated milk
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp. unsalted butter

Place the chocolate in a bowl.

Combine cream, butter, and sugar in a pan, bring the mixture to a boil.
Pour the mixture over the chocolate, stirring gently until it is melted.
Using royal or buttercream icing, ice the cake with a thin coating, and freeze for 15 minutes.
Place a cooling rack on a cookie sheet.
Make sure the icing is set, and place the cake on the cooling rack.

Quickly pour the ganache over the top of the cake and down the sides. You can use a spatula to smooth the surface if needed. The hot ganache will melt the icing, so only smooth as necessary. Tap the rack to remove any excess ganache, this can be refrigerated for later use.
Chill the cake until set, remove to a serving platter.

Fruit Flan

You can choose to purchase a pre-made flan, or bake one yourself.
Slice your choice of assorted fruit and arrange it on the cake surface in concentric circles.
Coat with apricot glaze.
Serve on a decorative cake plate or platter.

Apricot Glaze

12 oz. jar of apricot jam
2-3 tbsp. Water

Combine jam and water in a saucepan.
Bring ingredients to a boil.
Strain glaze and keep in the refrigerator until needed.
Heat to brush on fruit.

Piping

Using a pastry bag and the tip of your choice, you can create a number of cake decorations, ranging from flowers to simple borders. Basic icing recipes can be found on the internet. Work on a piece of waxed paper before you apply any icing to a cake.

Edible Flowers

Apply icing to your cake
Decorate the cake with piping if you desire
Distribute edible flowers in a decorative fashion

I hope that any, or all, of these tips will help you with your cake decorating projects. My suggestion is to gather all of the tips, tricks, and ideas you can find and print them out. Put your collection in a binder and the next time you are having a problem with your cake decorating project, you will have an answer at your fingertips.

Haywood Gleaton likes to write for UniformHaven.com which offers cherokee scrubs, baby phat scrub tops and lab coat as well as a lot of other items.

If you want to become a master at cake decorating, you will need training and practice. Once you have mastered cake decorating you could become famous in the cake making industry. If you are a creative person you could go far when it comes to cake decorating.

Even a person who is new to cake decorating you want your cake to look beautiful. My mother just made a cake and frosted it, she may have added sprinkles, and she wrote a happy birthday message with icing. Those were our cakes, they may not have been well decorated, but they were tasty. This article will give you ideas and tips to make your cake look much better than Mom used to make.

When you make the cake, be sure that the batter is level in the pan before you place it in the oven. Check the cake at 20 minute intervals to make sure the cake is baking evenly, if you find one side of the cake is higher than the other, you should turn the pan around so it will rise evenly. If you find that your cake baked with one side higher, use a knife to even it. You should do this while the cake is warm.

The cake should be cooled for at least a day before you even think about starting any cake decorating. The outside of the cake could feel cool, but the middle of the cake may stay warm for hours. Frosting the cake before it is completely cool can ruin your decorating.

After the cake has cooled, turn it upside down on a cake board, you will have less crumbs this way. To avoid crumbs all together put a thin layer of icing on the cake. Once you have covered the cake with a thin layer of frosting, you can cover that layer with a normal layer of icing. Make sure the icing is smooth and even. You can dip your metal icing spatula in cold water and go over the icing, this will smooth the icing beautifully.

Icing is the most important ingredient in cake decorating. The icing should be quite stiff, if it is too stiff to work with you can always thin it out. When you are making the frosting, make a good amount. You will need it for other decorations on the cake. Make sure you have plenty of food coloring, as you will need it to color the icing for different cake decorations.

When you are ready to start decorating your cake you will need a few pieces of equipment. You will need more than one pastry bag, and the icing tips you will be using for the decorating you want to do. These items can be bought at craft stores and cake decorating supply store.

To start with, choose the tip you will be using first. Hold the pastry bag with the hole down and place the tip inside, as far as possible. You should use about a cup of icing in the bag at a time, and start it out in a bowl, that way you can thin the icing with a little milk if you need to, before you put it in the icing bag. The icing should be thin enough to go through the tip, but thick enough to make the designs you choose. If you are still a novice at cake decorating, you should practice making the decorations on waxed paper before you attempt to put them on the cake.

When you are ready to ice the cake, you will need to hold the bag with both hands and apply steady pressure. Applying a steady pressure assures that the icing the icing will come out in an even strip. Unless you are making a long strip of piping, you should place the bag closely over the cake start squeezing and count to three, then stop squeezing and lift the tip up and away from the cake. If this decoration looks the way you want it to, move on to the next one, if it isn’t quite right, keep practicing until you get it.

If the cake decoration stays in the shape you intended, then you have the frosting at the right consistency. If it does not hold together, the icing is too thin, and if it was hard to push it through the tip or the cake decoration cracks, the frosting is too thick.

You can get a list of the equipment needed for cake decorating before you start. The list can be found in craft store or pastry supply. The basics are Several pastry bags, icing tips, a coupler to hold the tips in the bag. You will find a cake stand would be a big help, as it swivels so you can frost all sides of the cake, and bring the cake up and closer to you. You should also have several sizes of cake pans, a rubber spatula, a short and a long metal cake icing spatula, a sharp knife, and a baking tray. These are the essentials.

Although cake decorating can be frustrating at times, it can also be very rewarding when you realize the beautiful cake on that stand is something that you created. With a bit of patience and a can do attitude, you will become and accomplished cake decorator.

Gino Quezada likes to write for UniformHaven.com which offers cherokee scrubs, landau scrub pants and lab coat as well as a lot of other items.

Did you know that the first cakes baked in America where small loaves of sweet bread? Look how far we have come. Home bakers should not be intimidated by the elaborate cakes being made today. You do not need to be a pastry chef to make beautiful cakes, you just need the know-how and practice. Of course the right tools will go a long way in your cake decorating endeavors. Here are a few ideas you might like to try.

Every cake worth merit starts with a smooth icing. The cake needs to cool completely before they are iced and decorated. To keep crumbs from ending up in your icing and ruining the look of your cake, start with a thin base coat of frosting that is not quite as stiff as the regular layer will be. Once this coat is on, set the cake in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. This will set the icing and any crumbs will be caught in this first layer. Now you can spread a regular layer of icing without worrying about crumbs.

Use an icing spatula to apply and smooth the second coat of icing. Once the icing is on the cake, start smoothing on the sides by running the spatula around the perimeter of the cake. One trick for smoothing the frosting is to dip the metal icing spatula in cold water, this will aid in smoothing the frosting. To smooth the top, dip the spatula in cold water and holding it horizontally over the top of the cake. Start at the point farthest from you, holding the spatula in both hands, skim the top of the icing by bringing the spatula straight toward you.

Simple Designs

Some cake decorators say learning to smooth the icing is the hardest part of cake decorating. Practice will make you a pro in not time. Once you have it down, show it off, even a cake without many decorations that is clean and smooth will make an perfectly elegant offering.

Instead of icing, cake tops can be dusted with powdered sugar. You can choose to use a stencil for a more decorated appearance, or just the powdered sugar for a clean look.

Edible decorations are a beautiful yet simple cake decorating technique. The use of sprinkles, candy, nuts, and coconut pressed into the icing before it sets, will make your cake stand out.

To apply a textured look for your cake decorating, use a small cardboard comb, available in baking supply stores.

Piping is achieved by using a pastry bag fitted with a metal tip that is held on by a coupler. This is your most important tool for cake decorating. You can make lines, words, shells, flowers, and many other designs on the top or sides of the cake. Fill the bag with no more than 1 cup of icing at a time, twist the top of the bag and keep steady pressure when piping the design. Use your other hand to guide the tip. It is wise to find out everything you can about piping before you begin.

Fondant a smooth white paste, is used in complicated cake decorating. Fondant is kneaded and rolled to cover cakes with a sleek smooth layer of icing. It is also used to make designs that are 3-D. It is less tasty than buttercream, but the cake will look sleek and elegant.

Cherlyn Rouse writes for Uniformhaven.com who offers dickies scrubs, cherokee scrub pants and lab coats as well as a lot of additional products.

Many different occasions call for cake decorating. Birthdays, graduations, anniversaries are just a few occasions that come to mind. If you wish to learn the art of cake decorating, you will be a hit with many of your friends or relatives when you bring your masterpieces for their delight.

Begin with your interest in cake decorating and then locate the many ways in which you can realize it. You are going to need some patience as you obtain the skills with which to make a great-looking cake. Practice making some cakes in your spare time. Ideas in the head need to be carried out into the real world, which is easier said than done, but if you give it a shot, there is no reason why you should not succeed.

Finding people to taste test your creations is a next step, and it should not be a difficult one. Friends and family will be more than glad to give your cakes a try. Keep in mind that a cake should not only look good, it should taste as good as it looks. And allow the people who taste test your cakes be the kind you will tell you the truth. Honest feedback is the way to improving your skills.

Using boxed cakes is one way to try to concentrate on the act of decorating itself. This way you can develop your skills along those lines without having to worry about making a cake from scratch. There is quite a variety of cakes available in this form, so you can be sure that you are going to find what suits your own taste. Once you have used these boxed cakes a few times, you will be prepared to move on to more advanced trials.

Not only is cake decorating a wonderful hobby, it can also become a fine source of income. If you become good at cake decorating, you are going to find lots of requests for your efforts in due course. In no time at all you may even arrive at the point where you can charge modest fees for your skills. If you find that you have a gift for this pastime, by all means, indulge yourself and you will actually enjoy doing this for a long time to come.

If you are lucky enough to find yourself with some spare time on your hands, you may be wondering what to do with it. Many people find it difficult to fill their spare time if they are not used to having it, but hobbies are a great way to have fun at any time of the day or night. If you are looking for a new hobby and you love to cook or bake, this article may have some interesting suggestions for you.

Many people love to bake cakes in their spare time and other treats. If you do not know how to bake, you can try taking a class or you can invest in some cookbooks. It might also be fun to ask a friend to join in.

If you are more of an artistic type and would like to express yourself through your baking, you may be interested in cake decorating. Cake decorating tips and lessons are easy to find nowadays, especially if you look online. There are tons of books and websites that talk about the subject and provide instructions.

If you live close to a bookstore or have good access to the Internet, finding cake decorating books should be easy. Any good book on the subject should give you detailed instructions on many different techniques. The book should also list the tools you need and the necessary ingredients.

Some people do not enjoy baking or simply do not wish to learn how to do it. If this describes you, you may want to learn how to cook meals instead. There are quite a few ways to do this, such as attending classes.

Some people do not feel as though they learn very efficiently through structured classes. This may be because they prefer to learn at their own speed or they work better without assignments and deadlines. In this case, cookbooks and online videos may provide you with the type of instruction that you are looking for. Many of these resources are freely available online.

Whether you take up cooking or baking as a hobby, you will need to purchase some items, unless you already own them. For instance, you will need pots and pans of various sizes if you are going to start cooking. For baking, you will need sheet pans, cake pans, and possibly a spring-form pan.

Having fun with your spare time is easy if you have a hobby, like cooking or baking. If you are feeling a little more adventurous and creative, you may also want to learn how to decorate cake.

Wilton Cake Equipment offer quality baking and cake decorating tools by reasonably priced prices.Whether you solely aspire to impress your acquaintances and family tree with your fabulous looking cake, otherwise you are an expert inside cake decorating, you need the distinguished quality Wilton cake supplies.Wilton has been the household basic refer to with qualified cake decorators pro years.The Wilton cake supplies, equipment and tools are made of distinguished quality equipment and furthermore within your means.

Here is a reason why their principal label is well renowned amongst particularly and veteran cake decorators.So, what type of equipment mean you need? To commence with, you?ll need a skilled spatula.Wilton sells splendid metal spatulas with the intent of bring not far off from much better than low-cost plastic ones otherwise butter knives.It is furthermore a better climb over than a wooden spatula, equally it is easier to apply the icing with.

Wilton Cake Equipment furthermore sells pre-packaged assorted cake decorating tools.It is cost-effective and furthermore saves you the vex of looking through the register.It is ordinarily top to transpire inflicted with a out-and-out fit equipped to aid very than purchasing all case individually.The kit should befall inflicted with by smallest amount pastry bags, tips, tubes and couplers.

They advertise pastry bags of various sizes and equipment like the nylon pastry bags, picture pastry bags and even disposable pastry bags.They are easier to use, clean and reuse.They can befall used with uncommon sized couplers and tips pro piping icing and the wilton # 2104-1555 is kind of the great thing on this case.Approximately other Wilton cake equipment you need to bake are turntables and stands.

The company offers a types of them online, counting ones pro multi-tier cakes and cupcakes.Get on to guaranteed you make by smallest amount lone otherwise two, depending on the type of cake you think you’ll befall making the most.By Wilton equipment you can discover all the tools pro the special cake you are baking- the special cake pan you are looking pro your child?s birthday and you want discover quality equipment even to enhance the wedding cake.You can order Wilton Cake Equipment online now.

You can browse through the register and discover all with the intention of you need pro your project.Discover all the tools de rigueur to create your staggeringly decorated cake with the intention of want befall the have a discussion of your acquaintances group pro quite sometime.Here are a ton of Wilton Cake Equipment with the intention of are unfilled online.They get on to equipment pro each level of cake decorating experience.

Here are even lofty sets with the intention of you can approve of if you need a skilled mainly primitive fit of tools.Review them made known by www.CakeDecoratingLessons.

Not more than are approximately birthday cake decorating ideas with the intention of want help get on to your child’s birthday a very memorable event.Sweetie Ground Cake: Get on to a habitual sheet cake inside your child’s generally wanted flavor, inside a rectangular pan.When it is cool, ice it with buttercream frosting inside your child’s desired color.If you can kind your hands on a Love Ground game board, you hunger befall able to stylishness the cake decorating to resemble the board.

You can furthermore energy to Candyland.com to think it above a game board.The Pet Ground game facial outer shell peppermints, iced gingerbread men, painted gumdrops, licorice sticks, chocolate candies, and variety peanuts.If you can’t espy approximately of these items, You can aid construction paper to get a hold on to them, deceive otherwise tape them to a popsicle stick to stomach it up inside the cake.Precipitate car cake: You hunger need to bake two cakes, lone hunger befall inside a rectangular pan and the other inside a loaf cake pan.

Then remove them from the pans and graze the loaf cake inside the affect of an arch much like the affect of the top of the car.In that case you choose need to self-confidence the sheet cake and place the graze loaf cake inside the middle, centered to manufacture the cake balance.You aspire need to ice the car with a uncommon color icing than what you used to sort made known the cake.Red otherwise blue are splendid racing badge to promontory improbable from.

You aspire need to aid your imagination when dependability this look inside dexterity equipment pro ideas otherwise inspiration.Outlines around the doors and windows otherwise permanently skilled using icing otherwise licorice.You can aid chocolate doughnuts to get on to tires pro the rush cars and the Cake Decorating Set is kind of the great thing on this case.The Doll Cake: This cake is very accepted with childish girls who still be fond of to mess about with dolls.

Bake a cake inside a metal, oven safe, bowl.When the cake has cooled, curve the cake out, centered, on a prepared cake board.The widest part of the cake must befall on the board.Aid a butter knife to hollow made known a stain inside the top of the cake pro the doll’s legs.

Some time ago the doll is inserted, the cake becomes a dress pro the doll.Get on to guaranteed the doll is clean and undressed.Wrap the legs inside plastic wrap previous to introduction the doll into the cake, up to her waist.Ice the cake and the top of the doll to get on to it appear with the intention of the doll is fully dressed.

You can shell out pro accents by the supermarket to jazz up the dress.Pro children you be fond of uncommon themes these cakes are great.These are unadorned ideas pro childrens them parties.Pro model the doll cake can befall used with a barbie theme, the rush car can befall used with a car’s theme party.

Here are much much other ideas unfilled pro you to try pro many occassions.