Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant (Choco MMF)

Follow instructions to MMF recipe HERE. You will add the following ingredients to recipe above.

• 1 oz melted semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder (it can be either Dutch-process or natural - the later will give a more pronounced flavor)*

1. Follow Instructions on MMF recipe from Step1 to 3, for melting the marshmallow. Once these are melted, stir melted chocolate in a mixing bowl until well incorporated. Set aside.
   
2. Here is the change to the MMF recipe. Instead of just adding the sugar, place the sugar in a small mixing bowl and sift the cocoa powder in a small mesh strainer over the sugar. Mix the dry ingredients.
   
3. Proceed to step four, sift sugar and cocoa mix over the melted marshmallow and continue the instructions, i.e., mix until well incorporated.
   
4. Continue with the kneading (this is hot- wait until it cools a little or start kneading with a spoon until safe to the touch).

*Variations to this recipe:
- You can also use white chocolate by substituting 1 oz of semi-sweet chocolate and 1 tbspoon of cocoa powder with 2 oz of white chocolate.

Royal Icing: Violet Leaves

Violet leafs add a pleasant full look to cakes. Since violet flowers are too small, I like placing them under the flower to bring out its details. Refer to Flower Index for other flower links.

Violet Leaf

• Tip: 103
• Royal Icing: Green (one color
• Consistency: medium
• Royal Icing Recipe
  
  

Instructions:

1. Looking down on your flower nail, imagine dividing the nail in half; Then in two quarters.
2. Squeeze royal icing on one quarter of the nail slightly. Go up by using a jiggling or zig zag motion (another way to describe it is to do multiple ‘n’ letters
   
3. When you reach the top slide tip out a little bit and ‘fan’ the royal icing as you turn the nail.
   
4. Continue down the path (second quarter) in a jiggling motion moving back to starting point.
5. Dry in medium flower former to give a slight cupped shape to leaf.

Link to how to make Violet Flowers (flower shown above)

Royal Icing: Violet Flower

Violets add a lot of color to cakes. You can make them any color you want to match the theme of your cake. These can be used as filler or as the main flower theme. Refer to the Flower Index for other flower links.

VIOLET FLOWER

• Tip: 59 and 1
• Royal Icing: two colors- Petals (violet, white or pink) and yellow center
• Consistency: medium
• Royal Icing Recipe
  

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Looking down on your flower nail, imagine dividing the nail as follows: Note that the flower should be the size of the inner circle
   
   
2. Using your tip 101 make the first bottom petal (violet, white or pink royal icing). Squeeze bag lightly at 45 degree angle, to make and upside down U (depicted on the upper left corner of picture below). Make sure that the U closes at the end – relax pressure, unite with the starting point, stop and slide out.
   
3. Repeat to make two more bottom petals.
   
4. Make two shorter rounded top petals
   
5. Add two center dots with yellow royal icing (tip 1).
6. Dry in small flower former to give a slight cupped shape to flower.

Royal Icing: Apple Blossom

By popular demand, I am starting a series of post with step-by-step instructions (Refer to Flower Index for links to other flowers). Royal icing flowers are beautiful and the end result will leave you deeply satisfied. They embellish everythig: cakes, cupcakes and even cookies. I would like to mention that making these flowers may be difficult at the beginning, but the skills are not difficult to acquire. Lets start with easy ones and move on to more difficult ones.

Apple Blossom

• Tip: 101 and 1
• Royal Icing: two colors - pink or white; and yellow
• Consistency: Medium
• Royal Icing Recipe

NOTE: These flowers are often used as filler flowers. Try them on simple cupcakes to embellish them.

Instructions:


1. Looking down on your flower nail, imagine dividing the nail in 5 equal parts.

*Note that the flower should be the size of the inner circle.

2. Using your tip 101 make the first petal (white or pink royal icing). Squeeze bag lightly at 45 degree angle, to make and upside down U (depicted on the upper left corner of picture below). Make sure that the U closes at the end – relax pressure, unite with the starting point, stop and slide out.- Repeat to make four more petals (a total of 5)

3. Prepare bag with tip 1 and fill with yellow royal icing. Add one dot in the center and four more on the outside as seen below.

4. Dry in small flower former to give a slight cupped shape to flower. Apple blossom is bright pink flower on lower left corner.

Link to Cake Picture with these flowers.

Transporting Cake and Tools

I have found the most convenient way to transport cakes. I have to do this often, and most of the cake caddies that I have found do not have secure locks with wide and steady handles. Try this 3-in-1 Cake Caddy, so far it is being so helpful and very convenient. It has a deep cover for tall cakes. Also, you can tranpost cupcakes!!!!

If you are new at cake decorating, you can buy the 50pc tool set by Wilton. The kit includes tips, couplers, spatula, decorating brush, featherweight decorating bags, food coloring, a board for practicing decorating with frosting and an instruction booklet all enclosed in a very useful caddy. Check it out!!Also, there is a bigger kit by wilton with 101 pcs, but I think the 50 pcs tool set will do. You can add whatever is missing by buying them individually as the need arises.

Marshmallow Fondant - Small Round Pillow with Roses Cake

I made this small round cake for a friend's tea call (same day quick cake). The fondant used for the drape, border and to cover the cake were made from scratch with Marshmallow Fondant (MMF) and covered with some pearl dust to give it a shine (I am not sure if you can tell from this picture). I didn't try to use MMF for the flowers, as I had these made previously. If I had used MMF for the roses, I would have made them when the MMF was still fresh and warm (just made). I find that it is easier to roll fondant very thin when it is just made. Easier than commercial fondant.



I had made and stored this MMF for a week so it was a little hard to roll it thin. By heating it a little bit in the microwave, it made it easy to knead again. The cost to make MMF is around $3dlls - compare with store bought ($20dlls/5lbs). Remember, MMF fondant tastes waaaay better than commercial fondant.

Coming Soon!!
Theme Marshmallow Fondant Cake: Super Mario Brothers

Superman Cake: Frozen Buttercream Tranfers (FBCT)

I was trying for the first time the Frozen Butter Cream Transfer technique. It turned out to be very easy and the end result is WOW.

What you need:

• Wax paper
• Pencil
• Buttercream, buttercream... that's all!!! (medium consistency)

Instructions:

1. Choose a template for your cake design (sometimes the template comes with the cake pan).
2. Trace the cake design on wax paper. If using a molded pan, trace insert.
3. Invert desing as we will have to transfer buttercream onto cake by flipping image (if using molded pan insert, don' t need to invert image as it is already inverted for you)
4. Trace outline with black buttercream
5. Fill the rest with buttercream (color of choice) with a piping bag using a round tip. Width of your choice. You can peek to see how image is coming out!
6. In order to avoid gaps between colors, it is okay to overlap some of the buttercream on top of other. Don't mix.
7. Place in freezer for one hour.
8. Place wax paper over cake, with buttercream touching top of cake (the cake can be slightly frosted).
9. Remove wax paper carefully and VOILA!!!

This is the end result cake:

Contemporary Cake

I wanted to make a cake that was contemporary and artistic. I tried the following 2 layer 6 inch cake. Imagine this as a 2 tier cake!! It would look wonderful!!

I tried a new chocolate recipe (chocolate cake with chocolate pudding and chocolate chips) filled with dark chocolate truffle mousse. I covered the cake with chocolate butter cream for the fondant to stick to and then covered it with white fondant. The cake was then decorated with orange fondant cutouts in different circle shapes.

Double click on the picture to enlarge it:

The cake was so moist and delicious. It stayed like that until it was gone!!!

Click on this link to an earlier post for fondant information:
What is fondant?
Working with Fondant
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
More Fondant Cake Pics

Coming SOON!!
How to Make Fondant Roses

Getting Started: Cake Decorating

Kits with Everything You Need to get Started:

Wilton 101-Decorating Tool Set

Contains:

• Tool caddy to organize, carry, and store the essentials
• Collection of tools, colors, and food flavors to get you started
• The tool caddy holds 48 tips and 12 paste food colors in a lift-out tray; upright storage prevents spills
• Storage space for keeping your tools, such as: spatulas, bags, and other large supplies neatly organized
• Tool caddy measures approximately 15 by 7 by 5 inches deep
  

Although the kit above is very complete, I really recommend starting with something smaller and adding the extra tools and stuff as you need them.

50-pcs Tool Set

• Includes tool caddy to organize, carry and store essentials
• Includes food coloring (prime colors)
• Comes with instruction booklet with ideas and texhnoques
• includes a practice boards with templates for trials.

Pans:

In order to avoid baking 2 cakes for a two layer cake, use a 3 inch deep cake pan. Just bake one cake and tort by half for two layers or divide them into more layers. I use the Wilton round pans and they work just perfectly for me..

8 x 3-Inch Round Cake
10 x 3-Inch Round Cake
12 x 3-Inch Round Pan

Featherweight bags:
Wilton Piping Bags (feather weight)

Although I love featherweight bags they are sold individually at a very expensive price (around $5 dlls each). In cake decorating you need plenty of them, specially if working with a lot of colors. I bought a couple of the featherweights and a bunch of the disposable ones. I use the disposable when I am using strong colors like red so I can always dispose them.

Piping Bags (diposable)

Decorating Tips and Tools:

The following is a good set, Master Tip Set
Measuring Cups and Tool Set

Tips: Smoothing a Cake

If you used meringue powder in your icing, wait 5-10 mins after icing the cake until this dries. Cut a large piece of wax paper and place it on top of the iced cake and smooth it with your hands by sliding your hand on top of the wax paper. Do the same for the sides of the cake. This will make your cake look smooth. Repeat steps if necessary.

Another method that I prefer very often is the "viva" method. Viva is the brand of a paper kitchen towel. Place smooth side of the towel touching crusted buttercream frosted cakes on top. Slide your hand in circular motion gently across the towel without pressing hard. Once you assess how much pressure you can use, then you can press slightly until you get a smooth cake. For me, this works better than wax paper and it is very easy to use. The towel doesn't stick to the buttercream, but always starts by using slight pressure until you get a hold of it.

Icing Color Bleeding

I've been asked several times if I have something to say about 'color bleeding'. By using the frosting recipes shown here and gel food coloring, I have never faced this problem. However, color bleeding is caused by many reasons. During the cake decorating classes that I have taken, I have always heard that other's cake frosting or cookie decorations have faded.

The primary reason was that they were left to direct SUN-LIGHT EXPOSURE. Make sure your cakes or cookies are not exposed to direct sun-light as this can fade the colors.

Also, MOISTURE is not good for frosting as this may cause the colors to bleed. Make sure your frozen cakes are completely thawed before you decorate them with colored frosting. The moisture from the frozen cake as it thawes will 'sweat' and dilute frosting ruining its consistency and in some cases diluting the color. Also, when you store your cake, do not cover it in an air-tight container as the cake will sweat if the heat rises.

When using COLOR FLOW, if the outline color is diferent than the filling, make sure you let the outline dry for a couple of hours before you proceed to filling your piece as this may cause bleeding.

If anyone reading this has any more comments to add, please feel free to do so. The purpose of this blog is to share our knowledge, please help us achieve that.

Black Buttercream Icing

I often hear people complain that their black icing did not come quiet black. Here is some good advice: a true shade of black cannot be obtained from white icing. The black coloring will reduce to a gray or a very dimmed black color. Before you start coloring, start with a chocolate icing, i.e., add cocoa powder to your icing before the black coloring.

Try working with gel colors (I like both Wilton and Americolor Gel food coloring), which to my opinion, pick up the color better than liquids and won't change the consistency of your icing. This become very handy when working with royal icing and fondant which can change the consistency or make it hard to work with.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe (MMF)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of Mini Marshmallows (easier to melt)
• 1 tsp Clear Vanilla Extract
• 1tsp No Color Butter Flavor
• 2 tbsp of Water
• 2 lbs of Powdered Sugar (sifted)
• A little bit of shortening

Instructions:

1. Grease a microwaveable bowl with shortening. Add all mini marshmallows, clear vanilla, butter flavoring and water


2. Microwave for 60 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir until completely melted with fork


3. If all the mini marshmallows don't melt after stirring, return to microwave for 30 seconds and sitr (repeat in itervals if necessary) - this step is usually not necesary for me


4. Add the powdered sugar gradually (you might not need all the sugar) and process at low speed until well incorporated, then increase speed (if you don't have a stand mixer, mix with fork until well incorporated then knead)


5. Powder surface with powder sugar. Knead marshmallow mix (careful, it might be hot at this point so knead with fork until it cools down a bit. You can grease your hands if you like to avoid marshmallow sticking to your hands). Kneading should not take long.


6. If the mix is too sticky, then add more sugar until it becomes firmer


7. Knead into a loaf (it will be a little bit soft at this point but don't worry). Wrap in plastic and cool for one hour (it will get firmer then)


8. You can store on dry place or refrigerator (it will store for weeks)
   
   

   

TIPS:
- Roll MMF same day you made it when a little warm to get a really thin rolled fondant.

- Let the refrigerated fondant sit for a while at room temperature before use. You can speed the process by microwaving the fondant for 10 seconds and knead again.

- If it is too dry when you knead your fondant, add water and knead again.

Fondant Whimsical Cake

I made this whimsical cake for a friend's reunion not too long ago. The top layer is strawberry cake filled and frosted with strawberry cream cheese; the bottom layer is chocolate cake filled with chocolate fudge and frosted with chocolate buttercream.

All decorations, and bow are fondant.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
More Fondant Cake Pics

Coming SOON
Theme Marshmallow Fondant Cake: Super Mario Brothers

Tiered Rose Fondant Cake

Triple chocolate cake filled with chocolate and iced with chocolate buttercream seems to be everyone's favorite. So I made it again! I covered the cake with white fondant and pink fondant roses. The ruffle is white vanilla buttercream.

Full view of this 2 tier cake. Total number of roses are about 38.

Top view of upper tier.



A close up look of this wonderful fondant roses (and leaves).



I promise to post step by step instructions on how to make these flowers this week. I hope you enjoy making them and above all, displaying them!!

Click on this link to an earlier post for fondant information:
What is fondant?
Working with Fondant
More Fondant Pics
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

COMING SOON
How to Make Fondant Roses

Working with Fondant

Read: What is Fondant.

Basics of Fondant
As most of you kow, fondant is made of sugar. When working with fondant, the decorator will have to knead the fondant like it would with dough. Fondant dries very quickly and hardens, therefore, the decorator must work fast with fondant. It is advisable to keep plastic wrap nearby to wrap the fondant when needed and prevent it from being exposed to the air.

If your fondant ever dries, never add any liquid to it as the fondant will go back to its basic sticky form. Hard fondant should be disposed.

Storing Fondant
It is advisable to wrap fondant tightly in plastic wrap. Then place this inside a sealable plastic bag. Make sure you remove all the air when wrapping. Fondant should NOT be stored in the refrigerator. The refrigerator holds moisture, and moisture is not good for fondant. Fondant can be stored in a cool and dry cabinet at room temperature.

Working with Fondant
As you knead or work with fondant, your hands can expell body heat and it will soften the fondant In some cases it will feel sticky. Most people feel compelled to use powder sugar to make the fondant less sticky. Note that powder sugar is not the right thickening agent that must be used here. When working with fondant, only use corn starch. Most decorators that work with fondant use a corn starch "puff" that is very easy to make. Buy a disposable cleaning towel as shown below (make sure you buy the one with the thin pores). Place some corn starch in the middle and tighten with a ribbon to make a pouch. Use it as a "puff".

You will use this puff when working with fondant to cover working surfaces or to thicken over-kneaded fondant.

Decorating with Fondant
In order to "glue" pieces of fondant to other fondant, it is advisable to use food flavorings (any flavor). Food flavoring contains alcohol, which evaporates (dries) faster than water. Remember, moisture is not good for fondant as it makes it sticky. Therefore, this will work perfectly.

When gluing fondant to cake frosting or cardboard, you can use piping gel. Piping gel is thick and it can help 'glue' fondant tightly.

Coloring Fondant
Since moisture is not good for fondant, avoid using liquid food coloring to color fondant. I use the wilton gel colors and this works great.

How to-
I pat the fondant into a little pancake. Place desired amount of gel food coloring in the middle. Fold halfway to make a half circle. Press until flat again incorportating the gel into the fondant. Fold again and press. Repeat process until you feel the gel color has incorporated into the fondant. Knead the fondant "dough" to color evenly. I like this process because it avoids getting food color on my hands. You can use disposable gloves (no latex) to tint fondant as well.

Where to Find Fondant
Fondant can be bought or made at home. I usually buy my fondant. I will try and make a couple of recipes and test them. If all goes well, I will post them with comments in the near future. UPDATE: Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

Have fun working with fondant and visit us soon. Let us know how informational this blog was.

Click on this link to an earlier post for fondant information:
What is fondant?
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

COMING SOON
How to Make Fondant Roses

Fondant: Gift Wrapped Cake

I continued taking more fondant classes to be able to share with you all.

Once again, the cake was a moist chocolate with chocolate chips and filled with chocolate buttercream. This was then covered with white fondant. Then decorated the cake with a pastel pink fondant ribbon (come back for later posts with techniques). Then accented the cake with small flower fondant cutouts with pink centers.

This cake can be done with a square shaped cake... even better, make it a stack of 3 gifts on top of one another!!!!

Picture 1: The front of the cake

Picture 2: The back of the cake

Click on this link to an earlier post for fondant information:
What is fondant?
Working with Fondant
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
More Fondant Cake Pics

COMING SOON
How to Make Fondant Roses

What is Fondant?

Fondant is a paste often used to embellish cakes. In its basic form, fondant is made of sugar and water. This paste is rolled and flattened then placed on top of a cake previously frosted in order for the fondant to "glue" itself to it. In other words, fondant is a thick chewy form of frosting.
Fondant cakes are most often used to embellish wedding cakes. However, it can be used to decorate any type of cake. Specially if you want to create 3 dimensional flowers, bows and ribbons.

Fondant can be bought or home made. Fondant prices are a little bit expensive, but worth it. Please see later posts for fondant recipes and tips. Check the Pictures label to the left for pictures of fondant cakes I have made recently.

Click on this link to an earlier post for fondant information:
Working with Fondant
Fondant Pictures
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

COMING SOON
How to Make Fondant Roses

Elegant Fondant Cake

I made this chocolate cake covered with fondant. Everyone was fascinated by the texture and design. The drape and flowers are edible as they are made with fondant. Techniques and tips for working with fondant will be posted later.

About this cake: 'Ever so moist chocolate cake' covered in fondant.
Drape: fondant with 'gum text' tinted Ivory.
Flowers: vibrant flowers made of fondant with pearl stamens.

Check out the following links for more fondant related posts:
What is fondant?
Working with Fondant
Fondant Pictures
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

COMING SOON
How to Make Fondant Roses

How to Decorate your Cookies

Once you have your baked cookies, there are endless ways to decorate your cookies. Let your imagination fly!!!

For shiny smooth decorating (see the picture below), you can use COLOR FLOW. Check the Color Flow RECIPE by cliking here, check the Color Flow TECHNIQUE by clicking here.

You can also use the same color flow technique by watering down your Royal Icing recipe. The result will be similar to color flow, just opaque (i.e., not a shiny finish).

You can also use star tip decoration. I use royal icing for cookies because the buttercream doesn't really dry as well and can make the cookie soft. Also, royal icing and color flow work best if you want to wrap the cookie in plastic bags.

Cookie Bouquet ideas: Click on the links to see pictures

Flower Cookie Bouquet
Hallloween Bouquet
Valentine's Day Bouquets
Rose Bouquet

Color Flow Icing Technique: How to Decorate Your Cookies

OUTLINING

**Use full strenght color flow to outline pattern.**

1. Fill a decorating bag with tip 2 with full strength color flow.


2. Touch surface, sqeeze and lift your decorating bag filled with full strength color flow icing and drop icing string to form pattern outline. Stop, touch the surface and pull away. Blend lines using a damp decorators brush softly.
   
3. Let outline dry a few minutes until it crusts.

If using a different outlining color than the filling color, let the outlinign dry for 1-2 hours to prevent bleeding of colors.

FILLING IN

**Use thinned color flow (Click here for "Thinning Color Flow" directions)**

1. Use a brand new decorating bag (or parchment bag), that means, no whole or coupler.
   
2. Fill the bag with thinned color flow.
   
3. Push the icing to the tip.


4. Cut a small opening at the tip of the bag.


5. Begin filling along the outlines first and let the icing blend by itself. Do not stop filling before completing the piece.


6. Once you finish filling, very quickly push icing to the unfilled edges with a toothpick.
   
   
   



7. Pierce bubbles with toothpick.
   
8. Color flow dries very quickly with a shiny pillow effect.


9. Let decoration air dry thoroughly at least 48 hrs. If this is used on top of cookies, it will dry overnight.

Cookie pictures: Halloween Bouquet

Links to:
Cookie Recipe and step-by-step instructions
Color Flow Icing Recipe: Cookies Glaze
Thinning Color FlowRoyal Icing as Color Flow: Coming Soon

Thinning Color Flow Icing

In order to fill outlines you need to thin the color flow icing. To do so you must add water until you are able to spoon out a small amount of icing and let it drop back into the bowl. Then do the 10 second rule: when it takes a full count of 10 for the icing to sink back into the mixture and disappear completely, the icing is ready.
Other recipes will tell you to add the water with few drops at a time. Please do that because it is easier to fix a not very thinned icing than to fix a very thinned icing. I usually start with 2 teaspoons for a whole recipe then continue with few drops at a time.

Links to:
Color Flow Icing Recipe
Color Flow Icing Technique: How to decorate your cookies
Cookie Recipe and step-by-step instructions
Royal Icing as Color Flow: Coming Soon

Color Flow Icing Recipe : Cookie Decoration

Full strength consistency. Yields 1 3/4 cup

1 lb sifted pure cane confectioners' sugar (4 cups)
2 tablespoons Color Flow Icing Mix ( I use WILTON Color Flow Mix
1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon water.

Make sure all utensils are grease free. ** Tip: boil egg beaters to remove grease. **

• Mix all ingredients starting at slow speed (stay at slow if using a stand mixer) and increase to medium (if using a hand mixer).
  
• Mix for 8 minutes.
  
• Stir in desired icing colors (I use Wilton gel colors to keep full strength consistency).


• Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth to avoid drying. Color flow dries pretty fast.

Links to:
Cookie Recipe and step-by-step instructions
Color Flow Icing Technique: How to decorate your cookies
Thinning Color Flow
Royal Icing as Color Flow: Coming Soon

Cookies: Halloween Bouquet

Links to:
Cookie Recipe and step-by-step instructions
Color Flow Icing Recipe: Cookies Glaze
Color Flow Icing Technique: How to decorate your cookies
Thinning Color Flow
Royal Icing as Color Flow: Coming Soon