Improvised Chocolate Fudge Cake

Some wonderful friends from church recently adopted four children from Latvia. They are truly amazing parents and people, and are wonderful examples to me of selfless love and service.

We surprised Valerie with an adoption shower a few weeks before she and her husband would travel to Latvia to bring their children home. I planned to make a chocolate cake with strawberry filling and to decorate it with red and turquoise flowers (since those are Valerie's favorite colors). 

It was a busy week, and I realized the night before that I wouldn't be able to bake and decorate a cake in time. I decided to get a chocolate fudge cake from Sam's Club and then decorate the top myself. I'd had it before and knew it was a delicious cake.

https://www.samsclub.com/sams/artisan-fresh-chocolate-fudge-cake/prod4660165.ip

I scraped off the chocolate decoration from the middle and then smoothed out the top so that I could have a flat surface to pipe the message on. I made the flowers out of modeling chocolate and Sixlets candies. You can find Sixlets in most grocery stores (near the cake mixes and birthday candles). I love using Sixlets to decorate cakes! They look like pearls, and you can get them in almost any color.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Celebration-Shimmer-Powder-Blue-Sixlets-Candy-1.75-oz/32282501

This cake was a good reminder to me that it's okay to improvise when things don't go as planned. At first, I felt a little guilty for not actually baking the cake myself, but I shouldn't have. Valerie knows I care about her, and I heard so many people talk about how delicious the cake was, and someone even asked for the recipe later. 😊

STATS:

Modeling Chocolate

Melt 10 ounces of chocolate chips (or candy melts in the color of your choice) in a microwave or in a double boiler. Stir in 2 ounces of light corn syrup. Stir for about a minute until well combined. Spread on waxed paper and allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours. When cool, break large chunks off and knead until soft. Store in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag for up to a month. Break off small pieces and knead when you are ready to make something with your modeling chocolate. Return to refrigerator for 10-15 minutes if it starts to get too warm and sticky from the heat of your hands.

Royal Icing

http://www.marthastewart.com/316888/royal-icing-for-sugar-cookies

Pretty in Blue Cookies

My good friend Martilda is expecting her sweet baby boy next month. Of course we needed blue cookies for her baby shower! Blue is also Martilda's favorite color!

For the large cookie, I used a small salad plate as a guide to cut out a big circle of dough. I only added a couple of minutes to the baking time. The night before the baby shower, I used glacé icing to flood the cookie with white. The next day, once the icing was set, I used royal icing to pipe the words and to make the brush embroidery flowers. 

I love the bright white of the royal icing against the soft white of the glacé icing.

The polka dot cookies were decorated using the wet on wet technique with glacé icing.

I decorated these cookies with tiny roses using a similar technique. I love using glacé icing for cookies because it sets well, but doesn't get rock hard like royal icing.

Congratulations, Martilda! I can't wait to meet your sweet new baby!

STATS:

No Fail Sugar Cookies

http://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chocolate-roll-out-cookies-240668

Glacé Icing

http://www.thatreallyfrostsme.com/2010/05/glace-icing.html

Royal Icing

http://www.marthastewart.com/316888/royal-icing-for-sugar-cookies

Brush Embroidery Tutorial Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqbDTaauGO0

"Wet on Wet" Tutorial Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAIBpsXgtRE

Sweet Ambs Tiny Flowers Tutorial Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUD4BGWNpsc

The 120 Mile Cookie!

This summer, the kids set a goal to walk 120 miles together. It was a hot summer, and it took a lot of work and dedication, but they did it! We had an awards ceremony to celebrate. I baked and decorated a giant sugar cookie to commemorate their accomplishment.

You can read more about our summer at my other blog: The Cake Runner

http://thecakerunner.blogspot.com/2013/09/we-reached-our-goals.html

After rolling out the dough, I used a salad plate for a template and cut out a large circle. I transferred the circle of dough to a parchment lined baking sheet. Then, I made some fork prints to prevent the cookie from rising too much during baking.

I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe (linked below). I just added a few minutes to the cooking time since the cookie was so large.

Once the cookie had cooled, I was able to flood the entire cookie with a base of white glace icing. I allowed that to dry overnight, then I used tan colored royal icing and a #3 writing tip to create the laurel wreath and the numbers. After that dried for a couple of hours, I used a small brush to "paint" gold luster dust mixed with a little vanilla onto the decorations.

Nice and Shiny!

STATS:

Stable Sugar Cookies

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies

Glace Icing

http://www.thatreallyfrostsme.com/2010/05/glace-icing.html

Royal Icing

http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing

Lace Cookies for Christmas

This Christmas, I wanted to make something special for some wonderful women I know.

I found a design for intricate lace cookies at http://cakecreationsforyou.blogspot.com/. Nadia is the decorator from the site, and she creates beautiful cookies.

I'm really happy with how the cookies turned out!

To make the lace pattern, I first outlined the heart shape with royal icing. Using the same icing, I made 14 straight lines running diagonally across the cookie.

Then, I added perpendicular lines to create a grid.

I used glace icing (in a flood consistency), to fill in the larger spaces of the heart.

Then, I added dots of icing into the grid, creating a pattern I liked. There are so many patterns you could make using this technique. Have fun and get creative! 

I noticed that you get a very different look in the lace if you allow the grid to dry before adding the dots of icing. In this photo, I piped the dots while the icing of the grid was still wet. You can see how the design has sort of "melted" together.

On this cookie, I allowed the grid to dry before piping the dots. The dots stayed separate and are quite distinct. Honestly, I think both techniques made a pretty cookie, and I can't decide which I like better.

For the gold lettering, I mixed a little brown food coloring into the royal icing to get a tan color. I piped the words with the tan royal icing and allowed it to dry. Then, I mixed gold luster dust with a little vanilla extract and used that to "paint" the words. You can see the difference the luster dust makes here, where I only used luster dust on the letter "o" in "world."

I used zip-top baggies with the corners cut off as the icing bags for this entire project. If you would like to use piping bags and tips, I would suggest using a #1 or #2 writing tip.

I loved making these cookies and thinking about the women I'd be giving them to. I hope they know how much they are loved. 

STATS:

Nadia's Video: "How to Make a Lace Cookie" Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKjM7Wm845w

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Roll-Out-Cookies-240668

How to "flood" a cookie with icing
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2011/07/outlining-and-filling-cookies-with-royal-icing/

Royal Icing
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2012/12/royal-icing-recipe.html

Glacé Icing
http://www.thatreallyfrostsme.com/2010/05/glace-icing.html

Royal Icing Recipe

I found that this recipe for royal icing is the perfect consistency for decorating intricate cookies, 

like these Lace Cookies I made for Christmas.

 Lace Cookies for Christmas

Royal Icing

1 lb. powdered sugar

3 egg whites (at room temperature)

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 Tbsp. of water

Slowly combine all ingredients in your mixer and blend until smooth (1-2 minutes). Then, turn your mixer to high and beat for 5-7 minutes. Cover tightly with plastic wrap when not using because the icing will dry out very quickly. If stored for longer than a few hours, you will need to re-mix the icing, as it will separate. Can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Yield: 3 cups

Happy 8th Birthday, Addie!

This cake was for a sweet girl turning eight years old. A child's 8th birthday is special in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) because that is when he or she can choose to be baptized. She wanted the cake to be purple and sparkly.

The tiara is made from royal icing piped onto an oatmeal container. Here is a link to a great tutorial if you want to give it a go:

http://cakecentral.com/articles/129/how-to-make-a-royal-icing-tiara

Here is a free pattern for a tiara I found online. http://cakecentral.com/gallery/40748 It is the same pattern I used, except I replaced the top section with a CTR shield (a symbol in our church that stands for "Choose the Right").

The cake is covered in homemade fondant and decorated with royal icing. Here it is before the tiara.

I was really worried that the fragile tiara would break on the drive to deliver the cake. So, I quickly made some fondant flowers to bring along as a backup.

Luckily, the tiara arrived safely, and I only had to reattach a sugar pearl that fell off.

The finished cake!

Happy birthday, Addie!

Pink and Black Cookies

Sugar cookies decorated with royal icing.



I like to try to personalize the cookies.



Some tiny flowers.



The butterfly was made the night before using the royal icing transfer technique.


Click here for detailed instructions on royal icing transfers. http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=648450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15 (You'll have to scroll down a little.)

I wrapped each cookie in plastic wrap.



Packing up.



All boxed up and ready to go!

Garden Cookies

These are all sugar cookies decorated with royal icing. I had cookie cutters for the flowers, but I just used a cup to cut out the circles for the ladybugs. For the fence and sign, I used a sharp knife and cut out the shapes I wanted.

Red Flower


Orange Flower


Ladybug


Garden Fence (This one is my favorite.)


The plate of cookies!

Winter Cookies

White royal icing sprinkled with edible glitter (it's hard to tell in the picture, but they were sparkly)



Blue fondant circles with snowflakes piped with white royal icing


Blue fondant circles with royal icing swirl


Swirl sprinkled with edible glitter


Winter cookies

Royal Icing on Cookies

Royal icing is so much fun to work with! I like how smooth and shiny it looks. Here are some autumn-colored cookies I decorated recently with royal icing.

For the hearts, I piped short orange and horizontal lines onto the red icing while the red icing was still wet. Then I dragged a toothpick through those lines, creating the hearts.



The polkadots are really fun to do! You have to work quickly so the first layer of icing doesn't dry before you finish piping your dots. Use a thinned royal icing to add the orange dots while the red icing is still wet. The dots will settle and spread, creating a smooth, flat surface. For the sort of houndstooth looking one, you pipe orange lines onto the wet red icing, then drag a toothpick through the lines (first from left to right, then right to left).



The great thing about royal icing is that it looks so smooth, and after you let it dry for a few hours, you can stack your cookies without ruining the icing.

Spiderweb Cookies

These cookies are fun to make.

1. Outline a circle with royal (or glace) icing.
2. Fill in the circle with a bright fun color, using more royal icing (but thinned a little with water so it flows easily).
3. Create a spiral on top using a small writing tip and black icing.
4. Working quickly (before the icing starts to set), drag a small knife or toothpick from the center of the icing to the edges, creating a spooky web.

Have fun!

These were decorated spice cake mix cookies. They're very easy to make.

STATS:

Cake Mix Cookies

Using Fondant on Cookies

Here is my first attempt at using marshmallow fondant on cookies. I think they turned out really pretty. They were also delicious! I used Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant recipe. (You can find the recipe here: http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf )
I cut out the fondant circles and used a fondant stamping tool to make the decoration while the cookies were baking. As soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I placed the fondant circles on top. The heat causes the fondant to melt (just slightly on the bottom), causing the fondant to adhere to the cookies. The black dots are made of royal icing. Yum!

Large Royal Icing Transfer

Left: Outline piped in black royal icing Right: Drawing I used for transfer


Hair and lips filled in with maroon royal icing


Face filled in with skin-color (or as close as I could get) royal icing


Close up of eyes


Ta-dah! Finished! Now she just needs to dry for at least 24 hours. I'll let her sit for a couple days, though, just to be sure. The transfers will fall apart if they are not completely dry.


If you want to give this technique a try, here is a link to a great tutorial:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=648450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15