Making Chocolate Leaves

This is the first time I have tried making chocolate leaves, it was actually very simple. First you pick some leaves that you want to duplicate. I had a nice maple tree out front that I just picked leaves from. I washed and dried them completely. You don't want any water getting around your chocolate, it will seize it up and that is not good.

Next I melted chocolate. I used chocolate almond bark because that is what I had on hand. I have noticed with almond bark it takes longer to dry. Once melted, I used a paint brush to "paint" the chocolate onto the leaves.

I set the leaves on a baking sheet covered with parchment and placed them in the freezer just for a few minutes to get the chocolate to dry nice and hard.

After the chocolate has frozen, carefully peel the leaf from the chocolate. It is very fragile, so be careful. For a finishing touch I dusted the chocolate leaves with gold luster dust.

Baking with a Flower Nail

This is a flower nail, it is used to make flowers but it has another function! If you take it and turn it upside down in your baking pan like in the picture below it will help bake your cake so your cake is more likely to come out nice and rounded on top instead of having sinkage in the middle. It will conduct heat to the center of your cake. It kind of works like a heating core without leaving a big hole in your cake. I put 1 nail in an 8-10 inch pan and 2 nails in 12 inch or larger. Make sure and "paint" them with your homemade cake release so they don't stick to your cake. Did I mention how great the cake release works? I forgot to take a pic of the cake when it came out. I guess you'll have to take my work for it, the cake came out beautifully!

40th Black and White

I did this cake for my friends 40th birthday. I absolutly love to do topsy turvy cake. They are my favorite. The top tier has swirls made from a chocolate mold. The topper on the cake was cut out with a paper template. I made little fondant balls and placed them on the end of floral wire. When I placed the wire in the cake it was taped and put in a straw, making sure that none of the wire was touching the cake.

Making marshmallow fondant

Directions for Marshmallow Fondant
Ingredients:
1 - 16 oz bag regular or miniature marshmallows
1 – 2 lb bag confectioner's sugar
2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons flavoring, I use vanilla
Shortening
cornstarch
1. Grease your mixing bowl and a Pyrex or glass bowl that can be used to melt marshmallows in the microwave

2. Place 16 oz bag of marshmallows, 2 Tablespoons of water and 2 teaspoons of flavoring of your choice in Pyrex/glass bowl coated with shortening and microwave on high for 60 seconds. Stir. If all the marshmallows are not melted, return to microwave for approximately 30 seconds. Stir. Continue this procedure until all marshmallows are melted

3. Sift one half of the 2 pound bag of confectioner's sugar in a mixing bowl which has also been greased with shortening. Make a well in the center of the confectioner's sugar and pour the melted marshmallows
4. I use the dough hook attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. Mix until all the melted marshmallows are incorporated in the confectioner's sugar. Mixture will be thick but still a runny.
Sift the remaining half bag of confectioner's sugar into the mixing bowl with the melted marshmallows.
Do not use the entire 2 pounds of sugar. It only takes about 1 ¾ pounds.
**Note: If you do not have a Kitchen Aid mixer or heavy duty mixer similar to a Kitchen Aid, mix this by hand. This is a very thick mixture and very hard even for a Kitchen Aid to mix. Sift the remaining confectioner's sugar into the marshmallows/confectioner's sugar in bowl and mix. Fondant will be very thick and have dough like consistency
5. Wrap fondant in saran and make sure no air gets to it.
It really needs to sit about an hour or so to cool down completely from the melted marshmallows. It needs to be air tight so it will not dry out.
6. Your cake needs to be as smooth as possible as fondant tends to show imperfections
7. Take approximately two-thirds of marshmallow fondant and place in the middle of a measuring wheel (I use the Wilton measuring circle) or on a very smooth surface that has been thoroughly coated with cornstarch
8. Roll fondant out until approximately 1/16 inch thick.
Make sure you keep you surfaces coated with crisco so your fondant doesn't stick.
Lift the fondant while rolling to make sure it's not sticking. There is nothing worse than rolling out the size you need, lifting and finding your fondant has stuck to the surface, so use plenty of Crisco or cornstarch.
9. After you get your MMF on your cake, lightly smooth the top with your hands. For the sides of the cake, I use a pizza cutter to remove the extra MMF.
10. Be careful not to stretch your MMF as this will cause you to have too much fondant on the sides and will make creases when you try to smooth.
11. Smooth from the top on the sides down to the bottom edge of the cake working around it trimming off the excess

Tips:

Grease everything with Crisco your hands, the bowl and utensils. Let the mmf rest overnight before using.
TO USE If fondant is too hard, place in microwave a few seconds at a time. Dust work table with cornstarch, and knead for a couple of minutes. Then roll as thin as you want with rolling pin dusted in cornstarch.
To color: Separate small amounts of fondant & color with paste food colors to the desired tone. Knead until color is smooth and completely uniform. This fondant does not set fast at all.



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Bratz Cake, Chocolate Transfer

The Bratz logo is a choco transfer and the stars are made from fondant cut-outs and airbrushed in pink shimmer, gold and silver.

Lightening McQueen cake, Chocolate Transfer

I am becoming a big fan of the chocolate transefer method. Mcqueen was made using this method. I will post a couple of more cakes using this method.

Cookie Bouquets

I made these guys for Mother's Day. I baked round cookies on lollipop sticks, decorated them with royal icing. I think next time I will use butter cream. The royal icing dried to hard. It makes for good decorating, just not to nice to eat in my opinion. Once the icing was dry I placed them in a flower pot. Inside the flower pot was a piece of floral styrofoam, I just stuck the stick directly into the foam. I put some beans in the pot to give it weight so they wouldn't tip over. To finish it off I put the green crumpled paper on top.

One Tier Topsy Turvy Zebra cake

I thought this turned out really cute. The twelve was also made using the chocolate transfer method. The little balls are made from fondant and then the whole cake was airbrushed with pearly stuff to make it shine.

Bobby Jack Monkey

The Bobby Jack Monkey is made using the chocolate transfer method. I love using that method because you can make just about anything you want. Here is a great link that shows a tutorial on how to do the chocolate transfer method, it is fun and easy. Sadie was made using fondant cutout called Tappits, love these guys! The colored sprinkles on this cake were a complete accident. I had a bowl of them sitting next to the cake and I knocked the bowl so the sprinkles flew all over the kitchen, and on the cake. But I thought they added a nice touch.

Ladybugs and Bow

Ugh! This picture came out awful! But the cake looked cute in person. The little black and red dots are ladybugs made out of fondant. I made each one by hand. And the the loopy bow on top.