mercoledì 25 dicembre 2013

Tutorial - Christmas Tree Cookies not only for dummies (english version)




 
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup (225g) of real unsalted and softened butter
1 cup (225g) of confectioner’s sugar
2 yolks
3 1/2 - 4 cups (450-500g) of all-purpose flour
1-2 tsp. of vanilla flavor
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. of salt
Green food coloring
1-2 tbsp. heavy cream if necessary
This version makes 2 dozen of 3" (7cm) cookies.

FOR DECORATIONS:
2 - 2 1/2 (340-425g) of M&Ms, Smarties or any other similar chocolate candies
1 cup (225g) of royal icing


PREPARATION:
1. Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar.
2. Add to the butter-sugar mixture two yolks and mix until they are thoroughly incorporated.
The cookies made only with yolks are more crispy than cookies made with whole eggs.
3. Add the flavoring and green food coloring to riche green color as you desired.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add little by little to the mixture.
5. The dough is ready when most of it sticks to the paddle. When you touch it, it has a little give, but does not stick to fingers.
If dough is too heavy add 1-2 tbsp. of heavy cream, if it's too soft add 1-2 tbsp. of flour.
The dough does not need to be refrigerated but needs to rest a little after mixing. It will firm up a little bit after a minute or two.
6. Roll out on parchment to about 1/4 an inch thick, use flour for dusting as necessary. Then, cut Christmas tree. Gently press the candies into the dough.


7. Bake at 170-180 C for 6-8 minutes. The cookies are ready when they will still seem a little soft in the center but they will firm up as they cool.
 


8. When cookies are cool, use pastry bag and round tip n. 2 to add some royal icing onto the cookies to make snow. Pipe snow line. Take small paintbrush and moist it into warm water (it's must be  moist not wet!).
Catch the edge of the line and drag in from the bottom to the top.

 
The left one Christmas Tree is made without brush embroidery technique. The right one Christmas Tree is what it should look like after a pass through of your Paintbrush.



The end!

martedì 4 giugno 2013

Vincita!!!

 
post di Torte Spettacolari.



Ho il piacere di annunciare che ho vinto concorso "Cupcake 1" di rivista "Torte Spettacolari" e la foto del mio cupcake verrà pubblicato sulle pagine di sopracitata rivista!!!

Mam przyjemnosc oglosic, iz wygralam konkurs "Cupcake 1" pisma "Torte Spettacolari" i zdjecie mojego cupcake bedzie opublikowane na stronach tegoz czasopisma!!!




 

venerdì 15 marzo 2013

Tutorial - Crown and Crown Cake (english version)

Tutorial - Korona i Tort Korona
 




Create your own personal patern using Wilton Baroque Mlod.
Then measure one section.
My section was 9cm (3,543") large and 12cm (4,724") high (5,5cm (2,165")belt and 6,5cm (2,559")"lace") more or less.








Somme mathemetics:
O x II = P (perimeter) => O = P (perimeter) / II
Now if you want to make just e crown you need only 5 section.
5 section x 9cm (3,543") = 45cm (1'5,717") perimeter => o 14,32cm (5,638")

If You want to make crown cake You need:
8 section x 9cm (3,543") = 72cm (2'4,346") perimeter => o 22,92cm (9,024")
9 section x 9cm (3,543") = 81cm (2'7,89") perimeter => o 25,78cm (10,15")
Remember that if You are making a Crown Cake your pillow must be 2cm (0,787") smaller than crown!!!

Now just choos wat You want to do!
I decided to make a Crown Cake with 9 section,
so I asked my local cake supplies store to cut for me a dummy cake 12cm (4,724") high and o 25,78cm (10,15").
If You can't find so high dummy You can glue two or three togheder to rich height as You want.




Now sign on dummy high of the strip 5,5cm (2,165") and using protractor divide Your perimeter in 9 section.
360° / 9 section = 40° for each section
Divide each section in a half just to mark center of each section using diffrent pencil color or a dashed line as it is shown on photo.
Pin a plastic foil around dummy to prevent that your gum paste or royal icin attached to dummy.
Cut fondant strip 5,5cm (2,165") high and 81cm (2'7,89")long.
Put in arround dummy, glue ends with royal icing and pin it to dummy.



Using Wilton Baroque Mlod make all pieces for one section,
then starting from bottom to top glue them one at a time and pin them to the dummy.
Do not glue fondant pieces to plastic foil, but between them!!!








When You finished all section start to decorate a strip.
I don't have gem or jewelry molds so I used a samll daisy mold insted.
To make little pearls I used Wilton Baroque Mlod (stripe with small pearls) but I cutt out edges.
Make all pieces for whole strip and glue them one at a time to the strip using royal icing and pin them to the dummy. Seat a side to dry.





Paint all pearls with pearl dust mixed with alcool, and then a whole crown with gold paint.
Be carefull becouse liquid paint can softener your crown!
Seat a side to dry.








Insert a long screw at the center of dummy and then pull out dummy and take out plastic foil.
Be very carefull! Be sure that Your crown is very dry!
Paint with gold pait your crown inside.
In this step I recomended to use only spray gold paint becouse it dry insted.






I left my crown to dry for whole night and the day after in the morning I saw this....
After almost 11 hours of hard work my crown was destroyed by humid...
I took all pieces and in 15 minutes I stick them once again and I left it to dry once again...
 
The next day I insert my cake inside crown and my crown cake was finaly finished!!!
Happy 39th Birthday to me!!!