Any suggestions on how to keep a navy blue cookie icing from soaking into the pearl dragees that I have on the cookie? the pearls looked blue-ish the next day, I really want a solid pearl look, were the dragess that I purchased not of good quality? dknj

New kid on the block!  this maybe a silly question but I have only made a few small cakes and am making my first large cake for my daughters wedding shower, the pan says to use a heating core.  What is the proper way to use this?  I am stressing a little over this cake it is my first tier cake

Thanks

This Valentine's Day, why not do something a little different. Make your sweetie an edible cookie bouquet for a Valentine's day present.

It really is not that hard to do and I will explain below how to do it.

The first step is to bake your cookies on a stick. You can use most kinds of cookie dough. The cookie dough needs to be firm before you bake your cookies.

Now lets have some rolling dough fun :)

Roll out the dough a little thicker than normal to accommodate the stick. You can use any length stick for this. You may want to vary the lengths of sticks so your Valentine's cookie bouquet will have different heights.

After you have rolled out and cut your cookie dough into your favorite shapes, insert the sticks into the cookies and place them on your cookie sheet. I always bake my cookies on a silpat, but you can also use parchment paper. You will need to bake the cookies slightly longer than you normally would. Remember we need them to hold on a stick.

The Fun part Now starts!

Let the cookies cool and then decorate to your heart shaped cookies to your liking. If you are going to wrap up your cookie bouquet then I would decorate your cookies with a royal icing based cookie icing. This will dry the best and won't smudge when you wrap up your cookie bouquet.

After your cookies are baked and the icing has dried on your cookies, the next step is assembly.

For this part you need a clay pot with Styrofoam cut to fit inside your clay pot and tissue paper and ribbon to make your work of art complete.

I like to cover my cookie bouquet pot with tissue paper and tie ribbons on the cookie sticks to make them prettier. Insert the ends of the sticks into the Styrofoam at varying heights. You should insert a stick with a card to your special loved one at this point.

Now your edible cookie bouquet is ready to give to that someone special this Valentine's Day. I know they will appreciate it more than flowers.

If you want to try this Edible Cookie Bouquet project, check out the links below for all of your materials except the pot:

Silpat can be found at this link:

http://www.shopbakersnook.com/m5_view_item.html?m5:item=2013

Royal Icing Mix can be found at this link:

http://www.shopbakersnook.com/m5_view_item.html?m5:item=2013

Sucker Sticks can be found at this link:

http://www.shopbakersnook.com/94.html

Valentine's Cookie Cutters can be found at this link:

http://www.shopbakersnook.com/185.html

Let me know what you think,

Anne

ShopBakersNook.com

Many people want to know what the difference is between fondant and gum paste.

The simple answer is that you use fondant to cover a cake and you use gum paste to make flowers and bows.

As with anything in life it is not necessarily that cut and dry.

You can use fondant to make flowers and bows, but they do not dry quite as hard as they do out of gum paste. You can make your fondant act more like gum paste by kneeding in about a cup of gum paste mix into a pound of rolled fondant. This will make it dry harder than it would normally.

I prefer to make my flowers out of gum paste for 2 reasons. The first is you can roll the gum paste thinner, so your flowers have a more realistic look to them. The second is that they dry better, especially in humid weather, so you don't have to worry about the petals going limp on you. 

You never want to cover your cake in gum paste. This is never its intended use.

So I usually follow this rule of thumb, cover my cake in fondant and use fondant as an edible ribbon around the base of a cake. For my flowers and bows, gum paste is your safest option, especially in humid weather.

Check out our fondant and gum paste at the links below:

http://www.shopbakersnook.com/178.html

Let me know what you think,

Anne

ShopBakersNook.com

At least once a day someone asks us in the store how to get their cake icing a dark color. This is especially true with red, black, blue and brown. They tell us the cake icing won't get past grey or pink. So here are some tips to help you, if you have trouble getting your icing a dark color.

The main thing is to use a quality food coloring. The food coloring you buy at the grocery store is so watered down it is no wonder you can't get a dark color. I recommend using a name brand food coloring like  Wilton, Cake Craft or Americolor food colorings.

I have personally had good luck with all three brands. When trying to get a dark color it is spatulas full of color not toothpicks amounts you put into your icing, or you will be there all day trying to get that dark colored cake icing you want.

The next tip on how to make a dark colored icing is to color your icing in smaller batches. If you need 5 cups of a dark color break it up into 3 batches, color the icing and then mix all of the batches together so your color is consistent. You will use less coloring this way. If you need a black cake icing you should start with chocolate icing and color that black and it will take less food coloring to achieve a black cake icing.

Now the next step is to rest your cake icing!

Let your cake icing sit awhile before you use it. Color, especially in buttercream icing will darken as it sets. So with any dark color always go a little lighter than you want it to end up. Red will turn to a burgundy color if you use to much coloring.

Finally, some people say that dark colors will have a bitter taste to the cake icing. If you follow my hints, you will use less coloring and hopefully avoid this. If you still have a bitter taste in your cake icing try a couple of drops of lemon juice in your cake icing to get rid of the bitter taste..

I hope that you won't be intimidated by coloring your icing a dark color anymore. So you can make that football cake without a care in the world following my simple instructions on how to make a dark icing.

 Food paste coloring can be found on this link: http://www.shopbakersnook.com/88.html

Americolor gels can be found on this link:

http://www.shopbakersnook.com/204.html

Let me know what you think,

Anne

ShopBakersNook.com

The question that I get asked most often is how do I get my buttercream icing smooth? The answer is simpler than you might think, paper towels. Yes it does seems strange but the secret to smoothing out buttercream icing involves a paper towel.

The first step is to ice your cake. After applying the icing I try to smooth out the icing as much as possible. For this I use a spatula and then my icing smoother. Then I let the cake sit for about 5-10 minutes just so it is dry to the touch, but not too crusted over.

The next step it to take my paper towel and hold it up against the cake, I start with the sides first. Then rub your hand over the paper towel. The paper towel should not move, only your hand. The spatula marks will disappear and depending on the brand of paper towel you use, the imprint of the design will be lightly visible on your icing.

Then I smooth out the top and go over the sides one more time. If you use this technique you can get that rolled top edge like fondant cakes have without using rolled fondant.

This technique will only work with a type of icing that will crust. Don't try this with your Bettercream icing, as the paper towel will just stick to the icing.

Below is the link to the icing smoother that I love. It works with all types of icing and because it has a large edge you will get less spatula marks when icing your cake.

http://www.shopbakersnook.com/93.html?m5:cat=%2FSpatulas

Let me know what you think.

Anne

ShopBakersNook.com

Have you ever been to a fancy restaurant and you get those pats of butter in the cute shapes and thought I could never do that. Guess what it is simple to do, by using real butter and a candy mold.

If you thought your candy molds were a one trick pony, think again. Your candy molds are not just for chocolate making. You can mold butter in any size or shape of candy mold. The process is simple.

First let your butter sit out at room temperature so it is easy to spread. The most important thing here is to use REAL butter. No margarine, sorry it just won't work. Next, press the softened butter into the candy molds. Make sure you really press it in there so all the air bubbles are gone. Then take a spatula and scrape the excess off the back so your butter will lay flat.

Finally, you put your butter filled candy mold in the freezer to set up. Depending on how thick the mold is this can take from 5 to 30 minutes. Take the mold out of the freezer and tap on the counter. Your butter should pop out. If it doesn't come out easily then put it back in the freezer for a bit.

You can use this technique with your 3-D molds too. Just mold each side separately, then put the two sides together with a little softened butter. Store your creations in the fridge until ready to use.

Try this at your next family gathering and impress your friends and family. I know this Thanksgiving I will have shaped butter on my holiday table.

If you want to try this technique to make Christmas shaped butter with your candy molds, check out some of the Christmas candy molds that we have available at the link below:

 http://www.shopbakersnook.com/170.html?sm=34914

Let me know what you think,

Anne

ShopBakersNook.com

I know this is off topic but I want to talk about what is like to be a husband of a cake decorator.

The first thing you learn about being a husband of a cake decorator is that they are all type A people to the max. They are very high strung and some of the most caring and loving people in the world.

You need to be the safe person they can come to at the end of the day. The following are my suggestions or commandments as I like to call them of how to be that safe person that she can turn too at the end of the day.

1. Shut up and listen!

    (This means no talking at all or no trying to fix it! Just listen)

2. Support and encourage them to grow as artists.

    (Duh! come on I hope you can at least do this)

3. When your cake decorator starts shouting at you let them!

    (They are stressed and they just need to get it out)

4. Try to learn how you can help by being a part of her team.

     (Note I did not say your team here)

5. Massages of the decorating arm are a must!

    (That decorating arm is as valuable as a baseball pitchers arm protect it!)

6. When all else fails refer to number 1 above. It will save you!

    (Like I said, Refer to number 1!)

Thank you

Brian. :)

One of the easiest and tastiest candies that we make at Christmas time is Peppermint Crunch Bark. The best part is that it is one of the simplest chocolate Christmas candies to make and