Thank you!

What better way to express love and affection for the holiday than chocolate and flowers all rolled into one? Regarded by many as an energetic pick me up and even aphrodesiac, chocolates and flowers can also add that special spark to any gift giving. And all you need to pull off that effect are a few simple things to make the moment memorable for years to come your loved ones and friends will talk about.

You'll need a chocolate mold (preferrably one with a flat top or mildly convex surface--like the heart truffle molds for that extra sentimental spark, or even better a tasty sweet filling to go with it), chocolate melts (white chocolate will bring focus and accent to the flowers), and finally--yep you guessed it--flowers. You'll want to have untreated or sprayed ones naturally; roses are always a favorite (and edible!) There's also tulips, lilacs, daisies, lavender, violets and honeysuckle just to name a few.

The trick here is if you have the smaller flowers like lavender and honeysuckle, pressing the flowers for a few minutes will make the project easier. Placing them between two sheets of wax paper and applying pressure (like a book the old fashioned way.)

Arrange your petals in the center of the mold, making sure they are as flat as possible to it; this will prevent any chocolate from seeping around corners and give a full flowered effect. Next apply your chocolate atop the flower and smooth off the tops. Chocolate flavorings to compliment the flowers also makes a nice added touch and full-flavored effect. Chill your molds as per directions on the packaging.

Now comes the fun part; arranging for your sweetheart. Bonbon cups, delicate serving platters for a full arrangement and showcasing the flowers, mini baskets and boxes with tuelle and lace, the sky is the limit on presentation. These would even make gorgeous lolipops for that perfect "dozen roses" and gives a more heartfelt gift than your traditional bouquet and will surely put a smile on their face and yours.

Enjoy!

Thanks

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

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

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 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