What Dessert are you?


I found this neat playful article....

If all of the desserts listed below were sitting in front of you ...

... which would you choose? Pick your dessert, and then look to see what psychiatrists think about you! Sorry you can only pick one.

• Angel food cake
• Brownies
• Lemon Meringue pie
• Vanilla cake with chocolate icing
• Strawberry short cake
• Chocolate icing on chocolate cake
• Ice cream
• Carrot cake

No. You can't change your mind once you scroll down, so think carefully what your choice will be!

• Angel Food Cake: Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all warm and fuzzy items. A little nutty at times. Sometimes you need an ice cream cone at the end of the day.. others perceive you as being childlike and immature at times.
   
• Brownies: You are adventurous, love new ideas, and are a champion of underdogs and a slayer of dragons. When tempers flare up, you whip out your saber. You are always the oddball with a unique sense of humor and direction. You tend to be very loyal.
   
• Lemon Meringue: Smooth, sexy, and articulate with your hands, you are an excellent after-dinner speaker and a good teacher. But don't try to walk and chew gum at the same time. A bit of a diva at times, but you have many good friends.
   
• Vanilla Cake with chocolate icing: Fun loving, sassy, humorous. Not very grounded in life; very indecisive and lack motivation. Everyone enjoys being around you. You are a practical joker. Others should be cautious in making you mad. However, you are a friend for life.
   
• Strawberry Shortcake: Romantic, warm, loving. You care about other people and can be counted on in a pinch. you also tend to melt. You can be overly emotional at times. And sometimes can be annoying.
   
• Chocolate on chocolate: Sexy; always ready to give and receive. Very adventurous, ambitious, and passionate. You can appear to have a cold exterior but are warm on the inside. Not afraid to take chances. Will not settle for anything average in life. Love to laugh.
   
• Ice Cream: You like sports, whether it is baseball, football, basketball, or soccer. If you could, you would like to participate, but you enjoy watching sports. You don't like to give up the remote control. You tend to be self-centered and high maintenance.
   
• Carrot Cake: You are a very fun loving person, who likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang out with you. You are a very warm hearted person and a little quirky at times. You have many loyal friends.

Submitted by Dave, Bolder, Co.

Dynamic Sugar Daisies....

Daisies make really nice sugar flower and are great for wedding cakes, birthday cakes and any special occasion cakes. 

Here is a nice article on the Daisy flower:

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/symbolic-meaning-of-daisy.html

Generally the meaning of Daisy is Innocence, Loyal Love, Purity and Beauty.

Some tips for using/making Sugar Daisies:

-they don't travel well. Due to all the small petals, if you're travelling at all with a Daisy arrangement make sure they're well protected. If you're applying sugar daisies to a cake you don't have to worry about that.

-use a really good daisy cutter, there are many out there that don't work well. Again because of the many petals you want a plunger cutter or a good cutter that allows your gum paste (or fondant) to come out smooth. A cutter shouldn't have any uneven edges or feel rough if you run your finger over the edges. 

Plunger Daisy set

-there are many sizes of daisies and many sizes of daisy cutters. Gerbera Daisies for example are large Daisies and there is an XXXL plunger cutter that you can buy. On the other hand the small cute little Marguerite Daisy is a much smaller Daisy.

Sugar Gerbera Daisy arrangement

Sugar Marguerite Daisy

-Plunger cutters are great because you can cut out your cutouts, vein and then push out by the plunger. All the petals come out nice and neat. 

 Daisy Plunger cutter filled. Once you get to this point run your fingers over the edges to get nice smooth sides.

-You can also control how many petals you put on your daisies. For example, a small daisy can have 2 cutouts, the Gerbera daisy could have 2 XXXL cutouts and with a small cutter have another layer of petals around the middle. 

Middles:

-there are many styles of making Daisy middles. You can use a ball of gum paste, flatten a bit and use small scissors around the edges and make it look like small petals around the edge.

-you can use a daisy middle mold.

-you can even make your texture by pressing your middle into mesh wire.

-or poke holes

TIP: if you're making a Daisy on a wire.

When making your daisy center.

You can use a center mold or easily make your own middle. Simply soften your gum paste, roll it in a ball and flatten it a bit to get a flat bottom and top. With a tool 'poke' holes in it--not all the way through, you just want to give it some texture. 

-take 3 wires (I use a heavy gauge wire for Daisies since they can get heavy if you add a lot of petals. An 18 gauge works)

Floral tape your wires together and keep one end with all ends of the wire even. Start your tape about 1/4" down from the even top. 

Bend each wire down to form a Y shape (if you're looking down from the top)

-Dip Y end of wire into edible glue, and clean off excess. With your gum paste middle facing down, insert the wire careful don't go all the way through. Once in--twist a bit to move each of the Y wires and smooth. 

The daisy center will have some strength. This works a lot better then just having one wire or ball stuck in middle. 

Allow to dry.  

Colours:

Because there are so many colours and variations of Daisies feel free to be creative. Two tones are also beautiful.

Email me if you'd like the full instructions on making Sugar Daisies.

christinascakecreations@hotmail.ca

Happy Decorating!!

Christina Lapointe

www.christinascakecreations.ca

www.caketools.ca

11 ways to make a boxed cake better.

I enjoy making my cakes from scratch, but sometimes you need a quick and easy cake. Boxed cakes are not only easy but a staple in many kitchens. I know many people that use boxed cake and make beautiful staked cakes, birthday cakes and even wedding cakes with them.
Here are some tips that I've collected from others that work to make their boxed cakes beautiful and unique.

1. Pudding in the mix?
Don't add any pudding to a cake that has pudding in it. It'll get mushy. BUT you can add a box of instant pudding to a non-pudding cake mix and that will make it stiffer and stay moist. The flavour is great too.

2. A recipe to make a denser moist cake
After some conversations and investigating I've found a recipe that a lot of people use to get a nice moist dense cake. 
With a Duncan Hines Cake mix (this seems to be the consensus) and use 2- 8" cake pans. 
Add 1 Cup of Sour Cream, add 1 Cup of flour (mixing well so there are no lumps), 1 Cup Sugar and 1/2 Cup butter melted. 
Bake at 325 for about 35-40 minutes. 

The other recipes I've found used mayo instead of the sour cream.


3. To make a boxed cake taste more like homemade
-add an additional egg.
-don't use the oil but rather double amount of butter or margarine
-instead of water use milk or buttermilk

4. Change the water to another liquid to add/change flavour
Instead of the water as asked:
-Use coffee for a coffee cake flavour
-Use fruit juice to change the flavour. 
-Kahlua works nice in a chocolate  cake.
-Buttermilk also gives a nice rich flavour.

5. Make your cake healthier
Want a lower fat cake-- add applesauce instead of the oil. This gives it a nice flavour without the added fat. A non fat yogurt or sour cream also works.
There's some recipes out there that I've personally never tried, but some swear by them. Here is one from Weight Watchers that I'm going to have to try:

http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeid=252983910

It uses Diet Soda as the liquid.. There would be a lot of variations with the different Diet Pop's out there..


6. Add a spice
-add some cinnamon; this is nice with coffee as the liquid. 
-add nutmeg, allspice, ginger or cloves. 
All to taste but start with 1/2 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons.

7. Add lemon, lime or orange 
Add some lemon,lime or orange zest. This will bring out some of the flavours and add some bright citrus flavour. Easily done by a zester (but a a cheese grater on the small end does work). Add the lovely scraped rind to the batter. 

8. Change the colour and flavour
-Want to have an orange cake? add orange juice instead of the water--and orange zest. 
-Make a blueberry, raspberry or a berry flavoured cake by adding the fruit puree to the mix. A cup of puree works well.
You can also make banana, peach, apricot and more. 
-Add more flavour by adding more vanilla extract or almond.

9. Jazz it up with nuts
Add some nuts to your cake mix. Add some walnuts, almonds or pecans to your cake mix. OR get a little creative and add a cup of peanut butter to the mix. 

10. Fruit 
Add some whole fruit. Chunks of pineapple, frozen blueberries (if you use frozen the cake mix won't turn blue as you mix), strawberries, raspberries or another fruit.

A couple other great boxed cakes methods:
-cut up a couple apples and lay them on a bottom of a pan, add some cinnamon (about 1 tsp), and about a 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Make the cake mix in another bowl and substitute the water for coffee. Once mixed dump over the apples-- don't mix--keep the apples on the bottom. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 325. 
Once out, let cool and flip over-- Voila you have a nice apple upside down cake. Doesn't even have to be iced..
This recipe also works for pineapple rings.

11. Don't make a cake--Make cupcakes!
Change it up and take your boxed cake mix and make some cupcakes. 
There are many recipes out there that can help you make your cake into mini cakes!
Here is one that kids love: Worm Cupcakes. 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Worm-Cake/Detail.aspx?prop24=hn_slide1_Worm-Cake&evt19=1


Overall cake mixes are easy to use and you can be very creative with them.
So have fun-- invent a new cheesecake bar with a boxed mix or come up with a crazy cookie recipe using boxed cake mix.

A great website I found was on the food network post: 16 Insane Things to Make with Boxed Cake Mix. This was amazing...from Red Velvet onion rings and fried chicken to mini rainbow donuts. Check this out for more:

http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/article/16-insane-things-make-boxed-cake-mix.html

Got a favourite recipe? please let us know and share. 

Thanks!
Christina Lapointe
www.christinascakecreations.ca
www.caketools.ca

Learning How to Make Sugar Flowers.... Part 1... The Beginning.

Thank you everyone for your continued support!

This blog is also found on our cake tool online store (www.caketools.ca)

Today I'd like to talk about sugar flowers and using them to decorate your cakes. Like real flowers there are many different styles, sizes, colours and shapes to sugar flowers. Your imagination is endless with what you'd like to create. This is a very long post so I thought I'd do it in a few blogs. PLEASE ADD and comment on what works for you...I'd love to share your tips and practices.

My website with sugar flowers pictures: www.christinascakecreations.ca 

I like to create sugar flowers as close to real flowers as possible. Although nature is a much better artist then I am I do my best to create flowers as close as I can get. However fantasy flowers are beautiful too!. 

Anyone can make a lovely decorated cake with flowers.

To start:

Think about what you're doing with them. Are you putting them on a cake? Are you making an arrangement?

These are important because you have to think about size, style of cake, size of vase (if you're making an arrangement) etc. For example if you're making a 6" cake you might only get 1 sugar peony on the top because they're usually a large sugar flower.

Other tips and things to think about:

-if you're putting sugar flowers on a cake, make them early. They last a long time, so they'll be good to go and you're not rushed the day you make they cake. Gum paste sugar flowers last definitely. 

-if you're making lovely simple fondant flower cutouts don't forget that you'll need something to adhere them to a cake. This can be done with a royal icing, edible glue (and I can pass along a recipe if you need it) or egg white (follow food safe practices when using eggs) 

-are you making sugar flowers with toothpicks, wire or nothing. Keep in mind that you don't want to insert a wire (even if it's covered with floral tape) into a cake--this is not a healthy food safe practice. You can make your sugar flowers on toothpicks and you can insert right into the cake. I have made sugar flowers with no wire or toothpicks and these are great for cake toppers. But if you're inserting in the side of a cake you need a toothpick or use a straw first (discussed next)

-Are you making a spray of flowers with a variety of flowers and sizes? This is usually done with wiring your flowers and leaves and putting them together. 

-A great way to insert wired sugar flowers into a cake is to have a large straw inserted first. For example I just finished 3 cake toppers for the top of 3 wedding cakes. The cakes were covered in butter cream icing. I inserted large milkshake straws in the top of each cake. When I wired all of my flowers together I made sure to floral tape them together nice and smooth so they would fit into a milkshake straw nice and tight. I inserted the straw first, took it out and with a thinner straw pushed out the cake that got caught inside, I put the large milkshake straw back in the hole and then put the cake topper in. I carefully pushed the sugar flower cake topper down so it sat nicely on the top of the cake.

Here is a picture of the cake topper sitting the 6" cake:

Choosing your sugar flowers: There are so many choices!  There are the standard customs of using different flowers for different things. For example Calla Lilies, Ranunculus and Rose sugar flowers are popular for wedding cakes. Daisies seem to be popular for birthday cakes. One thing you can do is visit a website that talks about the language of flowers, what flowers mean or even what the flower of the month is. A website that I've found is: http://thelanguageofflowers.com and I've even wrote information on this on a previous blog:  http://ottawacakeart.blogspot.ca/2014/05/junes-flower-is-rose-language-of-flowers.html 

But no matter what is common I think it's important to make the flowers that you want for your cake or arrangement. Again your imagination is endless! And I always like to mix it up with different flowers!

-Another decision to think about is: are you making your flowers out of fondant or gum paste?

The difference between fondant and gum paste:

First let’s talk Fondant.

Rolled fondant is a sugar dough. It is confectioners’ sugar (also called icing sugar here in Canada) a gelatin and glycerin which gives it a doughy consistency. There are different recipes such as adding corn syrup or vegetable oil; vegetable oil is generally found in the commercial brands. 

You would generally use rolled fondant for covering cakes, tops of cupcakes and cookies. If I'm using a commercial brand (which I do a lot, I admit) I sometimes add some flavour since most people do end up eating the fondant on the cake and some commercial fondant is tasteless. It isn't hard to make your own fondant. Poured fondant is simply icing sugar and water with a little chemistry to cook it where it should be (soft ball stage) However there are other poured fondant recipes out there that are great such as a Marshmallow Fondant.

If you're making flowers out of fondant keep in mind that the cutout flower is best. This is simply rolling out some fondant and using a 5 Petal Flower Cutter cut out your flower and then just stick it to your cake. It's generally not in 3-D. Or if you do make fondant flowers keep in mind they don't last long (especially in summer heat or humidity) and will wilt. 

Let's talk gum paste.

Gum paste is a sugar dough (icing sugar, water) with  a gum Arabic or gum tragacanth added (I add Tylose). You can roll it thin, mold characters and make sculptures. Basically it's a cake decorators clay. Gum paste is similar to fondant when working with it, but hardens. Working fast and smart is the way to go. I love working with gum paste, you can add so many fine details, textures, glue pieces together (with edible glue; which is a recipe I'll share if you need it), you can paint them and make beautiful pieces.There are different types of gum paste:

1. You can make your own. I do have a nice home made gum paste recipe if you need it.
2. You can buy the powdered gum paste and add water to the consistency you want. I personally don't care for this method. 
3. You can buy ready made gum paste. This is what I generally do, however making your own is simple.

Sugar flowers are generally made with gum paste so they can harden. Fondant sugar flowers can be made of course, but won't harden as quickly. Humidity and where you live also plays a factor of how quickly your fondant and gum paste will harden so keep this in mind. 

I have made sugar flowers out of fondant and added Tylose (which is a gum that will allow the fondant to harden) however I found in humidity that a good quality commercial (or handmade) gum paste hardens quicker and lasts longer then adding the Tylose just to fondant. 

To be continued...

Thanks for your continued support, 

Happy Decorating!!

Christina Lapointe

www.christinascakecreations.ca

www.caketools.ca