or

"Hey, I can do that!"


Saturday, October 30, 2010

Brrraaaiiinnnsss

Halloween 2010!


My kiddo actually went to bed early tonight!  That meant I had some time to decorate cuppies that I made earlier with something more festive.  This was inspired by The Domestic Sugar Bake Shop blog and her tutorial for fondant brains.  Unfortunately I must lack some key talent required to make brains, so here's my quick and dirty version.  I finally had an excuse to try out my homemade modeling chocolate!

Make several rough brain-shaped balls.
Using a toothpick, indent a line along the top of the ball.


 Indent several 1/2" perpendicular lines along the top.

On one hemisphere, indent smaller dashes between the previous indentations 
but DON'T touch the middle line.


Do this for each side, making a zigzag shape.  This will mimic a wavy brain wrinkle.

Indent other random dashes on the sides of the brain.
These don't look that great, but it's the top part that really sells this.

Brraaaiinnnss...

Mix red food coloring with piping gel and some corn syrup.

Take some perfectly good looking cuppies ...

... and ruin them.

Dab the tops of the cuppies with the blood and smoosh the brain on top.

Yum?

Happy Halloween!!!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Breast Cancer Awareness

Breast Cancer Awareness


October is Breast Cancer Awareness month!  Remind someone you care about.  I had an itch to bake but not a lot of time, so I made pink cake balls and cake pops for the ladies at my work and reminded them to check their boobies.  

Bakerella has just released her new Cake Pops book and I watched her promotional video on how she makes her little darlings on sticks.  Mine definitely didn't look as good as hers.  


I've signed up for cake ball classes at the downtown Whole Foods given by Austin Cake Ball.  Hopefully I can learn to churn out some decent looking treats just in time for Christmas.

One cool thing that came out of this was my new pop board.  We've got a lot of scrap wood lying around in the garage and this one finally came in to use.  I drilled 3/4" deep holes 2" apart (you can see my pencil marks because I couldn't decide at first where to put them).  A lollipop stick can fit into each hole, allowing a cake pop to dry safely.


3/16" drill bit made the perfect size

I melted some white candy wafers and mixed it with red powder food coloring.  This wasn't the exact shade of pink that I wanted, but it'll have to do.


I didn't use my food processor to make cake crumbs, and I think that was a big mistake.  My balls came out lumpy!  Here they are, looking like unappetizing meatballs.


This my first attempt at making cake pops.  Unlike cake balls, I think pops need more binding and longer time in the freezer.  I had so many fall apart when dipped into the candy melts.  I tried using some melted Nutella as my binder, but I really should have just whipped up a batch of buttercream and used that. 


My hot mess.

Much prettier when dressed up.

Bakerella's trick of dipping the stick into the melted candy before inserting it into the ball was great.  Be warned!  These babies will fall of the stick while you eat them.  Perhaps my balls are too big :b  I've got a lot to learn and am excited about my upcoming class.

As Seen On

As Seen On Capital Confectioners