How I Like To Clean My Icing Bottles

Today's post is short & sweet. I wanted to share with you how I like to clean my icing bottles. I like to use a baby bottle brush to clean them out real good and dry them on a rack for baby bottles. That's it! I'm sure most of you already do this but I thought I'd share anyway.

The rack comes in handy to dry your piping bags too. I like to use the plastic wrap method, by Karen at karenscookies.net to fill my piping bags. However, even with this method you still get icing on the coupler and they need to be rinsed out. The rack does a good job of holding them while they dry. The bottom of the rack is a good place to hold the caps of the bottles, tips and tip covers while they dry too. I don't have them pictured but my boo boo sticks end up here also. I rarely use the smaller icing bottles but when I do they fit real nice on the smaller holders.

I'm interested in hearing how you clean & dry your bottles. Happy Tuesday everyone!

100 Facebook Fans Giveaway

The giveaway is now closed. The winner is comment # 14.

Congratulations! I will be contacting you by email for your mailing address.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway. I enjoyed reading your comments.

Some people have giveaways when they reach 1000, 2000 or 5000 fans on Facebook. Huge milestones! Well for me 100 Facebook fans was my first big milestone. When I created this blog in October 2011 it was mainly for my friends and family to be able to see my creations. In January of this year I decided why not create a Facebook page for my blog and see where it goes. One month later I have reached 100 Facebook fans (138 at the time I'm writing this). This just warms my heart. Thank you to everyone that has liked my page and shared it. I truly appreciate it.

To celebrate my first big milestone I'm having a little giveaway. One lucky person will win all these goodies.

One thing that you need to know about me is that I love to shop. I set out on my search for giveaway items with the thought of picking up only one or two things but I found several things that I really wanted to give to one lucky person. A few of my favorite things in my favorite colors.

Here's what you get:

1 set of my favorite measuring cups from Sur La Table (I own 4 different sets)
1 set of my favorite measuring spoons from Sur La Table (again I own 4 sets of these)
1 mini offset spatula (I gave mine to my mom so I should have gotten another for myself because this one is in my favorite color)
1 set of bunny cookie cutters from Hobby Lobby (you can make different sizes of Peeps with these)
1 set of Easter cookie cutters from Hobby Lobby (including another Peep shape bunny, an egg and a tulip)
1 copper bunny cookie cutter from Hobby Lobby (I think it's just tin coated a copper color--lol)
1 cross cookie cutter from Hobby Lobby (you will love the shape and size of this cutter. I can't wait to use mine.)
1 set of grip oven mitts
1 silicone spatula

Note:

This giveaway is sponsored by myself. I purchased all of the items for this giveaway myself.

So here's how to enter:

I'm fairly new to blogging and I'm always interested in growing so I'd like for you to leave a comment ON THIS POST telling me what your favorite thing in a blog is. That's it! Is it the writing, the photos, tutorials, recipes, etc? What keeps you going back for more on your favorite blogs? ***Please include your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you've won.

Rules:

*1 comment per person
*U.S. residents only
*Winner will be contacted via email and must respond within 48 hours of being contacted or another winner will be chosen

*Giveaway will end Sunday March 4, 2012 at 9:00PM CST. The winner will be chosen using random.org.

Thanks for entering and good luck!!!

Marshmallow Fondant (MMF)

This is an impromptu post. I was planning on posting some cookies this week but it didn't happen. Instead, I made some marshmallow fondant (MMF). It was my first time making it and overall I'd say it was successful. Am I 100% sold on it? Not sure???

One of my friends has asked me to make a cake for her daughter's birthday. I've made a few cakes before so I was thinking that it wouldn't be a problem. Well I was wrong. She wants a two tiered cake that looks like presents. This is where it gets interesting. I have never made a two tier cake and I have never covered a cake with fondant. I think I like to torture myself. I figure that I will never learn unless I try. Thank goodness my friend is one of my biggest supporters. She encourages me and if something doesn't come out how I wanted it she tells me it's no big deal. Thank goodness for nice, understanding friends. If not for her I would not have done most of the cakes that I've made. My thing is cookies not cakes but I love cakes and I want to learn.

My favorite brand of fondant is Satin Ice. I personally like the way it tastes. The downside is that a 2 lb tub of it costs around $15 plus tax at my local cake shop. I will be making a 6" two layer tier and a 10" two layer tier. According to Wilton's chart, of fondant amounts to cover cakes, I will need a total of 72 oz of fondant. This is 4 1/2 lbs or $33.75 plus tax of just fondant alone. I'm sure the 5 lb tub is cheaper but I've never bought that size so I'm not sure exactly what it costs. To try and save on cost I thought I'd make a test batch of MMF. Am I crazy to try something I've never used before on my first attempt at a fondant cake? Answer is probably so.

When searching for MMF recipes I decided to go with a recipe by Mayen on YouTube. She makes incredible cakes and is very knowledgeable when it comes to cake decorating.
The MMF recipe by Mayen is as follows:

16 oz of marshmallows

3 tbsp water

2 lbs powdered sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

I followed her recipe exactly except that I added 1/4 tsp of almond emulsion because I love the taste of vanilla with a little almond.

I made sure to sift my powdered sugar and I weighed my marshmallows.

Then I greased everything, as Mayen said to do, with shortening and melted my marshmallows in the microwave. Mine took 1 minute 20 seconds to melt. Then I added my flavorings and mixed. The picture below is how they looked after I added the flavorings and before I mixed.

I put about 3/4 of the powdered sugar in my mixing bowl and then added the marshmallow mixture and mixed. I added a little more powdered sugar at a time until I reached the consistency I thought was right. All 2 lbs of powdered sugar were used. The plastic wrap tip was great because I tend to make a mess when I bake and there was only a small mess. I will use this technique from now on when making buttercream and cookies.

One thing I learned is not to be afraid of the shortening. I should have coated everything a little more heavily than I did. I didn't take a picture of what everything looked like coated but this is how my bowl looked after I removed the fondant. Perhaps this happened because I needed a little more powdered sugar. Except for a small bit of stickiness the majority felt firm and didn't stick to my fingers so I didn't think I needed more.

I went ahead and put what powdered sugar did not mix in with my ball of fondant and coated my hands thoroughly with shortening and kneaded away. My wrists could not handle all the kneading so I had to break it down into two smaller balls of fondant.

Once kneaded the texture was nice and smooth and felt similar to Satin Ice's texture. I thought the taste was not bad either. I weighed the two portions of fondant and came out with a little over 3 lbs, including the plastic wrap, which is what Mayen said the recipe would make.

 After letting the fondant rest for a few hours I decided to roll a bit out to test the consistency. Overall, it rolled out nicely but it did get some air bubbles in it and it felt a bit sticky and soft. This may be because I rolled it out on a silicone mat and not a counter coated with powdered sugar or cornstarch.

So that's it. A very long post I know but I wanted to document the process. What's the bottom line? The MMF was not hard to make, it tasted good and it's inexpensive. This recipe cost about $4 to make 3 lbs of fondant (price will vary based on brand you use and location). This is very reasonable compared to store bought fondant. The downside is that it did get several air bubbles when rolling (this could be from my lack of experience with fondant but this has happened very rarely with Satin Ice) and it felt a bit on the soft side. Will I use the MMF? I'm going to say more than likely not. I have experience using Satin Ice for accents on cakes and cupcakes and because of my experience with how it feels and rolls I will probably stick to using it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on MMF. Do you love it or hate it? Do you have a recipe you love? Do you have any tips? I'm not going to ditch MMF forever but just for now. I think it would be great to use for accents and figures because of the savings.

Cristin's Cookie Challenge - Mickey Mouse Cookies

Today several cookie decorators are doing a link-up party over at Cristin's Cookies. I am super excited to participate in my first challenge. The theme of the challenge is Mickey Mouse. Cristin chose this theme because they are celebrating her son's 18th birthday at Disneyland. Very exciting! I've been to Disneyworld once many years ago and it was quite the experience. We only spent a few days there and there is so much that I did not get to see. I would love to go back again or go to Disneyland.

Let me just say that character cookies are not my favorite cookies to make. I find them to be very challenging and I tend to stay away from them. Characters are well know icons. If you do not get their features just right it will be blatantly obvious. I currently do not take orders but back when I was I always feared the character request. You can see the few character cookies I made here.

I made this set of Mickey cookies with my cousin in mind. Her son Isaac is celebrating his birthday this month and he loves Mickey.

All I can say is that without my Kopykake these cookies would not be possible. Many decorators do not use Kopykake's because they are just super talented artists but when it comes to cookies that require detail mine is my best friend. I cannot draw to save my life. I'm pretty pleased with my first Mickey cookies. I know now how to approach designing him so next time around I think he'll be better.

I hope that you will hop on over to Cristin's blog and check out the other Mickey cookies being created. Also, be sure to check out Cristin's work. She decorates more cookies than anyone I know. When she decorates she goes all out. She doesn't just make one or two designs. She makes tons of designs for each theme. I don't know how she does it. It must be all the bike riding she does that gives her the energy. Perhaps I need to take up bike riding. :-)

You can also find Cristin on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cake Balls & Cake Pops Video Tutorial

I made a video tutorial for you on how I make cake balls and cake pops. Let's just say that I'm not 100% happy with how it turned out and I wasn't going to post it but then I decided what the heck post it anyway.

Sometimes things don't turn out how we planned them to but there are lessons to be learned from them. I hope you will find the tutorial useful or at least entertaining.

It has been quite some time since I last made cake balls and cake pops. I should have practiced before I tried making a tutorial.

This was my first time ever making a video. It was kind of a trial & error experience. I don't like talking on video but I may have to start liking it because adding music to a video is a pain (at least for me it was because I didn't want to get in trouble with copyrights and had to choose free music from YouTube). I apologize if any of the text in the video is hard to read.

I made some notes at the end of the video but I'm posting them here too as well as some extra notes.

*I used slightly less than 1/2 cup of frosting. In hindsight I should have used a little more. The balls held together but they should have been a little more moist. I started noticing some cracks in the balls before I dipped them.

*I put the balls in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes and instead I should have put them in the freezer for about 5 to 10 minutes (what I normally do) before dipping because they were a bit soft and some fell apart on me. You just have to be careful that the balls do not freeze because this could cause your chocolate to crack.

*I forgot to take a final shot of the finished cake balls & cake pops, but you can display cake balls in mini cupcake wrappers. Cake pops can be covered with a small clear treat bag and tied with ribbon or display them upside down in a mini cupcake wrapper as well.

*In the video I immediately took the toothpick off but you can leave them in until the chocolate sets up and then gently twist them out. You can hide the hole with decorations. Also, you do not have to use sugar & sprinkles. You can let the chocolate set up and then go back & decorate them with different colors of chocolate or candy coatings. The possibilities are endless.

*I used store bought cake mix and frosting for ease of demonstration but you can make cake balls with any kind of cake and frosting. Totally up to you. Again the possibilities are endless for flavor combinations.

*Since it had been awhile since I last made cake balls I had some trouble getting my chocolate the right consistency. You will learn with practice what works for you. The best advice I can give is to make sure the chocolate is not too thick. You do not want it to look clumpy. The chocolate needs to have a flow to it. To achieve this you need to add shortening but you don't want to add too much. I've never used Paramount Crystals but you can also use them to thin chocolate.

*Remember that making cake balls & cake pops should be fun and if you don't like the way they turn out they're still edible.

*Finally, this tutorial is how I make cake balls and cake pops. It's what works for me. Everyone will have their own way of making them. I'm certainly no Bakerella. Definitely check her out. I recommend her book.

Thanks for watching!

Got Cookbooks?

I can't remember exactly when I started collecting cookbooks but I've been doing it for a number of years. I thought I'd share some pictures of my collection with you (I think I have more in boxes). I have a five shelf bookcase in my office and the first four shelves are full of cookbooks and cooking magazines. My collection is always growing. In fact on the way back from my recent trip to visit my parents I added four more books. I picked them up at a gas station that sells all sorts of things called Buc-ee's. It's a Texas thing. If you ever come across one definitely stop on in. It is a neat place. I'll definitely visit them again because there were other books I wanted but I didn't want to break the bank.

Anywho, I don't know if most people are like me but I have not made one thing out of about 99% of the cookbooks I own. It's sad but true. Some of the books still have plastic on them. Lol!

My blog is still very new and I'm brainstorming ideas on what direction I'd like to go with it. One of the thoughts I've had is to start trying recipes from my cookbooks and if I come across ones that I just love I will share them with you.

I'm trying to find my niche and I hope that you will bear with me as I figure things out. I'm also thinking of doing some tutorials on how I decorate cookies, cupcakes and cakes. I may even try video tutorials but don't hold me to it because I just can't stand how I sound on video. It's just strange to listen to yourself talking on a video. I would like to try it though because I have had friends say they'd like to watch me decorate. This would be a way that they could see what I do as well as others. 

I'm open to suggestions. If you have a request for something you'd like to see contact me and let me know. I'll do my best to see if it's something I can do.

Thanks for being on this journey with me.