Baking Project

I’ve actually made these a few weeks ago.. it’s lying in my tupperware somewhere in the kitchen. Been wanting to decorate it with Royal icing, but I still couldn’t find the time.  I am running here and there between preparing cakes for my second book, weekend classes and the usual housewife daily chores.  Anyway, here’s how I made these delicious cookies (the base for Decorated cookies).

There are loads of recipe out there, this is the one that I used:

Whisk the flour and add the salt into it.  Cream the butter and sugar until it is mixed, probably about 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the egg and essence.  Scrap and continue mixing until all is blended.  Turn the mixer to a slow speed, add the flour bit by bit until all is mix.  Do not overmix. Done. Now here is the tricky part.  The dough is very soft, you need to put it in the fridge for a while until it is hard enough to roll.

I am using parchment papers to ease the job.  Scrap the dough onto the parchment paper.  Then put another layer of parchment on top of the dough.  Roll and flattened it.

Make some space in your fridge.  I clear one whole shelf and transfer the whole thing, parchment paper with the dough in between, into the fridge.  Let it cool and hardened, I think at least for half an hour.

Preheat the oven, about 350F.  Remove the dough from the fridge and cut them with your cookie cutter.  Arrange on your cookie pan which has been lined with parchment or non stick baking sheet, leaving 1/2 inch between the cookies.  Bake for about 15 minutes until they turn golden around the edges.  If the dough turns too soft, put it in the fridge again and repeat the process.

Give it a try, not that difficult after all. Cheers .

Decorating cakes with shoes are nothing new.. I’ve seen the shoe cutters being sold for a few years now.  But somehow I don’t really the idea of putting shoe on your cake, maybe it’s the way I was brought up.  In real life, shoes should be kept away from food..  Nevertheless, I decided to put away those thoughts and bought myself a shoe cutter from Jem Cutters.   And here are the results :

What do you think ? The green one was not really dried and looks a bit distorted .   Let me show you how the cutter and mold looks like.  There are a few brands in the market, and each look different. The Jem Cutters I’ve used is this one.

It comes in several parts – the heel mold, sole cutter and the upper shoe parts.  And two small foams are also given for support.   Making the ladies shoe is not that difficult actually. Just cut and join the parts together.

The only drawback is you only have two of those small styrofoam for support.  So you have to wait for one shoe to dry before proceeding to make the other.  A slow process if you are planning to make more than one pair.  You could try to use cotton balls or other suitable things to hold the gumpaste parts while they are drying.  My recommendation is to make these shoes a few days ahead and not in our rainy days, you know the gumpaste might take a while to dry.   All in all,  I had a fun day making these ladies shoes and probably will add them as accessories to my cakes in the future.  Bye now .

I have always wanted to try making fondant fancies..  what’s holding me back is the baking of the sponge cake in a large square sheet pan.  Oh well, since this is just an experiment, I have cut out some squares from an old marble cake.  Lesson no. 1 learnt, never used a coloured cake for the base.  As you can see,  my pink cake turn out to have stripes of chocolate underneath.  I have covered at least 3 layers of liquid fondant to hide the marble cake.  The best cake to use is sponge cake, I think butter cake would be fine too.

The correct way to make fondant fancies is to bake a large square sponge cake. After baking,  cool the cake, wrap in cling film and chill for 2 to 3 hours.  This would make the cake slightly firm and easier to cut into smaller squares.  Some apply a layer of marzipan onto the big cake before cutting it.  But I didn’t use any for the above.

To make the liquid fondant, simply add a little water to your fondant.  Heat in a saucepan over very slow fire.  Never let it boil coz it will lose its shine.  I’ve also added liquid glucose and I find this helps to slow down the liquid fondant from becoming hard.  Therefore, more time to dip the cakes.

You have to get the right thick pouring consistency.   Colour the liquid fondants and dip away !

I didn’t really enjoy the process as I find it too  messy.. similar to ‘steam buttercream‘.  Imagine the cleaning-up to be done ! Place on the wire rack to let it dry.

Here I am losing my patience and was just pouring the whole thing to make a few layers..  .

After the fondant fancies have dried, lift it with your wet fingers and place into the cupcake liners.  Press the sides so it would take up the square shape.  Decorate as you wish, usually with gumpaste or royal icing.   Just remember not to store them in the fridge.

Hope I’ve shed some light on the making of fondant fancies..   they sure look pretty.  I have written a similar article before, decorating cupcakes with poured fondant.

I will not be updating this blog as frequent as before,  appreciate it very much if you could subscribe to my RSS feed so that any new post will be notified to your email.  Hop over to my Facebook where I think it is much easier to communicate.   Till then, Happy new Year to all my readers and friends . Thank you for your support for these past years.