SugarEd Lagniappe

DIY Cupcake Wrappers

2012-01-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

It's The NFL Playoffs!

Like any good native New Orleanean right now, my mind is obsessed with the Saints' road to Superbowl 2012. Two more games! Will we do it? Nerves and excitement and anticipation.....

So the other day I am driving back from the dentist , about a 50 minute ride in the car. Of course I am thinking abut my beloved Who Dat Boyz. But I also realize that it is time for me to post another item on the blog. What shall I do? Then I go back to thinking about the playoff game this coming Saturday, and the fact that I need to bring a dessert to my sister's house for the viewing party. What shall I bring? Hmmmm.... the kids love cupcakes and they are easy to make. But I have to make them cute and football themed. What shall I do, what shall I do?

As I am driving along consumed with thoughts of cupcakes and football (and probably not paying nearly enough attention to driving).... it hit me! It just came to me, and with it that adrenalin rush of excitement you get when a creative idea pops into your head. The more I think about it, the more excited I am getting. As I continue to hash out and develop the idea in my mind, I find my heart starting to race a bit and my tummy having a few butterflies. Oh I am SO excited! This is going to be great! You guys know that feeling..... you get the light bulb moment and then you just can't wait to get started and see if it will turn out like you hope.

I found myself driving faster and faster to get home so I could get started. Passing folks who are going too slow for me. Blowing the horn at that little old lady who who sat at the red light one fraction of a second too long once it turned green. ( And I am usually a very patient and considerate driver.)

A little faster still. Heck on the passing lane! I am passing folks on the shoulder! At 80 miles an hour! Kicking up a trail of dust and gravel. Running red lights and stop signs. I have to get home!

Then it happened. Yep, the copper. Got pulled over for my so called "erratic driving". Officer Bully came up to my window and peered over his out of style metal rimmed sunglasses. He did not look pleased as he pulled his fat ticket book out of his back pocket and flipped the top over, starting to write. As he scribbled all my essential information, I excitedly explained about my idea, and that I needed to hurry up and get home to get started before I lost my inspiration. (Or forgot my idea, which is a problem at my age.) He listened intently and when I finished he said, "You are making Saints themed cupcakes for the game this weekend? WHO DAT!" And not only did I not get a ticket, he gave me a lights and sirens escort all the way to my house. We sped down Highway 59 topping speeds of 95 MPH. We got so air born going over speed bumps that I felt like that orange car in the Dukes Of Hazzard. As I peeled into my driveway on two wheels, I waved off Officer Friendly , screeched the car to a halt, and ran inside to my desk to start my project.

OK, none of that really happened. But wasn't that more exciting to read than "I drove home from the dentist and started to work on my cupcakes." ?? (grin)

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So my idea was to try to make my own custom cupcake wrappers. There are not any cute football or Saints ones out there, so I figured I could do it on my computer.

I started with buying this piece of clip art, which only cost a few dollars:

I use my favorite graphics arts program, Print Shop, but you can use any printing program you like. I imported the clip art into the program, and printed it out on photo paper. I used photo paper because I wanted the gloss, but you could also use card stock paper.

Here it is printed out with two strips, for two cupcakes.

For this one I just created a large square of gold color in the program and placed the words layered on top and printed that out.

The last one I used a fun font and fleur de lis clip art to create this pattern. I took an extra cupcake wrapper I had on hand and traced that pattern onto the paper and cut it out. Then I attached the two ends of the wrapper with one single staple in the back.

I decided to use clip art on edible icing sheets to make one of the cupcake toppers. I printed the fleur de lis out using my edible ink printer. I added some powdered tylose to white fondant and rolled it to number 4 on my pasta roller. I dampened the fondant with a moist paper towel, and laid the cut out fleur de lis on top. I used a clean exacto knife to cut out the fondant using the fleur de lis as the guide. This sat overnight to get nice and firm.

I wanted to dress it up a little, so I piped a black royal icing outline around the fleur de lis and sprinkled edible glitter dust on. I wasn't really thrilled with the look of that, so on another one I outlined and then also brushed the entire surface of the fleur de lis with piping gel before sprinkling the dust on. That made a really cool sparkly silhouette. I like that one much better. Those have to dry fully as well before going in the icing.

A fun Who Dat cupcake!

I used push molds to make more fleur de lis from fondant with tylose added. Let those dry overnight and then painted with gold luster dust paint. The mold on the far left was homemade, but the white one can be found here, and the multi one is right here.

I love the big gold one on top.

I know we don't usually use black icing for obvious reasons, but I had to try one to see how it looked. If you have anyone at your party pulling for the other team, they get that one. :)

I did both scalloped and straight cut papers.

I like this elegant one a lot.

And I also discovered the special effects in my photo editing program!

Focal color:

Soft focus:

Black and white with a hit of color:

Sepia:

Warmified:

Soft focus again. Ok, I got a little carried away.....

Regular!

Notes:

1) These papers are not food safe, so make sure the icing and cake do not touch them.

2) Let the ink dry a while before you cut them to avoid smearing with your fingers
3) Be sure not to use copyrighted logos on items for sale.

$) If your dumb cupcakes do not bake up high enough, bump them up by placing an Oreo cookie under them inside the wrapper. :)

These were really fun to make, and easy! And fast! The possibilities are infinite when you make your own wrappers. I really hope you try it.

Now, I must go iron my Saints jersey for the big game Saturday!

GO SAINTS!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

New Year's Chocolate Favors

2011-12-29T17:49:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Can you believe another year has gone by? Boy it goes so fast. I hope all of you had a wonderful and magical holiday season.

I have one last tutorial for you for this year. I realize I am probably posting too late for you to get the supplies and make these this year, but hopefully you will tuck this idea away in your files for next year.

Let's make these adorable chocolate party favors. They stand about 5.5 inches tall.

Gently melt the super white candy melts and tint it gray with oil based candy colors. Then fill both halves of the ice bucket mold. Pop them in the freezer for about 10-12 minutes until they easily release from the mold.

Here are the two sides.

You can see by looking at the half on the left that the mold has the chocolate coming up above the surface of the bucket. We have to carve some of that out with an exacto knife so that the bottle and ice can sit down in the bucket. You can see this was done on the half on the right.

Here are the two sides standing up for another angle showing how the halves need to be carved out.

Glue the two sides together with melted chocolate and smooth all the seems and imperfections with a knife and super clean (or gloved) fingers.

Now we break out the magic stuff. Silver luster dust dry dusted on top of gray chocolate (or fondant or gumpaste) will have a very realistic silver metallic look. (Make sure you buy an edible luster dust.)

Then melt and color more chocolate green. Mold and chill the bottle halves.

Pop them out when ready.

Again join the two halves and smooth them out.

Cut the bottle at the height you want it to stick out of the bucket, with a little slant on the bottom.

Spray the bottle with about 3 coats (drying in between) of edible lacquer to give it some subtle shine.

Edible icing sheets are used to make the labels, and candy foil to cover the stopper.

Glue the bottle in the bucket with more chocolate, and add rock candy for ice.

A photo for size reference.

These would make great table decorations. They would also be fabulous party favors if boxed in clear plastic boxes.

HERE IS TO 2012!

All of us here at SugarEd Productions wish you a prosperous and healthy year; filled with love and laughter and success. We sincerely thank you for your patronage, and look forward to serving you in 2012.

Happy caking!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Edible Holiday Place Cards

2011-12-19T15:31:00.000-08:00

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Don't you just love the holiday season? I sure do. I especially love all the festivities and get togethers with loved ones. I am planning an intimate dinner party this weekend with just my closest of friends. I hate those big ole stuffy parties where it is so crowded and loud you can't even talk to anyone, don't you? I prefer a much more intimate setting. That is why I am doing a sit down holiday dinner. I have invited 6 of my closet friends. I cannot wait!

I have made these beautiful edible placards to put on the table. I just hate it when everyone fights over who is going to sit next to me. So awkward. These should solve that problem!

Let me show you how to make them, they are easy!
(You can click on the photos to make them larger.)

Print the names in the size and font you want on edible icing sheets. I like Kopykake brand. (You have to use an edible ink printer to make these food safe.)

Cut them out and lay them face down into the place card chocolate mold.

Pour melted white chocolate into the card molds and the little stands too.

About 8-10 minutes in the freezer and then they will fall right out of the mold. Now the edible image is embedded into the chocolate and it looks seamless and like all one piece! Love that.

To decorate these, I piped royal icing bead borders with a tip7. Let that dry a good bit and then paint them with gold luster dust mixed with vodka. Let that fully dry. Then add a red clay gun string ( the smallest round disc) as a decorative border inside the gold piping.

Attach the stand to the back with chocolate.

I also used these premade royal icing decorations that I purchased here.

Isn't that just beautiful? I think Martha will be a little jealous of my mad crafty skillz. :)

Your guests will be awed by the fact that these are edible, and even more so by the fact that you made them.

I also made another design for my New Orleans pals. Many of you know that I am a devoted native of New Orleans, and just adore our culture and history. I wanted to make something special for my local buds.

For these, I used my strip cutters to frame the cards with red and green fondant.

I used my fleur de lis push mold and white fondant to make the decorations. I painted them gold after they were dry, then attached them to the cards.

Lovely. I think Drew will be impressed. Yes, Drew and I are close personal friends. (He just doesn't know it yet.)

Darren (Sproles) and Harry (Connick) will shower me with compliments.

What? You don't believe that I know Harry?
Let me prove it to you then:

Right after this photo was taken he proposed. But I had to say no because I am already married.

Back to the place cards:

I think the fleur de lis is especially fitting for Drew.

Darren also, since they both play for the Saints. Who Dat!

Harry loves his coffee and dessert.

I cannot wait for my party!

I hope Oprah does not drink too much and hit on Donald like last year.

I hope you guys give these a try; they are really fun and easy to make.

And be sure to join us on Facebook for our related Give-away!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Ruffled Christmas Tree cake

2011-12-16T17:52:00.000-08:00

Oh Christmas Tree!

Oh, I used that intro last time.

My bad.

Wanna see how to make this ridiculously raucous ruffled rarity?

Let me show you my inspiration. I saw this photo of a shirt on Pinterest and it screamed cake to me. (Sorry I do not know the owner of this photo.)

"MAKE ME INTO A CAKE!"

Ok, stop yelling at me. I will!

I wanted to make it a little bit more fun by coloring the batter. How did I do it you ask? Just make two batches of batter and color them with your gel or paste colors. Then just plop blobs of the batter into the pan alternately and randomly. Do not spread it out with a spatula, nor stir or swirl it. That will make the colors mix and give you black cake. Ask me how I know. :) .... Bake as usual.

Then I carved a basic triangular tree shape from the cake and used a leftover piece for the trunk. I decided after the first cuts that the tree was too thin, so I added small strips on each side to make it fatter. You can see the icing seems where I glued those pieces together.

Crumb coated.

Covered in fondant. You can surely use buttercream if you like.

Now it is time to make the ruffles. Cut a long strip of fondant.

Use white fondant to cut circles for your polka dots.

Attach the fondant to the cake. Just pinch and press the top edge of the fondant ruffle as you go along the width of the cake. Use shortening as your glue and you will love me forever. Trust me on this. No mess. No drippies. No smears. No cuss words. :)

I put the polka dots on after the green ruffle was on the cake. It was much easier to do it that way, rather than trying to do it before. Trust me again. I tried it both ways. First way involved some cuss words. :)

Red strip of fondant with thinner white strips.

Attach the stripes before you put the ruffle on the cake. Trust me on this too. I tried to add them after the ruffle was applied, and it involved some cuss words. :)

Pinch and ruffle as you go along. Use paper towel scraps to prop up your ruffles or they will just droop down flat.

This green ruffle used the PME smocking roller. Don't even think about doing the impression after the ruffle is on the cake! :)

In place.

Another white ruffle with bigger red polka dots.

Diagonal white stripes on green ruffle.

Keep it on going all the way up the tree.

I finished mine with a bow on the top. Prop it up with paper towels until fully dry and firm.When everything is fully dry, take all the paper towels out. If you have dryness, cornstarch residue, or just want to refresh the look of the cake, we then do what? I know you know! :)

Fondant clay gun squiggles and polka dots to dress up the board.

Cute, yes?

Let's see how the inside looks:

Fun, yes?

Kewl.

I love my little ruffly tree cake. I think the Tshirt would be proud.

What other color combinations do you think would be cute for this cake?

I hope you like it and try it!

Happy Caking!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Christmas Tree Mini Cakes

2011-12-13T22:30:00.000-08:00

Oh Christmas Tree!

I have a serious weakness for mini and individual confection cuteness. I saw a mini cake on the Family Fun website that spurred the idea for these. Come along with me and I will show you how to make 'em!

I used frozen pound cake in this case because I was ~~too lazy~~ too pressed for time to bake. You can certainly use your own recipe and cut these from sheet cakes. Just be sure to use a very sturdy cake or they will not hold up under the weight of the icing.

I used my Ateco nesting blossom cutters for these trees, but you could also use squares and stagger the shapes, or even hexagons might be cute. (Ignore the marshmallows in this photo. I ended up not using them but forget to retake this photo. Oopsie.)

Level the cake and create a layer the height you want each tier of your tree to be. My layers were right at one inch high each. Use your three sizes of cutters and cut out the shapes.

This next thing I am going to tell you is very important, so lean closer to the monitor so you can hear me. Closer. Still a little closer. I do not want you to miss this, because the success of your entire project may depend upon this!

Are you close? Ok, good. Notice how I am cutting the cake with the crust side up. Please be sure NOT to do this. Cut it with the crust side down. And then push the cake up through the top of the cutter to get it out. You will see why in just a little bit.

Pull the rest of the cake away and then remove the cake from the cutters. It is much easier to work with firm cold cake.

Now you have the three tiers of your tree and the extra cake can be used to make cake balls, or do what I do and just throw them in a Ziplock for the hubby and kids to snack on.

Now take the layers of cake, and stack them up, but alternate the alignment of the petals as shown above. Run a skewer through all three layers for stability. This is the only cake you may ever make where one tiny skewer is the only dowel you will need for the whole cake!

Sit the cake on top of one of the cookie cutters, and place this on a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap.

Cut the skewer off right below the top surface of the cake.

Now time to make the icing to pour. In this case I used glace icing because it gives more coverage than poured fondant, is not as translucent, dries with more of a gloss, and ~~I was too lazy~~ is easier to make and use.

Glace icing:

one pound powdered sugar
6 TBS milk
6 TBS light corn syrup
flavorings as desired (I use 1tsp each of vanilla and almond)

Whisk all of the above together vigorously by hand with gel or paste food coloring until totally smooth. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and let it settle a while until the air bubbles rise to the surface. Then you can take the plastic off and pop the bubbles on the surface with the back of a spoon or spatula. Do not re-stir. (Keep icing covered in plastic when not in use.)

Now you are ready to pour:

You need to pour a large amount over the cake. Way more than what will end up staying on the cake. This will insure that every little nook and cranny of the cake will be covered. I took this picture right after I poured the icing and put the bowl down. It should run down the cake very fast, about the consistency a chocolate fountain would be.

Within just a minute or two , most of it will run off the cake. You can see how it is getting thinner on the sides now.

When the dripping slows down to just a few drops (this will be just a few minutes), pick up the cookie cutter with cake still on top and move it to another surface to dry fully. You need to do this right away so you can scrape up all the excess poured icing, put it back in your bowl and use it again. The glace has to be scraped up quickly before it starts to crystallize and firm up.

You may want to let this layer of icing firm for about an hour, and then give the whole cake another pour. I did two coats on mine, because it made the finished cake look a lot smoother and more polished than just one coat.

Ok, remember that I told you about cutting the cake crust side down ? The reason for this is because you want the flow of the icing to be going in the same direction as the grain of the cut of the cookie cutter. You want the icing to flow down the cut sides of the layers in the same direction that the cookie cutter cut them.

And this is why:

Can you say ugly? This cake was poured with the layers stacked in the opposite direction of how they were cut. So the weight of the icing flowing down pulled down the cut sides of the cake (against the grain), and made the cake sides separate and stick out, not stay flush and tight. So I got this really ugly surface on the cake. Blech.

Pretty:

Pretty ugly:

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So, now you have to let the icing dry for 18-24 hours until the surface is nice and firm in order to be able to decorate it.

To decorate: strings from the clay gun for the garland, little rolled balls of fondant for the ornaments, and a fondant star for the top. I used sanding sugar in the white icing snow and threw some white disco dust over everything, because disco dust makes everything look better! Note: not all disco dusts are considered edible, so choose wisely.

Ta dah!! I also made some little fondant packages and a cute teeny weeny snowman.

Say it with me: awwwwww

And a picture just for size reference.

So, do remember this hideous nightmare disaster of ugliness the likes the Earth has never seen before?

I hated the thought of throwing it away, so I tried to disguise its mutant repulsiveness by painting some white buttercream snow on the branches of the cake, and adding some colored balls and disco dust:

What do you think? I think it's not too bad now! And the plus side is that this one takes way less time to decorate than the first one.

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Back to that ~~purchased frozen~~ fresh baked cake you made:

You will have a layer of cake left over from leveling that will not be tall enough to use for tiers of the tree. You can use other holiday shaped cookie cutters.

They are the perfect height for little petit fours. Just pour icing over them them and let dry. Easy.

Then treat yourself to them on nice china with a hot cup of your favorite holiday flavored coffee. You worked hard; you deserve it.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Sing along with me everyone:

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

They leaves are so unchanging.

Not only green with icing here.

But also sweet and cuteness near.

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

Thy leaves are so......(Fill in the blank)

Happy Holidays!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Holiday Sale!

2011-12-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

Time to celebrate the holidays

with your choice between two offers!

You can choose either:

20% off your entire purchase**

**excludes two flower DVDs

OR

With every purchase of $50 before shipping, you may choose one of the following items as your gift:

Back to Basics DVD
Perfecting the Art of Buttercream DVD
Flawless Fondant DVD
Successful Stacking DVD
Boxes and Bows DVD
Topsy Turvy DVD
Sheet Cake Secrets DVD
Sheet Cake Bonus DVD
Design Gallery DVD
Sweet Luxuries DVD
Book Smarts DVD
Diamond Impression Mat
Line Impression Mat
Butterfly Stencil
Daisy and Dot Stencil
Frill Cutter set 1
Frill Cutter set 2
Palette Knife
Stitching Tool
Baby Bootie Cutters
Bench Scraper
Choose two of the molds below:
Chocolate Frame
Business Card
A-L Chocolate Mold
M-Z Chocolate Mold
Cherry Cordial

To choose 20% off your order:

Use coupon code holiday20 upon checkout.

OR

To claim your free item:

Please do not put the desired item into your shopping cart or you will be charged for it. Upon checkout, enter the name of the desired item into the order instructions/comments box, and proceed with checkout as usual.

OFFER GOOD FOR ORDERS PLACED

December 5-15, 2011 ONLY

** These two offers may not be used in the same order
** May not be combined with other special offers

Happy Holidays from SugarEd!

www.sugaredproductions.com

Perfect Pumpkin Roll

2011-11-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Blog Blitz Post #5

Welcome to the 5th and final installment of my Thanksgiving Blog Blitz. I gotta tell ya I am plum wore out. Been burning the candle at both ends over here, as I am sure many of you are too. I am just flat busted exhausted. So this post is going to be a little bare bones. I don't have any ideas for witty commentary or fancy photos. But I still want to give you the information for this project as promised:

How to make a perfect pumpkin roll:

Make the recipe and bake it.

Add some filling, roll it up, and it should look like this:

Enjoy! Hope you try it!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

JUST KIDDING!

You guys know I would never do that to you!
I was just messin' with ya! Tee hee hee.

Here we go:

How to make this most gorgeous and beautiful pumpkin roll:

Make the recipe as directed (given below). Line a 10x15 jelly roll pan with wax paper or parchment paper, spray with pan spray, pour in the batter and bake as directed. Do not over bake. Take it out as soon as the top springs back when touched.

While the cake is baking, take a clean kitchen towel that does not have a very loopy surface and dust it liberally with powdered sugar.

As soon as the cake is done, flip it out onto the towel and peel off the wax paper. Do this right out of the oven. Do not cool it. Do not go get a sip of diet coke and then forget about it. (Just sayin'; that does not work.)

Immediately roll up the cake and towel together, then place on a cooling rack for about one hour. Now you can go get something to drink.

Once the cake is almost completely cool, but just barely warm, unroll it and spread an even thickness of the cream cheese filling across the cake. (Recipe below.)

Roll it up, somewhat tight. If the cake was not over baked or over cooled, it should not crack. If it cracks, do not freak out. No freaking out over pumpkin rolls allowed. You can cover it with powdered sugar or icing later.

Wrap this in plastic and keep in fridge at least a couple of hours or until a short time before serving. It is easier to cut while cold. The slices come out cleaner and prettier, but you do not have to serve it cold. (Please ignore the fact that there is more diet coke in my fridge than milk.)

Take it out the fridge and cut off the two rough ends of the roll, as the ends are not too pretty. Those are your quality control portions. You have to test it before serving it to others, of course!

Sprinkle with more sifted powdered sugar once on your serving platter. Is that not gorgeous?

Incredibly yummy too.

Please do not be afraid to try this. I was afraid the first time I did one that it would be a disaster. It is actually a very easy process, and you should get perfect results each time. The recipe is quick to do and tastes great. This is a perfect last minute holiday dessert that you can whip up in no time. And of course, you will impress everyone with this stunner.

Ingredients

CAKE:

1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

FILLING:

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions:

FOR CAKE:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

FOR FILLING:

BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

COOKING TIP:
Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

And here is a video of the process that might help:

Video

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I hope you guys have enjoyed the Thanksgiving Blog Blitz, and have found something that you would like to try for your family, friends and customers. Let me know which ones you made and how they turned out.

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you all how thankful I am to have the honor and privilege to interact with you here on my blog and in my DVDs. You all have brought so much to my life. It gives me great joy to get to know you all and share our love of baking. I thank you for your business and your friendship. I truly hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Happy baking,

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Turkey 3D Cookies

2011-11-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Blog Blitz Post #4!

Gobble! Gobble!

How about some 3D turkey cookies?

As I have mentioned before, I have a weakness for cute little turkey confections. Here is another take on turkey cookies:

Bake your favorite cookie recipe and cut out large blossom shapes. After cooling, cut a portion off the bottom to make a flat bottom edge. Outline your cookie with thickened icing and flood in your main color. I used glace icing here, but you can also use royal.

Immediately pipe in the above pattern with the other colors in flood consistency icing. It will sink right in. Then take a toothpick and drag it through that pattern, starting from the outer edge of the cookie, in toward the center.

Do this 3-5 times in each section of the blossom. You will create the feather pattern you see above. Let that fully dry, about 24 hours.

Use Nutter Butter cookies to make the turkey body. Take the cookies apart, scrape off the peanut butter, happily eat that, and then cut the bottom portion of the cookie off. Happily eat that too. Dip the cookie in melted chocolate and let dry fully.

Use candy eyes, and royal icing to pipe the beak and red jiggly neck thingy. (Been getting a lot of use out of those candy eyes lately too. They rock.)

When you are ready to assemble, outline and flood a circle shaped cookie for the base. Let that set up for a few hours, but not until it is fully dried through. At this point you can put the feather cookie and body cookie on top of the base cookie. It will sink down a little bit into the still partially wet icing. When that fully dries, it will hold the whole cookie together. You might have to prop up the back of the cookie with a little something while it is drying to keep it perfectly upright. Let that base surface dry very well.

Use a clay gun to extrude a thick string of yellow fondant. Smash down one end with your finger and then cut out notches to make the feet.

Bend the feet up at the ankles and put them in place. I also used a very thin clay gun string in black to outline the base cookie to give it a little pop.

Turkey time! How cute would these be on your Thanksgiving place setting? Or lined up on a dessert buffet.

I hope you try these. You will seriously impress your family and friends!

Sugar Cookie Recipe:

one cup sugar
one cup butter
one egg
1 tsp each vanilla and almond flavoring as desired
3 cups all purpose flour, sifted

Cream sugar and softened butter. Add egg and flavorings and beat for a minute or so. Add flour one cup at a time until just incorporated. Knead gently for a minute. Ready to roll out and use right away. Bake at 325.

Glace icing:

one pound powdered sugar
6 TBS light corn syrup
6TBS milk
clear flavorings as desired

Combine in bowl and mix well with a whisk. Adjust with more sugar or milk to create outline and flooding consistencies.

MAKE US PLEASE!

Happy Turkeys!
Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com

Pilgrim Pumpkin

2011-11-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Blog Blitz Post #3!

I hope you are having a nice Fall so far, and are enjoying the anticipation and preparations leading up to the holidays. Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday, and I love making fun treats for the occasion. And I have to tell you that this little dude has got to be my all time favorite! I have been busting at the seams since I made him; I am so excited to share him with you!

Meet my Pilgrim Pumpkin mini cake!

Don't you just want to squeeze him?

Let me show you how I made him:

For his body I used two mini bundt cakes and a circle of cake I cut from a round layer with a cookie cutter. The height of the cut circle of cake was about 1/2 inch.

You need that extra height the circle of cake gives. Otherwise, he will be too squatty and you won't have enough room for his belt and his face. If you want to spackle the seem with some stiffened buttercream to hide it more, you can do so.

Crumb coat the cake with a very thin layer of icing. Then cover the top half with orange fondant. Use a wooden dowel to impress in the grooves of the bundt pan to make them show up well. You will need a pretty thick layer of fondant or all the lumpy bumps will show through. Or you can use two thinner layers of fondant, which is what I did. Once you get the top half covered, let it sit for a while to let the fondant set up some.

Then flip the cake over and do the exact same thing on the other half. Cut a clean seem between both layers of fondant where they overlap in the middle, so that you get the result you see above.

Looking pumpkiny!

I airbrushed him just a little to help his colors pop, but that it optional. Cover the seem with a strip of black fondant to make his belt. Make his face with pieces of black fondant.

Cuteness emerging.

His hair is thin strips of a golden yellow fondant. Prop them away from his head with paper towels until they firm up. Make his adorable little pilgrim shoes from triangles of black fondant with an oval piece of white fondant on top.

At this point, just go ahead and squeal with delight. You will want you. You will need to. You have my blessing.

Cut a circle of black fondant for the brim of his hat, and fashion another piece in the tapered shape of a pilgrim hat. Let those both firm up well. Attach the hat pieces together with chocolate.

Once all is in place, add the buckles to the belt and hat. I presented him on a little bit of fondant grass with some acorns. At this point I called in all my family, my neighbors, the postman, and a stray cat to share my excitement with them.

Isn't he just the cutest thing?

I heart him.

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I often get asked where I get my ideas from, which can be all kinds of things. This project was inspired by this piece of clip art I stumbled upon while searching on the internet for something:

My little guy came out pretty much how I envisioned in my head; which rarely happens. So I was very pleased.

Hope you give him a try, he was a lot of fun to do!

Stray tuned for the next installment of my Thanksgiving Blog Blitz coming Friday!

Happy caking!
Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com

Turkey Cake Balls!

2011-11-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

Welcome to post #2 of my Thanksgiving Blog Blitz! I will have a new blog post for you every few days from now until Turkey day. I hope you enjoy.

It's Turkey Season!

Yay!

I don't know about you guys, but I have serious crush on cute little turkey themed treats. I love seeing all the adorable confections that people come up with this time of year. I did a post a couple of years ago about Thanksgiving cake balls, which we make every year. But I wanted to kick them up a notch this year, and turn them into something more fun and eye catching.

And here is what I came up with:

Tee hee hee.

They tickle me pink. Well, they tickle me orange and yellow, anyway.

Here is how you make 'em:

You will need Whopper candies and your dipped cake balls in the flavor of your choice.

Cut the fondant "feathers" by using 3 sizes of blossom cutters. See the brown ones? Ignore those. I decided later that I did not like the brown feathers so I left them off.

If you like, hit the edges of them with some airbrush color to make them pop and give them dimension.

To make the little front wings, cut two petals out of a blossom with an exacto knife.

Attach a whopper for his head, 3 blossoms for his fan of feathers, and his side wings with melted chocolate.

Attach candy googly eyes, and pipe his beak and that jiggly red thing with royal icing.

To make the base he is standing on, pour some melted chocolate into a round cookie cutter that has some wax or parchment paper under it.

Pop it into the freezer until fully firm and release it from the cutter.

Use two more petals cut and carved out with a knife to make his feet.

Attach the turkey and his feet with chocolate to the base.

SO STINKIN 'CUTE!

What you lookin' at Willis?

I simply adore these turkey cake balls. I can see them sitting on top of a bread plate at each place setting on the Thanksgiving dining table. Your guests will simply go nuts over them, and you will get rave reviews for being such a clever confectionery creator.

I hope you try them out!

Happy turkey-ing,

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

PS. You can learn how to make perfect cake balls step by step in our Back To Basics DVD.

Have Your Pie and Eat It Too

2011-11-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving means one thing to everyone I am sure:

Pumpkin Pie!

I love all things pumpkin flavored: muffins, breads, shakes, martinis (oops, did I admit that?).... except for one thing..... pie. I just do not care for it for some reason. But I cannot imagine having a Thanksgiving spread without that iconic pie on the table. So I thought I would try to have the best of both worlds this year, and maybe even play a little trickery on my unsuspecting family at the same time. (devilish grin)

Oh that beautiful symbol of fall, gratitude, good food, and precious time with family and friends.....

Let's make ours!

Start with a pie tin and line the edge with a strip of ivory fondant. Use some shortening to glue it on or it will not stay in place.

Flute the edges with your fingers just as you would do a regular pie crust.

Airbrush color gives this "pie" its magic. A little yellow base coat, then followed by ivory (which comes out light brown for some reason). If you do not have an airbrush you can use the color mists in the can as well.

After the crust is dry, then add a layer of pumpkin cake. You can split and fill the cake if you want, but it is a pretty short layer, so I find the icing on the top to be enough for me.

Ice the top of the cake with colored icing. I used orange, brown and a little red to get this color. Some pumpkin pies are more brown, and others more orange, so go for the look you like. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top of the icing. If you get big clumps like you see in this photo, just spread it out with your spatula, let the icing crust, and then smooth it out with your Viva paper towel.

A little bit more airbrushing on the top. I used a combo of yellow and ivory to give it that yummy custard-y baked look.

How about some mini meringue "pies" on the side ? (wink wink)

Follow the same process using mini pie shells. Pile on white icing with a spatula and hit it with a light coat of ivory airbrush color.

They have that beautiful just baked meringue look.

Mmmmm.

Watch your guests' faces as they cut into this pie and find out your secret surprise! (You might want to bring along a real pumpkin pie as back up, just in case. You don't want an angry crowd caused by being deprived of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.)

This cake was SO easy and fast to do. You can make several and trick all of your neighbors we well. And your coworkers and boss. And the kids' teachers. The fun could go one for weeks!

Here is an easy pumpkin cake recipe I used. It is super moist and yummy:

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package spice cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 vegetable oil
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 TBS pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup white sugar

Directions

Combine everything in mixer at speed two until combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 325 until done.
Cool completely. Level off the top, put the scraps in a ziplock bag, and hide them in your office so no one else can get to them.
Split layer into the height needed to fill your pie pan.

I really hope you guys give this fun cake a try and send me photos so I can post them!

Happy caking!
Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com

Give-Away Winners!

2011-10-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

Thanks to you all who have purchased your Flowers DVDs on pre-order!

The duplicator is supposed to have them to me by November 5th, and we will ship them out as soon as we receive them. All of the orders are boxed up and just waiting for the DVDs to be added and mailed. We thank you so very much for your patience; we know you are anxious to get them. And we are eager to get them to you!

By random draw, the three tote bag winners are:

Deb Werner

Dawn Beckley

Grace Hanson

Your tote bags will added to your pre-order shipments. Congratulations!!

And the winner by random draw from the sunflower tutorial post is:

Rita Greer

Rita please email us to claim your prize.

Stay tuned as we will have another contest soon.

Thank you all for business!!

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween festivities tonight. Then it is time for us to go right into Thanksgiving preparations! I have a few great blog posts coming up in the Turkey Day theme, so stay tuned!

Happy caking,

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Easy Halloween Cupcakes

2011-10-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

Halloween is almost here!

Are you ready? No?

Well I am here to help!

This post is for all you procrastinators out there. And I say this with the utmost love and respect. For I am a champion, card carrying, flag waving procrastinator. I even joined a support group, but it hasn't been much help:

I feel your pain. You had all these great delusions of grandeur of all the amazing treats you were going to make for Halloween. Maybe a haunted gingerbread house. Or a topsy turvy Tim Burton style. Or a batch of fabulously custom decorated cookies. You had it all planned in your head. You laid awake at night with excitement thinking of the joy you were going to experience while creating your incredible Halloween confections.

And here we are, just a few days before Halloween and...... nothing..... nada...... crickets. Where did the time go? What will we do? The kids are looking up at you with those sad longing eyes, asking what you will be making for their class or neighborhood party. Crikey! Why did we wait so long? Your heart starts to race; sweat forms on your brow; the room is going white. Pure unadulterated panic.

Raise your hand if you are with me so far. I have been in this situation more times than I count.

Well, have no fear. Queen Procrastinator is here to help you.

Oops wrong queen. I will fix that. Later.

So let me share with you these super duper easy Halloween cupcakes that you can whip out in no time, but still impress even the most discerning goblins and ghouls.

Ghosts and skeletons and graveyards, oh my!

Let's start with the standing skeleton:

You will need white chocolate covered pretzels, sucker sticks, and marshmallows.

Draw a face on the flat side of a marshmallow that has been cut in half with an edible food marker. Three of the pretzels need to be glued to the sucker stick with some melted chocolate to make the rib cage.

And that was the tricky part. I spent a good 20 minutes trying to get those finicky pretzels to line up correctly on the sucker stick without flopping over or getting out of alignment. I found the above method worked the best. I used gravity to hold the back edges of the pretzels onto the stick while the chocolate hardened. Worked great and was very easy.

You use another pretzel cut as shown above to make the arms. You use the piece on the left, and eat the piece on the right. It's a win/win for everybody.

After you pipe your icing swirl, just stick the sucker stuck in and lay the arm bones into the holes of the upper rib cage pretzel. Done. Fast. Easy. Cute. ( I must give credit to Woman's Day for this idea. I saw it online and copied it.)

Now to the spooky graveyards:

I found these adorable sugar skulls at Wal Mart In the Wilton isle.

They appear to me to be gumpaste, and they were a very nice shape with good details.

To kick them up a notch, bring out a couple of brown petal dusts and give them a roughing up.

That took all of about 30 seconds, and they look awesome!

To make the tombstone, just cut a rectangular piece of fondant (with tylose added) and impress the RIP with your favorite alphabet cutters. The cute cupcake wrappers were also made by Wilton.

Once the tombstones dry, hit them with a little luster dust. Pipe a swirl onto your cupcake, and slap a tombstone and skull on top. Done. How easy was that?

Crazy easy ghosts:

A Dum Dum lollipop.

Drape a circle of white fondant over it.

Add two eyes made from either fondant or your edible ink pen. Stick into cupcake icing. Woooooooo.

And you are done!

Group shot!

Cuteness overload.

Tread only if you dare!

He is a happy little fellow.

I don't know what came over me. I lost my head.

And you saved the day! You have created this wonderful spread of amazing cupcakes, and it was fast and easy. You can take convenient pre-made products, do a little doctoring, and turn them into a custom made and impressive result:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!

Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com

Two New Flower DVDs!

2011-10-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

Sugarpaste in Bloom

Volumes 1 and 2

We have two brand new DVDS on the horizon for you!

Sugarpaste in Bloom Volume 1

Beautiful Blossoms

Learn all the basic techniques needed to make gorgeous sugar flowers, while applying those techniques to the 6 flowers taught in this DVD. Once you learn these techniques, you can apply them to making any kind of flower you desire.

Magnolia

Diva Flower

Small Pink Lily

Large Pink Lily

Large Stargazer

Small Stargazer

Tiger Lily

Small Yellow Lily

Casablanca Lily

Daisy and Sunflower

Sunflower

Daisy

Daisies

See a video preview here:

Sugarpaste in Bloom Volume 2

Fantasy Flowers

Learn 11 fantasy flowers that will add a

custom touch to all of your cakes.

Fantasy Rose

Bermuda Bling

Lacy Flower

Ribbon Rose Topper

Ribbon Roses and Pinch Flowers

7 Petal Pinch Flower

Carnation Pinch Flower

4 Petal Pinch Flower

Bow Tie Pinch Flower

3 Petal Pinch Flower

5 Point Star Pinch Flower

Stenciled Flower

See a video clip here:

SPECIAL PURCHASE:

Purchase both DVDs and get a $13 savings plus a

FREE BLOSSOM CUTTER used in the DVD.

DETAILS HERE

And a Give-away!

All orders placed by October 28, 2011 will be entered into a drawing for three of these great logo tote bags:

BOTH OFFERS EXPIRE 10/28/11

We thank you for your business!

www.sugaredproductions.com

Halloween Marshmallow Pops

2011-10-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

BOO!

Did I scare ya?

Probably not, as you intentionally logged onto this post. :)

One of my very favorite holidays is upon us. Halloween is a confectioner's dream, as it provides an opportunity to make some of the cutest tasty treats evah. Let me share with you some I made this week. These were a lot of fun, and not very difficult nor time consuming. They get extra points for that!

Meet Broomelda and Franque. ( He is French).

Initial supplies used to make our cozy candy couple include yellow candy melts, green oil based candy color, marshmallows and sucker sticks. I highly recommend Merkens brand melts for optimum dipping performance. In this case I used the campfire roasting marshmallows. Have you seen those things? They are hugantic! They are as big as.....as ......as a giant marshmallow! I also suggest using the thicker sucker sticks, as these bad boys are heavy once they are done.

Big bowl of green melty chocolate.

Other supplies used will be these candies and pre-made googly eyes, that you can get at most cake decorating places.

For Broomelda, we have to cut angles off each side of the gargantu-mallow. Run your knife under hot water, and dry it off before each cut. This will make the cutting of the freakishly large marshmallow much easier.

Stick and dip. Place on wax paper to dry fully.

Let's do Franque first:

Cut out a circle of black fondant and cut out notches along the outer edge. Do not cut them evenly or symmetrically. Franque does not have the most couture coif I have ever seen. Just sayin'.

Lay the toupee over his head and just press down all around the sides. (Hint: use shortening as your glue. Trust me. You will thank me for this later.) Glue on his googly eyes with melted chocolate. Cut a white Good & Plenty in half and glue in place for his bolts. Give the rest of the box to hubby because he loves those nasty candies. Oh wait, that is my hubby. Ignore that. Next use a paintbrush to drop a dollop of the same green chocolate on his handsome face to make a nose.

Next we need to bring out the big guns. OK just one small gun. Anyway, get your clay gun out, and using the smallest size circle disc, extrude a string of black fondant. Use that to make eyebrows and mouth. Again, using shortening on his face as glue will save you many bad words. And if you just cannot help yourself (like me), use silver luster dust mixed with vodka to paint his bolts. An edible marker (not shown) can be used to make his scar.

You mad confectionery scientists will have
created a marshmallow monster!

MWAHAHAHA!

Now on to Broomelda:

As with all ladies, we need to spend some time on the hair. Use your clay gun with the largest muti hole disc.

Extrude a length of purple fondant and apply to the side of her head.

Repeat process on each side until her head is covered.

Cut a few short pieces to make her bangs. The bob is very in this season in the witch world.

Now to make her face. Clay gun string again for the brows and mouth. Half of the green Mike and Ike candy for the nose. (Keep that box cuz we like those.) Another pair of google eyes.

Well hello my pretty!

To make the pointy part of her hat, start with a ball of black fondant.

Roll it into a cone shape initially, and then continue to elongate and shape it into a witch hat shape.

A circle of black fondant laid on her head, and then the cone part of the hat is attached to the top of that. A couple of purple clay gun strings will create a perfect hat band.

And they are done!

Franque: Hey good lookin'. You want to go for a drink?
Broomelda: Why yes, thank you. I will have a Bloody Mary.

Double date!

Happy Halloween everybody! Send me pics if you make these and I will post them on Facebook. Please tell all your friends to like our Facebook page.

Happy dipping!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Basic Buttercream Class

2011-10-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

Hello Sugar Friends!

A couple of months ago my BFF, right arm, crazy talented cake artist, and all around superwoman, Wendy, hosted a basic buttercream class at her shop. It was a wild two days of flying powdered sugar, flinging icing, bench scrapering, smoothing, and all around good clean fun. I would love to share some photos with you of this rip roaring event!

(You can click on the photos to view them larger)

Here are all the stations set up and the eager students ready to hang on my every word. OK, maybe not that last part, but they were ready to get started.

First we learned how to make smooth as silk and totally airless icing in both the 5 quart and 6 quart mixer.

Here is the mixer beating the 5 quart bowl full of icing into airless submission.

Take a look at THAT! Not. One. Air. Bubble.

Next Wendy showed us how to make a big ole batch in the 6 quart mixer.

Serious students scribing scintillating synopses.

(OK, I admit I had to use the thesaurus for that one.)

Each student then went back to their stations to make their own batch of icing. You have to do it to really get the feel for it.

Then it was time to fill the cakes.

Here is a student's filled cake waiting to be iced. No cake dummies in our classes; always real cake!

Pipe the dam.

Fill 'er up.

Ice that puppy.

Work that top edge.

Students' turn!

Melissa's finished cake. Wowee girl!

Day two. Oh yay, we get to ice square cakes now! And first thing in the morning, too. Whose bright idea was that? Oh yeah, mine.

Ice the sides.

Smooth with bench scraper.

Make those corners so sharp you have to register them as a lethal weapon.

Scrape, scrape, scrape.

Never saw a camera lens I do not like.

My finished demo cake.

Beautiful Donna working her magic.

Bridgette getting her smooth on.

Nikole admiring her kick butt corners.

Deneise is workin' it baby!

Wendy, Melissa, and me.

Wendy, Mimi, and me. No, I am not pregnant despite how this photo looks.

Mitzi in the smoothing zone.

Candi. The most perfectionist student I have ever had. And her work shows it.

Lovely Dee.

Mattie is as sweet as her cakes.

This is Kim. She is my number one student. She has attended every single local class I have given since the beginning of the universe. She is a total sweetie and a fabulous cake artist as well.

Here is me pretending to show the talented Myrtis something important. No really, it was important. Whatever it was.

This is the only picture I have of Heather. Sorry Heather. Heather looks like Leah Remini. Gorgeous.

Leticia making her icing.

This is Lauri. She was at the buttercream class, but I don't have a photo of her. So I used this one from the topsy turvy class instead :)

Oh yeah, we have fun. And lots of it!

Melissa's square cake. Ouch!

As if all of that was not enough, we then did a little lagniappe. (Bonus stuff.) Some good old fashioned piping.

And stenciling on buttercream. Yes, red on white buttercream! Do not fear.

Wait for it.....

Wait for it.......

Ta dah!!

And a few lagniappe things on the round cake as well. Impression mats, some airbrushing and my custom top border.

So that was it! Two jam packed days full of buttercream fun. We were pooped but happy.

And then......

(Cue the Jaws music)

da nutt

da nutt da nutt da nutt

AHHHHHHHHH!!!

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S SO SCARY!

The dreaded blow out! Ruined my cake!!

Heck no, I was not going to let a blow out ruin my cake! And this was a great opportunity to show the students how to repair one. The reason why I got this blow out was because I had iced my cake the day before right after I unwrapped it from plastic wrap. I did not take the time to let the condensation dry off the sides. Moisture is a main factor in the development of blow outs. So let's fix it.

Take your exacto knife or palette knife and surgically remove the blown out icing.

As you start to cut it away, you will be able to see in there where the icing is no longer touching the sides of the cake. Keep carving all of that away until you get the entire area of non adhered icing off the cake. Then let that air dry out for 20-30 minutes in the A/C.

Lawsy that sucker was big!

Then I fill in the opening by piping buttercream in with a large round tip or the open coupler. (not shown).

Then gently smooth that out with a hot palette knife or small spatula.

Let the patch crust well, and then come back with a small piece of smooth food safe paper, and smooth it with your spatula or palette knife over the paper, only over the patch. Do not put pressure on the rest of the impressed pattern. Then let it crust for a while longer before you finish the impression.

It is hard to see in this photo, but I have a small portion of an impression mat in my hands. (I have an extra mat or two that I cut up for this purpose.) Match up the pattern and then impress the patch. Just be careful, and you will have a seamless matching of the pattern.

Then I piped the missing little crosses on the sides.

Before.

After.

You can do it!!

And they all lived happily ever after in buttercream land.

You can learn all of these buttercream smoothing techniques and more in the Perfecting the Art of Buttercream DVD.

You can learn how to make airlessly smooth
icing in the Back to Basics DVD.

Happy caking!
Sharon

Long Time No Talk

2011-09-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hello Sugar Friends!

I have missed you all so much! I apologize for neglecting the blog these last few months. We have had so much stuff going on behind the scenes at SugarEd, (and some of them unexpected and rather complicated), that it has taken all my time and attention. We have filmed (and are presently editing) our two new gumpaste flower DVDs. We have rebuilt the entire website and shopping cart for better performance on both ends. We are now able to process credit card orders directly on the website. You can still use Paypal to checkout if you choose to do so. We are also planning a big website expansion that will include a lot more goodies for you. We are brainstorming and developing that as we speak!

I thank you for your patience as we work on all of these projects, so that we can continue to provide you with the best service and products we can produce.

I will have another blog post for you in a few days. In the mean time, please enjoy these fabulous cakes submitted by our readers:

This stunning topsy turvy was made by Karen in Australia for her son's 21st birthday. Perfection!

This sassy fish cake was made by Mari in Florida. Love it!

Katherine C made this buttercream beauty. Can you believe she has only been decorating for one year? Unbelievable!

Lucy made this wonderful version of the Sweet Luxuries cake. Bravo!

Esther S shows her mastery of image transfers with her cute Cuban drummer. Maybe that is Ricky Ricardo? ( Love Ricky!)

Jaycee made this beauty as a 10th anniversary gift from a husband to his wife. Now that is flawless fondant!

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Gorgeous work guys! Feel free to submit your sugar art, recipes, tips and questions to this email address. You might get it published on the blog or newsletter.

Thanks again everybody! I will see you in a few days with a post about our last buttercream basics class. I will show you how I repaired a HUGE blowout!

Happy caking!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Sunflower Grad Cake

2011-05-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

Graduation season is here! Are you guys making a lot of grad cakes right now? I had the opportunity last week to make a cake for my son's best friend. She is a very sweet girl, and I was happy to make it for her. I included the elements in the cake that she requested: the colors of red and black, a sunflower (her favorite flower), and paw prints to represent her desire to open her own small animal care business. And of course we had to include the grad cap and tassel to represent her school. (Instructions on how to make the cap and tassel can be found in our Book Smarts DVD.)

I took some photos of the process I used while making the sunflower and thought you might like to see them, so here we go:

I used yellow gumpaste (Wilton premade works very well) to cut out two of the sunflower shapes.

Putting the petal on my cel pad, I used my ball tool to thin the cornstarch dusted petals. I put most of the pressure on the middle of the petals, because sunflower petals are a little bit wider in the middle than they are on the two ends. I avoided thinning too much where the petals join the center portion, because sunflowers (and daisies) are notorious for breaking in that vulnerable spot.

After the thinning was done, I used the veining tool to add some vertical lines to the inside of the petals.

The flower was placed into a cupped former lined with foil. I pinched the tips of the petals to give them some movement and make them more life-like. Petals were propped with paper toweling in a random pattern to give the petals a natural look.

I repeated the exact same process with the second layer, but I did not glue the two pieces together. The reason for this is because I wanted them to dry in the proper shape together, but I needed to be able to separate the pieces later for dusting.

In order to speed up the process of drying, I placed them into my dehydrator. (I made two flowers; I always make extra for breakage.)

This is Bessy. She may be old, she may be ratty and held together with masking tape, but she is a faithful and loyal friend who always gets the job done. She is a Nesco food dehydrator that I got at Walmart years ago for about $35. I use her constantly for so many items. I could not live without her. If you invest in one, I recommend that you get one with a temperate regulator. Always use the coolest temperature setting so that your items do not melt.

After the flower was fully dry, it was time to dust. The best part! Dusting the flower just makes it come to life, and is so much fun! My dusting process was as follows: The entire flower got a light dusting with buttercup yellow. The lower portion of the petals were dusted with a combo of sunflower and pumpkin. The centers of the petals were hit with some daffodil yellow. The tips also got a little bit of the sunflower color. Then the entire flower got a very very light dusting with yellow luster dust, just to brighten it up a bit.

Remember that I said this type of flower is known for petal breakage? Yep, happens almost every time! ACK! Here you see a petal glued back on with just a little bit of melted white chocolate. The break was low enough on the petal that it will be covered by the center once applied.

I used a silicone push mold to make the center. Brown gumpaste was pushed into the mold, and popped right out. So easy it feels like cheating.

A little bit of dark brown petal dust was applied to the center. Then I brushed the center with just a little bit of shortening to give it a little sheen and wake it up. We don't want a sleepy sunflower! :)

Now onto the cake for a minute:

I wanted extra height on the cake tiers, so that the sunflower and stem would be in the correct proportion. We did not need any more extra servings of cake, so I increased the height by using fomecore under the tiers. I used pieces of 1/2 inch fomecore taped together, and then covered that with Glad Press and Seal.

I used three pieces of fomecore for the lower tier, and 2 pieces for the upper tier. Then I proceeded to ice and stack per my normal techniques. (You can learn my technique for smooth icing and stacking in our DVDs available here.)

The finished flower was then attached to the side of the cake with a little bit of melted chocolate. Ta da!! Isn't it pretty! I love how the yellow pops against the red and black.

And the finished cake. Nicole was thrilled with it, and I was very happy that she was happy.

We will be shooting our next DVD in a few weeks. The topic will be gumpaste and fondant flowers. Do you think we should include this sunflower in the DVD? Leave a comment here and tell me what you think, and you will be entered into a drawing to win a free flower DVD when it is released in the fall. Woo Hoo! Free stuff!

Happy caking everyone!

Sharon

http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

25th Anniversay Cake

2011-05-10T23:52:00.000-07:00

26 years ago today I married my college sweetheart.

One year ago we had a nice party for family and friends to celebrate our 25th. I have not published the photos of the cake to date because I thought they were going to be featured in a prominent cake magazine. Well, that never happened, so I thought today would be an appropriate day to share them with you.

I chose black and red with touches of silver to match the decor of the venue we had rented for the party. I did make my own cake, but I cheated. It was all stryo dummies, for two reasons. I wanted to be able to save the top tiers as a keepsake, and I wanted to be able to work on the cake early, since I would be so busy with party preparations in the days before the event.

I made my fantasy bling flowers; the same ones I made for our TLC cake, but smaller and in red this time. (We will be teaching this flower in our next DVD release, yay!) The 25 topper was made by gluing Swarvoski crystals to jewelry wire I bent into shape.

I used the diamond impression mat for the sides of two tiers. Black fondant swags and bling roses for the bottom petal tier.

I also made a small monogram Z for the center of the bow from crystals. This was my favorite part of the whole cake.

Purchased beaded ribbon was glued to the separator drum and the presentation board. You can't see it in the photos, but there is silver in the beading. The sizes of the tiers were 6,9,10,13 and 16.

Here are a few casual shots of the party:

Hubby and I toasting to 25 years!

We also celebrated Paul's 50th birthday that night, so I made a toast to him....

....... and I got a little choked up.

My two wonderful sisters and my youngest son, J-man.

My men. The lights of my life.

My beautiful Italian mother in law.

Paul's brother, and yes they do look a lot alike!

It was a wonderful night to celebrate my blessings with my family and friends. Thank you for sharing it with me too!

Happy caking!

Sharon

http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

Easter Egg Basket Cake

2011-04-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

HELLO SUGAR FRIENDS!!

I know it has been a long time. I apologize for my neglect of the blog. We have been so very busy behind the scenes, working on new and exciting projects for SugarEd that have been very time consuming. We are planning our next DVD releases, a website upgrade and expansion, and more fun surprises that you will learn more about at the end of this year. (Good things come to those who wait, LOL)

Things are starting to settle down just a bit, so I am going to do my best to get back to blogging regularly. And I thought you might enjoy a tutorial on the basket cake I made last week for an Easter order. I know Easter is over, but you can use these techniques for many types of other cake themes.

Disclaimer: There seems to be something amiss with my camera (or there is the very remote possibility it is user ignorance), so the quality of these photos is not great, but I think you can still see them pretty well. I so want to take photography classes but there is just no time!

Today we are going to make a big ole beautiful Easter basket full of pastel chocolate eggs!

The basket handle was made about 5 days ahead of time. I used half chocolate and half white fondant, adding a very liberal amount of powdered tylose. I formed two thick sausages, then twisted them together, and curved them into the shape I needed for the handle. Make a wire handle that custom fits your cake in width and height, and use that as a guide to form the shape of your fondant handle. Insert sucker sticks into the two ends of the handle. I put it on a cooling rack so the air could get to the under side to aid drying. I have done this many times with success, but I think next time I might try 50/50 gumpaste. More on that later.

Now to make the chocolate eggs. I like Merkens brand super white candy melts. I used candy colors to tint it a few pastel shades. I used a large 3D egg chocolate mold to form the eggs. The molds are clipped together with strong office clamps, and the chocolate is poured into a hole cut out on the underside of the mold. The mold was put in a small cup to hold it straight and put in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Then the mold was removed from the cup and placed back in the freezer, allowing the cold air to fully reach all sides of it. It was ready to be unmolded at about 20-25 minutes total freezing time.

Here are some eggs fresh out of the molds. Oh no!! Look at those ugly seems! What shall we do?? No worries, we can clean that up easily.

Here they are all cleaned up. Use your palette knife or exacto knife to scrape off all the excess. Then use the heat of your gloved hand to smooth and buff out any lines and imperfections. This will cause the egg to lose its shine from the mold, but I have never seen a super shiny dyed Easter egg anyway. We are going for realism here!

However, we do want just a little bit of sheen to bring our eggs up a notch in elegance and refinement. So I used the edible lacquer spray an gave them 2 or 3 thin coats, allowing them to dry in between coats.

Here are the eggs right after spraying. Once dry, they will not be nearly this shiny.

Then the fun part of decorating the eggs! I used a variety of pastel colored fondant, strip, circle and flower cutters to decorate them in a variety of designs. You can use water, piping gel, or shortening as the glue for your fondant trims.

Aren't they pretty? Try to get your fondant thin, as thick bulky appliques do not looks a nice on the eggs. Now back to the basket..... ( after a fountain Diet Coke run, of course.)

Ahhhhh, now that we are all refreshed, it is time to carve the cake into a slightly tapered basket shape. I have three 2 inch layers of cake here with one layer of filling. The cakes are 12 inch diameter. If you need to see the detailed method for carving this shape, you can check out our Tosy Turvy DVD.

Once the cake was carved, I used the thickened ganache method (also shown in the Topsy Turvy DVD) to coat our cake. Here it is shown all nice and smoothed. The top edge of excess ganache is removed the next day after the ganache has set up to a nice firm shell.

Now we have time to go play on Facebook, have some coffee and a snack, watch tonight's rerun of the Young and the Restless, and then go to bed. Tomorrow we put our basket all together!

Good morning! Did you have a nice rest? Oh, who am I kidding. I never cake in the morning. I never cake before 3PM. Not a morning person, it takes me half the day to get fully awake and functioning.

So now we must roll out a very long piece of fondant (half chocolate and half white for this shade of brown) that is long enough to wrap around our cake, with a little extra on the end.

I used the PME basketweave roller to make the basketweave impression. I. love. this. roller. The end.

Measure how tall you want your piece of fondant to be and cut a strip that exact height, and roll it up bandage style.

I smeared shortening all over the ganached cake (with a gloved hand) in a light coat for glue. Shortening is excellent glue. Then I started at the back of my cake, and unrolled the wrap as I went around the cake. (I was taking my own photos, so I had to step away from the cake to take the picture.)

Do not pull or stretch it as you unroll. Just gently unroll it as you smooth it onto the cake with your hand. You do not want to erase or distort the basketweave pattern.

I used a clay gun to make a rope border for both the top edge and the bottom of the basket. Here you can see two large bubble tea straws inserted into the cake where the sucker sticks at the base of the handle will go.

I filled the straws with melted chocolate using a piping bag.

Then the sucker sticks were inserted into the straws . I propped the handle in place with a roll of Viva until the chocolate set.

I added more chocolate around the base of the handles to add more stability to them and let that fully firm up. Lookin' good!

Now I have to insert four support straws.....

.........that will hold up the cake circle that will support the weight of the heavy chocolate eggs.

Looks like an Easter basket now! I just added pieces of rolled out ivory fondant in a free form blanket shape and placed the eggs on top. So pretty! But hmmm....... that handle does not look quite as straight as it did when I put it in. Oh well, I am sure it will be fine.

I added a pink gumpaste ribbon and bow, and piped buttercream grass to complete my project. Boy, that handle is getting wonkier looking. I checked it; it seems solidly in place and stable. Well, it is time to go deliver. I am going to drive because hubby has been banned from driving with cakes after that last episode we will not speak of.

As I pull into the neighborhood of the client, I hear a big thump in the back of the vehicle. I knew what it was. I knew what had happened. I could not look. I said to Hubby, it happened didn't it? He said, Yep.

Ok, now what to do? Surprisingly , I did not freak out. I called the customer, explained to her what happened, and that I was going back home to to do repairs. Unfortunately I had only one handle (I always make two, always.... but not this time for some unkown reason). I explained to her that it will not have a handle, but it will be a pretty cake anyway. She was incredibly understanding and not upset in the least. Thank goodness for easy-going clients , right?

So back home we go. I should have taken a photo of it with the broken handle. It broke off clean on both sides, about 6 inches up from the blanket. There was no fixing it.

Here you can see where I clipped the broken handle down as low as I could to the top of the cake without disturbing the other decorations. I dare not attempt to take the pieces out of the cake that were embedded. My plan was just to cover these spots with a little bit more blanket, that is until a lightbulb went off! I had an idea!

I would make small side handles! I could do this over wire, and it would not require the handles to have any drying time before I applied them. I bent some floral wire into the desired shape, and simply wrapped a clay gun string around it.

I coated the ends of the wire with chocolate, and after that was dry, I inserted the handles into both sides of the cake. I used melted chocolate to close in any holes or gaps where fresh cake was exposed, and also to secure the new handles in place.

I added some more blanket pieces to cover all the oopsies, and here is the final product:

What do you think?

I think I might even like it better than the first version. Whew, so glad that worked out, because who ever heard of an Easter basket with no handles?

So all is well that ends well! I hope you guys give this basket technique a try. I would suggest using a lot of tylose or gumpaste in your handle, and give it at least a week to dry if not longer. Or possibly even form it over very sturdy wire that can provide some support. I have made large handles using this method many times with success; I think this time it had not dried long/hard enough.

Oh and make TWO of everything!

Happy Caking Everyone!

Sharon
http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

Choose Your Free Gift!

2011-04-12T05:01:00.000-07:00

FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE!

With every purchase of $50 before shipping, you may choose one of the following items as your gift:

Back to Basics DVD
Perfecting the Art of Buttercream DVD
Flawless Fondant DVD
Successful Stacking DVD
Boxes and Bows DVD
Topsy Turvy DVD
Sheet Cake Secrets DVD
Sheet Cake Bonus DVD
Design Gallery DVD
Sweet Luxuries DVD
Diamond Impression Mat
Line Impression Mat
Butterfly Stencil
Daisy and Dot Stencil
Frill Cutter set 1
Frill Cutter set 2
Palette Knife
Stitching Tool
Baby Bootie Cutters
Toy Tappit Cutters
Bench Scraper
Business Card Boxes
Choose two of the molds below:
Chocolate Frame
Business Card
A-L Chocolate Mold
M-Z Chocolate Mold
Cherry Cordial

Here's how to claim your gift:

Please do not put the desired item into your shopping cart or you will be charged for it. When you check out via Paypal, click on the "Gift Options Add" link right under "Special Instructions" on the "Review your information" page. (It is small.) A text box will pop up, and you can enter the name of the item you want as your gift there. Then proceed with your checkout as usual.

OFFER GOOD FOR ORDERS PLACED APRIL 12-15, 2011 ONLY

**May not be combined with other special offers

ORDER HERE

Thank you for your business!

Book Smarts DVD ShippIng Now!

2011-04-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

NEW BOOK SMARTS DVD IS SHIPPING NOW!

JUST IN TIME FOR GRADUATION SEASON!

Techniques taught include:

--Fondant wood grain cake board

--Carving book shapes and crumb coating

--Creating white fondant "pages"

--Creating templates for book covers

--Measuring, embossing, cutting and applying fondant book covers

--Doweling and stacking

--Creating a fondant grad cap and tassel

--Adding trims and lettering to book spines

--Molding chocolate photo frame

--Painting chocolate photo frame

--Applying edible photo to frame

--Making rice paper diploma with fondant tie

--Making edible business card party favors

ORDER AND SEE A VIDEO CLIP HERE

2011-01-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

CLASS WITH

SHARON ZAMBITO AND REBECCA SUTTERBY

Colorado ICES is proud to announce that Sharon Zambito and Rebecca Sutterby are teaching a Topsy Turvy Fantasy Cake class together following the "Sweet Times in the Rockies" cake show in Denver, CO.

The class is Feb 14th & 15th.

Cake Crafts, 4105 S Broadway, Englewood, CO

There are a very limited number of seats available for this class. If you're interested, contact Adele Lind-Nichols ASAP -- e-mail coloradoices@yahoo.com.

The cost of the two day class is $325, with some supplies included. A non-refundable $100.00 deposit is required, with the remainder due no later than February 1, 2011. Please do not make a payment, until you have confirmation from Adele to do so. Availability is on a first reply, first serve basis; others will be placed on a waiting list and notified should space become available.

Hope to see you there!

Sugar Free Yule Log

2010-12-20T22:46:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

We at SugarEd hope you have the most wonderful of holiday seasons. We want to take this opportunity to thank our loyal customers. We value and appreciate you, and hope to bring you more products in 2011 that you desire.

This year's holiday blog is a guest entry by my beautiful sister Janice. Those of you that follow this blog know that she is the adventurer of the family. This past year she ziplined in the Nantahala Gorge in North Carolina, and whitewater rafted the Ocoee River where they had the Olympics. Her goal for 2011 is to skydive, and plans to take a two week motorcycle trip through the western U.S. in July. She also has a new granddaughter due on my birthday in May! It exhausts me just typing all that.

So with no further adieu, take it away Janice:

Christmas 2009 is near, and as always, I am assigned the task of providing a sugar-free dessert for my family on Christmas Day. Having done this for quite a few years now, and being easily bored, I am once again looking for something new and different; the same old apple and pumpkin pies seem so ordinary. (Although I do have a fabulous recipe for sugar-free apple pie that I may share with you in a future blog.) But Christmas seems to call for something a little more special, a little more decorative, a little more elegant. And as it usually turns out – a little more of a pain in the patootie.

As the festive season draws nigh, I begin to ponder how I will top last year’s spectacular creation, and I ask my sister Sharon, who you all know and love, to suggest something impressive and “bloggable.” She emails me a recipe for a Buche de Noel, or Yule Log. “What do you think about this?” I ask Pepper Marie. “It looks pretty difficult but I think I can adapt the recipe to sugar-free.” Pepper Marie is my 16-year old Pomeranian, and she helps me do everything. I seek her opinion in all things, great and small, and never make a move without her. She is to me as Wendy is to Sharon. Pepper Marie says that I should scrap the whole cake idea and serve a rotisserie chicken instead. “Chicken for dessert?” I ask. “Sounds like a winner to me!” she says. (Every year, her Christmas wish list is the same: a rotisserie chicken, whole, and no sharing, please.)

There are many theories about the origin of this decorative holiday dessert, but it seems clear that the Buche de Noel dates back to the time of Napoleon. One legend has it that Napoleon issued a decree that on the coldest nights, the peasants had to keep their chimneys closed to keep the cold air from coming in. (What a control freak!) That meant that the fireplaces could not be lit, so the patisseries (French bakeries) made these cakes in the shape of logs, and it became a French tradition. My question is how did they make these cakes if the fireplaces could not be lit? They didn’t have electric ovens back then, did they?

Be that as it may, since I am planning a trip to France in May/June of 2010, I think this is the perfect selection for this year’s confection. Since it’s going to be sugar-free, I guess I will call it my Buche de Noel sans Sucre. So on Christmas Eve, I take the day off, and right after breakfast (oatmeal for me, chicken for Pepper Marie), I pop my trustee IPOD into the dock, hit the shuffle, and as Pink declares that it is time to “Get the Party Started,” Pepper Marie and I begin this year’s culinary creation.

The Buche de Noel sans Sucre consists of four parts: the cake, the filling, the icing and the decorations. As Fats begins “Walkin’ To New Orleans,” Pepper Marie and I begin to assemble our ingredients for the first part – the cake:

Ingredients:

Three large eggs
Three tbs sugar-free strawberry jam
150g (5 oz) cocoa powder
A few squares of very dark, high cocoa content chocolate (I bought mine at Whole Foods)
One tsp cornflour
200g (7 oz) raspberries
300ml whipping cream (I used sugar-free Cool Whip)

The recipe says to start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. That seems high to me, so I set it to 350. I grease a standard oblong fudge tin (or jelly roll pan), and separate the eggs. In one bowl, I whisk the egg yolks and two tablespoons of the sugar-free strawberry jam. Kenny is begging Ruby not to take her love to town, as I sieve the cocoa powder and cornflour and gently stir in. The recipe does not say to add water, but the batter seems very dry to me, so I add some water. “Tootsie Roll, does this look right to you?” I ask Pepper Marie. She sniffs it and says, “I think it needs some chicken broth.”

I place the egg whites in another bowl and beat with a mixer on high speed until they form stiff peaks. I slowly fold the egg white mixture into the chocolaty batter, spoon into the greased tin and place in the oven for about 15 minutes or until firm. I remove and allow to cool.

I wash and hull and the raspberries while Sting pleads with Roxanne not to put on the red light. I place the raspberries in a food processor and puree, adding a little Splenda to sweeten them just a tad.

I stir the pureed raspberries into the cream one-quarter at a time and it turns a beautiful pink shade. Of course, at this point, I cannot resist a little taste. That’s the best part about making sugar-free desserts – I get to taste!

The Village People extol the benefits of joining the YMCA as I sprinkle some cocoa powder onto a clean surface (I use a clean, smooth dish towel, but I imagine you can use parchment paper just as well). I carefully remove the sponge from the tin and lay it on the cocoa, and spread the remaining sugar-free jam all over the sponge.

I then spoon the raspberry cream on and spread.

Michael swears that Billie Jean is not his lover as I carefully roll up the sponge. “Think he’s telling the truth?” I ask Pepper Marie. She doesn’t care.

Now, the hardest part about making a Yule Log is getting the cake light and spongy enough to roll it up without cracking. Remember before when I said I thought the batter was too dry so I added water? I now believe I did not add quite enough. I am not a baker, however. I am a legal assistant. I can e-file a brief with the Federal court, set up a corporate deposition, and arrange a multi-party international conference call, all at the same time and in the blink of an eye. But make a judgment call about what looks right and what doesn’t when baking? Well, that is just not my area of expertise. “I think it needed more liquid,” I tell Pepper Marie. “It’s not too late to go with the chicken idea,” she says. “I may regret not taking your advice,” I say as I roll up the sponge. To my dismay, it cracked substantially upon rolling. “OMG!” I say. “I hope the icing covers this mess up.” “This baking stuff is too stressful,” says Pepper Marie. “I need a little nap.”

It’s time for me to get ready for church anyway. So I go get dressed, and as I am about to leave, My Special Angel is playing on the IPOD. “How appropriate,” I think to myself as I pause and take a long look at my Sweetie sleeping like a little angel. She is getting very old. I will say a special prayer for my own Special Angel at church tonight.

When I return, Pepper Marie and I are both refreshed – she physically, and I spiritually – and we are both ready for some victuals and libations. So I fix her some dinner (yes, this involves chicken), and mix myself a martini. Grey Goose, up and dirty, with two olives! Ahhh, this is good!

Now it is time to get back to work. This cake is taking longer than I thought it would. As I begin to assemble the ingredients for the icing, Prince is partying like it’s 1999. “He’s been partying for ten years now! He’s going to have a heck of a hangover!” I tell Pepper Marie, but she is too busy scarfing down chicken to worry about Prince.

The recipe I use for the icing comes from one of my diabetic cookbooks, and I must tell you that I do not love it. It is made with chocolate and butter, and that’s what it tastes like – butter. There is no cream in the buttercream, if you know what I mean. It calls for a substantial amount of salt which common sense should tell me is a flaw in the recipe, and maybe if I baked more often this would register with me. But like I said before, I am no Sharon Zambito. I make the first batch and it tastes incredibly salty. Now I am getting stressed again! “I knew that was too much salt!” I say. Pepper suggests that it would actually taste pretty good on top of some chicken. Once again, she’s probably right, but I am not to be defeated. I draw strength from Gloria’s assurances that I Will Survive. (Well, that and the martini.) “I will survive this cake,” I say, as I throw out the whole batch of icing and remake it without the salt. Thank God I have enough ingredients to make a second batch.

It is better without the salt, but still has a strong taste of butter. Since I would not recommend this recipe, I am giving you another one for the icing. This is what I would do next time.

1 envelope Dream Whip
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup milk
1 box sugar-free chocolate Jello pudding

Blend together milk, vanilla, and Dream Whip. Beat until stiff. Add pudding mix and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add milk as needed until desired consistency is reached.

I’m thinking that if you want to simply things, you could probably use the sugar-free Cool Whip and just eliminate the milk. Or maybe use the milk to make the pudding and then mix that with the Cool Whip? Dream Whip, Cool Whip, Kool and the Gang? What do you think? I don’t know. Just don’t use the recipe that I used unless you like eating sticks of butter.

Speaking of Kool and the Gang, it’s time to Get Down On It, and I spread my new batch of icing onto the cake. One of Sharon’s palette knives would come in handy about now, but since I don’t have one of those [hint to Sharon for a Christmas gift], I use a small spatula or butter knife to form bark-like ridges on the icing. I use a toothpick to make the rings on the sides to look like a log.

Well that hid the cracks pretty well. So far so good. Now it is time for the decorations.

I was looking at pictures online trying to get ideas on how to decorate the Buche de Noel sans Sucre. You could really just use some store-bought holly, twigs, etc., and that would look very nice, But while I was surfing the web, I saw one that was decorated with meringue mushrooms. Cute! And luckily for me, a recipe was included.

Ingredients:

2 large egg whites, room temperature
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
½ superfine sugar (This is hard to find. You can use regular granulated sugar and process it for about 30 seconds in a food processor. I used Splenda, but I think meringue comes out better with real sugar. The Splenda did work, though.)

I line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set up a pastry bag with a No. 6 (½ inch diameter) round plain tip. I preheat the oven to 200 degrees, beat the room temperature egg whites with an electric mixer at slow speed until foamy. Then I add the cream of tartar and beat at medium speed until soft peaks form. I continue beating (increasing speed to high), gradually adding the sugar until the whites are stiff and glossy. I rub a little of the meringue between my fingers to make sure all the sugar has dissolved.

With a rubber spatula, I place the meringue into the pastry bag.

To pipe the caps, I hold the pastry bag upright and close to the parchment paper. I pipe the meringue with even pressure into even rounds building up the meringue to form a round. You can adjust the size of the caps depending on the size of your cake. I sharply twist the bag and stop the pressure as I slowly move the tip off the meringue. Try to make the top as smooth as possible but you can use a wet fingertip to smooth out any bumps. This takes practice, and the finished product is fragile. Make way more than you think you need.

To pipe the stems, I hold the pastry bag upright and close to the parchment paper. I pipe the meringue with even pressure into a cone shape, making the base of the stem a little larger than the top. I try to keep the stems as straight as possible. Again, make more than you need.

I bake the meringues for approximately one hour or until the mushrooms are firm enough that they can be lifted from the baking sheet without sticking.

To glue the caps to the stems, I use a little melting chocolate. I take a mushroom cap and spread some of the melted chocolate on the underside, and then press the stem onto it. You have to be very careful when you are doing this because the meringue is so fragile, if you use too much pressure, you can easily crush the mushroom. The first one I tried, the mushroom disintegrated into dust in my fingers. Actually, that happened a few times before I got the hang of it. I thought that Pepper Marie was making fun of me until I realized that Queen was singing Another One Bites The Dust on the IPOD.

The mushrooms look pretty cute, but too clean. I lightly brush them with a little cocoa powder to give them an “earthy” look. “Well, Sweet Cake, I think this all looks pretty good,” I say to Pepper Marie. “I really think your guests would rather have chicken,” she says. “But we’re having turkey for dinner,” I inform her. “Well, that’s even more better,” she replies. “Turkey for dinner, chicken for dessert. It’s a theme dinner.” That dog has a one-track mind.

Willie is pining to be On the Road Again, which reminds me that I need to take this concoction on the road tomorrow. I am tortured by memories of last year’s unexpected three-hour trek across the Causeway with my “needs refrigeration” cake melting in the back seat, and my “needs frequent potty stops” Aunt in the front seat. Luckily, this year I don’t need to go quite that far; our family celebration is being hosted by my son and daughter-in-law, who live five minutes from my apartment. Also, blessedly, my brother and his family are picking up my Aunt from her assisted living home, so I am relieved of that responsibility as well. I have only the Yule Log to worry about. Nevertheless, just to be on the safe side, I opt to transport the cake undecorated. So as Aaron Neville reserves his spot in that number When the Saints Go Marching In, Pepper Marie and I march off to bed to await the arrival of Santa Paws.

Our family celebration the next day is not until 5:00 p.m. I am able to spend the morning with Pepper Marie before I go to a friend’s house for Christmas dinner. (FYI – my contribution to this Christmas dinner is the aforementioned sugar-free apple pie which is a huge hit. It does not taste like sticks of chocolate butter.) I return home in the afternoon, with just enough time to load up my Honda Civic with gifts, kiss my precious Old Lady Dog on her soft, furry head, and I am off to my son’s house. This year, the Christmas Confection can ride in the front seat with me. I go slow, slow, slow, with one hand always on the dessert plate. I have horrible images of some reckless driver who has spent the last two days in an alcoholic stupor pulling out in front of me, causing me to slam on my breaks, and sending my Buche de Noel sans Sucre flying into the dashboard. “Good thing I don’t do this for a living,” I say out loud although there is no one to hear. “I’d have a ulcer.”

Upon arrival at the home of my son and daughter-in-law, I assemble the Yule Log. I have brought the meringue mushrooms in a plastic container lined with paper towels (for shock absorption!), and some of those store-bought holly and pine cones for embellishment. I arrange them all on the dessert dish. I sprinkle some Splenda “snow” on top of the log. “Wow, that looks great!” I say. “I’m a genius! A gourmet baker! I could be on the bleepin’ Ultimate Cake Off!” Unfortunately, as I am standing there expounding on my own creativity, the Splenda “snow” dissolves into the icing before my very eyes, and is soon gone from sight. Well, who knew? “That’s OK,” I say, “it’s just like a snowfall in New Orleans. It melts as soon as it hits the ground.”

The dish looks fantastic, and in spite of my disappointment with the taste of the icing, my family seems to like the Buche de Noel sans Sucre. Are they just being polite? Perhaps it is more appealing to the taste buds because it is so pretty, and they didn’t have the experience of that awful first batch of salty icing? Maybe they really DO like eating sticks of butter? I don’t know, but everyone tries it, even those who are not sugar restricted. If they mind the taste of the creamless buttercream icing, they don’t let on. In any event, the entire cake is soon gone. I guess that’s a good sign.

If any of you want the recipe for the creamless chocolate buttercream, let Sharon know and I’ll have her post it on the blog. Perhaps you know of a way to improve it. Maybe with a little chicken broth?

Well, here’s wishing all of you in Blogland a very Merry Christmas and a Super[bowl] New Year, from all of us down here in the Who Dat Nation! Talk to you soon.

------------------------------------

EPILOGUE:

In Memoriam –

I dedicate this blog entry to my beloved Pepper Marie, my Baby, my Special Angel, my Tootsie Roll, my Helper, who passed from this life on May 14, 2010, just shy of her 17th birthday. No words can ever express the loss that I feel. I am forever grateful for every day I had with her, for the many years that she was at my side, for her unconditional love. She truly was my helper. She helped me do everything from the minute I woke up in the morning until the second I fell asleep at night. And even in between – I slept peacefully just knowing she was there. Many times she was my “glue” – she held me together through some really hard times. And we had lots of good times, too. We traveled all over the U.S. together. But whatever life brought our way, it was always she and I. We took it all on together. I carry her in my heart now, and always will. On what would have been her 17th birthday, I celebrated her life with a rotisserie chicken and champagne. And what a life it is to celebrate. I love you, Baby.

Pepper Marie
August 25, 1993 - May 14, 2010

Tulip Time!

2010-11-14T16:39:00.000-08:00

Hello Sugar Friends!

Wow, we have been so busy filming and editing new DVDs, that is has been a while since I posted a tutorial. I know it is not spring, but how about some pretty yellow tulips?

This bride came to me with her cake design and colors already determined. A very classic, simple cake with a small nosegay of tulips on the top.

Buttercream stenciling on buttercream. With our pretty creations on top.

So let's do this!

Use a piece of white gumpaste to form the.... the.... the...... the little thingies that stick out the sides of that middle stamen thingy. Yeah, make a bunch of those. The mold can be found here.

Then dust them with shades of mossy green petal dust.

Now, to make that yellow middle stamen thingy, form a sausage of yellow gumpaste and insert a wire into one end.

Use your thumb and forefinger to pinch around the top of the sausage three times.

It should look like this from the top.

Then take five of those green stick out the side thingies, dip a little bitty bit of each end in water or gum glue, and stick into the bottom of the yellow sausage, going all the way around.

Here is the top view.

Roll your yellow gumpaste thin (number 5 on my pasta roller). Cut out the smaller petals with the tulip cutter and vein in the double sided press.

Give them a little pinch on one end and lay them over a former, which in this case is a half egg chocolate mold sheet.

You will build your flower inside the half sphere candy mold. Put a disc of yellow gumpaste in the bottom and poke a hole through the center with a wire. Poke holes through the center of the sphere molds as well.

Attach three petals with water or gum glue when they are firm enough to hold their shape.

Insert the stamen wire through the holes and attach the base of it to the petals with a very light dab of water or gum glue.

Use cotton (if food safe) or paper towels to prop the petals up.

Here is a whole sheet drying at once.

You want the inner three petals to be tight around the center stamen. Allow this to dry fully.

When the first portion is dry, make another set of three petals with the larger petal cutter and vein. When those are firm enough, hold the partially made flower upside down and glue 3 more petals on in another row. (This step was not shown). You can dry the flowers upside down at this point, or you can put them back in the formers. I used paper collars to hold the outer petals at just the degree of openness I wanted.

Allow those to dry fully and give them a light dusting with the shade of yellow petal dust you desire. A very light puff of super pearl can be applied also for a little sheen.

Wrap your wires in floral tape, and then tie them up in a pretty satin ribbon.

And now you can tiptoe through the tulips with me!

Give these a try, they are not difficult and a lot of fun!

Happy Caking!

Sharon

BASIC BUTTERCREAM CLASS

2010-11-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

December 12-13, 2010:

Basic Buttercream Class

hosted by Sharon Zambito and Wendy Baiamonte:

Hammond, LA (40 miles north of New Orleans).

$275.

Icing ingredients and light lunch provided each day.

Students will need to be bring cake and tools.

You will make Sharon's icing recipe, practice icing a

round and square cake, and bonus techniques as time permits.

ONLY 2 SPOTS LEFT!

Email szcakes@aol.com to register.

Come join us and perfect your buttercream icing skills just

in time for all of those holiday cakes!

Sweet Luxuries DVD on Sale Now!

2010-11-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

Sweet Luxuries

Designer Bag, Bubbly, and Bon Bons

On Pre-Order now!

Learn to make this 3D Designer purse with chocolate champagne bottle and hand made candies.

And don't forget to get your purse handle mold. Only available at SugarEd Productions here.

Learn to make handmade cherry cordial candies and a whole lot more!

See all the details and order HERE.

Happy Caking!
Sharon

SALE!!

2010-10-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Limited Time Only!

15% OFF YOUR ENTIRE ORDER!

Use coupon code: 15OFF at checkout

SugarEd Productions

Free Pumpkin Cutter Set!

2010-10-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

Free Pumpkin Cutter Set

Make a $50.00 purchase (before shipping) and receive

this adorable pumpkin cutter set as a free gift.

$14.00 value.

This 7 piece set includes three pumpkin cutters (1.5 inch, 2.5 inch, 5 inch) and 4 accent cutters to complete their facial features. Each set of cutters comes in a largemetal tin and includes two cookie dough recipes.

These cutters are great to make Jack O Lanterns for Halloween or a bounty of Fall pumpkins throughout the season. Can also be used for fondant accents on your Fall cakes, as well as cutting biscuits or children's sandwiches.

Note: The cutter set will not show up in your shopping cart, but they will be included for all orders over $50 (before shipping).

Special offer valid through October 25th, 2010 or while supplies last.

Supplies are running low!

Look here to see a fun tutorial using these cutters!

SHOP HERE!

Contest Winners!

2010-09-30T19:40:00.001-07:00

Sweet Luxuries

Designer Bag, Bubbly and Bon Bons

Thank you all who entered the contest. So many great titles it was very hard to decide!

The winners are:

Vicki said...
* Luxe - An elegant,sumptuous handbag and champagne cake.

*Sweet Luxury

Bohaney said...
A Tote with a Toast!

Abi said...
"Bagged It" - Bags and Bottles with flowering Fleur de Lis

Congratulations and please email me at sugaredinfo@aol.com to claim your prize!

Editing is underway, so we hope to bring this one to you within 6-8 weeks!

Happy caking!

Sharon

Name That DVD!

2010-09-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We had a very busy week shooting our next DVD. I want to thank my dear friend Heather, and my son D, for assisting in the shooting this time. I really could not do it without that extra set of hands and eyes, so thank you both so much!

I thought you guys might like to see a few behind the scenes shots of us filming in my kitchen.

Video Specialties comes to my home with 3 cameras, a monitor and on site mixer. That allows us to get shots and close ups from 3 different angles while I am working.

To the left you can see the main camera, the one I look into when I am speaking to you. The one to the right takes closeups when I work on that side of the cake.

Here is the mixer and monitor that Todd, my video guy, and my assistant ( Wendy, Heather, or D) watch to see how the shot will look on TV. This way we can ensure that the instruction can be seen well, with nothing blocking the view on screen.

Here I am doing a little prep work off camera. (Oh my, look at that chicken neck on me! Ack!) This is the 9th video we have done, and we have gained a lot of experience along the way. We strive to keep the quality we are known for high, while throwing in a few new things to keep it interesting for you.

Here I am at the end of the two day shoot with the finished cake. (No chicken neck in this one, whew.)

The aftermath. And guess what; it still looks like this because I had a cake order for this weekend and did not have time to clean up the carnage. That is on today's agenda. Fun Saturday! LOL

Chocolate champagne bottle and handmade candies.

Stenciled fleur de lis motif. I have to admit I just adore this. This purse handle mold will be available for purchase exclusively through SugarEd Productions when the DVD is released.

But we need a name for the DVD! Contest time! Submit your ideas for the name in the comment section, and earn a chance to win a free DVD when it is released (hopefully in about 6-8 weeks).

We are trying to get the DVDs you have requested out to you as fast as we can, while maintaining the high quality we are known for. Next DVD shoot in 4 weeks!

Thank you, as always, for your loyalty and support of SugarEd Productions.

Happy Caking!

Sharon

Basic Buttercream Class

2010-09-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

BASIC BUTTERCREAM CLASS

Hosted by Sharon Zambito and Wendy Baiamonte

December 12-13, 2010

Hammond, LA (40 minutes north of New Orleans)

Students will make Sharon's buttercream icing recipe, and learn to ice both round and square cakes perfectly smooth and sharp. Bonus items will be thrown is a time permits.

$275 includes the icing and light lunch. Students will need to bring cakes and tools.

Only 7 spots left.

Email szcakes@aol.com to register. Hope to see you there!

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Wish us luck as we shoot our next DVD this week! I will try to post some behind the scenes photos this week. I am also working on a gumpaste tulip tutorial, and have some class pictures to share with you guys as well within the next two weeks.

I hope that all of your caking dreams are coming true!

Sharon

Hangin' Ten in 2010!

2010-08-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! We are back!

We recently attended the 2010 ICES Convention in San Diego. What a great time we had seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and catching up on all the cool new things happening in the cake world.

It was too far for us to drive this year, so I had to ship all of our stock and my demo supplies ahead, and we all flew up there. (We being me, Wendy, my sisters Janice and Barbara, and my son D.)

Oh man the weather! We were in heaven as soon as we stepped out of the airport. Mild temps, low humidity and beautiful blue skies. So very different from where we live, where it is so hot and humid it is a chore to breathe.

Do you guys recall our adventurous trip last year? My sisters rode in the lap of luxury in the air and their limos, while Wendy, D and I drove a cargo van across the country through about 8 million miles of cornfields. Well, time for payback, sistahs.

Find yer own way to the hotel.

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Once we got to the hotel, we unloaded and stopped for a bite to eat. Here are Wendy and I in our Team Diet Coke shirts.

Our crew.

Barb, Janice, me, Wendy, and D in front of our booth.

Our vendor booth with all the stuff.

These are my two selling machines. They were tired from working so hard!

This is my little friend who loves cake decorating, and he is very talented. He came all the way from Canada with his mom to attend ICES. I wanted to take him home.

This is Diane, Connie and Michelle of the Cake Connection. They are very dear friends of ours, and we so look forward to seeing them whenever we can.

It was Connie's birthday, so we surprised her with a cupcake with a little ceramic squirrel on it. Connie has serious squirrel issues, hence her horrified face. I love the expression on Diane's face in this one.

She won't go near the squirrel. LOL

One evening the SugarEd crew went out for a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant. It was utterly wonderful in ambiance, food and company.

My beautiful Wendy.

The Cherry Hog wanted the cherry from my drink, but she wasn't getting it.

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And here are some of the amazing cakes that were on display in the cake room. The talent on display was amazing.

If you ever get the chance to attend an ICES convention, I highly recommend it. It is a weekend of fun filled with demos, classes, displays, shopping and friendship.

Happy caking!

Sharon

SALE at the CONFECTION COLLECTION!

2010-08-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

‎20% OFF ENTIRE ORDER!

at CONFECTION COLLECTION and Handbags by Christian Marie!

Coupon code: 20SALE

ORDER HERE

Go now! You know you want too!

Sale ends tomorrow, (I think) :)