Oreo Madness

What could be better than Oreos? Maybe Oreos covered in chocolate!

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Suze, and she knows why. What's that? You want to know why too? No, I really should not say. Oh, you really want to know that badly? Well, OK, you forced it out of me. But please don't tell her I told you this: she stinks at chocolate dipping Oreos!

The beauti-licious, yet dipping impaired Suze.

Last year I made the snowmen cookies below for the themed gift baskets I make every year. (They were a total copy from the wonderful site, FavorZ.)

Well, Suze tried to make some too, but let's just say they came out, um, ...well, ....not as good as she hoped for. So I started to rib her about it, and that gave birth to a friendly and good natured rivalry between the 2 of us and our confectionery skills. We try to poke fun at each other whenever we can.

So of course, Suzie came first to my mind as I was working on these chocolate dipped Oreos for this year's baskets. I figured if I snapped some pictures and put together a little tutorial here, it might help her out. (Doubtful, but hey, what are friends for?)

These cookies are dipped in super white candy melts and chocolate transfer sheets in a candy cane design applied to the top. Cut the transfer sheets into little squares that will fit on the top of your cookie. Melt the candy melts till very smooth and creamy. I prefer the Merken's and Guittard brands, as they perform the best. If the chocolate is low quality, or old, it will not melt nor cover smoothly. Be careful not to overheat or get water in the candy; that will ruin it as well.

Brush the Oreos with a big fluffy food brush before you dip them to avoid excess crumbs from getting in your melted chocolate. I use a large 3 pronged fork to dip the cookies. I dip, then let most of the excess chocolate fall back into the bowl, then place them on parchment or wax paper.

Gently place the transfer sheet squares on top and gently press it into place on top to make sure that chocolate comes into contact with all of the design.

I do about 5-8 on a cookie sheet and then pop those in the freezer for 5 minutes. Chilling them makes the design transfer over fully and cleanly, as well as giving the surface a nice shine. Just pull the transfer sheet square off when you take them out of the freezer. Don't worry about the little bit of chocolate mess at the base of your cookies. After they have come back to room temp, you can take your handy palette knife and clean up the bottom edges.

By the end of your dipping session, your chocolate is still probably going to be "contaminated" with chocolate cookie crumbs, making it not very useful for any other purpose. So I crumble up all the broken Oreos that I did not dip into the chocolate, spread that on the parchment, chill, and break it up into a cookies and cream bark. YUMMY!

All the items in my basket are going to have a candy cane/peppermint theme. I do a different theme every year.

I will bag each of these individually and tie with a red ribbon before I put them in the baskets. If I place them unwrapped into the baskets; the transfer surface might get scratched and marked up by other items, and we just can't have that! Not after all this work!


Maybe if Suze reads this she can give it another go. Of course, if she does read this I am in big time trouble. LOL


I hope you all get a chance to try this. Send me pics of your projects if you do! Even better, send all your pics to Suze! Tee hee hee.


Have fun making all of your holiday treats! I will try to post pics of more of the things I am working on if time permits. Such a crazy time of year, isn't it?


Happy Holidays Ya'll!

Sharon
http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

Eat More Chicken

At least that is what Tom Turkey wants you to do!

I made this little topsy for our family dinner tomorrow at my sis's. I used this tutorial from the great site, Pastry Whiz, to make Tom.

Steak is good for Thanksgiving, no?


Look at that scared little face!




Giving Thanks.

Today I give thanks for all the wonderful blessings in my life, namely my incredible family and friends, without whom life would have no meaning. I also give thanks for all of you. You have all enriched my life in ways I cannot explain. I thank you for your business, your friendship, and your talent. I wish each and every one of you a blessed and beautiful Thanksgiving day.

Sharon

Yum to the Oh!

That is hip talk for Yummo. I know, lame attempt. I may not be hip but I can sure make a mean cake ball.

Hail the cake ball in all its glory.

Cakes balls (also known as cake bites for the more demure) have been popular on the cake message boards for as long as I can remember. It's a great way to use up the scraps you save in your freezer when you level and carve your cakes. What? You don't freeze your scraps? Well, you must start to do so now so you can partake of this delightfully delicious delicacy.


I usually have a boat load of scraps in my freezer at any give time. Since we travel the globe on holidays (OK, we house hop, but traveling the globe sounds more glamorous), it is the perfect time to get those scraps out and do some rolling!

My son J said he would make them with me, but I got ditched for a playdate with a friend. So I was thrown into cake ball world all alone. No worries... I put a little music on, got a big fizzy Diet Coke from the gas station (fountain only of course!), and I went to town.

You will find many variations of how people make the balls. Some add icing or filling or liquid flavored coffee creamers to the scraps and then mash them all up. I find that makes a mushy ball with my cake recipe, and I don't care for that. I find the cake to be moist enough that if I just squoosh and moosh the scraps together very well, they bind together perfectly and are wonderfully moist as is.

I roll the balls and dip them right away into melted chocolate. Some folks freeze/chill the balls before dipping, but when I do that the chocolate cracks from the cold. I just dip them right away and they hold their shape beautifully .

I use candy melts (also known as candy coating) rather than "normal" chocolate. Candy melts do not have to be tempered. Regular chocolate must be tempered or it will bloom (get terrible white spots all over it). Melts are not as high of a grade of chocolate, but they taste fine to me, plus you won't see any tempering going on around these parts. ( Too lazy, um I mean overbooked). If the chocolate is a little old (or cheap), it might not melt to a very smooth liquid state. In that case, I add some melted paramount crystals to get it flowing nicely again. It also gives the shells a nice soft bite in the mouth and they do not crumble all in your hands.

So now I have about a bajillion cake balls in Tupperware ready to travel the globe with us on Thursday. Hope you guys try it out if you have not already.

YUM. OH.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Sharon

http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

Design Gallery is on sale now!

The Design Gallery DVD is now on sale and will be shipping the week of December 8th! Makes for a great stocking stuffer or little Christmas gift to yourself. As always, a portion of all profits are donated to the support of Klinefelter Syndrome.

The Gallery displays over 130 photos of some of my favorite cake designs. They are set to nice background music and arranged into 7 separate categories for your viewing convenience. I narrate a few things about each cake; mentioning tools and techniques used, helpful hints and how to avoid some problems. It will run about one hour, give or take a little bit.

Click here to get more detailed info.

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We also have brand new items in stock:

Baby bootie cutters

Clay Gun

Frill cutter sets

Pearl makers

Ribbon strip cutter

And we have many other items on sale:

Smoothers

Crimpers

Embossers

Textured rollers

Palette knife

Stencils

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Santa says this is a great time to start your holiday shopping!

www.sugaredproductions.com

Thank you everyone!
Sharon and the SugarEd Staff


And last but not least, I owe a huge thank you to my BFF Heather for designing the DVD cover and being webmaster of the SugarEd site. Thank you, H. You are the best!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

What a great movie. Brings back such good childhood memories of watching it on TV with my big sisters. Last weekend I made a cake with the Wizard of Oz theme. I was cruising the photo gallery on Cake Central and saw one using a sheet cake as the yellow brick road and got my inspiration from that wonderful cake. I took some photos of it in progress to share with you some of the techniques I used.

Taylor's Wizard of Oz cake.

I made a paper template of the shape I wanted the cake to be and used that to cut the shape from a 12x16 sheet cake.

Then it was filled and crumb coated.

I wanted to show you guys how airless my icing is. This batch was made 3 days ahead of time, covered in plastic wrap on the surface, and kept in a plastic container at room temp. (If you want to see a clip of me making my icing, look here.)


The fondant was colored yellow and a some powdered tylose was added to help it firm up. I rolled it out and then used my brick impression mat over it. I used the same paper template that I cut the cake with to cut out the fondant. I let it sit there for a good 20 minutes or so to firm up, so that when I transferred it to the cake it would not stretch or distort.

Top piece applied to the cake.

I then cut a long strip of fondant (long enough to go around entire cake) and rolled it up bandage style.


The sides of the cake were dampened with water, and the bandage unrolled around the cake and smoothed in place. I then trimmed it level with the top of the "bricks" with an exacto knife.


I applied pieces of green fondant around the perimeter of the road to make grass. I made a seam in the front that would later be covered by flowers. I put a 21 star tip on my finger (much like a thimble) and stippled the entire surface of the green fondant to mimic grass.

The rainbow was an edible icing sheet that was put on fondant and allowed to dry firm for a few days. That was attached to the back of the cake with some melted chocolate.

The lollipops were made ahead also, and sucker sticks glued to the back. I stuck the sucker sticks down into the fondant and secured them in place with melted chocolate. I propped them in place until the chocolate firmed up.

After they were secure, I covered the chocolate with a little more "grass".

The shoes were white chocolate tinted red and made in a 3D mold. Here they are right out of the mold.

I cleaned up the seams, added a fondant bow and painted them with piping gel.

A skewer in the bottom let me rotate them without messing them up with my hands as I sprinkled red disco dust all over them. (Be advised that while disco dust is non toxic, it is not truly considered food safe.)

The ruby slippers. I'll get them, my pretty!

I'm meltiiiiiingggg.....

The hat and broom were hand modeled from fondant. A little puddle of green royal icing serves as the melted wicked witch. (She scared the bejeebers out of me.....you?)

I had a good time making this cake. None of the techniques are particularly difficult, just a little time consuming. I hope you have a chance to try it one day! Send me a pic if you do!

Happy Caking!

Sharon

http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

Here Comes Santa Claus!

WOW. PERIOD.

That just about sums up the class we hosted with Bronwen Weber last Sunday. She and her crew came and taught the 3D Standing Santa to 34 very eager students. They brought all the supplies and tools; all we had to do was show up. And each and every one of us left with a completed Santa cake. Very cool.

Bronwen and her assistants Heather and Francois (who is also her new hubby). All 3 of them were super nice, fun and helpful. Bronwen is total kick in the pants fun. Very positive, encouraging, relaxed and a great teacher.

The Santa starts with a skeleton of PVC piping screwed into the base board. Arms and legs are formed with modeling chocolate.

We all went up to her demo table to see each technique and then went back to our seats to do it ourselves. We had immediate assistance if we needed it.


Wendy and I were goofing off here. Santa's belly is cake supported by an acrylic plate.

Students busy at work.


A little army of Santas in the making.



Wendy kneading her fondant.

Working on my guy's coat. Of all the techniques, I found the coat pieces to be the hardest to do .

Silly girls.

Bronwen showed us 2 ways to do the face. The one on the left would be the sculpted realistic face, but it is not complete. In addition, his mouth is all messed up from Bronwen getting goofy with him , but you get the general idea. The one on the right is the more cartoonish, and easier face, as there is no real sculpting involved. I chose the easier one, mostly because I wanted the cartoonish face for the kids, but I would like to try the sculpted face one day.

This is Bronwen's Santa, with just the trim on his hat brim missing. Awesome huh?

Me, Bronwen, and my Santa. He is still wet from his vodka bath in this photo.


My Santa before his vodka bath. I still have to do a few finishing trim touches to him , and when I do, I will post some good shots of him.



I think he looks cute! I was thrilled with my cake. I never thought I could make a cake like this. I learned so many great new techniques I can apply to other cakes. It was a fabulous class and we will be hosting her here back again next year.

Gotta give a shout out to my hubby for getting us the big conference room at his place of work. Thanks Hun! And thank you to all of the students who attended and made it a great success!

Deedra's Santa flew coach home! She said everyone on the plane went nuts over him and the pilot took a picture of him!

If you guys ever get a chance to take class with her, do it. Just do it.


Happy Holiday Caking Ya'll!

Sharon
http://www.sugaredproductions.com/