Bonjour, Petit Gateaux!

This is a bit of a back posting, but perhaps worth sharing....especially since I wasn't blogging in December!


My daughter's 9th birthday had a French twist!  After falling in love with the book Tales of Desperaux, she'd decided long before December that she wanted a French theme for her party.  Ok....how to do that?  We combined the ideas of the season, her favorite sport (ice skating) and this location to come up with "Winter in Paris".  Decorations - easy...winter stuff!  Thanks to my crafty niece, Daphne, for whipping up some cute Parisian touches.  (Check out her Etsy shop!)

Every kid's party seems to require an activity, craft, or some crazy arcade venture.  Our activity?  The kids became painters in their own French gallery.  A make-it, take-it project!   Viola...instant party favors - a finished painted 8 x 10 canvas!  Actually, supplies for this activity were cheaper than stuff I might have bought for a favor bag!  Thanks to a handy Granny, each young painter also received a pretty nifty beret!

Bon appetit!

But wait...there's more.  As part of the make-it, eat-it activity (after all...it is France), we opted for a create-your-own crepe bar!  The kids were able to make their own choices as to crepe toppings or fillings - fruit, chocolate chips, Nutella (of course), whipped cream.

For snacks, semi-traditional birthday fare.  The French twist here was adding labels with the French translation for the snack.  After all, wouldn't you rather have a petit gateaux than a cupcake?  Speaking of sweets, the cupcakes were lemon with buttercream frosting.  Also, I had made some pretty yummy strawberry cookies with cream cheese frosting...these were super easy and made from a cake mix!

All in all, a fun afternoon trip to the City of Lights.  A super fun way to celebrate a birthday and adding a little cultural flair at the same time!

Easy Strawberry Snowball Cookies

Strawberry Snowball Cookies
(adapted from an Allrecipes.com post)

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 package strawberry cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions
1. Mix together cake batter ingredients in large bowl or KitchenAid
2. Roll into 1" balls and set on ungreased or parchment covered cookie sheet
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 5-10 (Watch carefully during this stage.  I always wait for a crinkly-looking crust to appear.)
4.  Frost with homemade or store bought cream cheese icing.  Decorate as desired.

Marshmallow Fondant

Duff from Food Network's Ace of Cakes

We love cakes shows in our house.  I like the quirkiness of Duff's crew at Charm City Cakes on Ace of Cakes (think I could be friends with those guys).  My daughter's a Buddy fan and has Carlo's Bakery on her list of places to visit.  And who doesn't love a good Food Network Challenge where cakes are involved?   So, what is it that all of these have in common besides cake, crazy designs, arguments, and bizarre characters....did you say fondant?

I suppose my first real baking misadventure was making fondant.  Yep, not buying it (you can do that...fyi).  I did my research and found what seemed to be a too simple recipe on my favorite go-to cooking website allrecipes.com.  If you have never visited this site, I highly recommend it!   There I found something called Marshmallow Fondant.  There were several recipes for this.  I went with the one with the most positive reviews and the one that seemed to be less daunting for me...a novice!

Finished product!

We did cheat a bit and find some premade fondant that was made specifically for the smaller decorator pieces.  We also got some small cookie cutters (apparently they also make these - called fondant cutters) so we could trick out cake.  Michaels has quite the cake decorating section...in fact, it's become quite the craft lately.  Like scrapbooking, only tastier.

The cake itself was a VERY simple store bought chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  I iced between layers and then did a crumb coat over the entire cake.  Now, for the nice "taller" cakes I would have needed 4 layers.  Did I mention this was my first baking misadventure?  Live and learn.

Hollywood theme bridal shower cake.

I did learn that you really have to work the fondant like dough.  Adding water a little bit at a time was key to softening it.  Crisco was also my friend and made it more pliable.  I learned by doing this project all of tools I didn't have (like a REAL rolling pin) that would have made it much easier.  The end result was very gratifying, though!  The plus side of using fondant is that it hides a multitude of cake sins and offers a very clean look (providing the fondant doesn't crack or split).

After this attempt, I ventured out a bit and got a little fancier with my batter and filling.  A friend's bridal shower was coming up, so I decided to make her cake.  It was no award winner, but I felt like I'd accomplished something!  Yep, that marshmallow fondant is really idiot proof!

MARSHMALLOW FONDANT
(from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter 1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows

4 tablespoons water 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided

Directions:

1.	Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2.	Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3.	Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4.	Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Cookie Love

Super sassy spring cookie!
(Photo by M. Wyler)

I've found my favorite new source for cookies in Georgetown...my friend Melissa!  She is quite an artist I tell you.  And the best part is that it's an art she's taught herself - for fun and sharing!  So, what about the cookies?  Not only are they beautiful, but I can testify that they are also delicious.  The cookie I had was Valentine's Day themed and simply gorgeous.  It tasted like a buttery shortbread with just the right amount of sweet icing.

UK Cookie Bouquet
(Photo by M. Wyler)

We've bought our share of the glossy decorated cookies at the Barnes & Noble Cafe only to find them crumbly and flavorless.  Melissa's hit the mark with her new hobby!










A Basic Shortbread Cookie Recipe
(from Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients

• 2 cups butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in vanilla; add flour and mix well.
3. Put through cookie press and form cookies onto baking sheets. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.

Royal Icing Recipe

(from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 egg whites, beaten

Directions

1. In a bowl, sift together confectioners' sugar and cream of tartar. Using electric mixer, beat in 2 beaten egg whites for about 5 minutes or until mixture is thick enough to hold its shape.

My favorite of all!  The ghosts are tulips turned
upside down with eyes added.  How clever is that?
(Photo by M. Wyler)

Conversation Heart Cupcakes

This was my first time out of the gate trying one of the creations from What's New, Cupcake by Tack & Richardson. Remember how that book psyched me out? Anyhow, I went for it. Thankfully, I found some great tips by researching a few (very few) blurbs from others who'd tried this particular creation. My result? Not quite ready for Cupcake Wars, but quite a hit with the elementary crowd!

Sweet Talk Cupcakes
Inspired by What's New, Cupcake
18 vanilla cupcakes baked in white liners (I used different colors)
3 frozen pound cakes (10.75 oz), thawed (fyi....try to use a coupon!)
3 cans vanilla frosting (store bought is best for this!)
Red, pink, purple, green, yellow food coloring (I used gel coloring...a little goes a long way!)
3" heart shaped cookie cutter
Freezer weight Ziploc bag, quart size (for piping later)

1. Cut the pound cakes in half horizontally and lay the halves flat. Using a 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out 3 hearts from each half.

2. Spread the top of the cupcakes with some vanilla frosting. Place a pound cake heart on top of each cupcake, pressing down to secure. Place the cupcakes in the freezer for 15 minutes or until slightly frozen.

3. Tint 1/2 cup of the vanilla frosting red with food coloring. Spoon the red frosting into a ziploc bag or piping bag. Divide the remaining frosting among five small microwaveable bowls. Tint each bowl a different pastel color of pink, green, yellow, orange, and purple. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

4. Working with one color of frosting at a time, microwave the frosting, stopping to stir frequently, until it has the texture of lightly whipped cream (about 20 seconds for my microwave). Remove 1 cupcake at a time from the freezer. Holding the cupcake by its paper bottom, dip it into the frosting just to cover the pound cake heart. Allow the excess frosting to drip off back into the bowl. Turn right side up and let stand. Repeat with each color and the remaining cupcakes. If the frosting becomes too thick, reheat for several seconds, stirring well.

5. Snip a very small (1/16-inch) corner from the bag with the red frosting. Pipe sayings on the top of the hearts.

Alyssa's Notes:
- Some folks had warned that the hearts would fall off following ONLY the above method, so I used a generous amount of frosting to anchor the heart onto the cupcake (I mean generous). Make the dipping frosting as thin as possible in the microwave (I found 18 seconds a good length, but it will depend on your microwave).

- I also didn't try to coat the entire heart with frosting. It's about the overall effect. It's ok if it drips a bit down the side....adds to that homemade, yummy effect I think instead of the factory conformity. But maybe that's just me. :)

Petit Four Cupcakes

Using the my favorite new technique of "dipping cupcakes", I quickly made up something I'm now calling Petit Four Cupcakes for my daughter's class. (Since I had higher ambitions for my own class, I tried to employ the KISS method and satisfy my motherly duties as well.)

The result was pretty cute....bite size and not too overwhelming with all the other sugar on the treat table at the party!

Creating these little bad boys was insanely simple. Make cupcakes as usual. I used my mini muffin (Pampered Chef). When they're cool, follow the dipping technique described here. Remember, it's ok if they drip a little on the sides. I kind of like it. Adds to the whole homemade chic of it all!

Cool Trick - Dipped Cupcakes

One of the coolest tricks I've learned (both by reading & by doing) is soooo easy!  Yes, infomercial easy!  I found that many of the cupcakes that Tack & Richardson create require a dipping technique.  Ok, that was (admit-tingly) one of the many daunting things that caused me to look at the pretty pictures, then set the books back on my shelf. But, once I really stumbled upon the previously mentioned blog (With Sprinkles on Top) and found a couple of YouTube videos, I realized it really was crazy easy.

Here's the technique - seriously, it's easy.  Take store-bought icing.  That's right.  Get it on sale.  Use double coupons.  If you need color, divide it out into some microwave safe bowls.  I use gel coloring - it's more concentrated and has great consistency.  A little goes a long way!  For the cupcakes in this picture, I evenly divided one container into 2 Corning Ware bowls (cereal size - microwave safe).   Put one bowl in the microwave (make sure you've mixed the colors well). I microwaved for 12 seconds.  Tack & Richardson suggest 8, but I think that's too short.  Stir well, then immediately dip a cupcake.  Let it drip dry (sort of) and set it back on the tray, wax paper or wherever.   Repeat. Then, do the same with the next bowl of color!

Ta-da!  Cool trick....plus, looks like fondant!  Who knew?
I see lots of uses for this nifty trick.  Apparently it's how petit fours are made, so I tried it with mini cupcakes and they were really cute!

So, how many people have a copy of What's New, Cupcake? by Tack & Richardson? Ok, so how many of you have had a copy for months and months and have been afraid to try the concoctions inside? Ok, hands down.

Well, I have both books (and, yes, there's now a super-colossal book that combines the best of both books but I'm not buying that one just yet). I hadn't made one single cupcake....until now.

I was intimidated - let me tell ya! But, thanks to some careful techie snooping and two new favorite blogs, With Sprinkles on Top and Bakerella, I decided to overcome my fear and jump head first.

While working on this project (yes, I call it a project - no, really), I decided....hmmm.....you know, there might other folks who are addicted to Food Network, TLC and pretty cupcake books, too, but just look at their mixers and sigh, but deep down want to have some baking misadventures, too.

Hence....my blog. Game on.