Before trying this batch of butter, the last time that I had fresh homemade butter was in grade three when half of our class got to bake a loaf of bread and the other half got to shake a jar full of cream until it turned into butter. I was placed in the butter-making half and was pretty excited about it. Obviously we couldn't all shake the jar at the same time so we just passed it around and shook it until our tiny arms got tired.
In retrospect, the kids who got to make bread had the better deal.
I've had a number of requests for a tutorial for the butterflies that I covered my mom's birthday cake with. They aren't difficult to make! All you need is the right supplies and you can make your own colourful sugary butterflies to decorate cakes, cupcakes, or even cookies with.
Halloween is quickly approaching so I thought that I would share a quick, cheap way to make really impressive fake blood.
The secret is using chocolate. Either chocolate sryup, coco powder, or hot chocolate powder will work.
note: use the cheap liquid food colouring and not the expensive gel concentrate that I have pictured here. The gel colour stains very easily while the regular red liquid food colouring has washed off of all my costumes in the past.
Marshmallow fondant is easy to make and pretty fun to use. You can cover cakes and cookies with it to give them a smooth professional-looking finish or you can cut out shapes and designs to decorate your icing with. Its cheaper to make your own fondant than it is to buy it pre-made plus the pre-made stuff tastes a bit like cardboard unless you are willing to pay for a very high end product.
All you need is:
Marshmallows - they can be big marshmallows or mini ones, either one works fine.
Icing sugar - You'll be mixing the icing sugar into the marshmallows to make a dough so I usually make sure that I have an entire bag on hand.. but I rarely use the whole bag.
Food colouring
Flavoring oil - This is optional. If you don't add this your fondant will be sweet and flavorless which works well if your got all the flavors your want in your cake already
These pretty sugar flowers are easy to make and they look so sweet on cakes, cookies, and cupcakes. Gum paste is easy to work with and you can make flowers as simple or as realistic as you want. These ones are very simple flowers that you can make large amounts of in a short amount of time. Plus it's pretty fun to play with the gum paste.
To get started you'll need :
1. A rolling pin
2. A thick piece of foam and a thin piece of foam
3. Flower shaped fondant/gum paste/ small cookie cutters
4. Gel food colouring (I use Wilton's)
5. Toothpicks
6. A stick with a smooth rounded edge ( a pencil that has a rounded eraser works too)
7. A stick with a dull pointed edge ( a dull pencil crayon works for this one)
8. A bit of butter or crisco
9. Gum paste! You can get this at most craft stores or places that carry lots of cake decorating supplies. I buy this pre-mixed gum paste. It lasts a really long time and takes away any hassle of having to get the right consistency.
