Unicorn Eggs

I read a post on Instagram the other day that suggested the unicorn craze should end now.
Are we ready for that?!
Not me...
Especially not with a unicorn cupcake class up next.
And I fully intend to add a unicorn cookie class onto the schedule, too.
So, no we have not had enough of unicorns. Yet!

These decorated eggs were inspired by @blogali's non-edible ones (found on Instagram).

These ones are all edible, though - candy eggs with modelling chocolate/ fondant blend decorations.

So quickly grab some of your kids' left-over Easter stash, and get decorating before the eggs (and the craze!) are gone.

Happy decorating!

xxM

(Flat) Macarons

Ping.
That's me. I'm done.
Overcooked in fact.
Two classes, 6 emergency cases at the hospital, and husband-less for the weekend.

He's gone cycling in the scenic Eastern Cape. Lovely. 

The last time he went away over a weekend, he took the kids with him. Better.
I had my Friday all laid out: set-up for the Saturday class, bake for tea. Then... R.E.L.A.X

I'd just set these unbaked macarons out, when I got a call to get to the hospital for an emergency.
Fine, I thought. An hour to develop a shell would be perfect, I thought.
But the case took three.
Ping ping ping!

So this is what macarons look like when they've had an extended resting time.
A little tired. A lot flat. And tending to fall apart more than normal.
(Oh. That's me, again.)

Thankfully, though, even if macarons don't look their best, they always taste great. 

These were filled with chocolate mint icing. And I used my standard macaron recipe. 

That's a very old post, with some pretty un-pretty pictures. I'll get round to fixing it sometime. But right now I have to deal with the ping. Time to switch off. 

Happy baking ... I'll be resting!

xxM 

Speckled Bunnies Easter Cookies

What I didn't tell you when I wrote about selecting colours for Easter cookies  was that I had a completely different palette in mind for this year. 

I was about to start mixing up pale blue, grey and yellow icing when I had a last-minute rethink. 

I'd used that pretty combination here - too long ago! I really want to use it again.  

But I also really really wanted to speckle this batch of cookies. And brown speckles seemed better suited to the colours I finally went with. 

Here's how the speckled bunny cookie was made:

Print out a template. Lay acetate over it. Secure in place on a cookie tray using magnets/ tape. 

Outline with detail consistency royal icing; flood with flooding-consistency royal icing.

Give the cookie tray a jiggle or two to settle the icing and disperse bubbles. Allow to dry. 

Use a stiff bristled paintbrush dipped in a mixture of brown and white gel colours, and clear alcohol. 

Run your finger over the bristles to disperse droplets over the bunnies to create the speckles. 

Once the transfers are completely dry, lift them off the acetate (they should come away easy, but use a palette knife if necessary). If you're attaching the transfer to a dried cookie, use royal icing as the glue. 

And of course, every bunny needs a tail!
Use stiff icing with a closed star tip (eg. an Ateco 28) to pipe a pretty rosette. 

And that's the whole tail  tale 

😉

Happy Easter decorating!
xxM

Chocolate Cake with Sprinkles.

Once upon a time there was chocolate cake, speckled eggs and sprinkles.
And they all lived ...

...well, ok - there was some ganache and chocolate cream cheese icing in the story too.  

And they all lived happily ever after. 

What? Not enough? 

I know new recipes have been a little thin on the ground here, recently. It's just been so very busy that I've been sticking to the tried and tested ones, whose stories you already know. 

But I do have a couple in development, and will share  them soon!

xxM 

Easter Cookies - Peach Royal Icing

Let's talk colours! It's been a while and you know it's one of my favourite topics.

After a theme is chosen, selecting colours is the next step. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes not.
I try and limit it to 5 main ones, because the addition of an extra colour for a class means filling another 6 bags of icing.
One crazy Easter we had 7 different colours ... 42 bags of icing. Yikes!

Easter can be particularly tricky. Pastels seem the obvious choice,  but what about those carrots and beaks (pesky hatched eggs!).
And (for me) the combination of orange and pastels is never... satisfactory.

So, it's taken me 5 years, but I've found the answer: Peach!
Talk about obvious (hashtag facepalm!)

This peach is a mix of soft pink and egg yellow (Cake Flora / Americolor gels)  It wasn't quite pastel enough, so I lightened it up with some bright white (bright white is a must have!)

The green (which is a more antique grey/green in reality), is made with a touch of navy blue and a dash of yellow.

And then there's that taupe again ... colour 💘

After the iced cookies were dry, I added dimension by dry brushing on some peach dusting colour.

And that's as orange as we're going this Easter... just peachy 😉


Happy decorating!

xxM