Snowflake Cookies and Cutters

Every Christmas I pause, and think how odd it is to be decorating snowmen and snowflakes in the peak of summer. But it doesn't stop me from doing it! The pull of Northern Hemisphere tradition is too strong to be denied (and who knows, with climate change maybe one day we'll get our Christmas wish... Eeek! A classic example of be careful what you wish for!)

Brrr!

So, I do own a snowflake cutter or 3... but in case you don't, here's a very easy solution:

Use a 6-petal flower cutter (got one of those?!) and cut indents into each petal of cookie dough.
That's the tip of a little heart cutter I'm using for the task &/in these pics...

Bake and decorate - Voila - a snowflake, or 3...

Have a look at another post from a year ago on how to make wet-on-wet / colour-flow snowflakes.
http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.com/2017/12/wet-on-wet-snowflake-cookies.html


Happy decorating!

xxM

Christmas Pudding Decorated Chocolates

We're all saying it, so it must be true - every year is going by faster. Right?!
Blink and Christmas is here again. One of these days we won't even need to take down the decorations! (What a thankless task anyway 🙈 )
So, in the interest of saving time, sometimes you have to cut a few corners:
While it would be really special to make teeny tiny mini Xmas puddings for this project, there was just no way that was going to happen this week.

Enter an easy solution, though: chocolate balls. From the store!!
They're perfect for the task.
These are mousse filled, dark-chocolate candies. (Oh, yes!)

Pop them onto a paint palette for stability. (One that you use for your edible art, not the kids' poster-paint-spattered one!) 

Use a little royal icing to decorate -

Layer on your white icing. Once that's set, pipe on the green, and pop on a red sugar pearl. So easy. And you can tell from the pictures, I didn't even use icing bags and piping tips; just sturdy bags with the corners snipped off. 

Very organic-looking 😉

They're delicious little mouthfuls on their own,  but I used them as toppers - nestled on a bed of ganache on top of dark chocolate cupcakes.  

'Cos it's the season of giving! 😋

Happy baking and creating!

xxM