Rainbow Spectrum Cupcakes

Why is it that rainbows make us happy?
We could go scientific and speak about the wonder of prisms reflecting and refracting light.  We could go deep and philosophical and speak about how rainbows symbolise hope and renewal when they appear with the calm after a storm. And that is all true.
But I think our delight in rainbows is simply the  magic of revisiting our childhood excitement at the words - look! there's a rainbow.  It's an ingrained joy.

Now,  what is not a joy is a kitchen full of buttercream, right?
And these cupcakes look like a lot of work, don't they? Imagine all those mixing bowls and filling all those bags with the different coloured icing!

Would you believe me if I told you I only used two bowls and one icing bag and nozzle?!

Believe me!

Here's how to make Rainbow Spectrum Cupcakes... 

Place a small amount of uncoloured buttercream in a bowl (enough to pipe approx. 3 cupcakes).

Add a drop of yellow gel colour. 

Put this yellow icing into a disposable icing bag fitted with the nozzle of your choice.

Pipe three rosettes. 

Return any left over icing to the bowl, and top up with a couple of spoons of plain icing. 

Add a drop of blue colour to the icing, and a drop of green. 

You should have green icing. 

Put this into the same icing bag that you used before. Pipe rosettes. The first couple will have a little bit of yellow on the outsides of the swirls - lovely!

Return any left over green icing to the bowl, and top up with more plain icing. 

Add more blue colour. You'll now have turquoise icing. Put this icing into the bag... 

you're getting the picture?!

You'll probably do one more blue - make it a pure blue, don't use the left over turquoise in this batch. 

After the blue, you are going to add pink gel colour to your bowl of icing (leftover blue, topped up with plain icing) - pink and blue mixed together will make purple. 

Add a little more pink to the icing for the next round, to get a pinker purple. 

After the purple, it's time to change bowls. Discard any leftover purple icing, you'll want a true pink next, but still use the same icing bag. 

...can you see how using the same icing bag adds to the effect? Each of the previous colours can be seen as a trace on the next shade. 

The magic of the colour spectrum... it's really the magic of science!

Happy baking 💕

xxM 

Halloween Zombling Cookies

I called these cookies Zombies, but my son pointed out that they're not - they're more like voodoo doll cookies aren't they? But that idea creeps me out a little too much (i'm not sure why - 'cos I'm not overly sensitive to ghoulishness!).
So I'm calling them zomblings, ok?
Ok!

What I didn't mention when I posted the Sugar Skull Cookies on Instagram and FB, was that those stunning skull cutters, were custom made for me by Treat Boutique. 

Lauri and Brad are always so happy to accommodate my requests for new designs!

But I thought of making these Zombling characters at the last minute, so instead of asking for another new custom design, I created them out of two of Treat Boutiques other cutters instead. 

This is the gingerbread man, and can you guess the other one?

It's a pocket watch - made when we did Alice in Wonderland cookies a few years ago! 

Merge the two cookies together, and bake. 

And look how those cut out bits didn't need to be discarded, they made perfect mini skulls!

Now that's good magic, huh?!

Happy baking!

xxM 

Halloween Cookies 2019

Well, now.... I'm just about a decade behind on cookie posts. But you've seen the clips on Instagram and Facebook, haven't you?
It's been hard to keep up with everything this term. Just this morning I was fantasising about self-driving cars - I could just send the car to fetch the kids from school. But then I'd miss out on that flow of information that comes out when they get in the car. And the chance to connect with other mom's while we're waiting for the children to come out.
There's a new show on Netflix called Living with Your Self. In a Netflix-nutshell, it's about a man who inadvertently clones himself. It gets complicated. But  there's two of him! I could do with another me!
Maybe even three ... one to bake, one to work, one to parent.

Anyhoo...! That's what weekends are for, time to catch up a little. So I may not catalogue all the recent classes. But sticking with the realm of fantasy, let's start with the latest:

Here's the video.....

And here are some of the sugar skulls we decorated ....

and a video for the roses ....

 I decorated more Halloween themed cookies this year than I usually do - many more. I had a lot of purple that I needed to get out of my system.

Which I did....

Happy decorating!

xxM