Easy Owl Cupcake Toppers

Did you have any paste left over from the previous owl project? Did you still have some unfinished owl business? Well, if you were me the answer to both those questions was: Yes!

So..hoo-hoo...this is a super-easy cupcake topper, that you don't need much to make:

An oval, or round cutter, and an icing nozzle.
A bit of fondant / tylose paste/ mix of both. (pink, brown, white, orange - or whatever you have)
A roller and a knife.
A toothpick.
Tylose glue.

(See here for a tutorial on tylose paste and glue).

 First, roll out your pink paste and cut out your oval or round shape, then cut off part of the top wit the same cutter.

 Cut a triangle of orange for the beak, indent it with a toothpick to create nostrils, attach it with tylose glue

Roll out brown paste and use the oval/ round cutter again to make wings

Use the cutter on the other side of the cut out paste, too. Make 2, and attach with tylose glue.

Roll out some white paste, and cut out round eyes using the icing nozzle. 

Stick them onto the owl with tylose glue, and make two little round brown balls of paste to stick onto the white. 

Make 2 balls of orange and stick them on as feet.

Indent the claws using the blunt side of a knife

Emboss the chest of the owl using the tip of the icing nozzle. 

That's it.  

Owl done. Unless of course you can't resist making a few more...

                          

Happy creating! 

xxM 

Fondant Owl Cake Topper Tutorial

 My head is overflowing with cookie and cupcake classes at the moment. I'm working on all the next few themes simultaneously.
So my dining room table is scattered with works-in-progress: black cat and pumpkin Halloween cupcakes; "fabric" flowers for the Vintage cupcake class, and animal print cookies for the Jungle Fever class. There are ghosts and mummies (cookies) in my freezer; and Father Christmas, Rudolph, wreaths and snowflakes waiting to be decorated in tupperware in the kitchen.
And then a few other non-theme cookies that I just randomly had the desire to decorate this week.

So, I thought I'd just throw something else into the mix:
A fondant  owl cake topper. The little hedgehog we made a while ago needed a woodland friend...
I made both for a friend's baby shower cake a few months ago, and she's been in my thoughts this whole week - so, this one is for you Colleen. Wishing you a speedy recovery : )

The owl is a simple character to do, and you really don't need a lot of fancy tools. I've used fondant tools because I've got them, but I'll tell you what you can do as an alternative:

What you need:

A small ball of fondant (just smaller than a golf ball) in your main colour - pink in this case
A smaller one in another colour - brown here
A marble sized ball of fondant in orange
And an even smaller ball of white fondant.
Tylose powder
Tylose glue
Holsum (white vegetable fat) or corn flour
A knife
A roller
A toothpick or  kebab stick
A short piece of dry spaghetti
Black sprinkles
A small heart cutter
(Handy - but not essential - small flower cutter, small round cutters, stitching tool, "feathering" tool)

Start with the pink fondant...

(Keep all the other balls of fondant covered in plastic to prevent them drying out.)

Add a small amount of tylose powder - just less than 1/4 tsp - to the pink ball, and knead it in.

Separate this paste into two balls - one slightly larger than the other.

Shape the larger ball into an ovoid shape

Shape the smaller ball by pinching out the "ear" tufts using your thumb and index finger

Insert the spaghetti into the larger ball

And then put on the head

Now, add some tylose powder to the brown paste - just a little - and knead together, 

Roll it out, and cut out 3 hearts (you may need to grease your work surface with holsum, or dust with corn flour)

Texture one heart with the stitching tool, or just use the toothpick, and use a little glue to attach to the owl's body.

Texture the other two hearts, either with a fondant tool, or just use the side of the toothpick...

Attach the wings to the sides of the owl's body with some tylose glue. Curl them up slightly.

Roll out the orange paste, cut out a flower and cut in two 

Attach them with tylose glue 

(If you don't have a small flower cutter, simply make the feet by using a knife to indent claws into two small balls of orange paste.) 

Roll a small ball of paste for the beak

Make it pointy at one end

Indent the pointy end with a knife

 Make two nostrils

 And attach with tylose glue

Roll out the brown paste and the white fondant, and cut out rounds (or simple flatten small balls of each  to create the rounds of paste)

Glue the whites onto the brown

Add the black sprinkes (or wait for the paste to dry, and then draw or paint on the dots with an edible marker or black gel.)

Glue onto the owls face

Roll out a few thin strands of brown paste, and attach to the owl's head

Owl's that?

Friends...xoxo!

xxM

Dark Chocolate Date Bars

Yes, you guessed it: I'm still busy with "Project Chocolate"- trying to use up the glut of baking chocolate I have in my cupboard.
I'm off to the baking supply shop tomorrow, though. So I will no doubt be buying more chocolate, and this will be an ongoing project.
Nothing wrong with more chocolate recipes, though, is there?!

This one sort of made itself up as we went along ("we" being the chocolate and I).

It started off with a sludge of chocolate and butter that was meant to be a glaze (see the Triple Chocolate Cheesecake recipe last week), but the chocolate obviously had other ideas and sat in the bottom of the saucepan sulking. Not glazing at all.
But - despite the glut of it - I never throw chocolate out (hmmn, perhaps that's why there's a glut??). So,    it was sitting there for a few days waiting for a re-invention of itself...and this is what emerged:

Crisp on the outside, dense chewy chocolate on the inside. Sort-of like a brownie, but sort of not.
I could perhaps clarify that, however I'd need to taste one again, and I can't because they are all gone...

Dark Chocolate Date Bars 
Ingredients:

300g dark chocolate chopped into small pieces
100g butter
2TBS golden syrup
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
100g chopped pecans
100g chopped dried dates
pinch salt
vanilla extract
(no leavening agent)

Method:
Preheat oven to 175'C
Spray a 20cm square baking tin with non-stick cooking spray.

In a saucepan, over low heat, melt together chocolate, butter and syrup. It doesn't matter if it seems to seize up a little : )
Allow to cool once all the chocolate has melted.

Beat together sugar, eggs and yolks.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour  the chocolate mix into the eggs and sugar mix.
Add vanilla extract (1 tsp or 10 drops, depending on what kind you are using).
Sift in the flour, salt and cocoa. Mix at low speed until combined. Stir in pecans and dates.
Spoon batter (it is stiff) into the pan; spread out evenly with a spatula.

Bake at 175'C for 35minutes, until just "set".

Leave to cool in the tin.

Cut into bars, sprinkle with icing sugar, serve and enjoy!

xxM

Creative Cookie Cutters

 I have a small problem: I seem to have an irrepressible desire to own every cute cookie cutter out there. (Just in case I need to use them all, someday).
This is probably going to land up being an expensive habit. But I guess that there are worse addictions to have!
It's not always easy, though, to find the cookie cutters used to create the amazing cookies that people from all around the world are posting pictures of on Flickr and Pinterest.
Every now and then I just cannot stop myself and I order something from the States or UK. The fact that the shipping costs more than the goods is a real downer though!

But I really wanted needed these Russian Doll cutters a few months ago...

...I know I'm not the only one out there with a thing for Russian Dolls!

Anyway, thankfully I have my cookie classes to justify all these cutters, and we actually had a really great Mother's Day class making Russian Doll cookies...

                                  

   

But you will notice that I have a set of three cookie cutters, but there are 4 Russian Doll cookies in that picture. And that's where the "Creative Cookie Cutters" comes in.  

This is my large Russian Doll cutter...

                                             

And in March, when I wanted to make hedgehog cookies for our Autumn Woods class, looking through my selection of cutters, this is what I found: a sea shell

...but, it made some cute hedgehogs...

(I still haven't used that one to make sea shell cookies...but I'm sure I will, someday!)

So, here's how (really simple):

Want a cookie like this, but don't have the cutter...

Look through your basic shapes...

(bonus points for being able to use the imported Russian Doll cutter again!)

Then...

Squash the parts together, no glue necessary...

And bake. 

(See here for some cookie baking basics.) 

And if the giraffe doesn't mooove you...  : ) 

                                      

If you want some more ideas on using cookie cutters, please visit Sweet SugarBelle . That is where I got the inspiration for the giraffe, as well as the whole "Jungle Fever" theme we are doing in tomorrow and next Saturday's class.  

It's going to be wild!

Happy creating!

xxM 

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

I have nearly worked my way through 5 kg's of chocolate in the past month. Okay, I didn't exactly eat it personally (although some days it felt like I came close!).
 I've used it in brownies, icing, ganache, cake pops, more cake pops and more ganache. And finally - and quite easily the best use of it so far - in a triple chocolate cheesecake.
I like baking with cream cheese (have I mentioned that before?!) and a new baked cheesecake recipe is something that I just can't resist. I have a recipe book full of them, which I'm slowly making my way through. But when I saw the pictures of a triple chocolate cheesecake on the net, it became an instant must-bake. And it conveniently uses up another  400g of chocolate  (only!)

I have made cheesecake with melted chocolate before, but as delicious as it was, you felt after the first bite that you'd have to run the Comrades Marathon to atone for it!
So, I've changed a few things from the original recipe:

Firstly for the crust, instead of biscuit crumbs I just used cookie dough.

Secondly, the sugar. Cheesecake shouldn't be so sweet that you loose the subtle savoury undertones...in my opinion : )  so I routinely reduce the amount of sugar the recipe calls for.

Thirdly - this is something I usually do, too - I replaced the cream with buttermilk, just to lighten it up.

And, finally, I simplified the topping, just drizzling a bit of white chocolate, rather than making a glaze.

It turned out well, very well. The few slices left seem to be shrinking by slivers every time the fridge gets opened!

So, for the original recipe, go here. But for something lighter, but incredibly delicious, read on:



Triple Chocolate Cheesecake:

Oven temp. 150'C
Prepare a 20cm square pan (not too shallow) with baking paper: make a cross with the sheets extending above the sides of the pan.

Crust:
Basic or chocolate cookie dough* or 11/2 cups cookie crumbs and 55g butter

Filling:
3 x 250g tubs of firm low-fat cream cheese
2/3 cup sugar
2 TBS corn flour
3 large eggs
3/4 cup Buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g white chocolate (and some extra for dribbling over the baked cheesecake.)
120g milk chocolate
120g dark chocolate

*If you are using cookie dough as your crust, depending on how thick you want your crust to be, you will need at least 600g raw dough.
Roll it out, cut it to size and place in the prepared pan. Bake for approx.15 minutes at 180'C. Allow to cool.
(Or mix cookie crumbs and melted butter together, press firmly into the bottom of the pan, and bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool. )

Then reduce the oven temp. to 150' C

For the filling:
With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the cream cheese sugar and corn flour until smooth.
With the mixer on medium on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time. Scrape down the sides of the mixer between additions of egg.
Add the buttermilk and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
Divide the batter evenly between 3 bowls.

Melt the chocolate separately.
It takes about 2 1/2 min on low power in the microwave to melt the chocolate. Don't use 100% power!

Add the white chocolate to one bowl of batter, the milk chocolate to another, and the dark chocolate to the third.

Pour the milk chocolate batter over your crust in the pan.
Spoon the white chocolate batter over this one and smooth carefully - taking care not to mix the layers together.
Then repeat with the dark chocolate batter.

Place in the oven and bake for 1hr. Cool in the oven with the door slightly ajar.

Drizzle melted white chocolate over the surface of the cheesecake (or see the original recipe for a dark chocolate glaze).

Refrigerate at least 3-4 hours, or overnight before serving.

To remove from the pan, lift up by the extended edges of the baking paper.

Cut into square/ rectangular portions.

Put aside a slice to savour in peace one your guests have left ; )

Unfortunately the photo's I've taken don't do it justice - in terms of appearance, I just couldn't slice it cleanly enough not to smudge the colour between different layers . Next time (and there will definitely be a next time, and a next for making this one...) for cosmetic sake, I will put the white chocolate layer between the milk and dark chocolate ones, as in the recipe.

Enjoy!

xxM

Index and Calendar

Just a quick note to point out that I have added an Index page - so you can link directly to recipes and tutorials on this blog from there.
And the calendar is now updated until the end of the year with all the upcoming classes.
Hope you'll be joining us!

xxM

Caramel Cream Icing

You might have realised by now that I have a penchant for cream cheese icing.
If you haven't: I do!
I make mine slightly differently compared to other recipes (see here) in order to get an icing that it firm enough to pipe and maintain its shape.

And it is very conducive to having different flavours added to it:

I like it plain...with lemon zest...with vanilla....with cocoa...with melted chocolate (oh, yes!)...and now with caramel (double yes!!)

When I was in university residence, one of the lunch options was a "Cottage Cheese Platter" - basically half a tub of cottage cheese with a few crackers (it might not sound appealing, but it was a welcome alternative to all the mass-produced hi-carb meals!)
Sometimes we'd add some strawberry jam to the cottage cheese to create a wishful-thinking-cheese-cake. Desperate times!

Anyway...
You'd much rather be combining cream cheese - rather than cottage cheese -with sweet flavours.
It may seem like a strange combination - cream cheese and caramel - but the cream cheese just takes the edge off of the sweetness of the caramel, while adding a soft creaminess to it.

Caramel Cream Icing:

100g butter at room temp.
250g cream cheese (the dense kind like Lancewood, Woolworths or Philadelphia) - chilled
3/4 cup sifted icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons caramel*
Vanilla extract
Caramel essence

With an electric mixer, beat butter until soft and pale. Add the sifted icing sugar.
Beat well.
Add the cream cheese, vanilla and caramel essence. And add the caramel (2-3 tbs - depending on how sweetly caramel you want it.)
Beat together.
Refrigerate if not using immediately.

*I use the kind of caramel you get in the tubs from baking supply stores
If this is particularly stiff, zap it in the microwave for a few seconds on medium power. When you add it to the rest of the mixture, you want it to be soft, but not runny - and certainly not warm. Just a few seconds in the microwave is enough.

Pair this icing up with vanilla or chocolate cakes / cupcakes - it compliments both beautifully; and it has a scrumptious soft golden colour...

xxM