Sugared Cranberries

Merry Christmas!

So back in November I told you that I was obsessed with cranberries. Well, the craze continues with these sugared cranberries. So sparkly and pretty, they are the perfect garnish for cakes, pies, cupcakes, or in my case mini cheesecakes. They're also not bad to snack on. I made yet another batch of chocolate covered cherries which I'm hoping make to Christmas--since I'm hosting my first one (yikes!)--without me eating them all. I also recently came across a recipe for drunken cranberries--cranberries soaked in alcohol. I cannot wait to try them out too! I don't have time to prepare them for Christmas but maybe for New Years Eve? I told you, I'm cranberry obsessed!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
2 cups fresh cranberries, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar (for rolling)

Directions:
Place sugar and water into a sauce pan and heat over medium high heat, stirring. Bring to a boil. As soon as the sugar is completely dissolved, remove from heat. Pour in the cranberries. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, make sure the cranberries are well coated in the simple syrup.

With a slotted spoon, place the cranberries on a wire rack or onto waxed paper and allow to dry for 45 minutes to an hour. Make sure the cranberries are separated to avoid clumps of the syrup on the berries.

Pour the remaining sugar in a shallow dish and roll cranberries in the sugar, coating completely. Place sugared cranberries on a clean wire rack or piece of waxed paper. Allow to dry for an hour. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Christmas 2013 Baking List
Dark Chocolate Cover Cranberries
Michigan Cranberry Brownies
Honey Cake
Soft and Chewy Gingerbread Men Cookies 
Christmas Kiss Cookies 
Gingerbread House 2013
Three Chocolate Truffles: Mint, Rum, and Orange
Cherry Snowball Cookies 
The Best Sugar Cookies 
Stained Glass Cookies

An Apple Cider Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Eric!

Today he turns 26 and I went all out in making his birthday cake this year. Last year I made him a strawberry cake with cream cheese filling and chocolate frosting, decorated with fresh strawberries and candy clay roses. This year it's going to be an apple cider cake with caramel buttercream filling and with homemade fondant.

Apple Cider Cake:
I've been dying to test out this cake forever. Last autumn I got so caught up with making all kinds of pumpkin recipes, I never got around to the apple cider cake. Fortunately, Eric loves apple cider even more than I do, making this the perfect cake for his birthday. However, his birthday doesn't fall in the perfect month for buying apple cider. So I will admit this up front: I used the powdered apple cider mix instead of the real thing in this cake. It still turned out tasty, but I can't wait to make this cake again when apple cider is in season.

Fresh out of the oven

 Ingredients:
1 spice cake mix
1 3-ounce package instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup apple cider
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, pour into two 8-inch round pans that are greased and floured. Bake according to package directions. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

Eric's mom taught me a cool baking trick today that her mom taught her. Grease and flour your cake pans, then line the bottom with waxed paper. The cake just slides out and then you just peel the waxed paper from the bottom of the cake.

Caramel Buttercream
Ever since we made buttercream frosting for the very first time, both of us have been a little obsessed with it. I don't think we'll ever use store-bought frosting again. So I knew I had to use buttercream on his cake. But I didn't want to make plain buttercream. What goes with apples? Caramel!

But sadly I don't have a caramel recipe for you. I used this Martha Stewart recipe for the caramel buttercream, but I was terribly disappointed in it. While the taste was pretty good--there's got to be better out there though--I wasn't at all pleased with the texture. Not to mention this frosting is a ton of work. So I think I'm going to work on developing my own caramel buttercream recipe.

Anyway, once the cake had cooled I filled it with the frosting then put a thin layer over the rest of the cake so the fondant would stick.

Marshmallow Fondant 
Eric couldn't care less about fondant. As I said, he loves buttercream and would have been more than happy to have his birthday cake covered in frosting. But I was looking for an excuse to make fondant. I don't really like the taste of store-bought fondant (does anyone?), but I've read rave reviews on this basic homemade marshmallow fondant and thought Eric's birthday was the perfect excuse to try it out.

Ingredients:
16 ounce bag of marshmallows
2 tablespoons of water
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
food coloring, optional
shortening

Directions:
Grease a large, microwave-safe bowl with the shortening and place the marshmallows, water, and vanilla extract in the bowl. Microwave the marshmallows in 30-second intervals until the marshmallows puff up and soften, between 2 and 3 minutes. Grease a spatula with shortening and stir until the mixture is well combined. If you want to color your fondant, add the food coloring while mixing. I made mine green.

Now, most recipes I found recommended greasing your hands in order to work the sugar into the marshmallow mixture. I tried this but had better luck when I powdered my hands with sugar. So the choice is yours. Knead the sugar into the marshmallow mixture 1 cup of sugar at time. The more sugar you add the easier this becomes. About 2 cups of sugar in, I moved my fondant to a cutting board generously sprinkled with powdered sugar. All other recipes said to grease you work area with shortening or sprinkle with cornstarch. Powdered sugar worked just fine for me. Once you've worked in all the sugar, the fondant will no longer be sticky. 

I read that the fondant is easier to work with if you let it sit over night, so I prepared it the day before, double wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter overnight. However, you can work with it right away.

When I was ready to cover my cake, I rolled the fondant out with a rolling pin to about 3 or 4 inches wider than the diameter of my cake. To get the fondant on the cake, I rolled it the fondant around the baking pin and unrolled it on top of the cake, then trimmed the edges (I used a pizza cutter). It was a lot easier than I thought it'd be. My biggest problem was that my frosting would not stay on my cake, which caused all kinds of issues with the fondant.

The fondant didn't look too pretty, but it did taste really good. I can't wait to play with it more. Maybe one day I'll be able to make beautiful cakes.
 
I've been watching a lot of Cupcake Wars lately and on the show they are always making decorations by piping melted chocolate on waxed paper, so I thought I'd give it a try too for Eric's birthday. While this was incredibly simple and easy to do, I forgot that I'd need something to adhere the the chocolate to the cake. I had some glittery gel that I used on my gingerbread house last December. But the gel was messy and . . . well . . . put it this way, the cake tasted awesome, even if it wasn't the prettiest cake. Most importantly Eric liked the cake, and that's all that mattered.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Candy Clay

As a freelance writer, I write about about a wide variety topics from modern and alternative medicine to tenant and custody laws, from botany and zoology to wedding planning and children's crafts. And of course I also write about food and cooking. It was through a work assignment that I discovered candy clay. Once I finished writing my article, I couldn't wait to make some of my own to play with. I first used it to decorate Eric's 25th birthday cake.

Stawberry cake with cream cheese filling and chocolate frosting. 

Candy clay comes from Wilton Candy Melts, available at most grocery stores. They come in different flavors and colors. You can also change the color of white candy melts by kneading in coloring gel.

Ingredients:
14 ounce bag of candy melts
1/3 cup light corn syrup

Directions:
Microwave the candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl for one minute at 40% power or the defrost setting. Stir well. Continue to microwave the candy at 30 second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Add the corn syrup to the melts and stir until blended. Transfer the mixture onto waxed paper and let it dry at room temperature. Next, wrap it up and store at room temperature. Let the candy clay harden overnight.

The candy clay is going to be very hard when you go to use it. Knead a small section at a time until the clay is manageable. If your candy clay becomes too soft, set it aside to harden or put it into the refrigerate for a short time.

Store any unused candy clay in an airtight container at room temperature. It will keep for several weeks.

Candy Clay Ideas:

Candy Clay Rose

I made candy clay roses to decorate Eric's birthday cake. They are actually quite simple to make. 

Once your clay is pliable, make the base of your rose by taking a ball of candy clay with a ¾ inch diameter and shape it into a cone that stands 1½ inches tall. Create a second ball of candy clay with a 3/8 inch diameter and flatten it into a round petal with a thickness of ¼ inch. Make a total of four petals of this size. Wrap the first petal around the tip of the cone to form the bud of the rose. Wrap the next three petals around the cone. Carefully pinch the top edge of all four petals so they curve away from the cone. Make five balls that are slightly larger than the previous ones and turn them into five slightly larger petals. Using your finger, thin the edge of each petal and form them into a cupping shape. Attach the petals beneath your first row of petals. For a fuller rose, continue to make and attach additional petals.

Candy Clay Leaf

Add candy clay leaves to your candy clay roses. Create a 3/8 inch candy clay ball then mold it into a teardrop shape and flatten it to make a leaf shape. Now you have two options. Use a toothpick or the tip of a knife to draw leaf veins into the candy clay or use a real lemon, grape or rose leaf to imprint the leaf veins onto the clay. Make sure your real leaf is clean and dry.

Candy Clay Basket

 Eric just about thought he had died and gone to heaven when I told him that next year he'd get an edible Easter basket filled with treats.

You will need a 6 inch round pan, 12 3-inch lollipop sticks, waxed paper, two 14 ounces bags of candy melts and one batch of prepared candy clay. Melt your unprepared candy melts, dip the lollipop sticks into the candy, place them on waxed paper, and store them in the refrigerate until they set. Pour the remaining melted candy into your 6 inch pan so you have a depth of ¼ inch. Insert the lollipop sticks into the candy so they are evenly dispersed around the circumference. Place the pan in your refrigerate and allow the melted candy to harden. Remove from pan.

Next, roll out your prepared candy clay into five ropes, 24 inches in length and ½ inch in diameter. Weave your first rope in and out of the lollipop sticks, starting at the base of the basket. Connect the ends of the rope when they meet. Continue to weave the remaining ropes through the sticks, one on top of another. Leave ¼ inch of the stick exposed at the top of the basket. Create a rim for your basket by rolling out two more ropes and loosely twisting them together. Place the twisted rope on top of the basket, gently pressing it into the tops of the sticks. Use melted candy melts to secure the rim if it feels loose.

Once you’ve made your basket, fill it with all kinds of goodies.

Candy Clay Cut-Outs
I haven't done any candy clay cut-outs yet, though I'm thinking I might do some to decorate Christmas cookies this year.

Sprinkle your work surface with cornstarch (for white chocolate) or cocoa (for chocolate) to prevent sticking. Roll the clay out to about 1/8 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.

For even more candy clay ideas, visit Wilton's website.

Enjoy!

~Krissy