Saturday, February 6, 2010

Able to Leap Delicious Buildings

We had a Dad & Daughter Dinner at our church last weekend and I had the joy of making the cake for the event. I love, love, love thinking outside of the box when it comes to cakes and this gave me the perfect opportunity to do just that. Our theme was My Dad is my Superhero, more specific...Superman. After helping to create the table centerpieces (they were buildings with candles inside to make them look illuminated) I decided to make the cake look like a building. I wanted it to be fun though when we cut into this cake so I did the layers in the Superman colors.





It was actually not nearly as hard as I thought it would be or it looks. I baked four 6 in. x 6 in. square cakes. I stacked them on foam board that I covered with scrapbook paper that looked like a road. Once I had all four stacked I put 5 sharpened dowels down through the cake and pushed them into the foam board so that my "building" would not shift or topple. Once the cake was secure I did my crumb coat and let that sit and crust over. While the cake was sitting I tinted chocolate fondant black. *Note it is easier to tint chocolate fondant black than white. To roll out fondant and keep it from sticking to your counter spray the counter with cooking spray (lightly). I then cut 6 in. x 9 in. rectangles and wrapped it around my rolling pin. I then put another coat of icing on one side of the building and unrolled the fondant onto the icing (which acted like glue). Continue and do all four sides, pinching your corners together as you go. I then went back and using an exacto knife cut out the windows from the fondant. Lastly I cut a 6 in. x 6 in. square of fondant and attached it to the top of my cake. Really simple from a design standpoint. Where I was working on my finished board I did cover parts of it with tin foil and removed them once the cake was done so that I did not ruin the board with icing.

Overall I was happy with the outcome and I think everyone else was, especially where the entire cake and all 50 cupcakes were happy eaten with none remaining.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Chocolate Coffee Spoons

I love coffee but what I love even more is chocolate in my coffee, I mean come on...you get BOTH in one cup! Even though I love my chocolate coffee I rarely think to add it to my morning beverage. Guess my brain is not fully awake during that time of the morning. I have seen these spoons at many of craft fairs and never thought to make them, till now.

Let me tell you they are easy peasy lemon squeezey!

Your cast of yummy characters include:
  • A good quality chocolate, I am using Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips because well I had them in my cupboard and they are super yummy!

  • Parchment paper, NOT wax paper...well unless you like wax in your coffee then I guess you could use it.

  • Plastic spoons, I went with clear but use whatever floats your boat.

  • Optional are sprinkles. I am making these for Valentine's Day so I figured I'd add a little love and stuff to them.

Okay, you ready to make the spoons?

Step One: Pour chocolate chips into a bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted.



Step Two: Dip the spoon in the melted chocolate. Make sure to cover the back of the spoon as well as the front. Gently shake spoon to remove excess chocolate.

Step Three: Set chocolate covered spoon on the parchment paper and sprinkle with sprinkles *giggle* if desired.


Step Four: A mass a small army of chocolate coffee spoons and revel in their deliciousness.



You can store these in a container and use at your leisure or wrap then in some plastic wrap with a bow and give as a gift. These are adorable and have so many possibilities. I bet a mint flavored chocolate with crushed up candy canes would be delicious in the winter for your hot chocolate. Get wild...be creative! Just make sure that they make it to your coffee and don't just eat the chocolate off the spoon, not that I would know anything about that.

 
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