Orange Blossom Crème Chantilly Macarons

May 2013 By i sugar coat it! 24 Comments

Orange Blossom Crème Chantilly Macarons

Hey all! So have you noticed Miss Spring has been on a bit of an emotional roller-coaster these days. One day she is all smiles and sunshine and the next, a deluge of tears and still the next all cold shoulder-ish. I am beginning to feel she needs a break.

Only a few weeks ago I was ecstatic about her arrival, as she always brings such beautiful gifts on each visit. Call me fickle, but I am quite looking forward for her visit to end. I appreciate all the beauty she will leave behind, but her cousin, Summer, is due to arrive in a little over a month and I am dying with anticipation! Let's hope Summer is able to keep her emotions in check during her visit.

I realize she can get a little hot and steamy at times, but that can be remedied with a few cool drinks and light treats. And if all else fails, turn up the AC and get her to chill out. And speaking of chilling... what's summer without ice-cream (or in this case, whipped cream)? On a cone, in a bowl, or sandwiched between my favourite cookies.

One of my favourite treats as a child, was creamsicles. You know the orange and white, cavity-waiting-to-happen, frozen treats. Oh, I have certainly had my share, but oddly, I have never had a cavity, but always a stomach ache.

I aimed to recreate this treat in macaron form, using lactose-free cream. You may remember my Strawberry Glazed Mini Donuts that I made for the Natrel Lactose-Free Campaign last month. Well, they now make a lactose-free cream and I used it to make ice-cream a couple weeks ago - YUM! Well, if the post title didn't give you a clue, then let me clue you in - that's not ice-cream sandwiched between my macs. The ice-cream, although tasty, made my macs soggy and exhibited diva tendencies at the photo shoot. If you know me even just a little, then you know I don't have patience for any such behaviour. So I used the remaining cream to whip up some chantilly, infused with Orange Blossom Water and crushed vanilla beans for these Orange Blossom Crème Chantilly Macarons.With the ice-cream safely back in the freezer, my photo shoot for these lactose-free and gluten-free beauties was back on in less than ten minutes.

Now, for the macs. I made two small batches that yielded forty shells (20 assembled cookies). These are 2", infused coloured with a generous drop of Americolor Orange gel food colour. I may have under-mixed them a little, as they had little peaks at the top even after tapping the pan and allowing them to rest. Next time, I'll remember to smooth them with my finger to get them looking more like my Lavender Rose Macarons.

I tingle inside just remembering how ecstatic I was at my success with these last year. 🙂

Macaron Boxes from Creative Bag.

So, my ice-cream macarons did not go as planned, but these are so much better! One does not overpower the other - the hint of orange and vanilla in the cream is a nice complement to the almond cookies. Light, citrusy and colourful - I think I'll make another batch for Summer's visit next month, with a side of ice-cream. Lactose-free of course!Don't they make the perfect gifts all packaged in these pretty little boxes?

More Macarons:
Matcha Mojito Macarons
Lavender Rose French Macarons

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Orange Blossom Crème Chantilly Macarons

Fluffy, citrusy, swirls of cream sandwiched between delicate, bright almond cookies.

Prep Time1

Cook Time10

Total Time1 10

Course: Dessert

Servings: shells

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Macarons

60 grams liquid egg whites or two egg whites
115 grams confectioner's sugar
90 grams almond flour
50 grams granulated sugar
1 generous drop of
Americolor Orange gel food colour

Crème

250 ml Lactose Free 35% cream
3 grams confectioner’s sugar
1.5 grams Orange Blossom Water
a pinch of crushed vanilla beans

Instructions

Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silpat mat.
In a food processor, pulse the almond flour and confectioner's sugar together for about 20 seconds, or until well combined.
Using the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites in a grease-free bowl of a stand mixer until foamy.
Add the granulated sugar a little at a time and continue to whip on high until stiff peaks form.
Stop the mixer and add the flavour and colour. Whip for a few more seconds until fully combined.
Remove bowl from mixer and sift the almond mixture onto the egg whites. Use a clean, grease-free spatula to gently fold the the mixture into the egg whites. Should be the consistency of molasses when ready.
Fit a piping bag with a 1.5" plain tip and fill the bag with the batter. Pipe small circles onto the parchment/baking mat.
Tap the pan on the counter a couple times to remove any air bubbles or peaks. Let the batter rest for about 30 minutes.
While the batter rests, preheat the oven to 325ºF. Bake for 8 -10 minutes. Do not allow to brown.
(bake time may differ for your oven)
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before assembling.

To make the crème:

Chill the cream and bowl prior to starting, for best results. Place all the ingredients in the bowl and using the whisk attachment of your stand mixer, whisk on high until soft, stable peaks form - about 5 minutes. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Assembly:

Attach a tip #21 Star Tip to a piping bag and fill with cream. Pipe in circles on the flat side of a cookie and pair with a another cookie. Press together lightly. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate over night.

May 2013 By i sugar coat it! 18 Comments

Mother's Day Banana Butterscotch Bombshell

Hello and Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas!

I celebrate you with layers of banana, butterscotch, buttercream and, of course, a guest appearance from Mr. Chocolate.

Looking at this cake, last year's Mother's Day Cake would appear a little overdressed with all its Ruffles & Pearls. I decided to keep things fairly simple, small and fondant-free, this time around. I'm on a bit of a buttercream kick. Have you noticed? Fondant and I are still friends, but even friends need a break from time-to-time.

And speaking of breaks... that's something I'm sure all the moms would love a bit of this weekend. So how do you plan to make that happen for her? A well-deserved all expense get-away? A full day of pampering at the spa? Dinner and tickets to Cirque du Soliel? Jewellery? Brunch? Dinner? All of the above?

However you decide to celebrate, make sure it involves cake! As Julia Childs said - 'A party without cake is just a meeting'. And you know Julia knew how to throw down!

If you make a cake for mom, especially from scratch, major points. If you purchase the cake, score some additional points by personalizing it with a DIY topper like the one I made in my last post. Make the cake AND the topper and you are many brownie points ahead of the pack.Oh, don't be fooled - parents have favourites - they most certainly do! So, unless you're an only child, now is your chance to position yourself ahead of the pack. What you do the rest of the year will determine whether you stay there. Good luck! 😉

If your mom loves banana, butterscotch, butter and chocolate, then here's the perfect cake for her!

A few weeks ago, Melissa, from The Baked Equation, posted a Banana Butterscotch cake that caught my eye, and didn't allow it to stray until I was forced to look down at the drool escaping my mouth. I knew right at that instant I needed to make it.

My version includes shaved, dark chocolate added to the banana cake batter, banana-flavoured swiss meringue buttercream and a guest appearance from Mr. tall, dark and rich, whom you would have met if you read my Dessert Dating post. He left a little of himself behind after our brief encounter two weeks ago. So, I thought I'd have him play a small part in making the mamas happy this weekend. You will find what was left of him, nestled between four layers of bananas, butter and butterscotch. The guy gets around!

A dollop of butterscotch between each layer, a generous coat of silky, Swiss Meringue Buttercream infused with LorAnn Oils Banana Bakery Emulsion, a little sugar confetti to pretty things up a bit and you have yourself a bananatstic treat!

Tell mom the bananas and chocolate make it a healthy treat, so it comes with a no-guilt indulgence seal of approval. 😉

Happy Mothers Day!!!

More Banana Goodness:

Check out my Bananarama Butterscotch Cake post laced with a little chocolate.
Grab a slice of my Peanut Butter & Jam Banana Bread.

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Banana Butterscotch Bombshell w/Banana-Flavoured Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Moist, decadent layers of banana chocolate cake filled with rich creamy swiss meringue buttercream and homemade butterscotch.

Cook Time25

Total Time25

Course: Dessert

Servings: Serves 10-12

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Cake

320 g cake flour
4 g baking soda
2 g baking powder
3 g salt
300 g mashed bananas 3 bananas
61 g buttermilk
5 g pure vanilla extract
1 g crushed vanilla bean
114 g unsalted butter
285 g superfine sugar
2 large eggs
30 g dark chocolate grated
One layer of chocolate cake optional

Sauce (yields approximately 1 cup)

60 g butter
210 g brown sugar
70 g cup 35% cream
60 g 35% cream
2 g pure vanilla extract

Frosting (yields approximately 4 cups)

150 g liquid egg whites
250 g sugar
340 g unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
0.5 g Tahitian Crushed Vanilla Beans
2 g Banana Bakery Emulsion
2 drops of Lemon Yellow Americolor gel paste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 - 7" round pans. Use a pastry brush to apply Cake Release to the bottom and sides of pans.
Using a whisk, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
In a separate bowl combine mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.
Add butter and sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and continue to beat. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the banana mixture - ⅓ flour mixture, ½ banana mixture - repeat, ending with the flour mixture. Beat until fully incorporated.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and grate the chocolate into the batter. Fold in the chocolate using a spatula and divide the batter evenly between the two pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool on racks for about 10-15 minutes.. Invert on a wire rack to cool completely, if using immediately. Or wrap in plastic wrap while still warm and store in freezer until needed.

To make the sauce:

Place butter, brown sugar and heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Once it is smooth stop stirring. Let the mixture cook at a bubbling simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat. Stir in the remaining cream. Let the mixture cool. Stir in vanilla extract. Store butterscotch in a mason jar in the refrigerator.

To make the frosting:

Using a clean towel and some lemon juice or vinegar, clean all equipment and utensils to be used for preparing the meringue.
Fill a heavy duty pot about a quarter of the way with water and place on the stove over medium heat to simmer.
Add egg whites, sugar and salt to the mixing bowl and use a hand whisk to combine. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the bowl and place the bowl over the pot, ensuring the bottom of the bowl is not in contact with the water in the pot. Lightly whisk the sugar egg white mixture constantly until temperature reaches 160°F. This took me about 12 minutes.
Once at the correct temperature, remove from heat, wipe away condensation from the bottom of the bowl with a towel and transfer mixing bowl to the stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, and the mixer set to high (8-10), whip the meringue until it is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch. Do not begin adding butter while the bowl is still warm. This took about 10 minutes.
Switch from your whisk to paddle attachment and with mixer on low speed, add butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated. Continue to mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture. This took approximately 12 minutes.
Add emulsion and vanilla beans and continuing to beat on low speed until well combined. About 2 minutes.

Assembly: If frozen, remove cakes from freezer a few hours ahead of assembling, wrap in tea towels and allow to defrost at room temperature. Level cakes, once defrosted.

Using a cake board just slightly larger than the size of your cake, spread a small amount of frosting over the board and place the first layer of banana cake on the board, centering it.
Fit a #12 round decorating tip into a piping bag and will with about half cup of buttercream. Pipe a dam around the cake, just inside the edge and continue in circles, ending in the middle. Use a small offset spatula to smooth the buttercream.
Add 2-3 spoonful of butterscotch onto the buttercream and spread with an offset spatula.
Place another banana cake layer on top of frosting and press lightly, but firmly until levelled. Repeat as above. Add the chocolate layer and repeat as above for all the remaining layers.
Use any leftover frosting in the piping bag to fill in any gaps between layers and use an offset spatula to seal the seams.
Add a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake to seal in the crumbs and place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from the fridge and frost the cake, using the cake board as your guide for applying an even coat of frosting. Smooth out the frosting using a spatula. Decorate to your liking.
Best enjoyed at room temperature!

Notes

[cake and sauce recipes adapted from The Baked Equation]

May 2013 By i sugar coat it! 7 Comments

Tutorial Thursday: MOM Cake Topper

With Mother's Day only three days away, I thought I would share a quick, easy and cute way for you to celebrate MOM.

All it takes is a little gum paste, edible paper, letter cutters, a couple straws, floral wire and of course...lots of love.

My 'M" on the right is a little scraggly. To prevent this, take the time to dip your cutters in a little cornstarch before cutting, to avoid having to rip the letter out, mutilating it in the process. Also, have a little more patience than I did, and let them dry a little before handling. Also, be sure to clean up the edges of the letters for a sharper, neater finish. Finally, I think, perhaps twine instead of wire would have hung a little better.

Now that I have schooled you in the ways of doing what I say, not as I do, let's get started. It really is child's play!

They're just as cute in itty-bitty little heart shapes like those below and as flowers, which I will share another time. You will notice at the end, I decided to use clear straws instead of the striped.

Hope you enjoyed!

See you back here in a couple days for a bananatastic cake that goes great with this topper.

May 2013 By i sugar coat it! 5 Comments

Chocolate Libations

Chocolate Wine Cupcakes w/Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream

There are a number of things that just do not pair well with wine - driving, public speaking, tightrope walking, work. Oh, and chocolate. Say what now!

Yeah, that was no error - chocolate and red wine are a no-no! Well, according to this article on Serious Eats that asks that we Please Stop Pairing Red Wine and Chocolate (with exceptions).

Well, I should just shut this post down and be on my way, glass and bottle in tow. But, I so want us to enjoy some chocolate and wine in these pretty little cups. So, let's ignore the article's plea and live on the edge.

So happy we did that! Heaven in a paper cup, topped with clouds of creamy, whipped cream and served up with a pretty plastic spoon. Can I get an amen!

I may have received an even bigger amen if I drizzled some glaze over the frosting, but I wanted to keep their innocence in line with the playful cups.

I can tell you how the light airy texture of the vanilla whipped cream complemented the rich, moist texture of the cake, how the cherry gelatin coupled with the chocolate helped to boost the notes in the wine, how the glaze was the real cherry on top, or how I convinced myself that three servings were equivalent to one because they are small cups - but I won't bore you. I suggest you give them a try and we'll chat once you have.

And what's a great cupcake without an equally great cup? I got these and every other design they had in stock at HomeSense. No telling if you will find the things you like on your next visit, so best to play it safe and strip them of their inventory while you have the chance. Man I love that place!

Unlike paper liners that require a muffin tin for baking, these little scalloped edges of adorableness have claimed their independence. Well, sort of. Just place them on a cookie sheet and you are good to go. It pained me to throw them out once they were scraped clean of their chocolate innards.

Aha - light bulb moment! Line them with plain cupcake liners!! And do my best to not get batter or frosting on them... Wish me luck with that!

So yes, there are some things that should not be paired with wine, but everything tastes much better with chocolate, especially when served in cute, little cups like these. Eat up!

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Chocolate and Wine Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream

Chocolate and wine nestled under clouds of whipped vanilla goodness!

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time35

Course: Dessert

Servings: mini cupcakes

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Cake

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 cup cabernet sauvignon or another red wine of your preference
⅓ cup 2% lactose-free milk
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
⅔ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 large eggs slightly beaten
2 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 box black cherry gelatin
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Glaze

2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
½ cup red wine
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Frosting

2 cups 35% lactose-free cream
3 tablespoons icing sugar
¼ teaspoon crushed vanilla beans

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Place cupcake holders on a medium-sized cookie sheet; set aside.
Melt chocolate in a small bowl placed over a small saucepan of simmering water. Let cool 5 minutes. In a small bowl, combine wine and milk; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and the granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs; beat for 2 minutes. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and beat until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, gelatin, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine. Add to mixer bowl, along with the wine mixture, and beat on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Spoon batter into prepared cups.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before decorating.

To make the glaze:

Combine the butter, wine, and confectioners' sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, over medium-high heat. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Use a fork to make holes in the cupcakes and using a small spoon, sprinkle a small amount of glaze onto each.

To make the frosting:

Ensure the cream is properly chilled - chilling the mixer bowl also helps. Pour the cream into the bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle in the crushed vanilla beans. Whip the cream on high setting, adding the icing sugar until firm peaks are achieved. Use a piping bag and a
#885 tip to pipe swirls onto the cupcakes.

Notes

cake and glaze recipes adapted from Martha Stewart

April 2013 By i sugar coat it! 13 Comments

Chocolate Raspberry Espresso Cake {Dessert Dating}

Tall, dark, rich and not afraid to show my feminine side. Interested? Click on over and let's get acquainted.

Not what you were expecting? A little too feminine for your taste? Don't dismiss me so quickly. Take a few minutes to get to know me; peel back a few layers and you might be surprised.If you came because you saw my ad on Instagram or Facebook then you're probably a little surprised at how nicely I clean up. Smooth, delicate, pretty - I did say I would be wearing pink. You like?

Still interested, huh! Well, since you asked...

Yes, I am about 7" tall. You've probably heard of my dad, Cacao Barry, he's Belgium. I'm also part Mexican, Swiss, Italian and Canadian. I am a model part-time, but I'm mostly in the business of sating sweet-tooths. Oh, it's interesting, but you pretty much get eaten alive. A job hazard I've come to accept. So, am I your type?

Well... am I???

Consider my attributes - a 7" tower of deep, dark, rich, chocolate, held together by three layers of dark chocolate raspberry sauce, fresh organic raspberries and generous amounts of silky, smooth vanilla-filled buttercream, and dressed in the same with an ever so slight hint of pink, complemented by pops of teal in flowers and frills.

I don't know about you, but... um, YES, YES and HELL YEAH!

Ah, but look... my modelling gig is up. Off I go to sate a sweet-tooth, or two at a vintage-inspired bridal shower. She requested simple, clean, vintage and chocolatey, so I did my best.

Not ready to say goodbye? Sorry, gotta go! Hey, if you liked me then you should have put a ring on it taken a slice of me. 😉

Sandy, thanks for allowing me the opportunity to share in your daughter's special day in this manner. I hope the cake was enjoyed by all! Best wishes to the bride and groom to be!

This cake is the same recipe I used for my Birthday Cake last year, but with raspberry, chocolatey goodness added. The recipe for the Swiss Meringue Buttercream is similar to what I used for the Tuxedo Cake I made for my cousin''s birthday. (Recipes were adapted from Sweetapolita and Three Little Black Birds, respectively)

I made the cabbage roses from gum paste and fitted them into a bubble straw before inserting into the cake. The ruffles were piped using a #104 rose tip.

I really enjoyed working on this cake. It gave me a chance to work on my buttercream finishing skills, which aren't as shabby as I thought!

Have an awesome week!

Chocolate Raspberry Espresso Cake with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

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Chocolate Raspberry Espresso Cake

Raspberry Chocolate Espresso Delight w/Vanilla Bean SMBC (Yield: 4 - 7” round cakes)

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Servings: - 7” round cake

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Cake:

227 g unsalted butter
60 g Dutch process cocoa
7 g instant espresso powder dissolved into 177ml water
450 g granulated sugar
250 g sour cream
11 g vanilla extract
2 large eggs
220 g unbleached all-purpose flour
7 g baking soda
2 g salt

Frosting:

305 g liquid egg whites
425 g sugar
570 g unsalted butter
1 g Tahitian crushed vanilla beans
pinch of salt
2 teaspoon fresh raspberry juice

Filling:

160 g Raspberry Dark Chocolate Sauce
300 g fresh chopped organic raspberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare the pans - I apply a generous amount of cake release using a pastry brush.
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat; add cocoa, stirring until smooth. Whisk in the espresso water and remove from heat.
Add the sugar, sour cream, vanilla, and eggs to the warmed cocoa mixture and whisk until smooth.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the first mixture, whisking until well blended.
Pour batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until it feels firm to the touch and has slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan.
Cool in pans on a rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan by placing the rack over the cake and invert, tapping pan lightly, if required to loosen.
While still warm, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer to cool. I leave mine overnight. I find this seals in the moisture, flavour and make makes torting and working with the cakes more manageable.

To make the frosting:

Ensure all equipment is grease-free.
Fill a heavy duty pot about a quarter of the way with water and place on the stove over medium heat to simmer.
Add egg whites, sugar and salt to the mixing bowl and whisk together lightly with a hand whisk, just until combined. Attach a thermometer to the side of the bowl and place the bowl over the pot of simmering water, ensuring the bottom of the bowl is not in contact with the water in the pot. Whisk the sugar egg white mixture constantly, but gently, until temperature reaches 160°F.
Once at the correct temperature, remove carefully from heat, wipe the moisture away from the bottom of the bowl and transfer mixing bowl to the stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, begin to whip the meringue on high speed until it is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch. Do not begin adding butter while the bowl is still warm.
Switch from your whisk to paddle attachment and with mixer on low speed, add butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated. Continue to mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture.
Add crushed vanilla beans and vanilla extract, continuing to beat on low speed until well combined.

Assembly:

Remove cakes from freezer a few hours ahead of assembling, wrap in tea towels and allow to defrost at room temperature. Level cakes, once defrosted.
Using a cake board just slightly larger than the size of your cake, spread a small amount of frosting over the board and place the first layer on the board, centering it.
Attach a #12 plain round piping tip
to a bag and fill with frosting. Pipe a round dam just inside edge of the cake.
Generously coat the top of the cake with raspberry chocolate sauce. Place a handful of fresh, chopped raspberries over the sauce and the fill in with frosting.
Place a layer of cake on top of frosting and press lightly, but firmly until levelled. Repeat for the remaining layers. Use the frosting in the piping bag to fill in any gaps between layers and use an offset spatula to seal the seams.
Add a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake to seal in the crumbs and place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from the fridge and frost the cake, using the cake board as your guide for applying an even coat of frosting. Smooth out the frosting using a spatula. Refrigerate.
Let stand at room temperature for an hour before serving. Enjoy!

April 2013 By i sugar coat it! 11 Comments

Mother's Day Cookie Bouquet

It's Sunday and it finally feels like Spring! A little on the cool side, but the sun is doing it's sunshiny thing, the birds are chirping, the lawn is green instead of white, and there is no rain cloud in sight.A nice bright glimpse of things to come!

Nine more weeks and we'll be welcoming summer with sleeveless, open arms. But in the meantime, it's so refreshing to see the trees grow new, fresh, green coats, pops of colour push their way through the almost thawed garden, brighter mornings and evenings and birds singing happily and hopping around cheerfully in the backyard. I just love how all that has lain dormant for months, gradually come to life again. A rebirth.

And speaking of birth, Mother's Day is just three short weeks away! I am usually so behind on these special occasion posts, so I am quite excited to share this with you today.

I've put together a little pictorial below and video here for any of you wishing to make these for that special lady, or ladies in your life.

You will need:

A batch of cookies. I made Coconut Vanilla Sugar Cookies (see recipe below). The coconut flavour is achieved with the use of LorAnn Oils Coconut Bakery Emulsion. I have used it in my Raspberry Coconut Meringue and Coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I also have some of the other flavours and just love how they kick the taste up a notch.

Modelling Chocolate or Candy Clay in your colour preference. You can find the recipe here.

A non-stick surface on which to roll out your modeling chocolate. I use the Ateco Fondant Work Mat. I have had it for a couple years and it never disappoints.

Cutters. I used the FMM Five Petal Rose Cutter in two sizes - the larger 90mm cutter to shape the dough and cover the cookie, and the smaller 65mm to make the red flowers.

Small rolling pin outfitted with ⅛" spacers.

Bamboo skewers or lollipop sticks. Be sure to bake them in the cookies, or insert carefully into baked cookies while still warm.

Royal icing in white to use as glue and teal to decorate flower center. I used a small flat brush to coat the cookies and a piping bag outfitted with a #1 tip to decorate the flower center.
Mini muffin paper cups to hold and form drying flowers.

Allow a few hours for the flowers to dry throughly. I allowed mine to dry overnight.

Sprinkle a little food safe dust to add some sparkle and shine. Et Voila!!

If three weeks seem too long to wait to give these a try, it's Earth Day tomorrow. Why not make a batch to celebrate Mother Nature. She will thank you with an early Summer!

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Coco- Vanilla Sugar Cookies

(Yield: 2 dozen 3 ½” x ¼” cookies) Coconut and vanilla bloom into buttery, sweet gifts for mom.

Prep Time2

Cook Time12

Total Time2 12

Course: Dessert

Servings: dozen

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

230 g unsalted butter cool
295 g all purpose flour
135 g granulated sugar
1 large egg cool
½ tablespoon crushed Tahitian vanilla beans
1 teaspoon coconut emulsion
23 g shredded coconut
¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.
In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg, crushed vanilla beans, shredded coconut and coconut emulsion.
In a separate bowl, sift and whisk together the flour and salt.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Divide the dough in half and wrap each portion in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until firm (about an hour or two).
Remove from fridge and use a rolling pin to roll dough out to about ¼ inch thick - I use dough spacers to achieve even cookies.
Cut into desired shapes and place on the baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. Place in freezer for about 3-5 minutes.
Remove from freezer, let rest 1 minute and then bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are a very light brown.
Let cool completely before decorating with icing.
Enjoy!

Notes

See above pictorial for decorating.

April 2013 By i sugar coat it! 13 Comments

Lactose-Free Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts

Lactose-Free Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts. Light, fluffy, baked mini donuts dripping with fresh and freeze-dried berry glaze.

Lactose-Free Strawberry Glazed Mini Donuts

Do you have a preference for the proper spelling 'doughnut', or the variant, 'donut'? And while we are on the topic, do you like them baked or deep-fried, plain or dipped? I tend to go for the latter in all instances. How about you?

Since I've started the interrogation early, why not continue. Are you lactose intolerant? Do you stay away from all dairy, or have you found suitable substitutes? Or, do you throw caution to the wind and deal with the consequences curled up in fetal position on the bathroom floor?

If you are indeed lactose intolerant and your love affair with dairy bears the slightest resemblance to mine, then I'm guessing your bathroom floor is well acquainted with the warmth of your skin.That said, I am not completely deterred from enjoying the things I love most - ice-cream, cheese, cheese and more cheese - anything rich and creamy, actually. And boy do I pay the price...

I bake a great deal, so I am mouth deep in the stuff - cream, butter, milk, cheese. Where I can, I use soy or rice products, mostly to appease K, the vegetarian half of my relationship. Oh the sacrifices! 😉 I like dairy for its richness, which is missing from most substitutes.

I still eat cheese way too often, there just isn't any substitute for a good chunk of cheese. Can you say Gruyere grilled cheese? Yes you can, yes you can! But I digress...

I have been using lactose-free milk for a few years and it seems to have gotten better in taste. I use Natrel Lactose Free 2% milk daily and in my baking. They now have a Lactose Free 35% Cream - holla!!

Homemade lactose free ice-cream, here I come!! Butter, quality butter, is in abundance in my fridge and freezer. It takes about a pound and a bit of butter to make a decent batch of Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and I can't seem to get enough of the stuff, so butter is always on hand.

Although not much, butter contains traces of lactose - 0.5% as opposed to the 4.9% that is present in cow's milk. So I can avoid butter, or remove the lactose and enjoy even tastier versions of butter - clarified butter and Ghee. And they are easier to make than I initially thought. You can learn all about them here. I think I will revisit this for future baking projects.

So you have yourself a few dozen Lactose-Free Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts...now what? How about some berry glaze and nonpareils!!

A lot of confectioner's sugar, a little warm lactose-free milk and a handful of fresh or freeze-dried berries - all that's left to do is dip, sprinkle...

And enjoy with a glass of lactose-free milk and a whole lot of polka dots! 🙂

My niece had a hand in making and decorating these little bites and we managed to make sweet art in the process. Thank you, Shay!

I am so excited to be one of the featured bloggers/bakers asked to take part in the Natrel Lactose-Free Campaign. Head on over to see my contribution along with some other lactose-free sweet treats.

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Lactose-Free Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts

Lactose-Free Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts. Light, fluffy, baked mini donuts dripping with fresh and freeze-dried berry glaze.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Doughnuts

Servings:

Author: i sugar coat it!

Ingredients

For the doughnuts:

120 grams Ghee clarified butter
200 grams granulated sugar
2 large eggs
466 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
19 grams baking powder
3 grams sea salt
2 grams ground cinnamon
2 grams nutmeg
250 ml lactose-free milk
1 vanilla bean scraped

For the glaze:

220 grams confectioners' sugar
10-15 strawberries pureed and strained
an assortment of freeze-dried fruit powder blueberry, mango, raspberry, orange
75 ml warm lactose-free milk

Instructions

Bake the doughnuts:

Preheat oven to 350ºC. Lightly grease doughnut pan and set aside.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and vanilla beans until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
Turn the mixer to the lowest setting and gradually add the flour to the butter mixture. Add the milk and blend thoroughly.
Transfer the dough to a piping bag. Cut an opening at the tip and pipe dough into doughnut pans.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Make the glaze:

Sift confectioner’s sugar into a clean bowl. If using freeze-dried fruit powder, whisk in with the sugar.
If using fresh fruit, puree and strain to remove seeds.
Warm the milk and add to the sugar/fruit mixture. Stir until the mixture reaches a consistency similar to that of honey.
Dip tops of doughnuts into glaze. Decorate as desired.

{Disclosure: I received payment for my contribution as part of this campaign.}

April 2013 By i sugar coat it! 10 Comments

Leopard Print Madeira Sponge Cake

Leopard print Madeira Sponge Cake with a colourful print baked into the layers and decorated with a cocoa stencilled swiss meringue buttercream.

Hi, there! It feels like an eternity since I've been here. I don't know about you, but I've sure missed being here with ya'll. So let's catch up, shall we? Grab a drink, I brought dessert!

Hmmm, where did we leave off two weeks ago? Oh yeah, Bunny Magic! Since then, I became unemployed, re-employed, managed to fit in some long overdue sleep and travel, gained a few pounds, started training for a marathon ;), enrolled in more courses, spring cleaned, redecorated, and got back to sewing. I'd say it's time for a loooong vacation! Yes?

Well, that was the plan, for the entire months of April and May, in fact. However, I received and accepted a job offer sooner than expected. Even with my savvy nogotiations skills, I could not negotiate my way out of starting immediately, so I jumped right in and have been ridiculously busy. This new arrangement does offer some time flexibility in the form of a compressed work week, which has been a huge plus.

So with most Fridays off, I thought I would spend some quality time with my niece. She likes sewing and plans to become a Fashion Designer one day. So we hung out in the little sewing room tucked in the back corner of my house creating skinny jeans - RED skinny jeans. We measured and cut and talked and laughed and sang and it was fun. Lots of fun. I realized how much I've missed sewing and how much we two have in common (for now anyway).

While she was getting comfortable on the Serger, I thought I would spend some time catching up on my blog reads, when I came across this Cheetah/Leopard print cake by Masam Manis. I seem to be attracted to blogs written in entirely foreign languages. Thank goodness for visuals and translation tools. I was already familiar with Madeira cakes, but colourful prints in a cake was new and so exciting!

I'm not sure where it originated, but I've been meaning to try it. I showed it to my niece and she turned the machine off and demanded we head to the kitchen. I wasted no time marching right in behind her, on the condition that she would do most of the work. 😉 She even took the process shots.

We set out to make three 7" Madeira Sponge cakes, but quickly realized that we coloured too much of the batter and didn't leave enough of the plain batter for covering the stripes. We settled on two pans instead. That seemed to do the trick.

Shay felt we should make the leopard spots pink and teal, I agreed without hesitation. So we:

Spooned some of the plain batter into the bottom of each pan, about two inches deep.
Separated the remaining batter and coloured one third, teal, another pink and the final was left plain. You need not colour as much batter as we did, as it resulted in a shortage of the plain batter for the top layer. You will need to play around to determine what is a suitable amount based on the cake size.
Filled three piping bags each with plain, pink and teal batter.
Piped a layer of teal in circles, then a layer of pink directly onto the teal, then another layer of teal onto the pink.
Filled in the gaps between each circle by piping the plain batter and then used the remaining plain batter to cover it all up.
Tapped the pans and into the pre-heated oven they went.

While the cakes rose in the oven, we whipped up some Vanilla Bean Swiss Meringue Buttercream. The cakes were then filled, frosted and yada, yada, yada, we had ourselves a Leopraffe. A leopard in giraffe's clothing. Um...yeah, best to not explore that any further. It's my niece's creation and that's all you need to know about that. Well, and that it was very tasty and the recipe is super easy!

We used the stencilling technique that I created on my Chocolate Espresso Giraffe cake last July. A little cocoa powder, some food colour and a tasty, wild, hybrid was created.

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Madeira Sponge Cake

Madeira Sponge Cake with a colourful print baked into the layers and decorated with a cocoa stencilled swiss meringue buttercream.

Prep Time30

Cook Time40

Total Time1 10

Course: Dessert

Servings: -7" round cakes

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

240 grams unsalted butter room temperature
200 grams granulated sugar
100 ml milk
3 eggs room temperature
250 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
16 grams baking powder

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325ºC.
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, or hand mixer. Beat on medium speed until well incorporated and fluffy.
Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour with each egg addition.
Add the remaining flour and the baking powder and continue to mix on low.
Add the milk and mix until fully incorporated.
To make your pattern in the cake, proceed as described in the post above, and bake for 40 minutes.
Cakes are ready when an inserted toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
Allow the cakes to cool on a rack for about ten minutes, then invert onto the rack to cool completely.

Notes

Recipe from Masam Manis

March 2013 By i sugar coat it! 15 Comments

How Easter Bunnies Are Made

What are Easter Bunnies? Do they really lay eggs? Are they any relation to chickens? Where do they live? What do they eat? How are they made? All pressing questions that keep us up at night. Perhaps, I can put your mind at ease.

First, let's clear up some of the rumours and misconceptions surrounding Easter Bunnies. Contrary to popular belief, they are of no relation to Stuart Little, Remy from Ratatouille, or any of the other famous rodent clan. And the claims that suggest they are the illegitimate siblings of Peter, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail are incorrect. I have even heard rumours of Jessica Rabbit's illicit affair with a famous yellow bird (who shall remain unnamed) brought about these colourful, egg-laying hoppers. False, I tell ya! And disturbing, actually...

Easter bunnies are a special rabbit breed, born from real magic! None of that pull one out of a hat waving a handkerchief nonsense. Real magic! I am talking potions and powders and crystals and fire kind of magic! And you don't need to travel to Vegas and pay to see it - the nearest kitchen will do just fine.

First, you will need to get your hands on some magical crystal disaccharide, unbleached dried and grounded grains, a couple blocks of emulsion of animal fat extracted from a cow (sheep, buffalo and yak may be substituted), one Ova of the Gallus gallus domesticus, a few grains of vaina and scrapings of the genus Citrus.

Next, pull down the shades, lock the doors and light up the cauldron - an oven works just as well - follow the steps below, and...

ABARACADABARA - POOF! You've got bunnies!

And you know what they say about bunnies. Before you know it, two turn into twenty, into two hundred, into... Luckily, we have a satisfyingly, effective means of controlling their population - NOM-NOM-NOM!

I first saw this layered technique on a beautiful blog I have been frequenting since last Spring, Mensaje En Una Galleta, where inspiration abounds.

I really enjoyed making these Pastel Layered Easter Bunny Cookies - a nice break from royal icing, fondant and frosting. I think you would too!

So what did we learn? Well, not much about the Easter Bunny, but maybe a little black bunny magic. Yes!?!

More Easter Treats:

Carrot Cupcakes with Easter Bunny Cookie Toppers

Easter Egg Cakes

DIY Easter Eggs

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Vanilla Bean Bunny Sugar Cookies

Pastel layered bunny sugar cookies.

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Total Time35

Course: Dessert

Servings:

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

226 grams salted butter cold
135 grams granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon crushed Tahitian vanilla beans
295 grams all purpose flour
1 drop each of gel paste colour

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.
In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg, lemon zest, and vanilla beans.
Gradually whisk the flour into the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Divide the dough in thirds and colour each ball of dough using gel colours of your choice. Shape each ball of dough into disks and wrap separately in plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator until firm, or overnight if not baking immediately.
Remove from fridge and use a rolling pin to roll dough out each disk to about ¼ inch thick. Place the sheets of dough in the freezer for about two minutes. Remove from freezer and lay the coloured sheets of dough one on top of the other in the desired order.
Use the rolling pin to press the layers together. Cut into desired shapes and place
on the baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. Place
in freezer for about 3-5 minutes.
Remove from freezer, let rest 30 seconds and then bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are a very light brown.
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Decorate as desired.

March 2013 By i sugar coat it! 19 Comments

The Princess Peony

Oh March, with your break from school, green beer and shamrocks, Spring, Passover and Easter to close things out. I had not noticed before what an eventful month you are. I blinked and found myself already halfway through your four weeks! Why must you move so quickly?

I can't seem to wrap my mind around being three months into the new year. More shocking... how little I have baked! This is only my third cake this year!! My first was this Orchid Flower Cake I made for the redesign of my blog and then this mouthwatering Butter Pecan Cake the mister and I whipped up for Valentine's Day. All my other posts, with the exception of these Elephant Cookies, have been of treats made last year.

But I have good reason. Life's been quite hectic behind the scene. 2013 has brought with it a number of challenges, some welcomed, others, not so much. I won't bore you with the details this time around. Let's talk peonies and princesses today.

Those of you who follow me on Facebook and Instagram may remember my teaser last weekend for the flower in this post. Well, it finally joined forces with this stenciled, teal number to help a blushing bride-to-be celebrate her final days of bachelorettehood.:)

I have been on a flower making frenzy of late. In the wee hours of the morning, when I should be resting for work, I've been cultivating my private sugar garden where cabbage roses, anemones, dahlias, tulips, carnations, roses, orchids and peonies are in bloom - all waiting their turn to adorn future cakes. The more I make them, the more patience and appreciation I acquire for the process, and pure admiration for those who have mastered the art.

Teal Cake with Grey Stencil and Pink Sugar Peony

I think I appreciate the art of stenciling as much as I do sugar flowers. I've used a number of mediums to stencil on cakes - edi ble paint, lustre dusts, even cocoa - this was only my third time using royal icing. I somehow convinced myself otherwise, but a quick check of my photo archive confirmed that fact. I have actually stenciled more cookies than I have cakes.

My admiration for stenciled cakes has resulted in an impressive collection of stencils. I haven't had opportunity to use many, but perhaps I will get around to them this year. I used this Victorian Cr ochet lace stencil and royal icing tinted gray for this design. I then used pink edible luster dust mixed with a little vodka to add some pink accents to the design. My attempt at piping a pearl border did not end so well - I forgot to change the icing consistency, so it began to lose its shape when left to set. Unfortunately, I did not have time to correct it. 🙁

I used marshmallow fondant to cover both tiers. It tastes so much better than the store-bought stuff, but it is a messy, pain in the behind to make and can be quite sticky. Explains why I've only made it a couple times. I think I'll make more of an effort though, as it's more cost effective and as I mentioned above, tasty. If you have not tried it, you should - the recipe is below.

The base tier is an 8" double barrel vanilla cake, filled with raspberry and white chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. The top tier is 6" of the same flavour. Both were covered in white chocolate ganache before the fondant was applied.

I call her Princess Peony! Her teal and pink girlish charm exterior conceals two tiers of a sweet, decadent, chocolatey inside. Much like the bride-to-be! 😉 All the best to you, Mel, as you prepare to enter a new chapter of your life.

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Marshmallow Fondant

Course: Dessert

Servings:

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

400 g mini marshmallow
30 ml water
1.5 g salt
1 ml pure lemon extract
30 ml clear corn syrup
5 ml pure vanilla extract
900 g confectioners sugar sifted
118 ml vegetable shortening
Gel colours of your choice

Instructions

Grease microwave-safe dish and spatula with vegetable shortening. Place marshmallows and water into dish and microwave on high for one minute. Remove and stir well.
Microwave on high for 30-second intervals until the marshmallows are completely melted.
Remove from microwave and add the
gel colour(s) and the remaining ingredients, except the sugar. Stir with the spatula to combine.
Add half the sugar and mix until fully incorporated.
Pour the remaining sugar onto a clean counter and place the fondant on the sugar.
Slowly knead the fondant, working from the outside in. Knead until most of the sugar is incorporate.
Rub your hands with a generous amount of vegetable shortening and continue kneading the fondant until it becomes smooth and confectioners sugar is incorporated.
Continue to add a little shortening until it’s pliable and smooth.
Coat again with vegetable shortening and wrap in two layers of plastic wrap. Place in a zip-top plastic bag and allow to rest at room temperature overnight.

Notes

(adapted from Cake Central)

March 2013 By i sugar coat it! 11 Comments

Eat Your Tea Tuesday: Lemon Myrtle Crème Chantilly Mini Cakes

There isn't much I like about winter. So why I moved to this part of Canada from a perfectly warm, beautiful, albeit hurricane-prone state, is still a mystery.But, what do they say about life and lemons?

Strangely, I like the sports/activities associated with this season - skiing, skating, tobogganing, and who knows, I just might try ice fishing some day in the very, very distant future...or not. The very thought makes me shudder.

Quick, run the reel where we are half naked, skipping though the lawn sprinkler before jumping in the pool from which we emerge to large colourful plastic cups filled with sweet lemonade and mounds of crushed ice. Ahhhhhhh...

Lemonade! Just saying it makes me want to shed my sweater and long underwear. My grandmother made THE BEST lemonade I have ever tasted. Bizarrely, she used limes - freshly picked limes straight from the garden.

As kids, we were given the important task of prepping them for the squeeze. This involved, washing them, lining them up on the kitchen table and using our tiny palms to press and roll before passing them off to be cut and stripped of their deliciously tangy juices and pulp. We would sometimes sprinkle a little salt on the gutted halves and suck the little remaining juices out before discarding them. Not sure why, but we clearly enjoyed it.

While we were busy being kids, my grandmother worked in the background transforming the freshly squeezed juice into lemonade with the addition of brown sugar, water and a touch of Angostura Bitters. Yeah, you heard, bitters! The same stuff used by mixologists around the world to flavor drinks and cocktails was being served up in my grandmother's kitchen to us kids!!

But before you judge, you should know that bitters is believed to have restorative properties. What they restore exactly, I am not sure, but I do know for a fact that it cures hiccups! So there!! And just so that we are clear, I will never call it limeade. It will always be THE BEST lemonade EVAH!

Sadly, try as I might, I could never replicate the taste...

As you may already know, I'm a tea girl and now you are acquainted with my love for lemonade. So imagine my delight when I sampled Organic Lemon Myrtle tea from DAVIDsTEA. I've tried it warm, iced and now baked and whisked in my Lemon Myrtle Crème Chantilly minis- it does not disappoint either way.

I made these little treats this past New Year's Eve and they were so good I had to make a second and third batch. No lie! The texture was light and refreshing, and the sweet, tangy, creamy flavour combination certainly put me in a summer state of mind. The presence of lemon in both the cake and crème were reminiscent of warm summer days laid out by the pool, cold glass of lemonade close at hand. Can you tell I've just about had it with winter?

The mini cakes are Angel Food Cake recipe infused with Lemon Mrytle tea. To further heighten the lemony taste, I made a tea-infused crème Chantilly by simmering simmering the whipping cream with two heaping tablespoon of tea before adding it to the remaining cream. I then chilled it in preparation for the Chantilly.

These mini treats are wonderfully light with a prominent citrusy flavour. They make a refreshingly cool treat topped with fresh fruits, or a generous dollop of lemon curd sandwiched in with the cream, or on the side.

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Lemon Myrtle Crème Chantilly Mini Cakes

Lemon tea infused mini angel food cakes filled with cool clouds of a citrusy Crème Chantilly.

Course: Dessert

Servings: -10

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Cake

350 g superfine sugar
1.5 g salt
125 g cake flour sifted
375 g egg whites at room temperature
4 g cream of tartar
100 ml water
1.5 g Lemon Myrtle tea

Crème Chantilly

475 ml whipping cream 35%
3-5 g icing sugar adjust to taste
2 g Lemon Myrtle tea
The rind of 1 lemon optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325°F.
Bring some water to a boil and pour 100ml into a measuring cup. Add the tea leaves to the water, cover and leave to steep and cool for a few minutes.
In a large bowl, sift the salt and flour.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk together egg whites,
and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and tea and whip for a few more minutes
at medium speed until medium peaks form.
Remove bowl from mixer stand and using a sieve, sift the flour mixture, a little at a time, in with the egg mixture.
Use a spatula to gently fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
Scoop batter into the wells of a mini Bundt pans and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Insert a toothpick in each to check that they are fully baked.
Remove from the oven and place upside down on cooling rack until completely cooled.

To make the crème:

Chill the mixing bowl in the freezer for 5-10 minutes, or in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Place the cream and the tea leaves in a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer.
Let cool before refrigerating.
Pour the chilled whipping cream into the bowl of an electric mixer and whip to soft peaks, adding the sugar to taste as you whip.
Grate the lemon rind into the cream mixture and whip again briefly to form medium peaks.
Chill until ready to use.

Assembly:

Slice the mini cakes in half, horizontally and pipe a generous amount of crème on the bottom half using a decorative tip.
Place the top half on the crème and pipe a little crème in the center. Serve with a side of berries and lemon curd (optional).

February 2013 By i sugar coat it! 3 Comments

The Elephants In The Room - Vanilla Rose Elephant Cookies

Baby Shower Decorated Vanilla Rose Sugar Cookies

When my auntie D requested cookies for my cousin's baby shower, I surprised myself when I suggested elephants. I adore elephants, so the thought of eating cookies in their likeness was a little unsettling. But I do love a good cookie, it's my nickname after all, so Vanilla Rose Elephant Cookies, it was!

But let's face it, I am not overly skilled in the art that is Royal Icing. My earlier attempts at cookie decorating using the stuff - Sweet Swimmers and Baby Bum p - have yielded mediocre results. It's not rocket science, yet achieving the right icing consistency has been somewhat of a challenge. But hey, I am always up to challenging myself, even in the smallest of ways. Plus, it gave me a chance to use the elephant cutter from the Zoo Animal set I purchased while at the first annual Canada Baking & Sweets Show back in 2011. Long overdue.

There is an abundance of baby shower-related elephant cookies and cakes on the web, so this isn't exactly a new idea, needless, I like the idea of elephants for a baby shower. They are such a beautiful, gentle, intelligent animal, symbolic of strength, honour, stability and patience. In Hinduism, the elephant is represented in the form of Ganesha, who symbolizes luck, fortune, protection, and blessings. All the things one would want for a little one on the way.

I set about creating these beautiful creatures in sugar form using a generous mixture of butter, sugar, flour, eggs, crushed Tahitian vanilla beans and rose water. Once mixed, I chilled the dough then rolled it out using spacers to help keep them even. I then used the cutter to cut out the shapes and chilled them before baking. Soon after, I had my lifelong wish, a room filled with elephants!!

I let them cool completely, while I whipped up a batch of royal icing using the recipe from Sweet opi a. Actually, I was inspired by Marian's elephant cookies post.

I took about three table spoons of icing, added to a small bowl and coloured it with a couple drops of Americolor Brown gel paste. I used just a touch of Americolor Avocado gel paste to color the rest of the icing a very light green for outlining the elephants and separated out about a cup. I then darkened the bulk of the icing by adding additional gel paste in the same colour - about three drops.

I thought I had the right consistency, but the texture of my test cookie looked and felt like that of a real elephant - not exactly what I was aiming for. I added a little more water, mixed, did the 10-second test and we were good to go. I used a PME 1.5" tip, which resulted in a much more subtle border than intended. In the end I preferred it. I was feeling pretty confident and thought I'd try the wet-on-wet technique for the ears and eyes.

All flooded and laid out to dry, they looked like little ceramic elephants while the icing was still wet and shiny. The Dude stuffed the plastic bags in preparation for the labels, which I made using free clip art and then printed on Avery labels.

I was quite pleased with the way they turned out, so I snapped a few shots and was on my way to celebrate with family, my cousin's little bun in the oven. I say it's a girl and predict she will arrive on February 28, but I have never been correct about this sort of stuff.

In parting, here is a little elephant joke I found and just had to share:

An elephant was walking in a park. With each step he took, he squished many little ants. Upset, the ants began to crawl up on the elephant -- first his legs and then up all over his body. When the elephant started feeling all the little ants on him, he shook hard, making all the little ants, except for one, fall to the ground. As the only ant on the elephant hung on close to the elephants neck, the ones on the ground began to yell, "Strangle him!!! Strangle him!!!" Source

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Vanilla Rose Elephant Sugar Cookies

Vanilla Rose Elephant Cookies - vanilla bean sugar cookies flavoured with rose water and shaped into elephants.

Prep Time1

Cook Time10

Total Time1 10

Course: Dessert

Servings: dozen

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Cookies

452 g salted butter normally I use unsalted, but did not have any on hand, cool
690 g all purpose flour
270 g granulated sugar
2 large eggs cool
1 tablespoon crushed Tahitian vanilla beans
1 teaspoon rose water

Icing

I used this recipe and added 1 teaspoon of Rose Water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.
In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg, crushed vanilla beans and rose water.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a flattened circle. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until firm (at least two hours or overnight).
Remove from fridge and use a rolling pin to roll dough out to about ¼ inch thick - I use dough spacers shown in the photo above to get even cookies.
Cut into desired shapes and place on the baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. Place in freezer for about 3-5 minutes.
Remove from freezer, let rest 1 minute and then bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are a very light brown.
Let cool completely before decorating with icing.

February 2013 By i sugar coat it! 11 Comments

Nuts About You Buttered Pecan Cake

There will be no red or pink here today. Instead, three moist layers of maple syrup cake, mounds of crunchy brown buttered maple pecans and copious amounts of rich, silky, smooth ruffles. A compromise worth making.

Love is a lot of different things to a lot of people, and for me one of those things is fun. Love is all about having fun! Whether you're side by side on the couch catching up on PVR'd episodes of your favourite HBO shows, trying to kick each other's butts on the squash court, curled up in bed reading to each other, or whipping up sweet stuff in the kitchen - from the mundane to the magical moments - they should all be FUN. That's it! My over simplified, uncomplicated definition of love.

And if love were a cake, it would look and taste a lot like this...only in chocolate. 😉

This was not my intended v-day post. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw previews of cookies, cupcakes and heart-shaped meringues. In the end, I just wasn't feeling any of them, so I shelved them. Then the Dude, who does more cooking than baking, decided we should make a cake together, and being the healthier of us two, his conditions were no fondant, no food coloring, little sugar, and very little or no buttercream. My response - dude, you're in the wrong kitchen! I don't mind excluding fondant and food color and curbing the sweetness, but no buttercream! I told him he might be more interested in pie. Pecan is his favourite. But I'm not much of a pie girl, so we brought the two together and I negotiated the buttercream back into the deal. It's what I do for a living.

The Dude has really grown quite fond of swiss meringue buttercream, so I walked him through his first batch, meaning he got to add the butter and the flavour at the end. I wasn't about to risk him messing up the meringue.

Our time together in the kitchen is always fun, we like to pretend we are on a cooking show with lots of drama and over the top antics. Sometimes the disagreements become real and one of us has to leave the set... um, kitchen.

I found a cake over on the TLB Blog and fell in love with the look of it. I absolutely love all of Erin's creations. I used a different cake recipe and flavoured my buttercream differently, but kept close to the overall look of the cake. I really like the borders she piped around the top and bottom of her cake, but he felt we had already added too much buttercream, so he added pecans at the base instead. It was missing something though, something that symbolized Valentine. We agreed on a little piped heart. Perfect!!

The Dude went off to do yoga and I got down to snapping a few shots. In my rush to use as much of the natural evening light as nature would allow, I wasn't careful in securing the tray that I used as a backdrop. A few shots in, the tray came crashing down on the cake - see photo above on left. Sob.

The cake is filled with brown sugar and maple syrup. I browned the pecans in butter and brown sugar and then drizzled with maple syrup. I made a batch of swiss meringue buttercream and flavoured it with crushed vanilla beans, maple syrup and Amarula cream liqueur.

Oh, and look! A little red made it into this post after all.

Wishing you a love-filled day, today and always. Happy Valentine's Day!

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Nuts About You Buttered Pecan Cake

Love baked into three layers of moist maple syrup cake, sprinkled with buttered pecans and wrapped in a perfectly smooth, silky sheet of amarula swiss meringue buttercream.

Cook Time35

Total Time35

Course: Dessert

Servings:

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Cake

115 g unsalted butter one stick
100 g brown sugar
2 eggs
280 g all purpose flour
11 g baking powder
2 g salt
1 g cinnamon
230 g pure Maple Syrup
52 g milk

Frosting

300 g liquid egg whites
500 g sugar
680 g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon Tahitian crushed vanilla beans
pinch of salt
115 g Amarula Cream Liqueur
42 g pure maple syrup

Buttered Pecans

250 g coarsely chopped pecans
115 g unsalted butter
21 g pure maple syrup

Instructions

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well.
In a clean bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Combine maple syrup and milk in a separate bowl.
Alternating the flour and milk mixtures, add each to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.
Pour batter into three greased and floured 7-inch (23 cm) round pans. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in centre of cake comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before icing.
To make the frosting:
Using a clean towel and some lemon juice or vinegar, clean your mixing bowl, whisk attachment to remove any traces of grease.
Fill a heavy duty pot about a quarter of the way with water and place on the stove over medium heat to simmer.
Add egg whites, sugar and salt to the mixing bowl and whisk together lightly with a hand whisk, just until combined. Fit the bowl onto the pot, ensuring the bottom of the bowl is not in contact with the water in the pot. Whisk the sugar egg white mixture constantly, but gently, until temperature reaches 160°F.
Once at the correct temperature, remove carefully from heat, wipe the moisture away from the bottom of the bowl and transfer mixing bowl to the stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, begin to whip the meringue until it is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch.
Do not begin adding butter while the bowl is still warm.
Switch from your whisk to paddle attachment and with mixer on low speed, add butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated. Continue to mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture.
Add vanilla beans, syrup and Amarula liqueur, continuing to beat on low speed until well combined.
To prepare the pecans:
If required, chop the pecans coarsely. Place the butter in a heated saucepan and melt over medium heat. Add the pecans and cook until butter is brown and bubbly. Remove from heat and strain off extra butter. Toss pecans in a bowl with syrup. Divide into three.
To assemble:
Level cakes, cover with a generous amount of frosting, top with a third of the pecans. Repeat for the next level. Once stacked, cover with frosting, add the remaining pecans to the center top and drizzle with a little maple syrup. Leave as is, or decorate to your liking. I used the Wilton 1M tip to create the ruffles and heart.

February 2013 By i sugar coat it! 11 Comments

I Sugar Coat It In A Skitch!

Happy Friday, friends and welcome back!

I am quite enjoying my newly spiffed up corner of the web and want your visits to be enjoyable as well. I hope you stick around and become serial visitors, so to help you feel more at home I thought I'd show you around. Ready for the tour?

1. I have a logo! He's the little green guy that greets you with cake on each visit. Why an elephant? I have a serious soft spot for the real deal; it's as simple as that! My friend Regina from Specialty Cake Creations suggested I give him a name. I really like that idea! Any suggestions?

2. My rewards program is still in full swing. I have relocated the banner from the bottom of the page to the upper right corner. I've noticed a few people have already redeemed points - SWEET! If you have not already joined, find out how it works here.

3. I am easily bored and crave change, so an image slider is my way of switching things up once in a while. Maybe you'll see something there you missed!

4. New pink social media buttons. Yes, pink! I surprised myself with that colour. Until recently, I was not a fan of pink. I am quickly converting, as I explore my more feminine side.

5. YAY! I now have a more visible navigation bar. My old template had the pages listed off to the side and try as I might, I could not get them to appear at the top. Here you will find links to my recipes, tutorials, about page, contact and my newly introduced Amazon shop, where I feature a number of items I own and use.

6. I have a more prominent post title area, complete with a date tab to give the feel of a page in my sugar diary. The title links to the full post and the author link takes you to my Google+ page.

7. Like the title link, 'take another bite' provides a full serving of the featured treat by linking you to the entire post. Click it to read the full story.

8. The pink comment tab will appear as 'comment' when no comment has been made (which means you get to be the first to do so), or it will show a number when others have commented. Click on it to leave me a comment to let me know you were here. I love hearing from you!

9. Sharing is caring, especially when what you are sharing is sweet! Use these share links at the end of each post to sweeten up someone's day. There's Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the 'More' link provides many additional options for sharing.

10. You'll find my blog signature at the end of each post, or just before the recipe, when there is one included. I am thinking about changing the colour - should I go with green or pink?? Want to create your own post signature? You can do so here - it's free and easy, no download, setup or account required.

11. Last July, I became a ZipList featured partner. Above each recipe you will find a link to save your recipe to your personal recipe box, generate shopping lists and plan meals. Press the blue button to get started!

12. When a post includes a recipe, this is the general format you'll see, photo and all.

13. Suggestions for past posts are listed below each post. Click the desired link to check it out. To add a similar feature to your blog, try LinkWithin or nRelate, to which I recently switched. They are both free.

14. Here's where you tell me what's on your mind - your hopes, dreams, disappointments - or just a quick note or question about the featured treat. :). Just click in the comment box and you'll be provided various social media options for commenting, or set up a DISQUS profile for future commenting. I'd prefer if the name you choose isn't 'anonymous'. Thanks!

I switched from Blogger comments to DISQUS about a year ago and I often wonder if that was a good move, especially with the recently updated DISQUS 2012. Would love your feedback on this. Do you find it cumbersome to use? Are you less likely to leave a comment using DISQUS? Let me know!

15. My little sugar look-a-like (so not true) links to my About Page, where you will learn all about my hopes, dreams and fears, or at least why I started this blog.

16. More social media links, just in case you missed the set on the left, or just too tired to travel across the page. In addition to the joining me on FB, Twitter and Pinterest, you can subscribe to my blog's RSS feed.

17. Last I checked, I was at 100 email subscribers! That's exciting to me that 100 people care to have my sweets delivered to their inbox. How about you? Ready to take that sweet plunge? Simply enter your email address, press submit, respond to the confirmation email (you may need to check your junkmail), sit back, relax and let the sweets come to you!

18. Posts most viewed in a given week will appear here, click on the link to check them out.

19 -23 need no explanation, but I guess you could also say that about 1-18. I hope I didn't bore you to tears, or worse. It would be extremely helpful if you let me know if you notice something isn't working quite right. Leave me a note below, or send me an email and let me know the browser (Chrome. Firefox, Safari, IE) in which you viewed it.

There you have it, folks! I Sugar Coat It in a Skitch - or 23.

Thank ya'll so much for popping by! Have a wonderful week-end!

February 2013 By i sugar coat it! 15 Comments

Orchids In Bloom - A Blog Make-Over

Welcome! You're just in time for the reveal of my newly renovated virtual home!

Right up there with the Ranunculus, the Orchid is one of my favourite flowers. Traditionally the flower of powerful romantic desire, it is also one of the world's most exotic. I received my first from K back when we met and they have been a decor staple in our home since. To say I am obsessed with them would be understated.

So, when I finally decided it was time to freshen up my blog, the very first item to adorn my virtual decor had to be orchids. And being a blog about all things sweet, they had to be of the sugar variety, accompanied by cake, of course. We'll come back to that in bit...

OK, how cute is my little guy with pink toe nails? We don't have pets now, but if I could I'd have a house full of elephants, great danes and polar bears. And if I was forced to choose just one of the three, elephants would win. While my city's laws and regulations forbid me from having the real deal, nothing stops me from doing so here.

Elephants are extremely intelligent animals with long memory and much like us humans, they express grief, joy and anger. They form deep family bonds and live in tight matriarchal groups. I think I may have been an elephant in a previous life, I really do. Some day I plan to visit an elephant sanctuary and become a part of their group for as long as they would have me. And I'll be sure to share the entire adventure with you.

In the meantime, meet the I Sugar Coat It! elephant - my very first blog logo! He's a little green, but he'll learn the ropes in no time and will always be here to greet you at every visit, a treat in trunk. 🙂

Back to my sugar orchids and cake!

I received James Roselle's Exotic Sugar Orchids Craftsy course for the holidays and as soon as I got around to watching the videos, I knew right away what I would do with the finished flowers. I set about creating the sugar version of one of my plants.

You may have seen my orchids in the works on my Facebook page a couple weeks ago. Well, this is what became of them shortly after, in case you were wondering. I took things a little beyond what was taught in the class and created leaves, buds, rocks, moss and a pot to hold them all.

I wired the flowers with floral wire and floral tape and then attached the wired ensemble to a wooden cake support/dowel. So that it would not come in contact with my cake, I inserted a bubble straw down the center of the cake and then inserted the wrapped dowel into the straw. James used a similar technique in the course, but added royal icing for additional support.

To make the rocks, I used a mixture of white and dark modelling chocolate, food color and my airbrush to mimic nature. The moss was shredded coconut colored with green food powder and the roots were fondant. The leaves were a fondant/gum paste mixture and were not wired, so were held by the cake.

Carving the flower pot cake was no huge feat, but it was my first time carving so I was a little worried it would end up a wonky mess. It has two layers of vanilla cake and one of chocolate cake, filled and masked with coconut flavored Swiss Meringue Buttercream. The top was covered in chocolate fondant and the sides were wrapped in white fondant finished with a basket weave texture. The tastiest pot, ever!

So grab a slice and have a look around! The tour will begin as soon as we clean up a few kinks and cracks.

January 2013 By i sugar coat it! 21 Comments

Love Link-up & Give Away!

2013 seems intent on leaving me in its dust. January was a blur and we are only a few days away from February. Ahhh... February! The month of love, pink, red, chocolates, roses and strawberries!

Yes, strawberries! I have always associated these little red jewels with all things love-related. Dipped in chocolate, topped with whipped cream, or just piled in a bowl, they're just plain sexy, in my opinion. And this dessert is the perfect union of all of the above, sandwiched between layers of light fluffy cake. A perfectly sweet love affair! Anyone else feeling a little hot and bothered...

I was a little late to my own Valentine's party last year, so I aim to get a head-start this year. And who better to look to for inspiration and to help spread the love than my fellow sweet-fiends!

Which leads us to my very first Linkup - not to be confused with 'hook-up', this isn't that type of page. 😉 Although... you may fall in love with a few blogs along the way and decide to stick with them. That, I encourage!

So let's get to it, shall we! Here's how our Linkup works:

FUN - let's aim for lots of it!!
SHARE - something sweet and valentine-inspired for the rest of us to drool over. Use the inLinkz tool below to add a direct link to the related treat. Links to Blogs, Facebook, Flickr etc. are all welcome. One submission per person please. Add your link and the title of your blog post/dessert.
SOCIALIZE - spread the love! You'll be provided options to share on Twitter and Facebook when you add your link. I also encourage you to visit the blogs of other linkup participants and show some love by way of comments. Feel free to leave a comment for me as well. 😉
VOTE - for a chance to win a $25 Gift Certificate from Copper Gifts and The Smart Baker! Voting will begin on February 6 and close on February 9. The submission with the most votes at the end of the Linkup wins!
LINK RESPONSIBLY - link only to your work and keep it clean.

If you have any questions or run into any issues linking up, please leave me a comment below. This way, the answers will be available to anyone else with a similar issue. Thx!

A very special thanks to The Smart Baker and Copper Gifts for their generous contributions to this giveaway.

I did not receive compensation, monetary, or otherwise, for this post.

January 2013 By i sugar coat it! 7 Comments

Pâte Sucrée

Let's start the new year off right, shall we? With lots and lots of fresh, colourful, tasty fruit arranged in concentric circles and sprinkled with almonds to conceal layers of cream and chocolate atop a sweet pastry.

If that's not healthy eating, then send me back to 2012!

And that's exactly where we are headed - back to week 11 of my Baking Arts course. I have since completed the course and moved on to other culinary exploits, so bear with me as I do a little catch up.

Week 11 brought with it four hours of Pâte Sucrée - the French term for a sweet short crust pastry used to make tarts. You may also know it as sweet dough or tart dough, but not to be confused with pie dough. It's made with flour, salt, sugar, egg, and butter using the creaming method and is closely related to pâte brisée (savoury tart crust) and pâte sablée. Prepared correctly, it has the texture similar to that of sable cookies and can taste like shortbread.

Although fairly easy to make, there are a few tips to keep in mind when making this cookie-like dough:

Keep cool and plan ahead. We made our dough the class prior to allow it to chill and not cut into the the time needed for the instructional portion of class. If you are making the same day, allow the dough to rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours after mixing and an additional hour after the dough has been pressed into the tart pan.
Warm/hot hands are your enemy. Until this class, we were encouraged to use our hands in the preparation of most of the recipes throughout the course - you have more control and it ensures ingredients are not over-mixed. Because it is important to keep things cool for this type of pastry, a mixer or food processor is recommended, with very little hand contact at the end.
Avoid over-mixing. It's the difference between a tough crust and a light, buttery, crumbly texture. Over mixing will cause the gluten to develop, which may be good for bread, but bad for pâte sucrée.
Keep it uniformed. A thin, uniformly rolled dough prevents cracks and allows for the pasty to bake and cool evenly.
Shrinkage. This brings to mind an episode of Seinfeld that involved George and cold water. 🙂 Allow for shrinkage while the dough is chilling by leaving a bit of an overhang on the edges that will be trimmed before baking.

With the base baked and cooled, the chocolate melted, the cream cooled, and fruits prepared, it was time to bring it all together.

I brushed a thin layer of melted chocolate over the bottom of the shell to prevent it from becoming soggy. Then using a palette knife, I smoothed generous amounts of vanilla cream (custard) over the chocolate before adding the fruit. One was topped with strawberry and the other with a mixture of kiwi, peach and strawberry and then brushed lightly with apricot glaze.

The recipes we use in class yield large quantities, so I would generally cut them down when recreating at home. In the case of this recipe, however, I make the full amount, as the dough can be frozen for up to three months. Just cut into quarters, flatten into disks and wrap in layers of plastic before freezing. It is great to keep some on hand for those impromptu gatherings. Simply defrost in the refrigerator and make tarts or flans of the sweet and savoury variety. It is also perfect for making sable cookies - just roll out the chilled dough and use a cookie cutter in a shape of your choosing.

I'd say this Pâte Sucrée was one of my favourite of the recipes made in class. It is not overly sweet and the combined textures and flavours of the fruit, cream, chocolate and pastry are a perfect complement. You can play around with the basic recipe by adding different flavourings and maybe cocoa powder for a chocolate version.

I'll be sharing weeks 10, 12 and a re-cap with you in the coming weeks. Until then, here is the recipe.

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5 from 1 vote

Pâte Sucrée {Fruit Tart}

A light, buttery, delectable Pâte Sucrée filled with vanilla pastry cream and an array of fresh fruits.

Prep Time25

Cook Time15

Total Time40

Course: Dessert

Servings: tarts

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Pâte Sucrée

300 g sugar
454 g butter soft, but cool
8 g salt
5 g vanilla
100 g eggs 2
120 ml milk
875 g pastry flour
5 g baking powder

Vanilla Pastry Cream

875 ml milk
100 g sugar
100 g cornstarch
125 ml milk
150 g eggs 3
1 vanilla bean
salt to taste

Toppings

Fresh fruit
Melted chocolate
Apricot glaze
Almonds

Instructions

Pate Sucree

Cream butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
Sift together flour and baking powder, add to butter mixture.
Add milk and blend until smooth.
Work dough on a floured table. Chill until needed - about 2 hours.
Roll out chilled dough to about ¼ inch and press evenly into tart tin. Use a fork to punch holes in the bottom of the shell.
Place in the refrigerator to chill for an additional hour. Weight the dough with pie weights or beans and blind bake until golden brown - about 15 minutes depending on your oven.

To make the cream:

Rinse a saucepan with cold water (this helps to prevent burning).
Add milk and vanilla bean to the saucepan and bring to a simmer.
Mix sugar and cornstarch in a bowl and whisk eggs into the sugar/cornstarch mixture.
Pour some of the warm milk into the egg mixture to temper before adding to the saucepan. Add the egg mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Pour the cream into a stainless steel bowl and cover immediately with plastic. Plastic should touch the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Do not stir while cooling, it will cause the cream to thin. (For a Frenched cream, add whipped cream.)

Assembly:

Use a pastry brush to cover the inside bottom of the shell with melted chocolate. This keeps the crust from getting soggy.
Whip the cooled pastry cream and smooth onto the layer of chocolate with a pallet knife.
Arrange fruit(s) of your choosing to cover the cream.
Glaze fruit with heated apricot glaze. You may choose to cover the sides with sliced almonds, or sprinkle onto fruit.

January 2013 By i sugar coat it! 9 Comments

Sweet Memories: Best of 2012!

Happy New Year!!

Is it still safe to say that five days into the year? In any case, I wish you all much love, happiness and success in 2013.

I can't begin to express how much joy blogging has brought me. It has rekindled my passion for creativity and has connected me with so many amazing people from around the world. You know exactly who you are! I look forward to sharing many more sweet moments with you throughout the year.

I thought I'd start the year off by highlighting some of your I Sugar Coat It favourites from 2012 - Sweet Memories: Best of 2012!. Based on my blog statistics, here are your top seven (7 - just because):

#7 - Chocolate Cake With A Kick - this cake was DA BOMB DIGGITY! I have made it a number of times since and it never grows old.

#6 - Crème de Cassis de Dijon - layers of red velvet and vanilla cake cloaked in delicious, silky swiss meringue buttercream frills. Worth every calorie!

#5 - Ruffles & Pearls - this was one of my very first tiered cakes. It tested what little patience I had, but it turned out great. I think you thought so, as well.

#4 - Matcha Cheesecake - if you know me then you know matcha and chai are two of my go-to teas, so baking one into a dessert was a no-brainer. I could not resist adding a little more matcha to top things off in the shape of a feather.

#3 - Key Lime Mojito - this was the summer's people pleaser. After too many burgers, steaks and other grilled goodies, a cool light treat helped to ease some of the guilt.

#2 - My Birthday Cake - birthday and cake!! Need I say more??

#1 - Lavender Rose Macarons - my first try was a disaster, but delicious all the same. I as still so proud about teaching myself the ways of the mighty mac. I take every opportunity to whip up a batch to keep my mac game tight.

There you have it - Sweet Memories: Best of 2012! YOUR faves! The stats don't lie, but a few of my faves are missing. So, did any of yours make the list?

December 2012 By i sugar coat it! 18 Comments

Red Velvet & White Chocolate Gift Cake

This is my final post of 2012, which brings my total posts for the year to a nice round 60! So I am wrapping up the year in a sweet, little, edible box complete with a festive sugar bow.

As I've already shared this cake on my Facebook page and Instagram a couple weeks ago, I'll keep it short and hopefully sweet.

Before the stencil was applied.

This was a gift... literally. Courtney, who is the colleague of a friend, requested it for her friend's 24th birthday. Courtney sampled the Chocolate Espresso Giraffe cake I made for my friend's birthday back in July and liked it enough to order this cake months later.

The cake is three layers of of red velvet, filled with white chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and masked with white chocolate ganache. I covered it with a very thin layer of Choco-Pan white chocolate fondant, then scored a line around the cake to give the impression of a lid. Completed, the cake was a 6x6 cube.

I later added the starburst stencil design, which K thought was 'not such a good idea'. He waited until I added the design to proclaim he liked it better plain. Go figure, huh!

The YouTube video by Lesley from The Royal Bakery was helpful in making the bow.

Colouring gum paste red is a real pain and just plain messy - I know. So instead, I used red fondant mixed with a little tylose to make the bow and tails. The colour appeared a little flat after drying for a couple days, so I airbrushed them using Americolor Amerimist Tulip Red. I used plain fondant to make the bands of red ribbon on the cake, as they are located on parts of the cake that would be eaten.

I used gum paste for the tag and a mini heart cutter to create a cut-out in the tag to insert a red heart, so that it was visible on both sides of the tag. Instead of adding the note myself, I thought it would be more personal if Courtney did, so I included an edible marker with delivery.

I was very pleased to receive this photo from Courtney after it had been cut by the birthday girl, with a note of complete satisfaction.

Courtney thank you for allowing me to play a small, sweet part in your friend's special day!

So this is it my friends, post nombre de soixante - 38 more than I did last year!! Thanks for hanging in with me. I appreciate your comments, emails, and interest in my blog. A very special thanks to those of you who are subscribers to my blog - I would love to hear from more of you in the new year.

I hope that you all had a wonderful christmas and wish you the very best for 2013.

December 2012 By i sugar coat it! 2 Comments

My Grown-up Christmas List.

My Grown-Up Christmas List

Do you remember me?
I sat upon your knee, I wrote to you with childhood fantasies.
Well, I'm all grown-up now and still need help somehow. Can you still help somehow?
I'm not a child, but my heart still can dream, so here's my lifelong wish. My grown-up christmas list.
Not for myself, but for a world in need.
No more lives torn apart. That wars would never start, and time would heal all hearts, and everyone would have a friend, and right would always win, and love would never end.
This is my grown-up christmas list.

As children we believed the grandest sight to see was something lovely wrapped beneath our tree.
Well, heaven surely knows that packages and bows can never heal a hurting human soul.
No more lives torn apart, that wars would never start, and time would heal all hearts , and everyone would have a friend, and right would always win, and love would never end.
This is my grown-up christmas list.

What is this illusion called the innocence of youth?
Maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth. There'd be no more lives torn apart, that wars would never start, and time would heal all hearts , and everyone would have a friend, and right would always win, and love would never end. Oh this is my grown-up christmas list. This is my grown-up christmas list.

By: Amy Grant

I hope that we can all take a moment among all the food, family and gifts to truly appreciate our blessings and make some time to give to those without. Let's rekindle the true meaning of the holidays and carry it with us throughout the year.

Hope. Peace. Joy.

December 2012 By i sugar coat it! 8 Comments

Red Velvet Revealed with Coconut SMBC

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Red is the colour of energy, passion and action that exudes a strong and powerful masculine energy. This probably explains my fascination with Red Velvet cake.

I think you already know that I am a chocolate fiend. You may also know that Red Velvet cake is by far one of my favourite cake flavours. Not surprisingly, as it is technically a chocolate cake, only red. Truth be told, as much as I enjoy the taste of this cake, I think my fascination rests mostly with the colour.

Being what seems to be the season of all things red (and green, and silver and gold...) I can't think of a more fitting cake to complement the festive theme.

According to colour psychology, red is an energizing colour that excites the emotions and motivates us to take action. I guess the people who 'invented' christmas knew exactly what they were doing when they made red its ambassador colour. It certainly excites and motivates many to spend more money on more stuff than is really needed.

Red is also described as a warm and positive colour that is associated with our most physical needs and our will to survive. It awakens our physical life force and has been known to stimulate deeper and more intimate passions, such as love and sex. Valentine's rings a bell, anyone??

Red Velvet cake is essentially coloured Devil's Food Cake. To achieve the red colour, red food colouring is often added, or some use beet juice/root. My preference is the latter, in combination with a quality cocoa powder and I leave the rest to science.

The acid in the vinegar and buttermilk create a chemical reaction that causes the anthocyanin present in cocoa to reveal its true colour. I have recently learned that using a natural unsweetened, non-alkalized cocoa can create a more brilliant, as the natural pigments are more pronounced in the absence of the added alkaline (dutch process). So, I have been thinking about experimenting with various cocoas to come up with a super red colour, without compromising taste.

Until I have time to carry out such testing, I continue to use E. Guittard Cocoa Rouge and beet juice to make my red velvet cakes - His & Her's Mini Anniversary cakes, Giant RV Cupcake and Avocado Mudslide, to name a few. I love the colour they produce and the taste is phenomenal, in my humble opinion.

Most often, red velvet cake is paired with a cream cheese frosting, I like it with swiss meringue buttercream. Together, they treat the palate to an exquisitely rich, but light, airy dessert that isn't overly sweet. The buttercream atop these little jewels is flavoured with coconut emulsion.

And here it is - as beautiful naked as it is clothed. Eat up!

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Red Velvet Cupcakes with Coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

An exquisitely rich, but light and airy cake paired with coconut swiss meringue buttercream; a perfect end to any meal.

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Total Time55

Course: Dessert

Servings: cupcakes

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Cake

1 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoon water
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa I use E. Guittard Cocoa Rouge
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon beet juice 1 medium beet yields about 4 tbsp
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup cornstarch
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ cups superfine sugar

Frosting

150 g liquid egg whites
250 g sugar
340 unsalted butter cut into cubes and cool
1 teaspoon Tahitian crushed vanilla beans
1 tablespoon coconut bakery emulsion
pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º F. Line muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.
Place the butter, water, and cocoa in a small saucepan and heat gently, without boiling, stirring until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Beat together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract, vinegar and beet juice until frothy. Beat in the butter mixture. Sift together the flour, cornstarch and baking powder, then stir into the
mixture with the superfine sugar.
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then place on a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

Using a clean towel and some lemon juice or vinegar, clean all equipment and utensils to be used for preparing the meringue..
Fill a heavy duty pot about a quarter of the way with water and place on the stove over medium heat to simmer.
Add egg whites and sugar to the mixing bowl and place on top of the pot, ensuring the bottom of the bowl is not in contact with the water in the pot. Lightly whisk the sugar egg white mixture constantly until temperature reaches 160°F.
Once at the correct temperature, remove from heat and transfer mixing bowl to the stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, begin to whip the meringue until it is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch. Do not begin adding butter while the bowl is still warm.
Switch from your whisk to paddle attachment and with mixer on low speed, add butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated. Continue to mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture.
Add emulsion vanilla beans and salt and continuing to beat on low speed until well combined.

December 2012 By i sugar coat it! 8 Comments

Thank You For The Awesome Spiderman Cake!

There is no better thank you than a video message from a two year old who has not yet mastered the words 'awesome' or 'Jacquee', but who is so passionate in his delivery it makes you smile and tear up at once.

I have replayed the video too many times to count since receiving it and it brings a smile to my face each time.

"TANK YOU FOR THE AWMUM CAKE, YACKEE! MWAH (hand gesture included)!"

Brayden turned two at the beginning of December and his mom asked me to make him a Spiderman cake. I was so very nervous about saying yes and stalled for quite some time. Weeks later I agreed and his mom and I settled on a two-tier chocolate and vanilla cake along with a couple dozen red velvet cupcakes for the adults in attendance.

The bottom tier is double chocolate and the top tier is vanilla bean. Both were filled with whipped vanilla bean buttercream and masked in chocolate ganache before being decorated with fondant. The red velvet cupcakes were topped with white chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

I must admit, I love tall cakes, but I am not always comfortable with the stacking process - even more nerve-wracking is transporting the cake. I ended up taking it in two pieces and assembling it on location before snapping a few quick shots. Unfortunately, I didn't stay for the party, as the Dude and I had other plans.

I decided to have Spiderman hover over the buildings upside down. My original plan was a little more elaborate, but things kept breaking and I knew it would be a nightmare to transport, so I adjusted and came up with this.

From what I understand the cake went over very well.

R, thank you so very much for trusting me with preparing this cake for Bray's 2nd birthday. I think you see more potential in me than I sometimes see in myself and I am truly grateful for your constant, kind words.

Brayden, you're a gem of a little boy. Thanks for the sweet, entertaining video - and a big, wet MHAW (with hand gesture), right back at you!!

December 2012 By i sugar coat it! 6 Comments

Raspberry Coconut Meringue Cookies

The old adage, if you love something let it go, should be revised to say - if you love something, share some of it, keep most of it, make lots more so that you are never without it.

Okay, put mildly, my adage crafting skills are lacking, but I guarantee after just one bite of these cookies, you'll quickly see the flaw in that love them and set them free business.

I absolutely love these cookies and set out to make them for gifting purposes, but as hard as I try, there is just no setting them free. And if I am not mistaken, K might just feel the same way about them - he ate half the Cocoa Rouge Meringue Cookies within hours of me taking them from the oven. BTW - he claims to not have much of a sweet tooth...

With hardly any of the first batch left, I set out to make a variety of flavours for gifting purposes. I made sure K was not around. First, I made coconut flavoured meringue and piped them onto a lined cookie sheet. I separated the remaining batter and added some raspberry flavour and a touch of pink gel food colouring to half. Using a double piping bag inserted into a large piping bag fitted with the star tip, I swirled to my heart's desire.

Heaven in a feather-light cookie! Yup, those are my teeth marks. It's called testing the product - over and over and over... I had more jars than I had cookies left, so another batch was in order. If you have never made or eaten meringue cookies, I urge you to try them. Your tastebuds will be forever indebted.

As it's the season for giving - they also make great gifts! So get in the kitchen and start whipping. Only eight more sleeps before Christmas!

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Raspberry Coconut Meringue Cookies

A light, flaky cookie with a marshmallowy soft center, infused with raspberry and coconut to make your taste buds dance.

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Servings:

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

200 g superfine sugar
100 g egg whites I used pasteurized egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
a pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon coconut emulsion
¼ teaspoon raspberry emulsion
a small drop of pink gel food colour

Instructions

Preheat oven to 250ºF.
Prepare two cookie sheets by lining with silpat mats or parchment paper.
Place egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on high speed until soft peaks form.
Turn mixer down to medium and sprinkle in the sugar a little at a time. Once all the sugar is added, turn mixer back to high and whip to stiff peaks.
Divide the meringue evenly and whip the coconut emulsion into half the batter for a few seconds. Add the raspberry emulsion and the food colour to the other half and whip for a few seconds, until colour is evenly incorporated.
Using a double decorating bag insert (like the one shown above) and the star tip, pipe meringue onto lined baking sheets.
Bake for 40 minutes.

December 2012 By i sugar coat it! 3 Comments

Chai Eggnog Latte Cupcakes with Spiked Swiss Meringue Buttercream

The holidays don't officially start until you bring out the eggnog - preferably spiked. So, say hello to ma lil frwends - excuse the slurring.

I have not always been a fan of eggnog, but I find if I add it to something I truly enjoy it can actually be quite tasty. For instance, chai tea - more specifically, chai latte from Starbucks. I am addicted to the stuff. And, around this time of year SB features a few drinks to help bring on the holiday cheer, one of which is eggnog latte.

Do you see where this is going? It's a little place called Cheggnog! Translation - Chai Eggnog. A shot of chai (or two, if you're like me), a shot of eggnog, some soy milk, heat, froth, enjoy! It's my mid-morning warm-up.

I enjoy eggnog best when baked. Last year, I introduced eggnog into my baking when I made these Pumpkin Spice Mini Donuts with Eggnog Glaze. They were great and a certain individual who claims eggnog is vile, inhaled a few of the donuts and survived - enjoyed them, even.

So this year, I decided to turn one of my favourite drinks into a baked good to try to convert the tastebuds of eggnog haters, including one, Nina Roy as part of the Eggnog Challenge.

Cupcakes make everything better, even eggnog. These Chai Eggnog Cupcakes topped with spiked Cheggnog Swiss Meringue Buttercream will have you asking begging for seconds, if not more. The light spicy flavour of the chai is nicely complemented by the smooth rich taste of the buttercream. The added alcohol provides the festive factor. But not too much alcohol, or you might find yourself seeing strange things. Quick... blink to make it disappear!

What are you waiting for? I've already started eating mine - you'll need to make your own. The recipe is below. Whatever eggnog treat you decide to make, be sure to share it with Nina Roy for a chance to win an Ultimate Eggnog Lovers Prize Pack!

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Chai Eggnog Latte Cupcakes with Spiked Swiss Meringue Buttercream

A light, spicy chai cupcake complemented by the smooth rich taste of swiss meringue buttercream and a festive touch of brandy.

Cook Time20

Total Time20

Course: Dessert

Servings:

Author: I Sugar Coat It

Ingredients

Cupcakes

220 g self-rising flour with baking powder and salt
16 g chai tea powder
52 g unsalted butter softened
175 g light brown sugar
63 g egg whites
150 ml eggnog

Frosting

150 g liquid egg whites
250 g sugar
340 g unsalted crushed vanilla beans
pinch of salt
75 ml chai eggnog latte
1 tablespoon brandy

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line muffin pan with baking cups (12).
Using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth.
Add the egg whites slowly, mixing until fully incorporated.
Sift the flour onto the butter mixture and add the chai tea powder. Mix until blended.
Add the eggnog and continue mixing until combined.
Using an ice-cream scooper, scoop the batter into the cups and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool.

For the frosting:

While the cupcakes are baking , fill a heavy duty pot about a quarter of the way with water and place on the stove over medium heat to simmer.
Add egg whites and sugar to the mixing bowl and place on top of the pot, ensuring the bottom of the bowl is not in contact with the water in the pot. Whisk the sugar and egg white mixture constantly, but gently, until temperature reaches 160°F.
Once at the correct temperature, remove from heat, wipe away the water from the underside of the bowl and transfer to the stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, begin to whip the meringue until it is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch.
Switch from the whisk to paddle attachment and with the mixer on low speed, add butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated. Continue to mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture.
Add vanilla beans and salt, continuing to beat on low speed until well combined. Then add the spiked chai eggnog latte and beat until combined.
Using a 6B French tip, pipe swirls onto the cupcakes and garnish with a little chai tea powder and nutmeg.