Sugar Cookies - Make Your Cookies Vanish

Is it your turn to bring refreshments for your mystery book club - which just happens to be reading a culinary mystery? "One Tough Cookie" by Diane Mott Davidson surely calls for a cookie treat - although hopefully not a tough one! The versatile sugar cookie will give you a chance to show your fellow mystery-lovers that you have just as many tasty talents as Goldy Schultz, the catering, mystery-solving heroine of " One Tough Cookie!"

Ideas for Decorating a Cake

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There are plenty of ideas for decorating a cake in cook books and also on the internet, so here's only a short list of tips to consider when trying to bake a tasty and great looking cake:

Divine Dessert Recipes: The Fondant Fancy

Known to some as a French Fancy, but to us British as Fondant Fancy, the iced sponge cake is a divine dessert that many of us have "fond" memories of. What are they, where do they come from, and can I make them at home - are perhaps the questions at the forefront of your mind right now?

What are they and where do they come from?

Fondant Fancies were originally produced in the UK by the beloved Mr Kipling. They are incredibly sweet, consisting of a single cube of sponge cake, topped with butter cream, and coated in fondant icing, with chocolate or another colour of icing drizzled on top.

Can I make one now?

Sure, the process is quite long but the results are absolutely worth it. Gather together the following ingredients:

For the cakes:

- 175g unsalted butter

- 150g plain caster sugar

- 3 eggs

- 175g plain flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

For the fondant icing:

- 25g unsalted butter

- 100g dark chocolate

- 90g icing sugar

- 100ml boiling water

- 75g mascarpone cheese

- 75g melted white chocolate to decorate the fancies

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 140C or gas mark 1. Grease up a 9 inch square cake tin.

Using an electric whisk, mix together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, whisking continuously, and only add each one as soon as the last one has been fully mixed in. Fold in the flour and baking powder lastly.

Throw the mixture into the baking tin and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. When done, set aside to cool and cut into 1 inch cubes.

Whiel you're waiting for that, boil a pan half full of water and leave to simmer. Suspend a heatproof mixing bowl on the pan (not allowing the base to touch the water), and add the dark chocolate, butter and icing sugar. Stir until nicely smooth. Gradually add the boiling water (you may not need the whole 100ml) until the mixture is runny enough to fall down the sides of the cakes.

Back to the inch square cakes, begin by placing a small lump of mascarpone on the top. Spoon over the icing and set aside for at least 30 minutes to allow the icing to cool and harden.

Finally, drizzle the melted white chocolate on top for effect and allow to cool again.

Simply divine! Find more of my divine dessert recipes here or at the great dessert recipes [http://dessertrecipes.org/] archive.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_A_Bruce

Decorating Cake With Fondant

There are a variety of different cake types. Most of them are occasional such as wedding cakes and birthday cakes. The decoration of cakes is a hobby as well as a money making idea. It needs some artistic skill. It may be called an art which helps you to keep exercising your imagination and improve your natural skills. The process of cake decoration is also called a "sugar art", since it uses only edible decorative elements to make plain cakes visually interesting. The history of baking and decorating cakes in its modern guise can be traced back to the latter part of the twentieth century in United States of America.

The cake you want to decorate should be well baked and cooled one. There are many ways to decorate cakes such as applying gum paste, using piping techniques or using food color.

Gum paste is a stiffening agent that helps for making hand-made edible fruits and flowers to decorate the cake. It is a malleable material. Piping methods needs a hand held pastry bag made from paper cloth or plastic. This is usually triangular shaped and is used to pipe semi-solid food elements by pressing them through a narrow opening end. Pastry bags are used for icing and also for making flower shapes, stars, leaves, etc.

Tinting and frosting are the other ways to decorate cake. Usually frosting starts with white color and different amounts of food coloring is added separately. Another way to make cakes looking prettier is icing. There are different types of icings. But the most common and popular choice is butter-cream icing. It is smooth and creamy. Butter cream is made with sugar butter and other flavorings. Hence it can be easily melt in extreme heat.

Another important method is decorating cake with fondant. Fondant is a thick creamy white sugar mass. It is used to roll and can be draped over a cake. Fondant usually remains soft for a while and hardens over time, but not bone hard and so it is great as a cake covering. Decorating cake with fondant is as easy as playing with clay as a child. We can roll it and cut it to the size we desire. We can print designs on it, can create color effects and form it into any shape. Fondant does not need to be refrigerated but the cakes decorated with fondant can be refrigerated. Any types of cakes such as cup cakes, regular cake and occasional cakes can be decorated with fondant.

Hi, my name is Richard 'Cool Cakes' Wells and I've been working with cakes for a long time. If you would like to read my article on "Fondant - What Is It?", then click here; http://www.coolcakedecorating.com/what-is-fondant/. And for more great articles on the fun hobby of cake decorating, visit my website at http://www.coolcakedecorating.com/. Have a great time!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_C_Wells