Footprints in the Sand

This cake is a walk on the beach, so to speak!

Ingredients

Cake Covered in Ivory Fondant

Granulated Sugar

Demera Sugar

ECG Frosted Lemon Luster Dust

ECG Sombrero Luster Dust

Super Pearl Dust, Food Grade

small amount of ivory fondant

Small amounts of  bright blue, hot pink and orange gumpaste

Piping Gel

Tools

Card Stock

Scissors

SugarCraft Gun with smallest Cord disk

Toothpick

GumGlue

Parchment Paper

Fondant Roller

PME wheel Cutter

 Flat Artist Brush

Impression Mats
Plastic Piping Bag

Instructions

Flip-Flops

1. Cut out a pattern using cardstock. The pattern is about 1" long.

2. Roll out bright blue gumpaste very thin. Place your flip-flops pattern over gumpaste. Using a PME wheel cutter, cut around pattern to create sole of flip-flops . Turn pattern over and cut another sole.

3. Place a wave pattern impression mat over the soles. Gently impress pattern onto the tops of soles. Cover and set aside.

4. Roll out a hot pink gumpaste. Using #12 piping tip, cut two circles. Make indentions using a leather punch or toothpick.

5. Roll out a bit more blue and cut two dot using the tip of #6 piping tip. Moisten the center of the pink with a bit of gumglue and place the blue dot in the center, as shown.

6. Using a SugarCraft Clay gun and the smallest cord disk, make an orange cord.

Cut into two ½” lengths. Pinch the center together.

7. Using toothpick, Make an indention in the soles of the blue gumpaste, the lightly moisten the indentions with gumglue.

Place the pinched center of the cord at the top of the sole, and the ends at the sides.

8. Place pink flower at the top of flip-flops, attaching with gumglue. Cover to protect and set aside.

Footprints

1. Using the cardstock flipflop pattern, cut 8 footprints out of parchment paper.

2. Roll ivory gumpaste very thin. Place 6 of the parchment patterns over the gumpaste, and cut using the PME wheel cutter.

3. Mix a small amount of ECG Frosted Lemon and Sombrero luster dusts together and dry brush over each gumpaste footprint.

4. Place an impression mat over the gumpaste and gently press.

5. Cover to protect and set aside.

Sandy Beach Cake

1. Mix 1 cup granulated sugar with ½ tsp ECG Frosted Lemon , ½ tsp Sombrero Luster Dusts, ¼ tsp. super Pearl dust. Add ¼ cup demera sugar. Mix well and place into Plastic Piping Bag.

2. Cover Cake with Ivory Fondant.

3. Brust fondant with Piping Gel.

4. Place the 8 parchment footprint pattern over piping gel, as if walking up side of cake.*

5. Place cake inside 14” Cake Pan to catch unused sugar. Cut end from piping bag and began covering cake with sugar in uniform style until the cake is completely covered.

6. Remove the parchment patterns.

7. Place the 6 footprints over the exposed piping gel, then place the flip flops over the last two footprints at top, as shown.

8. Sprinkle more sugar around the top of the cake.

Remember the beachy topper tutorial? Now you have the perfect cake for the Beach Themed topper. Place on top of cake with a little sugar sand spilling out of sand pail.

The sugar will sparkle just like sunlit sand.

Here is a picture of a Fun in the Sun cake that was created by three artists!

Photo by Sherilyn Vineyard-2010

I had the privilege of demonstrating this as the top tier of a three tiered cake. The middle tier was created by the very talented Sherilyn Vineyard; and the bottom tier and cake board by the uber creative Sylvia Wilson. We all built our tiers separately, then assembled them at a Day of Sharing. We were thrilled with the way it all came together!

Hope you have Fun creating your own Summer Fun Cake!!

* this tutorial is for one side of cake only. If you want to repeat the pattern on the back side of cake, you will need to make two pair of flip-flops and 12 footprints.

Tutorial and Photography by Jacque Benson
Copyright 2010-All rights reserved

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

St Patrick’s Day Pistachio Candy

Ingredients:               

• 1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 3.5oz pkg pistachio pudding mix                            
• 6 oz bag flaked coconut                                                         
• 2T butter or margarine, melted (1 ounce)
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened  
• 2 cups finely chopped pistachios
• 5 ½ -6 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 drop leaf green coloring gel (opt)                                                   
• Semisweet and/ or white Chocolate chips , melted
• Paramount Crystals
• 1/2 cup Dark Green Confectioners Melts

Preparation:

Pour sweetened condensed milk into a bowl. Heat milk in microwave for 1 minute until warm. Pour pudding mix into milk and stir well.  Return to microwave and heat for 60- 90 seconds, checking after 60 seconds so as not to overcook. Stir again for 2 minutes until the pudding mix is well dissolved. Set aside.

Place coconut in blender and pulse a bit until the coconut is finely chopped. Mix with finely chopped pistachios.

Stir butter and cream cheese into pudding mixture, incorporating well. Add nuts and coconut and mix well.

I added a drop or two of leaf green coloring gel just because it's St Paddy's Day candy, but it's not necessary.

Add confectioners’ sugar, 1 cup at a time until too difficult to stir.  Sprinkle a board generously with confectioners’ sugar and turn the mix onto the board. 

Knead in sugar

until the dough is soft and not sticky.

Using a melon baller, scoop out a heaping teaspoon of dough. Shape into 1 inch balls, then chill in refrigerator until very firm.

When ready to dip in chocolate, melt semisweet and/or white chocolate .

I used Ghiradelli brand chocolate chips.  I also added some paramount crystals to
thin the chocolate.

 Too thick a layer of dark chocolate will overwhelm the flavor.

When melting white chocolate, melt carefully over hot water in a double boiler.

Do not allow the water the boil as the white chocolate burns easily.

Because this was for St Patrick's Day, I added 5-6 dark green Confectioner's melts at the last
making a pretty soft green.

 Dip chilled balls into melted dark or white chocolate using a fork.

Then carefully slide off the fork onto wax paper or a silicone mat using a small spatula, as shown.
Set aside to cool completely.
To decorate, melt about a 1/3 cup of green confectioner's melts.
Pour into a piping bag and clip just the tip off the bag.
Have fun decorating your candy.
I used stripes on the dark chocolate and swirls on the white chocolate.

Mmmmmmm -Chocolate on the outside,
gentle flavors of pistachio and coconut on the inside!

With this candy, there's plenty of Green on hand for St Paddy's Day!

 

May you have:
A world of wishes at your command.
God and his angels close to hand.
Friends and family their love impart,
and Irish blessings in your heart!

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Recipe, Tutorial and Photography by Jacque Benson 2011
All Rights Reserved.
Please note
This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Coloring Fondant to a Deep Hue

One of the biggest challenges I had when I started working with fondant was how to get a deep red, blue or black.  I usually ended up with a big sticky mess, finally deciding to go to the cake supply store and buy the premade colored fondant.   Using a large amount of gel can change the consistency of your fondant.

Others who have tried using only powdered cake colors find it compromises the elasticisty of the fondant, making it unflexible and difficult to work with.

So I have found several ways to make a deep colored fondant...

I will show the different methods using different colors.

Let's start with the color

BLUE

This method is effective when you need a small amount of fondant for decorating.

Knead blue gel into your fondant until it is a nice robin's egg blue. Your fondant will be barely sticky. Once you find it becoming rather soft stop adding gel color.

Mix about 1/2 tsp blue candy/cake powdered food coloring with a tablespoon of confectioners sugar.

Knead into your fondant.  If you desire a deeper hue, sprinkle a small amount of color

on top and knead into your fondant until your fondant is desired color.

 Double wrap your fondant in plastic wrap and place in an airtight container. It will continue to

deepen in color as it sets.

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Here is a technique for making fondant

BLACK
This method is for achieving a deep black without a lot of mess. It will, however, taste like chocolate!

The easiest way to acheive a nice black fondant is to start with chocolate fondant.

 It is a very dark brown, so by the time you knead in black candy/cake powdered color you will have a nice dark black hue.

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Here is another method to make a deep colored fondant.

I will demonstrate the color

RED
This method is effective when you desire a larger amount of fondant to cover an entire cake.

This  is an easy and tastier means to an end.

Make red candy clay using red candy melts.*

It is easy to make candy clay by mixing candy melts with white corn syrup.

Use around 2 parts white fondant to 1 part colored candy clay.

Knead your candy clay into your fondant.

Once your candy clay in incorporated into the fondant, you can deepen the color by adding powdered food color. Knead into the fondant. 

Keep adding powdered color until you achieve a deep red hue.

If your fondant is too soft, knead 1 tablespoon of confectioners sugar at a time until fondant is desired consistency.

Wrap with plastic wrap and place in an airtight container until ready to use.

 I used all three of these methods to color the fondant  used for myThomas the Train pictured below.

Try experimenting with different color candy melts, gels and powdered colors. The more

you practice, the easier it gets to get that dark rich color for your decorating needs.

*

CANDY CLAY RECIPE

1 lb Colored Candy Melts
1/3 cup light corn syrup
Melt Candy Melts following package directions. Stir in corn syrup and Blend will. Place mixture onto waxed paper and let set at room temperature until ready to use.  When ready to use,  knead candy clay until malleable before adding to fondant.


Tutorial and photography by Jacque Benson. copyright 2010 all rights reserved.
This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.