BAUBLE CAKES

I have seen these little sphere cakes before but I didn’t know what to call them. After a bit of research I found out that they are called bauble cakes. They are especially popular around Christmas time, where you can decorate them as Christmas ornaments. I think they are so unique and make exceptionally beautiful cakes. This was my first time making them and I wasn’t sure what the best way to make them ways. I did some research and there wasn’t a whole lot of help out there. So I am going to share with you a couple tips that I found worked good as I experimented with making them.

First off let me say that they aren’t as tricky as they look. They look a little intimidating but they aren’t so bad. The trick is to take your time.

If you want your cakes to have a perfect sphere shape the trick is to bake them in sphere pans.Wilton sells one that will do the trick. After baking the cakes, trim off the tops so you have two perfect half spheres.

Join them together with buttercream frosting and then frost the outsides with a thin layer of frosting. Try to make them as smooth as you can. Once frosted, refrigerate them until the frosting hardens. After the frosting is hard you will be able to smooth it out better and eliminate the ridges.

If your buttercream is not smooth your final product won’t be smooth either, so take your time and make it as smooth as you can.

Cover them in fondant the way you would cover any cake. For the best results cover them right after removing them from the fridge, when the frosting is cold and hard. The process of frosting and decorating them is the same as any cake, it just take a bit more time due to the shape.

The only trick I found to get them smooth is to take your time and rub, rub, rub them.

  http://www.emmalee-design.com/cakes/bauble-cakes/

SNOWFLAKE COOKIE

Sugar cookies are a staple around Christmas time. Even though they are as simple as you can get as far as cookies go, I still love them because of their endless decorating possibilities. These snowflake cookies are one of my favorites. I’m including a very good sugar cookie recipe below, but if decorating is more your thing and you want to skip the baking there is no shame in using store bought cookie dough.

Rolled Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2–1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Make sure that the butter is at room temperature before beating it. Creaming the butter and sugar adds air to the mixture and  is one of the most important steps to follow if you want a good result.

Tip: It may take up to 8 minutes to get a smooth mixture.

Next, mix in the eggs one at a time. Then add the vanilla.  Mix in the flower, baking powder and salt.

Rap the dough in saran wrap and cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour, preferably overnight. I prefer to divide the dough into three sections and wrapping them individually. That way you can keep the dough cool as you work with part of it.

Tip: Roll the dough into tubes  before cooling if you are going to make round cookies. Then all you have to do is slice off 1/4 inch slices and bake.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the cooled dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut out using your favorite cookie cutter shapes. I really like snowflakes for winter time. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 6–8 minutes. Cool completely before decorating.

Now the trick to a well decorated cookie is all in the icing. If you can master the right consistency you will be able to make some really neat designs.

Royal Icing

1 egg white
3.5–4 cups powdered sugar (you probably won’t use it all)
.5 tsp lemon juice (you can always substitute and extract like vanilla)
1–2 Tbs. water
Food Coloring

Add the egg white and lemon together in a mixer. Using the paddle attachment start mixing. Slowly add small amounts of  powdered sugar at a time to the mixture making sure it is well incorporated before adding more. You may need to add a bit of water in order to get a good piping consistency which will look like whipped cream (or toothpaste), having soft peaks. Add a small amount of food coloring to create the color that you want.

Don’t worry about how much of each ingredient you are using. It is more about the consistency of the end product than it is about exact measurements. It’s a feel. It gets easier the more you make it.

To make a frosting to ‘flood’ the cookie with all you need to do is add a small amount of water to the royal icing until it becomes runny and pourable.

Tip: Before you just pour the flooding frosting over the cookie consider piping a small outline around the cookie with the piping frosting. By outlining it first with the thicker frosting you will be able to pour the flooding frosting over the cookie without it running over the sides.   http://www.emmalee-design.com/cooking/snowflake-cookies/