2012-06-25
2012-06-07
FONDANT (SUGAR DOUGH) to PASSION
Fondant is a brilliant invention in cake decoration. To me it's like transformation in modern technology, from old bulky fat TV monitor into a super slim stylish digital TV. The only difference is fondant has increased the accessibility of cake decoration to unlimited. It does not outdate previous ingredients for decoration which mostly buttercream. What is fondant anyway? Fondant is nothing more than icing sugar and gelatin with other edible components to make it easy to work with. Some brands you can find are Bakels, Fondx, Satin Ice. They come in colors and some people prefer one to the other. Anyway, people still fond of using buttercream (taart) for cake decoration. If I have to choose, taste wise, I like buttercream cake than fondant cake. You can add flavors to buttercream frosting but you definitely cannot (not normally) add flavor to your fondant. Fondant is edible but some people don't want to eat it but I do know kids love it. For the most, fondant purpose is simply decoration. You must be familiar with the selling concept that in order for people to buy your products, you need to buy their eyes first. People can care less with the taste as long as it looks beautiful and fancy. I say I want to buy both, beautiful decoration and great taste.
Fondant is the playdough of cake decorators. If you used to play with playdough when you were kids, you have no trouble at all to deal with this sugar dough. All you need is imagination and right tools. Thats for sure. Not that I have made lots of decoration with fondants, I am just making a point here. You can make anything with fondant, from small balls that joined together to make a princess necklace or beautiful lace to make decorations on princess shoes, to colorful cute imitation or real size flowers, your favorite brand name shoes or purse, all kinds of animals in kids cartoon movies to even making your own image, sculptured on your cakes. You name it, fondant can make all those possible. Fondant has brought up the cake decoration into a whole new level. Working with fondant is fun. But it requires patience and plenty of hours, rollling, molding, shaping and coloring on and on, working with various tools and delicate shapes. If you are a person that choose to stay home cutting newspaper for your scrapbook other than hanging out for a cup of bubble tea with you mates, then you will get along with fondant.
Honestly, I have learnt a lot from many people who generously share their knowledge, either from prints or the internet. I have no baking school background. But internet and books are my gurus. I have some blogs that I like to visit and spend hours watching videos posted in and reading. One of my biggest guru is Rose Levi Beranbaum. You can visit her at http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/. She has enlightened me in many aspects of baking and cake making. Another website I like to visit is Wilton, the biggest cake tools supply in the world. You can reach them at http://www.wilton.com. From this following website you can learn how to use many wilton tools to make lots of beautiful decorations http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com. I always amaze when I visit this cake maestro website, Ron Ben Israel. You can enjoy his masterpieces at http://www.weddingcakes.com. One word for his decorations? Speechless! God is super awesome! Ron is definitely a cake genius and super talented. My decoration is nothing compared to his. He is totally a master of cake decoration. But I take pride in what I am doing and continue doing. I have learnt from many successful people, the key is passion. You gotta have it or you don't. You cannot buy it, you have to want it. Those successful people in cake business like Rose and Ron are just ordinary people that have put their passion into the test over and over and over again. I believe every person is born with different talents. Some have one, some have two, some have three, some have plenty. But I am difinitely working on to develop the talent that has been given to me. In doing so, I just believe God will trust me with more to work with and accomplish better.
You can see how fondant is used in some of my cakes and cupcakes.
2012-06-03
MAKING BUTTERCREAM
Buttercream is the essential part of every cake and cupcake. Nice, soft and moist cake is not perfect until it is matched with delicious full flavor buttercream. Sometimes people call buttercream as 'frosting' or 'icing.' I think the reason why buttercream is called icing is because buttercream consists of a large portion of sugar. Icing is sugar that is grounded into superfine powder.
How to make buttercream? Making simple buttercream is easy. Anybody can do it. What you need to do is mixing two parts of sugar and one part of butter. To that you add a few tablespoons of milk to make it shiny. Then to flavor it you add a few tablespoons of any flavor you like, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, etc. But this buttercream tends to be sweet. Very sweet. Not to Americans though. They are known for HUGE fans of sugar:-) But it is very sweet to most Indonesians. I know. Since this simple buttercream contains more sugar, it tends to be heavier too. The alternative to this simple buttercream is italian or french buttercream.
What is the difference between italian and french buttercream? There is only one slight difference, the part of the egg that is used. You only use the egg-white in italian buttercream BUT only the yolk in making french buttercream. The method of making it is almost the same. To make italian or french buttercream, you simply cook sugar and water in medium heat until it reaches the roll boiling stage then mix it with the egg's part that you have mixed. Finally adding the butter into the mixture. The good thing is you have the freedom to cut the amount of sugar you want. That way the end result is you will have nice, silkier and less sweet buttercream.
Simply, I break down the steps below.
1. Boil sugar and water in a non-stick saucepan on a medium heat.
2. Keep stirring until it boils.
3. Stop stirring and keep the heat until it reaches the roll boiling stage, around 7 to 8 minutes after it first boils. This is the stage where the sugar reaches its harden point.
4. Meanwhile, in your standing mixer, start mixing the egg-whites (italian) or the yolks (french). For egg-whites, before mixing, put a pinch of salt to break the protein so the egg-whites will easily be mixed into meringue. With egg yolks, you need to mix it until it turns pale and the yolk almost double in size.
5. Pour the sugar mixture into the white eggs or the yolks. Keep stirring. Use your standing mixer in medium speed. Don't scrap the sugar from the side of the saucepan. You need to move fast. Pour all the sugar into the mixing bowl. When all the sugar mixture is already in the bowl, change your speed to maximum.
6. The sugar will cook the egg-whites or the yolks. Your bowl will be hot. Keep stirring. Remember you mustn't put your butter right away. If you do, you are going to melt it and you will end up having a batch of batter, instead of buttercream. In this case, patience is the virtue. Good waiting of 7 to 10 minutes is necessary till your bowl is less than warm to the touch. You can feel it in your palm. If the bowl is hotter than your palm, that means you need to wait longer. Remember sometimes your room temperature can also affect the process. Just time it to 10 minutes. When it is slightly warm, it means it's ready. To incorporate the butter well, cut it into good small equal pieces. Put the butter slowly one by one while your mixer is stirring. After this you can add your flavor. Turn off your mixer. Scrap from all the side of the bowl to make sure all incorporate well. Then mix again for another good 1 to 2 minutes. You can see the buttercream is very silky and creamy and also light. Turn off the mixer. There you are, your italian/french buttercream is ready. It's silky, fluffy, lighter and most of all it tastes just delicious with the sweetness you want. This buttercream is perfect to spuit on cupcakes or making any decoration on your cakes. Enjoy!
You can view how to make italian buttercream from this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kdu7xn3x4Q
You can view how to make french buttercream from this website:
http://www.joepastry.com/category/pastry-components/buttercream/french-buttercream/
How to make buttercream? Making simple buttercream is easy. Anybody can do it. What you need to do is mixing two parts of sugar and one part of butter. To that you add a few tablespoons of milk to make it shiny. Then to flavor it you add a few tablespoons of any flavor you like, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, etc. But this buttercream tends to be sweet. Very sweet. Not to Americans though. They are known for HUGE fans of sugar:-) But it is very sweet to most Indonesians. I know. Since this simple buttercream contains more sugar, it tends to be heavier too. The alternative to this simple buttercream is italian or french buttercream.
What is the difference between italian and french buttercream? There is only one slight difference, the part of the egg that is used. You only use the egg-white in italian buttercream BUT only the yolk in making french buttercream. The method of making it is almost the same. To make italian or french buttercream, you simply cook sugar and water in medium heat until it reaches the roll boiling stage then mix it with the egg's part that you have mixed. Finally adding the butter into the mixture. The good thing is you have the freedom to cut the amount of sugar you want. That way the end result is you will have nice, silkier and less sweet buttercream.
Simply, I break down the steps below.
1. Boil sugar and water in a non-stick saucepan on a medium heat.
2. Keep stirring until it boils.
3. Stop stirring and keep the heat until it reaches the roll boiling stage, around 7 to 8 minutes after it first boils. This is the stage where the sugar reaches its harden point.
4. Meanwhile, in your standing mixer, start mixing the egg-whites (italian) or the yolks (french). For egg-whites, before mixing, put a pinch of salt to break the protein so the egg-whites will easily be mixed into meringue. With egg yolks, you need to mix it until it turns pale and the yolk almost double in size.
5. Pour the sugar mixture into the white eggs or the yolks. Keep stirring. Use your standing mixer in medium speed. Don't scrap the sugar from the side of the saucepan. You need to move fast. Pour all the sugar into the mixing bowl. When all the sugar mixture is already in the bowl, change your speed to maximum.
6. The sugar will cook the egg-whites or the yolks. Your bowl will be hot. Keep stirring. Remember you mustn't put your butter right away. If you do, you are going to melt it and you will end up having a batch of batter, instead of buttercream. In this case, patience is the virtue. Good waiting of 7 to 10 minutes is necessary till your bowl is less than warm to the touch. You can feel it in your palm. If the bowl is hotter than your palm, that means you need to wait longer. Remember sometimes your room temperature can also affect the process. Just time it to 10 minutes. When it is slightly warm, it means it's ready. To incorporate the butter well, cut it into good small equal pieces. Put the butter slowly one by one while your mixer is stirring. After this you can add your flavor. Turn off your mixer. Scrap from all the side of the bowl to make sure all incorporate well. Then mix again for another good 1 to 2 minutes. You can see the buttercream is very silky and creamy and also light. Turn off the mixer. There you are, your italian/french buttercream is ready. It's silky, fluffy, lighter and most of all it tastes just delicious with the sweetness you want. This buttercream is perfect to spuit on cupcakes or making any decoration on your cakes. Enjoy!
You can view how to make italian buttercream from this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kdu7xn3x4Q
You can view how to make french buttercream from this website:
http://www.joepastry.com/category/pastry-components/buttercream/french-buttercream/
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