Primrose Sugar Flowers

I took a Wilton class several years back and I learned how to make sugar flowers. They take some practice but can be a lot of fun to make.  Once made, these sugar flowers last a very long time in storage. A single flower can make a simple cupcake pop. And a cluster of them can make any cake really stand out.

I will try to make a series of sugar flower tutorials. This is my first one, the Primrose. I made white and pink Primroses in this video, but really it can be absolutely any color.


The sugar recipe ingredients is very short and simple, here it is:
1 pound or 4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 to 6 tablespoon water
Red and Yellow food coloring

The key to successful sugar flowers is the consistency of the icing.  Too soft and the icing will come out of piping tips easily but will quickly lose its shape.  Too dry and the icing won't come out of the piping tips properly and won't take the proper shape. So I suggest adding the water a little bit at a time until you get the perfect consistency of the icing. Room temperature and humidity can also play a big part in getting the right consistency. Unfortunately, it's just one of those things that you will have to try and practice several times.

The tips of course will determine the shape of the flower pieces. For the Primrose, there are the tips:
Wilton tip 103 - used for the petals
Wilton tip 14 - used for the flower center
Wilton tip 1 - used for the flower center

Have fun and enjoy making these flowers!

Mini Two Tier Birthday Cakes

I made a set of mini two-tier cakes for my niece's birthday party, which was Disney Princess themed, of course. Each one of the kids got their own mini cake and they all got to blow out their own candles. Do you like the upside down wine glasses serving as cake trays?

Sweet Sixteen Cake

My daughter's classmate's sister is having a Sweet Sixteen Birthday and I made this for her. She brought a picture of another cake that she saw that had very pretty floral prints on the cake. I tried my best to achieve the same feel and style of the cake without exactly copying the design.

To achieve this design I used rice paper. I used floral patterned stamps and food coloring. And I did a little bit of hand painting to add a few additional details to the flowers. Then I cut out the painted rice paper and simply placed it onto the icing. The icing is just the usual icing that I use, Pastry Pride. The rice paper sticks to the icing very well and the food coloring is not bleeding into the icing. I think it turned out alright. What do you think? I have a close up picture of the cake bellow.

Q & U Wedding Cake 2013

Every year, the kindergarten class at our school puts on a Q&U wedding. It's a very cute way to teach the kids how the letter's Q and U always go together. I made a wedding cake for that wedding last year and I made it again this year. Here is what I made this year. It's my standard French Sponge Cake with strawberry and cream filling. I tried to do an ombré effect with the icing from dark green to yellow.

French Sponge Cake Video

This is a video of the French Sponge Cake that I previously posted:
http://www.cookingwithanh.com/2012/04/french-sponge-cake.html

Several people have requested a video version of this recipe, so here it is. Enjoy!

Hello Kitty Easter Cake

I didn't get a chance to create a tutorial for this cake.  It was a rush job for a family Easter party.  So we decided to make it into a little story.  We hope you enjoy it.

Story written by my husband Onassis.
Story read by my daughter Sophia.
Music is "Lavender's Blue" played by my husband.

Tiramisu

My brother in law's birthday was this past weekend and I made Tiramisu.  I thought it would be pretty to serve them in large wine glasses.  They're perfect serving size...well double the serving size, but you can't have too much Tiramisu.

I like this recipe because it really has very simple ingredients.  The only thing that needs cooking is the egg, marscapone, and whipped cream, although that is really optional. But I like to heat the egg/sugar mixture just to be safe.

Here are the ingredients:

• 2 cups dark coffee
• 1/4 cup Kahlua
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 8 ounces mascarpone
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 16 lady finger cookies
• 2 tablespoon dark cocoa powder

First make a coffee dip for the cookies:

1. Make 2 cups of extra strong coffee, the stronger the better, and add 1/4 Kahlua or your favorite coffee liquor.

Second, make the cream:

1. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks, you will only need the egg yolks.
2. Add 1/4 cup sugar to the egg yolks and beat on top of a double boiler or steamer until creamy.
3. Take the egg mix away from the double boiler or steamer and continue mixing until cool.
4. Add 8 ounces of mascarpone to the egg mixture and mix well.
5. In a separate bowl, whip up 1 cup heavy whipping cream until it forms soft peaks.
6. Add the whipped cream to the egg/mascarpone mixture and fold well.

Third, put the Tiramisu together:

1. Cut the lady fingers to fit your container.
2. Dip each lady finger into the coffee mixture and lay into the container.
3. Put a layer of cream on top of the lady fingers.
4. Dust the cream with dark cocoa powder.
5. Repeat the layers: lady fingers, cream, cocoa powder.
6. For the final layer, dust generously with cocoa powder.

Fourth, chill:

1. Chill the Tiramisu for at least 2 hours before serving.

Fifth, enjoy your delicious Tiramisu.

Blocks in a Cart Cake

I made this cake for my nephew's first birthday this past weekend.  The blocks are sponge cake covered in colored melted chocolate.  The letters are cut out from sugar sheets.  The animal faces are molded sugar candies that I bought from a store.  The whole base of the cart is also sponge cake iced with Pastry Pride icing.  The wheels are sugar cookies also covered in melted chocolate and sprinkled with some colored sprinkles. The string for the cart is also cut out from sugar sheets.  So everything is edible!

Soy Sauce Chicken Wings

I make these Soy Sauce Chicken Wings regularly at home. It's simple to make and easy to eat. The kids and the dad love them. They are definitely best served hot when the skins are still nice and crispy.

Fruit Basket Cake

I made this cake for my sister's birthday. It has fruit filling and fruit toppings as you can see. It's a very very healhty cake. :)

Blue Paper Mache Cake

I made this cake for my niece's 10th birthday. My daughters, Athena and Sophia, helped decorate since it's for their cousin. We placed stripes  of blue food coloring into the icing bags. And we used a Wilton 2D  tip. The white icing picks up some of the blue color to create a very  pretty pattern.  It's easy for kids to apply the icing. A simple squeeze and pull creates a pretty fluff of blue and white. The cake  turned out looking very fluffy and I think very pretty!

Red Bean Scone

This is my husbands favorite scone.  He loves most everything with red bean, so I thought I would try adding them to a scone.  They turned out just fine.  The red bean paste that I use in this recipe is already sweetened.  They provide additional sweetness to the scones.  I like making a batch of this dough and freezing them.  I just pop in a few slices onto a baking pan in the morning and we have fresh scones with our coffee.  Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cup red bean paste

In a container, mix together:
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda

In another container, mix together:
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together:
4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

In your electric mixing bowl, mix at low speed:
1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar

Then add the egg mixture to the mixing bowl and mix/stir a few more seconds at low speed.

Then add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix/stir a few more seconds at low speed until flour mixture is lumpy.

Then finally add the sour cream mixture to the mixing bowl.  Stir a few more seconds at low speed until the you get a loose and lumpy dough.  Do not overmix.  It should be lumpy, not smooth.

Place the dough onto a floured surface.  Form a ball then roll to a flat rectangle about 1 inch thick.  Spread a quarter of the red bean paste onto the dough.  Then fold the dough in half.  Roll again to 1 inch and spread another quarter of the red bean paste.  Repeat 1 more time until all the red bean paste is incorporated.

Finally, cut the dough into squares or triangles.  These are ready to bake or freeze for later use.  Bake these at 350 degrees F.  They are done in about 15 minutes or until you see their surface crack.