Tutorials

7 comments

Tutorial: Making Marshmallow Fondant

Fondant is a type of icing used to decorate cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and pastries (it’s how they make wedding cakes all shiny and smooth!) Fondant can usually be divided into two groups: poured fondant (like the type that can be found in Cadbury Creme Eggs) and rolled fondant. Regular rolled fondant (which contains things like glycerin) is not very tasty, while rolled marshmallow fondant (abbreviated often as MMF) is a bit softer and tastes much better. Fondant can be purchased at cake decorating stores and art supply stores such as Michaels, or made at home. Store bought fondant is expensive and also tastes awful. I mean, really bad. (2017/08/11: Actually Satin Ice is pretty good!)

Finished fondant

Despite popular belief, fondant can be easy to make, inexpensive, and delicious. Gone are the days of disgustingly sweet fondant (I have personally banished them – you can thank me by subscribing or sending me gifts… I like chocolate).

Consume more content →

5 comments

Tutorial: Pulled Sugar Roses

This is meant as a tutorial for beginners who do not have a heat lamp or other pulled sugar equipment. Results will improve if these instructions are followed in a professional kitchen with better equipment.

Today, as I was walking home from school, I saw a rose. It was a nice rose, so I picked it up. It was sticky. I walked home with my rose while other people stared at me. They didn’t understand the relationship that I had with my rose. My rose was special.

A rose and stem made out of pulled sugar

Once I got home I put my rose in a vase of water and sat there staring. It melted. Good things don’t last for long.

Consume more content →

One comment

Tutorial: Tempering Chocolate

At one time or another you might have melted chocolate, but this is different. Very different. There are three types of melted chocolate: tempered (which has a shiny appearance and makes a snapping noise when you bite into it), non-tempered (this is just regular, melted, non-shiny chocolate), and seized (this shouldn’t happen!). When you bite into a good chocolate bar you should hear a snap. This is because the fat molecules in the chocolate are all lined up in rows and so when you bite into the chocolate you break the bonds that the fat molecules have to each other and you get a snapping noise. If this doesn’t happen then the chocolate bar was tempered incorrectly. But how do you actually temper the chocolate? You’re about to find out.

Dipping a strawberry into tempered chocolate

To temper your chocolate chop it up and place 2/3 of it in a bowl. Heat up a pot of water (with less than an inch of water) on the stove and place the bowl on top of it so that the pot holds it up.

Consume more content →