Royal Icing Recipe

I was browsing the WWW to read a little more on Royal Icing as well as to get the recipe, perhaps to try on it maybe for my next baking session.

This is what I found from a website:-

Royal Icing is a pure white icing that dries to a smooth, hard, matte finish. Besides its lovely finish it also colors beautifully which makes it a favorite of professionals who use it not only for frosting cakes and cookies, but also for intricate piping of decorations (flowers, borders, and lettering). It is simply a mixture of powdered (icing or confectioners) sugar, lemon juice, and raw egg whites but due to the risk of salmonella when using raw egg whites, I have also included a recipe using meringue powder. Meringue powder is a fine, white powder used to replace fresh egg whites and is made from dried egg whites, sugar, salt, vanillin and gum. When beaten with water and confectioners sugar it has the same consistency as icing made with fresh egg whites. However, I do find that royal icing made with meringue powder does not taste as good as icing made with egg whites, so I suggest adding about 1/2 teaspoon of extract (vanilla, almond or lemon) when making the icing.

Hmmm, I never knew there are two types of Royal Icing recipe.
Royal Icing Using Egg Whites (makes about 3 cups):
Ingredients:-2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juices
3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

Method:-
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use


Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder (makes about 3 cups):Ingredients:-
4 cups (440 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar
3 tablespoons (30 grams) meringue powder
1/2 teaspoon extract (vanilla, lemon, almond)
1/2 - 3/4 cup (120 - 180 ml) warm water

Method:-
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder until combined. Add the water and beat on medium to high speed until very glossy and stiff peaks form (5 to 7 minutes). If necessary, to get the right consistency, add more powdered sugar or water. To cover or 'flood' the entire surface of the cookie with icing, the proper consistency is when you lift the beater, the ribbon of icing that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface of the icing for a few seconds before disappearing.

The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

So I guess I would try on the recipe with egg whites -- One, because it taste nicer as what the article mentioned, and two, I don't have to run to store for merinque powder. LOL~

Cheers,

Tips to store sugar paste figurines

The below tips might be helpful for you to keep the figurines made of fondant/sugar paste from melting. With proper ‘care’, you can keep your cute figurines for very long time. Isn’t that cool?

• Always keep in cool and dry place – best if in air-conditioned room
• DO NOT keep in refrigerator – the sugar paste will sweat once it is out from the refrigerator due to the different temperature
• If you have already kept inside the refrigerator by accident, immediately move the figurines to air-conditioned room once out from the refrigerator – this will keep the moisture away
• Sugar paste will be completely dry after few days – minimize touching to prevent your figurines going out of shape

Cheers,

Two-tier Mini Birthday Cakes

Coincidentally my cousin's birthday is just two days away, hence I decided to give her a little surprise gift. The two-tier mini chocolate cake filled with buttercream icing and covered with rolled fondant. As topper, it's a teddy with long ears. The whole cake is fully edible, except for the candle, of course.

I created another similar cake for a friend's 3 years old daughter. Similarly, it was a two-tier mini chocolate cake with buttercream icing, then covered with rolled fondant. I had different colors and little birdie (or perhaps looks more like duckling) as topper and accompanied by baby teddy in diapers.

Glad that they loved the cake!

Cheers,

Home Rolled Fondant

I found several types of fondant and apart from MM Fondant. One of it, is home rolled fondant which seems pretty simple too. So I decided to give it a try. Well, I guess the WWW is where I got all my own-personal lessons from baking to fun with art.

These were the teddy bear figurines I managed to create :-)

Teddy

Teddy & his little friend
Cheers,

Praying Angels Cupcakes

Fondant can be kept for weeks provided is kept airtight. Since there were still some leftovers of the MM Fondant kept nicely in refrigerator, I figured that it would be great to just test on my skills to create fondant figurines. Like always, I went online for some tutorials in YouTube and managed to came out with my little own version of Praying Angels. The angels were sitting on chocolate moist cupcakes with whipped cream fillings. Pretty yummy!

Angel #1

Angel #2

Angel #3

Angel #4

Cheers,

Marshmallow (MM) Fondant

My very first fondant cake was Marshmallow Fondant. The fondant recipe was pretty simple where I got the recipe from the WWW. That's how I got it all begins.

I thought of Lychee flavors for my cake and indeed the sweet milky smell of marshmallows add on flavours to the cake when consume together. Well, I baked two cakes, and since it was nearing to Chinese New Year, I decided to decorate the first cake with firecrackers and what-supposed-to-be 'cherry blossom', all using MM fondant.


As for cake#2, I kept the design simple with just a pink ribbon around the cake.

My families just loved it -- the decorations and of course, the sweet taste of lychee filling. As for me, I am happy with the outcome!
Love,