by Marcela M. | Aug 28, 2011 | Blog, Cakes, Parties, Recipe Box, Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
Hello dear friends! How are you today? How was your weekend? Are you ready to start this week? I hope you are and that it will be one full of wonderful surprises.
In this post I am showing the cake I made for my daughter, Zoe, for her birthday.
I changed the design in my mind many times, until I finally decided to improvise. One thing I knew: It had to have flowers and butterflies in it, because Zoe had loved the ones in the cake I made at the cake decorating course, last June. But until I started making the decorations, I didn’t really know what type of flowers I was going to make, or how many butterflies I wanted in it.
I do not own special tools for shaping neither butterflies nor flowers, and I did not have any gum paste or modelling paste on hand either. I could not buy any because neither of the cake shops I know in Nicosia were open (It is August, when most shops close), so I had to get creative. I did have fondant, food colouring, a few sugar pearls, non-pareils and sprinkles, as well as an internet connection to google ways of replacing what I didn’t have.
I started working on the flowers and butterflies the night before decorating the cake, to allow the fondant 24 hours drying time. I wanted to be able to place the decorations on the cake without fearing that they would lose shape. If I had used modelling paste, which dries faster, a few hours would have been enough. In my next post, I will show you step by step pictures of how I did it, and you will see how easy it is.
I dyed fondant using Wilton’s gel food colouring in Teal (my favourite colour) and covered the cake with it. I then rolled some more fondant and, using a small ruler, I cut a strip, like a ribbon, to cover the lower side of the cake, to give it a more finished look.
I then started playing around with the flowers and the butterflies until I was happy with the way the cake looked. I used 3 flowers and 3 small butterflies (as many as Zoe’s years), eventhough I had originally made 6 butterflies of different sizes.
Finally, I added 3 white candles and the cake was ready!
Zoe saw her cake for the first time when I brought it to the living-room to sing the happy birthday, and for her to blow the candles. She was fascinated with the fire in the candles and with the decorations. As soon as the candles were blown, she grabbed the yellow and white flower and the butterfly that was attached to it, and started eating them. Luka followed her soon after with the rest of the butterflies. Then we cut the cake and ate it!
Have a lovely week and see you in a few days!
by Marcela M. | Aug 24, 2011 | Blog, Cakes, Parties, Recipe Box, Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
Good morning dear friends! I hope you are having a lovely week.
As I promised, here is the first post with the birthday cakes I prepared and decorated for my babies’3rd birthday (can I still call them babies? until they are 21?).
This year we decided to postpone their birthday party until November. We are travelling to Argentina for the first time since theywere born, so we thought that it would be a good opportunity to share this special moment with friends and family. We did have, anyway, a small family celebration : we filled the living room floor with balloons the night before, so that they would find them when waking up, and left their presents in their small table. And of course, there were cakes! Since it was just the four of us, the cakes were small , but I still thought it was important for each of them to have their own, and for the cakes to be decorated according to their personalities.
Both cakes had the same flavours: 2 layers of lemon cake, and 1 layer of chocolate cake, filled with 1 layer of blueberry jam and 1 layer of chocolate buttercream, and covered in fondant.
Luka’s cake was covered in green fondant and decorated with racing cars made with fondant. I made the racing cars the night before decorating the rest of the cake, to let them dry properly, following this tutorial from Cake Journal. I do not have all the instruments required so I had to be creative, for eg: in order to shape the car, I used a big knife and a fondant smoother (instead of two fondant smoothers), I used a lollipop stick to curve the car to make space for the head of the driver to sit in (instead of a ball tool), and instead of sugar glue, I used sugar syrup (=almibar).
In order to make the asphalt, I rolled black fondant, I placed the cake pan in which I had baked the cake on top of it, and I cut around it its perimeter with a pizza cutter. That gave me a circle of the exact same size as the top of the cake, but I didn’t want that much grass so, using the same pan to guide me, I cut a portion of the circle, creating a crease. I then placed the crescent moon on top of the cake, draw white lines in it with royal icing and glued the cars on top. I made grass with royal icing, using a #133 piping tip and added a few grains of green sugar sprinkles.
I covered the perimeter of the cake with tyres, made with the back of a #2D piping tip, and embossed in the center with a #10 tip. I also made two racing flags (I didn’t take a picture of them, sorry!) to put in front of the cake). One was yellow and white and the other one was black and white. To make them, I used a small square cookie cutter, and cut 1 white square, 1 black square and 1 yellow square. I then divided each square in four parts and mixed them to create the flags.
I finally added the candles, and that was all, the cake was ready!
As you can see it was a very easy cake, but Luka loved it. He was so excited about the cars, the candles and the wheels around it! He loves cars, trucks, trains, anything that has wheels in it. I was happy to see him happy.
In my next post I’ll show you Zoe’s cake, which was girly, like her.
Have a nice week!
by Marcela M. | Aug 3, 2011 | Blog, Mousses and ice cream, Recipe Box, Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
Happy Wednesday everyone! How are you today? How is this week going, so far? I hope you are all enjoying the warmth of Summer or the chilly days of winter, wherever you may be.
I had originally planned to bring you the recipes for the rest of the salads and dips that we had for our simple summer lunch, last week, but I received so many requests for the Lemon Coconut Mousse one that I decided to leave the salads for the next post. I guess my readers have a sweet tooth! 😉
This Lemon Coconut mousse was adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten and it’s easy to do even though it does take some time. Basically, I make my own lemon curd (with a recipe I had completely forgotten I had and I rediscovered when going through an old recipe notebook!) and I replace the sweetened whipped cream of her original recipe, by coconut cream (I find that the mousse is already sweet enough, and I like the addition of the subtle coconut flavor). I also doubled the amount of lemon zest because I like it very lemony.
In order to make this mousse you will need:
Ingredients:
For the Lemon Curd (serves two and half cups):
1 egg
2 egg yolks
zest and juice of 2 lemons
40 grs of butter
150 grs of sugar
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
250 ml of water
For the Lemon Custard:
3 XL whole eggs
3 XL egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of lemon juice
4 teaspoons of lemon zest
a dash of salt
Additionally, to turn the custard into mousse:
3 egg whites, whipped into a firm meringue together with 2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup coconut cream.
You can find coconut cream in the Asian food aisle of your supermarket, or you can simply put a can of unopened coconut milk in the fridge overnight. When you open the can, cream will have formed on top. Scoop it and add it to the rest of the preparation, it’s that easy!
1) The first thing to do when making this mousse is to prepare the Lemon Curd. I like to do this the day before, to make my life easier, but you can also do everything on the same day.
In order to make the lemon curd, put all ingredients in a pan and cook until it thickens, stirring constantly so that the cream doesn’t burn/sticks to the bottom of the pan. It will take about 6/7 minutes. Let it cool for about 15 minutes and then let it rest on the fridge.
2) The second step is to make the Lemon Custard. I know the original recipe says that the whole recipe takes a total 15 minutes preparation but, in my experience it takes double as much time just to get the custard ready. But from then on, it’s only a few extra minutes!
In order to make the custard, put all ingredients in a heat-proof bowl and put this one on top of a pan with simmering water. Let it cook, beating constantly with a whisk. After about 10 minutes it will start to thicken. Continue beating until it reaches pudding consistency (Argentinian friends: tiene que tener la textura de un postrecito). When it does, take the bowl off the heat and let it cool for about 15 minutes. Then, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 1-2 hours. When I make this mousse for a special occasion, I generally prepare both the Lemon Curd and the Lemon Custard the day before and let them sit in the fridge overnight.
After taking the custard out of the fridge it should look like this:
3) When the custard is ready, whip the egg whites until firm. Add the two tablespoons of sugar, one at a time, and continue beating until the meringue becomes glossy and firm.
4) Fold the egg whites carefully into the lemon custard with a spatula.
5) Add the coconut cream, making sure it incorporates evenly into the preparation.
6) Add 1 cup of Lemon Curd. Incorporate.
7) Put the Lemon Mousse in the fridge and chill for several hours. Serve and enjoy!
If you like lemony desserts, I am sure you will love this mousse: it is sweet and it has a wonderful, luscious texture.
In order to decorate it, I used just a few thin slices of lemon zest.
Would you like to have some?
I wish you a wonderful rest of the week and weekend. See you in a few days with a new post!
by Marcela M. | Jul 19, 2011 | Blog, cookies, Recipe Box, Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
Good morning dear friends! How are you today? I hope you had a fantastic weekend.
I had planned to write this post before but, as you may know, there was an explosion in a munition deposit in Cyprus, that resulted in the destruction of the island’s main power plant. As a consequence of this, and considering that we are in the middle of a torrid summer, power rationing measures have been put in place (no AC, among others), and we are experiencing daily (sometimes twice daily) power cuts. So I guess the macarons that are the object of this post will be the last baking I will be doing for a while – at least until the situation regularizes a little bit- and I will have to reduce my blog posting to one post per week (on Mondays).
I had wanted to make macarons for a long time but, I must confess, I was terrified by the little cookie. I am not a professional baker and macarons are, as a friend put it, the royalty of baking, so I wondered whether I was going to be up to the task. I read countless recipes and instructions on the internet, and there always seemed to be so many steps that one needed to attend to with extreme care and attention, so many things that could go wrong, so many chances that for some unexplainable equation things would in fact go wrong, that I wondered whether making macarons was reserved for some elite of extremely apt bakers while me, a mere muggle of the craft, could never aspire to having these cute and delicious cookies coming out of my oven.
My favorite recipe was the one Linda (from fabulous blog Call me cupcake) shared on Cake Journal. After I read it, I started thinking that maybe I should try. The instructions were detailed, there were plenty of pictures and the commenters kept mentioning how they had been able to make macarons with it. I was encouraged! I bookmarked the recipe and, for several months, I would go back to it every now and then, not daring to actually try it.
It wasn’t until I read the article “Macaron Mythbusters” in Brave Tart that I actually started thinking “I can do this!” If you haven’t read it, please go now, you can continue reading my post later. I just love the humour with which it is written and, being the nerd that I am, its scientific approach to macaron making fascinates me. When I read that “We’re talking about a cookie here, not the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.” I started laughing hard at myself for having been scared of, yes, a cookie and I decided it was time to give macarons a try. The worst thing that could happen, after all, was wasting a few egg whites, almond powder and sugar…and I could always turn a failure into a different kind of success (as I did here). And if I was going to give them a try, what day could possibly be better than July 14th, Bastille day? I am a Francophile, after all 😉
Stella‘s recipe, though, calls for a very stiff and dry meringue, which I was not sure I could achieve with my Moulinex food processor’s whisk attachment (see photos in this post) . Since one of Stella’s Ten Commandments of Macaron making recommends making meringue as instructed by each recipe, I decided to try Linda‘s recipe first (which calls for a stiff meringue, but not necessarily that stiff), while following Stella’s commandments at the same time. I also tested each step according to both their tips, and contrasted textures with Linda’s pictures and with these ones as well. And I am happy to report that it worked! I still have to work on my piping technique, I have to get to know my oven better (I have now bought an oven thermometer for that purpose, yay!) and I have to work on colouring too, but at least I can happily say that my macarons looked like macarons and-most importantly-tasted like macarons!
In case you are interested in giving them a try- and I encourage you to do so, because they delicious!- here is what I did, with pictures to show you every step :
1- I bought ground almonds but, as both Linda and Stella recommend grinding them even more, this is the first thing I did. I put 200 grams of ground almonds (the whole pack) in my food processor and pulsed 5 times.
2- I sifted the processed almonds (with a colander, as I don’t own a baking sifter) and this is what I ended up with:
3- Using a kitchen scale, I measured 100 grs of ground almonds (what the recipe requires) and saved the rest for some other time in an airtight container. I put the measured almonds in the food processor again, and measured (also with the scale) the required amount of powdered sugar. I added it to the almonds and processed everything for 1 minute. This allows for them to be properly mixed together, and also to break any big lumps there may be (which is necessary for good macarons).
4- I then sifted the dry ingredients twice, and set them aside.
Now it was time to make the meringue! Stella explains that a good macaron requires a stiff meringue so that, once the dry ingredients are added to it, they will have time to be incorporated without the meringue deflating too fast and therefore losing the necessary consistency for macarons to keep their shape. If the meringue is not stiff enough, there is a risk of overmixing the macarons. It is for this same reason that she recommends adding food colouring while making the meringue and not when adding the dry ingredients: this guarantees that the colour will be fully incorporated without compromising the batter’s consistency. So this is what I did.
According to Stella’s mythbusters article, there is no need to age the egg whites for making a good macaron. Linda, however, recommends aging them for 24 hs and, since I was following the latter’s recipe, I did (in case you don’t know what aging an egg white means, I should clarify that what is required is for you to separate the egg whites, to keep them covered with a paper towel in the fridge for 24 hours, and to take them out of the fridge a few hours before using them. You can also keep them at room temperature, if your weather conditions so permit without them getting spoiled).
5- I washed my food processor and made sure that there was no grease in it by cleaning it with a little bit of lemon juice and a paper towel. I then added my aged egg whites and started beating at medium speed.
6- When the egg whites started foaming, I added the ground sugar, one tablespoon at a time.
7- Linda’s recipe asks for a glossy and stiff meringue that won’t slide from the bowl if we put it upside down. I tested the consistency with a spatula (as you can see from the picture below, it doesn’t move)
8- I added gel food colouring with a toothpick, and I continued beating for 2 more minutes, until all colour was evenly incorporated. I was looking for a soft shade of pink – I will have to add less the next time!
9- To my surprise, I ended with a stiffer meringue than I expected (yay! Go, Moulinex, go!). This is what it looked like when I put it into the mixing bowl:
10- I added the dry ingredients all at once, and started folding using a spatula. This is called macaronage, and most recipes I have read mention that it takes around 40 strokes to achieve appropriate macaron consistency. They all agree too in that a slightly under-mixed batter is better that an over-mixed one, so I made sure that I tested the consistency every 3 strokes to make sure I did not over do it. Stella recommends making sure that one scrapes the bowl from all sides several times , so I did this too (see the reasons for this here). I counted the strokes and it took me 44 (ah OCD ;))
11-I tested whether the batter had reached appropriate consistency by checking whether the mixture flowed like a ribbon when holding the spatula over the bowl (as Linda recommends, and as seen below). I also used Stella’s method of spooning some batter out and putting it back into the mix and checking whether it incorporates into it within a few seconds.
12- I filled my pastry bag with the help of a tall glass and started piping the macarons on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
Now, this is where I made the mistake of piping them too close to each other because I had no idea how much they were going to spread. So, bear in mind that they do spread a bit and that , even if they look nothing like beautiful circles at first, they will look better once they finish spreading (just a few minutes). So give them some room to get a nice round shape, so that once they are in the oven they can grow nicely and so that you don’t have to separate them with a knife once cooked (ouch!). Also, try making them about the same size because you will have to pair them afterwards!
The second sheet I piped turned out better than this one, but I am adding the picture of the first one so that you can learn from my mistakes and see what NOT to do:
13- I tapped the baking sheet against the counter (as Stella recommends) and then let them sit for 2 hours (as Linda’s recipe requires). This was easy to do because we had a power cut just then and I couldn’t put them in the oven immediately even if I wanted to 😉
When the power came back, I turned my oven to 150 degrees celsius (or so I thought) and put the first sheet inside. I said “so I thought” because it took me much longer to cook the macarons than the recipe called for. This could also have been because of the addition of food colouring but, in order to be sure the next time, I have now bought an oven thermometer and I am planning to calibrate my oven before making them again.
In order to know whether they are ready or not, try separating them from the baking sheet. If when you try to take one, the top comes off and the bottom remains attached to the sheet…well, they are not ready. Also, their interior should not be gooey.
This is what they looked like when I took them out of the oven, while they were cooling down.
14- After they cooled down completely, I assembled them. I must confess I used what I had in the fridge as a filling: home made dulce de leche and chocolate ganache. I let them rippen for 24 hours in an airtight container in the fridge before eating them (except for one, for testing purposes and for the sake of science only ;)). They do taste much better after 24 hours, so don’t eat them right away (not all of them at least!)
Now that I have made them once, I can’t wait to make them again and to experiment with new flavours and colours!
Would you like to make them?
Have a nice week and see you again next Monday!
by Marcela M. | Jul 12, 2011 | Blog, Cooking basics and tutorials, Marmalades and jams, Recipe Box, Recipes, South America, Sweets, Travel, Uncategorized
Happy Tuesday dear Friends! I hope you had a wonderful start of the week.
In this past post I talked to you about dulce de leche, and I mentioned that this milk jam is the traditional filling for cornstarch cookies or alfajores de maizena. After the post, a few friends asked me how they could make dulce de leche, because they don’t live in countries where one can simply go and buy one jar at the supermarket.
So here I am, showing you three easy ways of making your own, the Argentinian way. Why the Argentinian way? Because you can find different versions of the same product pretty much all around Latin America, but if you read the components you will notice slight differences in the ingredients. For example, while in Argentina dulce de leche is made 100% with cow’s milk, traditional mexican dulce de cajeta is made with goat’s milk; and in Uruguay it generally includes cornstarch (which makes it thicker). It is also possible to find it outside of Latin America, for example in France (where it is called confiture de lait), in Israel (ribat jalav) and, I am told, even in India.
So how can one make dulce de leche, when it is not readily available for purchase?
There are three ways I know of, but only two of which I have tried:
I- By submerging a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pan full of water, and letting it boil for about 3 hours (in a normal pan) or 45 minutes (in a pressure cooker). If you use this method, you should remember that:
a) The can has to be completely covered in water at all times, otherwise any part that remains uncovered will not mutate into dulce de leche (as in the picture below)
b) Once the 3 hours have passed, make sure that the can is COMPLETELY cooled before opening it. If you open it when it’s still hot, the content will burst and there is a serious risk that you may burn yourself. So wait. Put in the fridge for faster cooling if necessary. But do not open it immediately!
This is what will be waiting for you when you open the can:
II- If the possibility of burning yourself scares you a lot, you can try Chef David Lebovitz’s method, which consists of baking sweetened condensed milk au bain marie, covered in aluminum foil. I haven’t tried it, but it does look like a safer option, and it takes less time than the original can version.
III- Make dulce de leche from scratch. It is not difficult to do so, and, though it is a bit time consuming because you need to watch it carefully, it is worth it. I must admit that, when I lived in Argentina, I didn’t do it very often, because there are so many good brands available that I didn’t see the point. But one day, when I was 21 years old, my father (who loved to cook) suggested that we tried, so we asked around for a recipe and we made our first batch of dulce de leche. This is the recipe I will share with you today.
To make 1 kilo of dulce de leche, you will need
– 5 litres of milk
– 1 kilo of sugar
– 1 vanilla pod (if you don’t have vanilla pods, you can use 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract)
– 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda
– 1 big pan
– 1 wooden spoon
The preparation is very simple.
1- Put the milk in the pan. Make sure the size of the pan is twice as big as the amount of milk, because the preparation will rise once you add the bicarbonate of soda and, if it is too small, you run the risk of it overflowing the pan and making a big mess. In order to prevent this, I am told that one should put in the pan a few small glass balls (like the ones children play with), because this will prevent the preparation from rising too much.
2- Add sugar, all at once.
3- Stir the preparation and bring to the boil. Let it boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly
4- Bring heat to the minimum, and add the vanilla pod and the bicarbonate of soda (I added 1 teaspoon because I was making half the preparation only)
5- Let the preparation boil at minimum heat, stirring every 10-15 minutes. It should look as in the picture below:
6- After about 1 hour, the milk will start to brown, and will look like this:
7-After another hour, it will become even darker, like this:
8- After around 1/2 hour, it will be thicker and darker and it will have considerably reduced. When it reaches this point, start stirring constantly for about 15 minutes.
This is the consistency it had at that point. It doesn’t look like it’s ready but, trust me, it almost is.
9- After 15 minutes, turn off the heat and continue stirring for another 5-10 minutes. What I like to do then is to transfer it to another pan (it cools faster). This is how it looked right after I transferred it:
As you can see, it still looks quite liquid, like a caramel sauce.
But all it needs is to cool down completely to reach the appropriate consistency.
10-Once it has cooled down, transfer it to a glass container and keep it in the fridge. This is how it will look after 3 hours in it:
Ready to eat and to add to preparations such as cookies, cakes, brownies, ice-creams, puddings, and so many more!
I hope that you will like it if you decide to make it.
Have a wonderful week!
If you want to know how to make dulce de leche repostero (baking dulce de leche), check this post
by Marcela M. | Jul 8, 2011 | Blog, Cooking basics and tutorials, cupcakes, Recipe Box, Sweets, Uncategorized
Good morning everyone! I hope you are having a lovely day.
Today’s post was inspired by the blogosphere. For the past several months, I have noticed a profusion of super cute owl parties (such as this one, this one and this one) and owl related products (such as these and these printables, these cake-pops and these t-shirts). All these were such a joy to look at that I felt compelled to create something owly too. Who wouldn’t want owls after looking at all those beauties, right?
So yesterday, I did. I had three cupcakes in the freezer, unfrosted, and a few bits and pieces of fondant left from other projects, so I decided to create a few Owl fondant cupcake toppers. I looked at some owl drawings and tried to de-construct their different shapes. Then I took the fondant I had and this is what I came up with.
I- The Yellow and Orange owl, inspired by this adorable birthday t-shirt by Modern Frills.
In order to make it, you will need the following materials:
1- Fondant in three different colors. I tried to stick to the original color palette as much as possible, so I used yellow, brown and red. I also used white fondant for covering the cupcake, and attached to it the topper itself.
2- 1 round cookie/fondant cutter (I used one from a set I got from Ikea, but any would do. In the past I have even used caps from coca-cola bottles!)
3- 1 small star-shaped cookie/fondant cutter
4- Round Piping tips number 10 and 12
5- Royal icing (I used one in a tube because there was no point in making a whole batch from scratch for just 1 cupcake topper)
Procedure:
1- For making the owl’s body, roll yellow fondant and cut one circle. Separate the circle from the rest of the fondant and then, very softly, roll the rolling pin on top of it just a couple of times, so that the circle becomes slightly wider at the sides.
2- For making the Owl’s wings, roll red fondant and cut two circles, using the back of the number 10 tip. Roll the rolling pin on top of them so that the circles become ovals. You could also use a leaf-shaped cutter for doing this.
3- For making the eyes, roll red fondant and cut two circles using the back of the number 10 tip (as for making the wings). Roll the brown fondant, and cut two circles using piping tip number 12 (the tip itself, not the back). Place a brown circle on top of each red circle.
4- For making the ears, roll yellow fondant and cut two triangles using the points of the star-shaped cutter. Trim of necessary.
5- For making the nose, roll brown fondant and cut 1 triangle with the star-shaped cutter (as for making the ears). Roll the rolling pin on top to make the triangle longer and trim the sides to achieve the desired shape.
All the parts should look like this before assembly:
In order to assemble the owl, simply place the yellow circle that forms the body on top of the white fondant circle . Glue it with water or sugar syrup (Argentinians friends: almibar). Attach the eyes, nose, ears and wings. Finally, place little dots of royal icing on the wings.
Here’s how it looked right after I finished it, before placing it on top of the cupcake:
II- The second owl was loosely based on this cute gift package designed by Delicious Tea. I started with every intention of doing that design, but then thought it would be funny to make a slightly angry owl, so I re-shaped its eyebrows and eyes 😉
In order to make this owl you will need the following materials:
1- Fondant in 4 different colours. I used red, yellow, brown and black.
2- 1 small square fondant/cookie cutter (mine comes from the same Ikea set I mentioned before)
3- 1 big piping tip. (It could be a D2 or M1. I used a petal shaped one because I had it handy, but since what you need is its back, any big one would do)
4- 1 medium size leaf-shaped cutter
5- 1 small heart-shaped cutter
6- 1 small star-shaped cutter
7- 1 pipint tip number 12
8- 1 scalloped square cutter (mine came with a Wilton set)
Procedure:
1- For making the body, roll red fondant and cut a square. Using the small scalloped square cutter, press softly with one side only to shape feathers. You can also draw the feathers with a food decorating coloring pen.
2- For making the eyes, a- roll yellow fondant and cut 2 circles using the back of the big piping tip, b- roll white fondant and cut 2 circles using the back of the number 12 tip, c- roll black fondant and cut 2 circles using the number 12 tip itself. Place one black circle on top of each white circle and then attach the latter to each yellow circle.
3- For making the eyebrows, roll brown fondant and cut a circle with the back of the number 12 tip. Cut the circle in half and, using the the same cutter trim the centre of each half to shape the eyebrows.
4- For making the wings, a- roll brown fondant and cut 2 leaves. Take 1 of them and proceed as with the eyebrows. This is the wing that will be attached to the left side. Take the remaining wing and trim the edges until it looks as in the picture. b- Roll the red fondant and cut a heart. Separate the heart from the remaining red fondant and, using the same cutter, cut again, removing the lower part. c- Roll yellow fondant and cut a heart out of it. Place the piece of red heart on top of the brown wing, then attach to its lower part the yellow heart (it will look as if there was a red heart below the yellow one)
5- For making the nose, cut a triangle using a point of the star-shaped cutter.
This is how all parts should look like before assembly:
To assemble this owl, simply place the eyes on the upper part of the body (about half the eyes should be inside the body, and half should be out). Attach the eyebrows and shape to give the owl’s look the desired expression. Attach wings and nose. It’s like working on a collage, very simple!
This is how it will look like, once finished:
III- The third owl, was inspired by this cute invitation by the Sugar Bee Bungalow.
In order to make this owl you will need:
1- Fondant in 5 different colours. I used blue, orange, brown, black and white.
2- 1 round-shaped cutter
3- 1 scalloped square cutter
4- 1 Number 12 piping tip
5- 1 star-shaped cutter
Procedure:
1- For making the body, roll brown fondant and cut a circle (with the medium size cutter). Detach the circle from the remaining fondant and roll the rolling pin on top of it, so that it achieves an oval shape (If you have an oval -shaped cutter, just use that one).
2- For making the belly and the wings, roll blue fondant and cut three circles using the back of the number 12 tip. As with the body, roll the rolling pin on top of them, so that they become ovals.
3- For making the eyes: a- roll white fondant and cut 2 circles using the back of the number 12 tip, b- roll black fondant and cut 2 circles using the number 12 tip itself, and c- Place a black circle on top of each white circle.
4- For making the ears, roll the brown fondant and cut 2 triangles using the points of the star-shaped cutter.
5- For making the nose, roll orange fondant and cut 1 triangle. Detach the triangle from the remaining fondant and roll the rolling pin on top of it,so as to make it longer. Trim if necessary.
6- For making the feet, roll orange fondant and cut 1 square using the scalloped square-shaped cutter. Cut the square in two using the same cutter, then divide one of those parts in half. Each half is 1 foot.
This is how all parts should look before assembly:
For assembling this owl: a attach the body to the white circle that will cover the cupcake, b- attach the belly to the body, c- attach the eyes to the body (they should be half on top of the blue belly, half over it, more or less), d- attach the wings, e- attach the ears, f- attach the feet. And that’s all!
Here is how this owl looked just after I finished making it. As you can see it is still shiny from the water I used for attaching the different parts. After a few hours the water dries out, don’t worry.
And here is another look at all three owls before putting them on top of the cupcakes.
For placing them on the cupcakes, I put apricot jam on the said cupcakes, lifted the toppers with a spatula, placed them each on top of a cupcake, and pressed very, very lightly on the sides so that they would attach properly to them.
As you can see, they are very easy to make!
I hope that you liked this tutorial! If you have any doubts about any of the explanations, let me know and I’ll try to guide you through the process the best I can. And if you make them, please share your pictures, I would love to see them!
Have a wonderful weekend, full of love and laughter!
