Today marks the start of something big! The Supervip Cake & Cookie Closet group launched July 1st on Facebook. It contains new buttercream and fondant cakes, cupcakes and fondant-covered sugar cookie designs. More cake, cupcakes or cookies will be added on a weekly basis. Pretty soon this group will contain more cake and cookie designs than the book!
Membership in this exclusive group consists of people who bought their copy of The Cake & Cookie Closet: All Dolled Up in Sugar directly from me or a member of my sales team. It’s my “thank you” to you for coming on this journey with me and will continue to be updated as often as I create new wardrobe-inspired cakes, cupcakes, sugar cookies and chocolates. If you have not received an e-mail invitation from me, please send an e-mail to cakecookiecloset@aol.com.
Happy Fourth of July
I hope that you had a wonderful Fourth of July holiday celebration. I’m so grateful for the freedom we have to live as we please and to our incredible military and their families for the sacrifices they make to keep us safe.
The Cake Side…
My wonderful friend Joanne Fredette’s 60th Birthday Cake.
Stacked Cakes - Use Wilton’s 12” long plastic dowels when you need to stack cakes like the one above. I believe they are more effective than the wooden dowel rods. I used three plastic dowels (cut to fit) in the 10” base cake and then a plastic dowel all the way down through the top cake into the bottom cake. This cake traveled 50 miles in hot weather and nothing moved. The white chocolate daisy covered the hole on top.
Pound Cakes - Pound cakes are incredible for making edible masterpieces. They are easy to sculpt and there are so many different flavor combinations for you to try. And, one sheet cake can make a lot of miniature purses or other treats.
Cake Fillings - Need to know more about what cake fillings to use now that it’s warm outside? Check out my article here.
Featured Cake Recipes
Here are a couple delicious recipes my wonderful friend Bonnie Smith shared with me. I’m not sure where she got them but they’re good. Enjoy.
Brown Sugar Pound Cake with Rum Sauce
(Author Unknown)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups Domino Dark Brown Sugar, firmly packed
6 large eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 325° F. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Cream butter and sugars until very light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine dry ingredients, then add to batter, alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add vanilla. Fill prepared ban and bake for 1 hour and 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake completely, then remove from pan. To serve, drizzle with rum sauce.
Caramel Rum Sauce
(Author Unknown)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Domino Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Domino Granulated Sugar
2 T light corn syrup
3 T dark rum
To prepare Caramel Rum Sauce, combine cream, butter, sugars, corn syrup and rum in heavy saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, whisking occasionally. Cover and continue to boil for 1 minute to wash sugar crystals from the side of the pan. Uncover and continue to boil for 3-4 minutes without stirring. Cool slightly. Drizzle over cake.
Coconut Pound Cake
(Author Unknown)
1 cup butter
1 (14 oz.) pkg. coconut
3 cups sugar
2/3 cup Crisco shortening
3 cups plain flour
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp coconut flavoring
Cream butter, shortening and sugar until fluffy; add eggs. Beat well. Add flour, baking powder and milk alternately to egg mixture. Beat well; add flavoring and beat. Fold in ½ of package of coconut. Place in tube pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Cool in pan.
The Cookie Side…
Tool Spotlight - Crimpers
Crimpers are fabulous little tools that work like tweezers. There are a lot of different shapes you can try. I just discovered the straight crimpers and LOVE them. Here are pictures of what I’ve created with them. You squeeze them together and imprint designs onto fondant, gum paste and candy clay. They work great on fondant-covered sugar cookies as well. On cakes, you can crimp the top and bottom borders or create intricate custom designs all over your cakes. On cookies, you can use them to create texture where you want. Think monogram cookie borders. The rubber bands on the crimper can be moved up or down to regulate the width of the crimped design.
Difference between crimper and impression mat. Both beautiful but very different results. Crimp tool on fondant-covered cookie gives you texture and very quick results. These are new designs featured in the Supervip Cake & Cookie Closet group on Facebook.
Featured Cookie Recipes
Maple Sugar Cookies
(Author Unknown)
1 cup Crisco shortening
4 cups flour
3/4 cup Vermont Maple Syrup
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, well beaten
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp milk
Cream together butter, sugar and syrup. Add eggs, milk and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda and salt (sifted together). Mix all thoroughly.
Method 1) Chill dough well then roll out thin on floured board and cut with cookie cutter.
Method 2) Drop by teaspoonful onto greased pan, flatten with glass dusted with sugar.
Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Sugar Cookies – The Big Recipe
(H.O. Foose Tinsmithing)
6 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Combine dry ingredients and then add to the butter mixture, mixing well. Roll 1/4” think and cut shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on rack. Makes about 8 dozen 3” cookies, soft and not crispy. These will freeze well so you can make them ahead of time and then thaw before decorating for your special event.
Bonus Recipe…
This is one quick and easy recipe I can never make enough of for my family. Enjoy.
Peach Enchiladas
(Author Unknown)
2 (8 oz.) packages refrigerated crescent-roll dough
4 firm peaches, peeled, pitted, quartered
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (12 ounce) can citrus-flavored soda, such as Mountain Dew
Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 13x9x2 inch pan with nonstick spray. Set aside. Unroll crescent rolls, separate into triangles. Place 1 peach quarter on wide end of triangle. Roll up from large end to small end to encase peach slice. Place in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough and peaches. In a small bowl, combine sugar, melted butter and cinnamon. Pour mixture over rolls. Pour soda over top. Bake for 45 minutes.
Companies to Check Out…
Listed below are new favorites.
http://stores.ebay.com/Megans-Silicone-Molds - Megan offers free shipping on all silicone molds to U.S. addresses. She also has crimpers.
http://www.cookiecuttercraftingkit.com/ – I received The Cookie Crafting Kit as a gift from Sallee McCarthy at Fran’s Cake & Candy. Since then, I’ve been on a cookie cutter making frenzy. I love creating my own designs!!!! Check out this kit if you’re having a hard time finding cookie cutters for projects. This kit contains everything but the snippers or heavy duty scissors to cut the tin. Click on their store link to see what cookie cutters they have in stock.
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You can order an autographed copy of my wonderful new book, The Cake & Cookie Closet: All Dolled Up in Sugar, at http://www.thecakeandcookiecloset.com/. Please share this newsletter with people you know who love to bake.
Would like to know more about the crimpers: hardware store? office supply store???
ReplyDeleteBright idea. I was so impressed with that. I love the color combination and the design. I am pretty sure that is so delicious. Great !
ReplyDeleteIt all looks tasty and nice. I think all of these are unique and you used your wonderful creativity to come up with these great confectioneries.
ReplyDeleteTruly sweets do bring happiness to both kids and adults alike! :) I remember when we use to make treats for the halloween.
ReplyDelete