Candy Crazy

It was a serious candy weekend.

I was trying different things to see what sticks and see what needs to be changed. This also allowed me to get more practice, and to get some opinions from people (gotta love family) on what to put/keep in arsenal. But more so than anything, I really love making candy and this was jut a time to get to do it without worrying about orders or failure. Cause, really, if I over crystallized the fudge...only I would know!

I have always loved rice krispie treats. Always. Yet, for some reason, everytime I made them, they were too hard. Well, I finally found my perfect ratio of marshmallow to RKT. After that, I wanted more flavors! So I tried out a few in this candy making whirlwind. S'more, Cowboy, and Confetti.

The S'more RKT actually started the previous day as I made a Hershy's ganache and homemade marshmallows. After they both set I began layering. I first started with the bottom layer of RKT, then layered with ganache, Hershy's chocolate bars, homemade marshmallows which I melted, and graham crakers. I let that set and then layered more RKT.

The unveiling was awesome! I love it when things work. I was scared, though.

I finished them off with a chocolate dunk and crushed graham crackers. They were soooo good. I will definitely be making them again.

The Cowboy RKT's were also soo good and started the day before as well. This where an oops turned into a new finding for me. I was in process of making chocolate marshmallows. I added my cocoa paste but it seems I added a bit too much liquid at the end because when I poured the mixture into my pan it, well, poured.

After curing for a day, though, I had a fluff like concoction that tasted like hot cocoa. Seriously yummy. For these I also made a honey caramel. I layered these like I did the S'more RKT's but with chocolate fluff, pretzels, and caramel. They were dipped in chocolate and covered with crushed pretzels. Mmmm, mmmm, good. The pretzels made this, the salt, chocolate and caramel all went so well. I will be adding more pretzels for next time, though.


Confetti were last and were by far the easiest. I wanted a birthday cake kind of feel and that's exactly what I got. I mixed in a TON of confetti sprinkles with the RKT and then, once set I topped with chocolate marshmallow fluff (read:icing) and more sprinkles. They were finished with a dip in chocolate, because, well, more chocolate is always a good thing!

This weekend also saw old fashioned fudge, which I am now addicted to. Seriously, I have never liked fudge but I couldn't stop eating this! I used the caramel and marshmallows to make some caramallows, they were fun and I was so excited that my method worked! The honey certainly broadened the sweetness and flavor in the caramel and the handmade marshmallows do not have the overly sweet taste that store boughts do so the flavor was very mellow and exciting.

Buttercrunch was also on the menu, topped with chocolate it is delicious. I decided not to add nuts incase anyone had a nut allergy but it is also divine with salted pecans or almonds.

I am very happy to say that most everything I made is gone now. I sent items to family, I sent most away with kids and hubby cause well, I want it on someone else's hips! I still have caramel and chocolate marshmallows calling me to make it into a candy bar...but that's for another day!

2 cakes this weekend!

Yep, it was a busy weekend, especially considering we had company, but it was very worth it. This truly is my therapy and passion.

Cake 1 is a birthday cake with a pirate theme. Why yes, an octopus can be a pirate and yes, he does have to protect his booty. He's molded out of gumpaste with edible marker details. His pirate flag is gumpaste as are the anchor and gold chest.

The cake itself was chocolate butter cake with fudge frosting and caramel between each layer. The caramel soaked into each layer and really made for an extra fudge-y experience.

Cake 2 is a Romantic Toile cake for 2 lovers. I downloaded a toile image and then hand painted it on the cake. Yes, it was difficult. Yes, my hand kept falling asleep. Yes, I will definitely do it again. I love to paint, and to paint something you can eat? Well, that's even better!

The cake was inspired by a banana split and fluffy layers of banana cake sandwich a layer of caramelized pineapple, buttercream, and caramel and a layer of handmade strawberry sauce, buttercream and fudge. This cake is delicious! The banana cake is a new favorite for sure. I roast the bananas before smashing them and it makes them even more flavorful.

I used my handmade fondant to cover both of these cakes. I have to say I like it but I do think I will toy with the recipe and perhaps think about adding gums so I get more elasticity. But I will definitely be making fondant again. It was quite an adventurous cake weekend for sure!

I made my own fondant!

No, really, I did. With my own little hands. Well, more my own little Kitchen Aid but who needs specifics!

Fondant can get pretty expensive. And doing cake can sometimes be a gift with out much reward. And when I say reward I mean $. When you do cakes for family or friends you don't charge nearly enough and often nothing at all. You just want to make them happy. So I though I would try my hand at fondant to help make the gift a bit more rewarding.

Buying fondant usually runs about $13 for a 2 pound bucket. Making your own costs about $6. Marshmallows, water, vanilla and powdered sugar. You melt the marshmallows with the water and make sure they are combined and then pour over the powdered sugar and mix with a dough hook until it's the right consistency. Sounds easy, right? Oh, so wrong. It's not that it wasn't easy but this mass was a sticky sucker. And if, ahem when, you touched it, you were covered. So, more sugar was added.

I finally got it to a good consistency and triple wrapped it and let it sit for about 2 days. I thought I would try it out on this weeks cakes, just to enrobe the cakes, not for modeling.

As I rolled it out I found the fondant rather sticky and had to use quite a bit of powdered sugar to keep it sticking. I also went ahead and kept it thinker than I usually would because it also seemed kind of dry. It is an elementary recipe so I think I have some toying to do but I will definitely use it again. I am all for saving $ and increasing smiles!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

A lovely mother deserves a great cake, right? At least that's how I think about it. The thing is, when you are a baker, you usually end up making the cake...even for yourself!

So, for mothers and mothers to be...a cake for you!

Inspired by chocolate and banana cream pie I went to work. Chocolate cake is layered with fudge sauce, bananas, vanilla pastry cream and vanilla wafers. In making the pastry cream, I ran out of granulated sugar. What to do?! I decided to sub brown sugar, not knowing what would happen! Well, It was to die for. Seriously.

The pastry cream was much softer and pudding like and it had a great butterscotch quality without being overly sweet. The bananas, since they were so ripe, flavored the pastry cream in a great 'I am banana, hear me roar' kind of way. And the fudge sauce really helped to bring a calming chocolate flavor to the cake. It came together very easily, which is always nice.