Pastel Button & Thread Cake

This cake is pear-y, the cake is french vanilla and pear, with pear preserve buttercream filling, covered in vanilla buttercream, and covered again in marshmallow fondant. The main tutorial in this  post is how to make fondant buttons.

Mix of buttercream and fresh pear preserves, yummy!

Fondant Buttons:

1/4 Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

1 Large Icing Tip (Ex: Wilton 2A)

1 Regular Icing Tip (Ex: Wilton 2)

Toothpick or Tappered Dowel

Pastry/Fondant Mat

Shortening

Metal Spatula

Clear Vanilla Extract

Small Food Grade Brush

Pearl Shimmer Dust (Optional)

Smear shortening on pastry mat, roll fondant 1/4 thick. Cut out shapes using large tip.

Slightly indent the middle of the fondant circles with a regular sized icing tip. 

Press lightly, you don't want to puncture all the way through.

Invert the tip and puncture the middle with holes, two or four are realistic. Use toothpick to remove the little bits.

With leftover fondant from the first batch I mixed it to create a tie-dye effect.

So spring like!

Realistic, right?

Use the clear vanilla extract, as a glue, to adhere the buttons onto the cake.

Plain and dull.

Now mix pearl shimmer dust with vanilla extract and paint the buttons for a shinny finished look.

I used leftover buttercream tinted purple with gel icing to create thread stitch pattern to pull the whole theme and idea together.

Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's! I don't really like Valentine's day, since apprenticing in a florist shop ruined me on commercial overload, a church sign on my way home reminded me to celebrate God's love. I hope you can remember today as not a day of commerce, but a day of dedication to Christ's love.

As my Valentine's Day gift to you here is the Strawberry Cake with Nutella & Homemade Vanilla Buttercream covered in homemade MMF (Marshmallow Fondant) as a happy inspiration of sweetness!

Moose Track Pretzels

When you get on Pinterest there is usually one pin that everyone is pinning, currently it is Rolo Pretzel Turtles. When I saw this pin over and over I decided to mix it up slightly by using walnuts instead of pecans, which were used with the Rolos pictured below, and create Moose Track Pretzels. I am on a big salty sweet crave right now, so a mixture of chocolate/peanut butter/pretzel would satisfy such a craving.

 

Moose Track Pretzels:

Will make approx. 60 treats

 

Ingredients:

1/4 Bag Square Pretzels (Snyder's of Hanover Butter Snap Pretzels)

1 Bag Resealable Reese's Mini Cups (the smallest cups their are) 

1 Cup Honey Roasted Peanuts

 

Equipment:

Baking Sheet

Parchment Paper

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Spread pretzels onto baking sheet covered in parchment paper, trust me you'll need the parchment, and organize anyway you like. Discard any broken pretzels, well by eating them.

3. Place mini peanut butter in the center of pretzels.

4. Place treats into preheated oven for approximately 3-5 minutes. When making rolo treats do not place them on the same baking sheet since rolos take longer to melt.

5. When the peanut butter cups are slightly melted to the point of being soft, place peanuts onto of the chocolates and press inward to spread out the melted candy and cover the pretzel.

6. Allow to cool completely, then they are ready to enjoy or give away as Christmas treats.

 

 

Rolos for walnut rolo treats.

What a waste of time unwrapping each candy when you can use unwrapped peanut butter cups!

 

 

Peanut butter cups are at the top, this is where I learned not to combine rolo with peanut butter cups.

 

Yummy! Enjoy!

 

 

~~~

Barn Hop: Holiday Edition

Southern Sweets: Georgia Cornbread Cake

There is always one dessert that shows up around my great aunts house during a celebration or chance of sweet tooth: Georgia Cornbread Cake. We all call it Cornbread Cake, but if you look the recipe up for that you find a whole different recipe. It is kind of redundant when you call something Georgia when you live in Georgia. The product is crisp on the top and creamy and semi-gooey, nuts add a bit of texture to the cake. The cake is not really a cake, it is dense like a brownie or blondie. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as our family has.

Georgia Cornbread Cake:

1 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour

1 Cup White Sugar

1 Cup Packed Light Brown Sugar

1 Cup Chopped Nuts, Pecan preferably

1 Cup Oil

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

3 Large Eggs

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Grease a 9"X13" cake pan with oil. Pour about 2 tablespoons of oil into the pan and wad a paper towel and use it as a brush to coat the entire inside of the pan.

3. Sift your flour, to add lightness and remove clumps of flour, into a small bowl. Remeasure sifted flour to account for one cup of flour. Add to a mixing bowl.

4.  Add packed brown sugar to flour in the mixing bowl. Before adding the white sugar you should check for clumps, you may easily sift the sugar. Add sugar to the  flower-brown sugar mixture.

 5. Add eggs, oil, vanilla, and nuts to flour mixture.

 6. Mix everything together until completely blended. I recommend doing this with a spoon, not any electric mixers. The batter is very sticky and a spoon is easier to clean.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Set the pan in a centralized as possible in your oven.

7. Allow to bake for 20 minutes, then check for stiffness; pat the top, if it wiggles it is still undercooked: cook 5 more minutes. It should take approximately 25-27 minutes to bake. Please check often after twenty minutes; because, ovens bake at different times.

8. Remove when done and allow the cake to cool before serving.

9. When cool, cut into sections like you would a brownie: approximately 3"X3" squares.

10. The best step of all, serve warm with milk. Leftovers taste good also, warm or cool.