Candylicious Macarons

I love it when I have left over macarons and get to have a play around. I had half a dozen of these pretty purple mac's sitting around plus a bit of the teal ganache and we always have sprinkles and candy sitting around so I whipped up these cute Candylicious macarons.

They might be my new favourite macaron, well to look at anyway. They look so pretty and party ready and of course they are a little bit inspired by Katherine Sabbath's beautiful cakes.

Mostly you just melt the ganache and spread it onto the top and gently push it over the edge so it dribbles down then press a few pastel pearls and sixlets onto the top. I added some mini shards of pastel chocolate as well.

You can buy your macarons or here is my recipe CLICK HERE

My macarons are coloured with Wilton Violet and the ganache is tinted using Americolor teal. The larger rounds are sixlets in shimmer white, shimmer pale pink and bright pink and I chopped some in half to give different heights. The mini pastel pearls are Queen Fine Food soft pearls in Australia you can pick them up at the supermarket. I have popped in a link to a similar US version below :)



Happy Baking

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the Children's cookbook Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! Published in the USA in 2011 the book is still available at Amazon and many online bookstores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original ideas, photography and recipes Linda Vandermeer please do not reuse without permission.

Break the internet New Year Cupcakes with edible gold leaf

Ok these cupcakes are not really going to break the internet, I know it.

It's a delicious cupcake recipe, to be truthful it's actually kinda perfect all by itself. But sometimes I like a little bit of sparkle, some redirection to make everyone take notice and look.

So I took my cupcake and baked it in a shiny, shiny case. These ones are from Robert Gordon Australia and come in gold and silver, I bought them at Baking Pleasures and you bake the cupcake directly in them on a baking tray.

They are pretty awesome, you know, only the best for my cupcake.

Then I added some white chocolate shards with edible gold/ silver leaf, white sprinkles, soft sugar pearls# (soft sugar pearls in gold and silver from Queen Australia) and a few white pearl sixlets# (candy coated chocolate).

Oh and of course I did a little posing and photo shopping ;)

They turned out pretty sweet huh! They would be perfect for New Year celebration or anywhere you would like to add a bit of eye candy with not too much effort.

#soft sugar pearls and sixlets are edible and most importantly are not hard they are as the title suggests soft so you will not break your teeth biting into this cupcake.

Instructions

Cupcakes (recipe below)
Frosting (recipe below)
white sprinkles
white chocolate shards (instructions below)
white, gold and/or silver soft sugar pearls
white sixlets

Using a knife or offset spatula top cupcakes with frosting, place white sprinkles in a dish and dip top of each cupcake into the white sprinkles.

Gently push 2 white chocolate shards into the cupcakes and make sure they stand up.

Add gold and white soft sugar pearls randomly on top of cupcakes and then add a few white pearl sixlets.

White chocolate shards with gold (or silver leaf)

Melt around 200g white chocolate and spread on baking paper around 2mm (1/8") thick allow to cool and then slice into randomly shaped triangles.

It was quite hot here so I popped mine in the fridge for a tad too long which resulted in the shards breaking a little when I cut them. If that starts happening just leave them out at room temperature a little bit and it will soften a little and not be so brittle.

Turn the triangles over so you are working on the flat edge (the side that set on the paper will be flat).

Using a clean brush dab a teeny amount of water on the chocolate triangle, you just want it to be slightly damp so wipe the brush on a paper towel to make sure it is barely wet.

Press the silver leaf transfer with the silver leaf facing down towards the chocolate triangle and rub your finger (or a cake tool) randomly on bits of the triangle. Pull the transfer off and allow the gold leaf to dry/set.

Chocolate cupcake recipe makes 18

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarb soda  (baking soda)
1/4 baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup cool water
115 g unsalted butter (4 oz butter) room temperature cut into small squares
1 1/4 cup caster sugar (superfine) use regular white sugar if caster sugar not available
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 160 C fan forced (325 F) and place 18 cupcake cases onto a baking tray.

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Mix the hot water and cocoa to make a paste then add the cool water mix until well combined, set aside.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer mix together butter and sugar at high speed until well creamed (about 2-3 mins).

Reduce speed to low and mix in eggs then vanilla mixing until well combined.

Add 1/3 of the flour, mix until just combined then add 1/2 the cocoa mixture, mix again until combined and scrape down sides. Add another 1/3rd of the flour, mix, add the remainder of the cocoa mix and scrape down sides then add the final flour and mix until completely combined.

Scoop mixture into cupcake cases until 2/3 full and bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cupcake comes out clean.

Simple Vanilla Frosting

115g (4 oz) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups icing sugar mixtur (confectioners sugar) sifted
2 Tbsp milk (US 2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a large stand mixer and mix at high speed for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

Shopping Notes

Robert Gordon cupcake cases - Baking Pleasures CLICK HERE
Gold and silver edible leaf - Baking Pleasures CLICK HERE
Queen sugar pearls (available IGA or Woolworths Australia) CLICK HERE

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! . Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores. 

This post is not sponsored by any of the companies mentioned and I purchased all the products myself however I am related to the owner of Simply Sweet Home

Amazon affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.

Baking pretty cupcakes -in greengate bowls

Mini Greengate bowls available Simply Sweet Home CLICK HERE

Ooops due to some technical difficulties (or maybe more accurately a spectacular baking fail) I do not have my planned recipe post this week.

Instead I'm going to share these pictures I took quite a while back using up leftover frosting, candy, sugar flowers and sprinkles to decorate some cupcakes I baked in mini bowls.

They turned out soooo pretty.

The kids had these for afternoon tea and it made the everyday into a bit of a fancy occasion.

Plus I love using those little mini bowls to bake stuff in, I use them when ever I can (um maybe to justify to Mr Sweet how many of them I have sitting around the house).

If you would like to decorate your cupcakes in a similar way, fill mini bowls (or teacups or cupcake cases) around 3/4 full then when baked and cooled top with frosting or icing (I used raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream piped using a star tip to make lots of small stars).

Add a macaron (Click here for my macaron recipe) some sugar flowers (Click here for my tutorial on how to make your own sugar flowers) and then some sprinkles, sixlets, marshmallows and sprinkles.

Shopping notes
Greengate bowls available at Simply Sweet Home
My sixlets and marshmallows were from Big Lolly
Macaron recipe CLICK HERE
Sugar Flowers CLICK HERE
Soft sugar pearls from Queen Australia

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

This is not a sponsored post however I am related to the owner of Simply Sweet Homes.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission. 

Best gender reveal baby shower cookie idea

Oh yes this has to pretty much be the easiest gender reveal cookie idea for a baby shower ever.

Secret gender reveal cookies with a sugar sprinkle baked in the back. You can decorate your cookies any way you like and the gender reveal is hidden on the other side.

So just in case you don't know. Gender reveal is when the mum to be has not yet announced whether a boy or girl is on the way. There is usually something at the party which reveals to the guests using the old pink or blue standby. 

He or She,

What will baby be?

Turn over the cookie,

and you will see.

These cookies do all the work for you, just pop a sprinkle into the back of each cookie before baking and let each guest find out in their own sweet way.

I've had this idea for a while and when my friend had a pastel rainbow themed baby sprinkle (second baby shower) it was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

I didn't end up making a big deal of it, I just popped those sprinkles in and in fact I'm not even sure if anyone noticed. They all knew a baby girl was on the cards, they didn't need to be told via cookie message. It was like my sweet little secret.

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If you were going to make a big deal of it all, maybe having a little sign next to the cookies with the above poem would let everyone know to check the cookie before they all get eaten.

So like many of the best ideas it is as easy as it sounds. Just buy a container of sprinkle shapes or quins in the colour you would like to use and press them onto the back of the cookie before baking.

Then you just bake as you normally would.

I have made up a super quick video of me making them here, it's less than 2 minutes:



I found pink heart sprinkles very easy to find at the supermarket, cake stores, online and pretty much everywhere. The blue star sprinkles were not everywhere but are easy to pick up on ebay and you will find them online at specialty cake decorating stores.

Now, I did make my own star sprinkles for the photo as I did not have any handy and plus I was just taking some photo's and I was being cheap. Make sure you do not use home made fondant sprinkles to bake in your cookies as they will melt during baking. I also recommend not using any super hard type decoration, sugar quins or sprinkles will work out best.

These cookies were part of a lovely pastel rainbow baby sprinkle CLICK HERE if you would like to see more pictures of the baby shower.

Here is my sugar cookie recipe

460 grams plain flour (16 1/4 oz all purpose flour)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
230 grams unsalted butter (8 1/8oz)room temperature
220 grams caster sugar (7 3/4 oz superfine sugar)#
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
#use regular white sugar if you do not have caster/ superfine sugar

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to medium low, add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and mix in the sifted flour mixture until combined. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in fridge for 30 minutes or so.

Line a few baking trays with parchment/ baking paper.

Dust workbench with plain flour and using a large rolling pin roll out the dough until around 1/2 cm (1/4") in thickness. If the dough is to hard you may need to work/knead it a bit until you can roll it out.

Cut out cookies shapes and place the cookies on the prepared trays. (Knead and reroll dough as necessary, if it becomes to soft you can pop it back in the fridge.)

Pop the cut cookie dough trays into the fridge to chill again for around 30 minutes until firm (or in the freezer for 10 minutes).

Preheat oven to 160 C (320 F) and cook the cookies until they just start to turn golden, around 15 minutes (less or more depending on cookie size).

Cool on trays for 5 minutes and then carefully lift onto a wire rack to cool completely prior to decorating.

- Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for 1 week.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer unless otherwise stated do not reuse without permission. 

Life is beautiful pastel rainbow meringues

Life is beautiful, how amazing is our world, how lucky are we that we have all the colors of the rainbow.

We should grab hold of life embrace it and not let the little everyday things let us forget that.

This week I had a little whinge on my facebook page about some really insignificant things that happened making my day 'bad'. Really my day was still awesome despite those couple of little things that happened, I just needed to focus on the simple everyday lovely things.

So I made up these little pastel rainbow cakes with sprinkles and frosting swirls.

and guess what - they are gluten free....ummm maybe not the sprinkles I used, I'm not positively sure, but y'know you can get gluten free ones.

Pretty much they are a pavlova (meringue) with whipped white chocolate ganache.

Sweetness alert - they are really sweet. Like really, really, really sweet!

Of course you could make them with regular cake which would reduce the sweetness, or maybe serve with a tart berry sauce or some passion fruit, which would be my preference.

Life is Beautiful rainbow soft meringue cakes (makes 6 - plus extra meringue for snacking)


Pavlova (soft meringue)
Make the pavlova the night before - I find that sitting it in an airtight container overnight makes pressing out the circles easier.

6 extra large egg whites
1 1/2 cups caster sugar (US use a gently heaped  1 1/2 cups super fine sugar)
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
Yellow, Pink and Blue food color

Preheat oven to 140 C ( 285 F)

Line 2 trays with parchment paper and grease and sprinkle with cornflour

In a large bowl of a stand mixer on medium high speed beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Mix in the sugar about 1/8th of a cup at a time beating well until all the sugar has dissolved before adding the next batch of sugar. This will take at least 15 minutes in total. Once all the sugar is incorporated beat in the vinegar.

Divide the mixture into 3 equal portions. Add a couple of drops of yellow food color to one, pink to the second and blue to the final batch. Mix each batch until the color is incorporated well.

Spoon the  yellow mixture onto one of the prepared trays and shape the pavlova into a rectangle.around 16cm X 21cm (6.5" X 8.5"). You should be able to get 2 rectangles per tray.

Place the pavlovas into the oven and bake for around 25 to 30 minutes or until the shell is firm to touch and dry, the pavlova should not be browning.

Allow pavlovas to cool to room temperature pick up still on paper and store in an airtight container at least overnight. Can be stored for 3 days.

White Chocolate Ganache

300 grams (10.5 oz) white chocolate
100 grams (3.5oz) heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt

Cut the white chocolate up into small pieces. Pop in a microwave safe dish, add salt, pour the cream over the top and microwave at high for 1 minute. Remove from microwave, allow to sit a couple of minutes and then use a fork or whisk to mix together until no lumps remain. If you can not get all the lumps to melt, return to the microwave for short bursts. Allow the mixture to set to room temperature and then whip in the bowl of an electric mixer at high until smooth and light. Divide mixture into 3, color one section purple, one section green and leave the other plain (or you can add a little white).Use immediately.

Assembly

6cm (around 2 1/4") round cutter
3 x piping bags
pastel sprinkles
piping tip (I used Wilton 2D)
pink, yellow and blue pavlova
white, green and purple white chocolate ganache

Place each of the pavlova rectangles on a flat work surface, top with another piece of parchment paper and then carefully place a cutting board on top and flip the whole thing over. Remove the parchment paper that the pavlova was baked on.. Rub a little cornflour onto the cutter and press down gently while twisting the cutter from side to side. If you just press down you will flatten the meringue. You should get six rounds from each rectangle, you can save the off cut pavlova to snack on.

Pop the green ganache into a piping bag with the tip and starting in the middle working outwards in a tight circle and applying light pressure to the piping bag,  pipe a rosette onto each of the yellow pavlova rounds. Finish piping the rosette by letting go of the pressure to the piping bag and pulling the tip away. Top with a blue pavlova round and gently press into place trying to ensure the meringue is as evenly placed as possible.

Pop the purple ganache into a new piping bag and once again starting in the middle and working outwards in tight circles pipe a rosette onto the top of each blue pavlova. Carefully top with the pink pavlova circle.

Finally place the plain white chocolate ganache into the last piping bag and starting in the middle of the meringue pipe a rosette by piping a tight circle working outwards. Add some rainbow sprinkles to the top of each tower.

Can be made up to a day ahead and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Remove from fridge around 15 minutes before serving.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores:

Link to Amazon:

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! 

Or at Fishpond (free shipping Australia)

 

 Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

I love you more than Christmas kids lunch treats

Sometimes you need to throw caution to the wind.

Live a little, love a lot.

Eat sugar sprinkles.

Sushi, fruit, yogurt and healthy sandwiches are great lunch box staples for the kids, but sometimes I like to sneak in a surprise treat like these Christmas sprinkle sandwiches# with a happy note.

When I was growing up we used to call this type of sugar sprinkle sandwich fairy bread and it was a party staple.

I'm sure you don't need the instructions on how to make them but I'll share anyway :)

Take super fresh white bread. Spread with butter, sprinkle one half with sugar sprinkles (non-pariels), cut out a cute Christmas Tree shape on the other half and then press together firmly.

If you don't have green sprinkles don't worry, just use whatever you have handy.

Use a sharp knife to remove crusts (this is an essential step with fairy bread).

Write a note and slip it in the lunchbox with your sprinkly treat.

I used ejector Christmas Tree cutters which came in a set but you can just use regular mini tin cutters, it will work out just the same.

# If you just can't bring yourself to feed your kids sugar for lunch don't despair. Low fat cream cheese spread and sprouts will look awesomely fun too :)

Linda Vandermeer is the author of Sweets on a Stick: More than 150 Kid Friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go. You can pick it up at all good online book shops including these shops:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Lollipop Macarons

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love *......these sprinkly swirly macarons.

OK we all know macarons are perfect just the way they are, and in fact I am always in humour to give them consequence....or you know just eat lots of them :)

If I was a Mr Darcy kinda person I would just leave them be.

 
But y'all know I can't do it, I had to go put a stick in it, add some sprinkles. and make some 'Lollipop' swirl macarons. Cause that's what I do :)

And if you like you can too. I made the macarons up myself from scratch but I think that you could easily buy some already made macarons and follow the instructions below. To get shop bought macarons on a stick you just need to bring them to room temperature make a hole in the ganache filling with your paper lollipop sticks and then secure the stick into the macaron with a little melted chocolate. You know, just like you would do for a cake pop.

* Those couple of lines above were plagiarized and quite badly reworded by me from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, as if you didn't already know that :)

Lollipop Macarons recipe and instructions
I used Wilton pink and Wilton Violet for the macarons in the picture

Macarons with ganache (CLICK HERE for my recipe)#
lollipop sticks
50g white chocolate
sprinkles
shallow bowl

#When making the macarons lay a lollipop stick on top of the ganache before pressing the second macaron biscuit on top. Place in airtight containers and pop in the fridge for a day to allow the macaron to develop it's soft center.

 
Lay the macarons down on a tray lined with parchment paper.

Melt the white chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl on medium low heat until smooth and all lumps have melted. If you like you can around 5g of copha while melting (or paramount crystals) to make the chocolate more fluid.

Place the melted white chocolate in the corner of a ziplock bag. Cut off the tiniest hole, just the very tip of the bag. Practice piping a swirl on some spare parchment paper starting in the middle and working around in a circular motion. Once you are happy with your piping action pipe a melted chocolate swirl onto one of the macarons.

Working quickly hold the macaron above the shallow bowl and sprinkle the sugar sprinkles over the melted chocolate swirl. Place the macaron back on the parchment paper to set.

Repeat for remaining macarons.*

If you like once the chocolate and sprinkles have set you can turn the macarons over and pipe another swirl on the other side and add sprinkles for a double sided swirl.

*once you get the hang of this process you can actually pipe quite a few swirls in a row and then add the sprinkles afterwards. The trick is to adhere the sprinkles before the chocolate starts to set.