MadeWithLoveByMe

Christmas is coming!! First designs

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:08:00 -0500

Hand cut reindeer cookies, dusted with gold lustre and finished off with red sugarpaste bows.

Madewithlove-Autumnal Hedgehog

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:03:12 -0500

Chandelier cookies

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:21:00 -0500

Chandelier cookies!

I’ve just received these beautiful chandelier stencils from the US. I ordered them online as i couldnt find a UK supplier.

I think they are simply stunning!!

I made these cookies this morning to test out the stencils. They are simple gingerbread, covered in sugarpaste and then stencilled with royal icing.

I can imagine them making beautiful wedding favour cookies or vampy gifts for any glitzy, glam party.

Made With Love- Giant Cupcake Cake!! 8” round lower tier,...

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:29:00 -0500

Made With Love- Giant Cupcake Cake!!

8” round lower tier, giant cupcake top tier.

Jack and Sally cake!!! violenticecream: (via Palos Studio)

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:27:28 -0500

Jack and Sally cake!!!

violenticecream:

(via Palos Studio)

cushion cakes. Gorgeous arent they. I think they are just square...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:25:58 -0500

cushion cakes. Gorgeous arent they. I think they are just square cakes with the edges carved!!

violenticecream:

Rock n Roll Bride · A Cinderella Themed Rockstar Wedding

Look at this amazing wedding cake!!

simple but effective http://www.peggyporschen.com/ (via...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:24:21 -0500

simple but effective

http://www.peggyporschen.com/

(via thingspiration)

Gorgeous designs! Love the detail… theotheralice: ...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:20:36 -0500

Gorgeous designs! Love the detail…

theotheralice: Beauty in Everything - Photography

MadeWithLove - Stencilled heart cookies

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:53:00 -0500

Gingerbread cookies:

Ingredients 3 oz (75 g) soft brown sugar, sieved

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 tablespoon black treacle

1 level teaspoon cinnamon

1 level teaspoon ginger

1 pinch ground cloves

finely grated rind ½ orange 3½ oz

(95 g) butter or margarine

½ level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

about 8 oz (225 g) plain flour

about 2 oz (50 g) currants (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C)

Method Put the sugar, syrup, treacle, 1 tablespoon of water, spices and rind together in a large saucepan. Then bring them to boiling point, stirring all the time. Now remove the pan from the heat and stir in the fat, cut into lumps, and the bicarbonate of soda. Next stir in the flour gradually until you have a smooth manageable dough – add a little more flour, if you think it needs it. Now leave the dough – covered – in a cool place to become firm, approximately 30 minutes.

Now roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick and cut. Arrange them on the lightly greased baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the biscuits feel firm when lightly pressed with a fingertip.

I double the amount of ginger as i dont feel the recipe has enough of a gingery kick, but its easy to experiment with quantities until you get them just how you like them. I’d also advise watching carefully how these bake, as they burn very easy. You should adjust the baking time depending on the size of the shapes you are cooking and the thickness of the cookie. I used heart cutters, flower cutters, and my stencils to decorate the gingerbread hearts in lots of different patterns. Here’s the finished cookies

MadeWithLove-Stencilled cookies

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:47:25 -0500

Stencils are great for creating beautiful, intricate patterns that look both time consuming and complex, when in fact they are very simple to do and dont take that long!

Stencils can be used in several different ways to create lots of different effects.

The first way involves using ROYAL ICING. This is icing that is made with egg white and icing sugar. You use one egg white and then mix in enough icing sugar to create a toothpaste type consistency.

Tip* The advantage of using royal icing is that it sets hard so you don’t have to worry about it smudging later on!

Once you have rolled out your sugarpaste you simply lay the stencil over the top. You can tack it down with a very small blob of royal icing on each edge, or a little dab of water underneath the stencil, but i find just by holding them with finger and thumb they stay in place.

You then use a pallette knife to scrape the royal icing across the stencil. I make sure i am using the broad side of the knife and take it gently. This takes a little practice but you get the hang of it quickly enough.

Once you have covered the whole stencil wait for a minute of so and then gently peel back the stencil. You will be left with the beautiful design on the sugarpaste ready to be cut out with whatever cutters you are using.

These stenciled sugarpaste shapes can then be laid over your cookies, tacked down with a little more royal icing on the biscuit and there you have it, beautiful intricate biscuits.

I use one stencil to get two or three cutter shapes out of one stencil as this saves time. It takes along longer if you just get one shape out of each stencil!

Tip: I tried to go again with the same stencil a second time and found it got really messy and didnt work very well, so now i gently rinse them between attempts. The stencils can be quite fragile so after rinsing i press them between a T-towel to dry them, rather than rubbing them. It only takes 30 seconds but then you have a nice clean dry stencil to do your next design with.

For a beautiful selection of stencils, look here:

http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/OnlineShop-Stencils.htm

Here is an example of a ginger cookie i made with a royal icing stencil design.

MadeWithLove- Cow Biscuits

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:45:00 -0500

Quick and easy fun biscuits for a colleagues birthday.

These are so simple to do, you just make some black sugarpaste and flatten it into random shapes on top of the white sugarpaste. Then grab your cow cutter and cut the sugarpaste so you cut through both the white and the black.

Add pink noses and within minutes you have your very own herd of friesian cows!

MadeWithLove - Wonky cake

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:40:00 -0500

I wanted to make a surprise wedding cake for my Mum. I knew she didnt want a ‘fuss’ but as far as i was concerned she simply HAD to have a wedding cake, no matter what she said!!!

I wanted it to be sweet and whimsical and her colours were pink, green and cream.

I chose a wonky cake as it was not as austere as a straight, tiered cake, and chose simple flowers to go with it.

I did three tiers, the top was an 8″ Fruitcake, the middle a 10″ Madeira and the bottom 14″ Chocolate. The Fruitcake was wrapped in apricot jam and marizan, the middle buttercream and the bottom chocolate ganache. All three layers were then wrapped in sugarpaste and decorated.

Mum was over the moon about it and genuinely shocked. Grandma (chief Fruitcake tester) said the fruitcake was excellent, so all in all i passed the test!! Phew!

Here is the final result:

Madewithlove - Halloween cupcakes

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:39:00 -0500

I recently purchased a couple of moulds from

www.neitmoulds.co.uk , including an intricate skull mould.

I was not sure when it would get used but knowing how ‘in’ jewelled skulls are at the moment i knew it wouldnt be long before an event called for them.

The cupcakes are ‘French Toast’ and the decorations use both buttercream and sugarpaste.

Once the cupcakes have cooled the tops were covered with a big dollop of buttercream. It is then easy to secure a circle of sugarpaste over the buttercream. The more buttercream you add the more domed the effect.

Tip* Make sure you sugarpaste circle is big enough to cover over the buttercream and then go over the edge of the cake. It needs to be alot bigger than you’d imagine!

The skulls were made by pushing black sugarpaste into a skull mould. The flower on its head was also done by using a flower mould.

Tip* Putting them into the freezer for 10 minutes or so makes it easier to pop them out afterwards

The roses were made with a PME rose cutter and laid onto a pattern of 6 hearts placed on top of the cake. Everything was fixed down with a little spare buttercream.

The decorations are then brushed over with metallic edible silver luste to give the pewter effect and silver balls were used to add sparkle.

Halloween, but more grown up!

Madewithlove - Halloween cupcakes

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:37:00 -0500

cool design

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:34:16 -0500

cool design

I <3 owls

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:32:24 -0500

I <3 owls

cool idea!!

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:30:00 -0500

cool idea!!

how cute is this??

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 11:17:31 -0500

how cute is this??