Yo Gabba Gabba

So I got a call to do a Muno cake.................yes I asked myself who and what is that? Well I soon found out that I was clearly the only person who did not know what Yo Gabba Gabba was. My neighbor's little boy was turning 2 and he loves Muno. I did his body in layers of vanilla and chocolate and each leg was its own flavor. I covered Muno (whom I am now good friends with) in modelling chocolate and I made his party hat out of a sugar cone that was covered in yellow modelling chocolate and painted with blue luster dust.

My neighbor's son absolutely loved his cake and kept saying "see Muno cake". Its always so rewarding to see the look on the birthday boy or girls face when they see the cake. Its also fun to chat with the guests and see their reactions to the creativity on a board! The Q&A session that follows the reveal of a cake like this is always rewarding, because only then do people appreciate and respect the time and effort that goes into a cake like this! Had loads of fun meeting and making Muno. Happy Birthday Colin............I look forward to see what we will be making next year!!

Homemade Fudge!!!

Whenever the kids are in the mood for something homemade and sweet and really quick, I always go to this recipe, its easy and I always have the ingredients on hand and something homemade always beats something store bought! I know your family will love it as much as mine does! I was not going to post this recipe because everyone has a fudge recipe, but this one goes out to my very dear friend in Australia...........Natalie!


INGREDIENTS:
2 Cups of sugar
5 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp syrup
4 Tbsp butter
1 Can Condensed Milk
1 tsp Vanilla essence

Grease a 20x28cm dish.
In a heavy pot mix together the sugar and water and stir over a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Add the syrup and butter and stir until the butter has melted.
Add the Condensed Milk and stir until the mixture comes to a boil.
Boil slowly and keep stirring constantly, for about 20 min to make sure that the fudge is ready drop a drop of fudge into a glass of water and if it hardens its ready.
Remove the pot from the heat and add the vanilla essence and pour out into your greased dish, I use a 20 X 28 cm dish.
Cut into squares when its almost cold.

The best part about this is you can make different variations of it with anything you have in the cupboard.

Make peanut fudge by adding a cup of peanuts to it before you pour it into your dish or add about 100g of chocolate chips to it to make chocolate fudge or for kids parties you can even add in jelly beans or m&m's. Whatever your fancy is add it to this fudge and sit back and watch everyone enjoy!

I would love to hear some of your ideas and how you changed up your batch of homemade fudge!

It will be SWEET to hear from you (pardon the pun)
Jacki

How to make modelling chocolate!

When you are at a birthday party and you see the cake with all of its embellishments you just want to dig in............yeah not so much when its covered in FONDANT!

Fondant is a wonderful medium to work with and that's how I covered cakes when I started cake decorating but then I discovered this wonderful little baking miracle called Modelling Chocolate. Not only is it great to cover cakes with but to sculpt and make decorations for cakes it magic and tastes wonderful! Modelling Chocolate is so so easy to make and real fun when cake decorating with the kids!

Here is how its done:

10 oz chocolate discs/chips (any color)
1/3 cup light corn syrup

In a double boiler melt chocolate, when nice and smooth remove from heat and add the corn syrup, mix with a spatula until it reaches the ball stage. Spread it out onto a piece of wax paper that is placed on a table and smooth it out to form a sheet. Leave it open and untouched for 2-3 hours. It will be pliable and can be stored at room temperature in an air tight container for about a month.

If you are covering a cake with it, you simply roll it out just like you would fondant, using powdered sugar to cover the surface so it does not stick.
Modelling chocolate is great to use when you want to add just a small embellishment on a cupcake or fill your cupcake with your favorite filling, turn it out of its cup and cover it like a little cake. The options are limitless with modelling chocolate. So don't be scared, try it, I promise you will love it!

Happy melting, covering and sculpting
Jacki

Rev it Up!

My youngest son's best buddy had his 7th birthday party at Slingshot speedway, pretty cool place the boys got to race slot cars for an hour and then we headed over to the food court and had lunch and cake! This was such a super idea, the boys had a ball and the cake was well received!
Avery (birthday boy) asked for real cars on his cake, pretty bright you man, because when the cake is all done he gets to keep the cars!

The cake was vanilla with a traditional buttercream icing and covered in modelling chocolate with the checkered flag also done in black and white modelling chocolate and all of the decorations were done in modelling chocolate to. This cake was easy but for the tires that were handmade and the checkered flag that had to be punched out square by square! It was worth every little groove and square when I saw how much Avery loved his cake!