Sea Urchins in Royal Icing

Here's another companion for the previously posted cockle shells and harp snail shells: a sea urchin in royal icing. All you need is a pastry bag filled with medium consistency royal icing (the icing I had on hand was relatively thin; I'm definitely going to re-do these urchins when I make another batch), a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch, round tips #12 and #2, a parchment paper square for each urchin, round tooth picks, a flower nail (optional; I like using flower nails for almost everything), a glue stick, and Wilton Pearl Dust (if you'd like your urchins to be shimmery; and who wouldn't?!). Start by sticking a parchment square to the flower nail with a dab from the glue stick. 

Hold the #12 tip just above and parallel to the surface, and squeeze out a ball about half an inch across. Stop pressure, pull the tip straight up and away, and if a peak forms, tap it down with a fingertip you've touched to the dusting pouch. 

Tap a toothpick against the dusting pouch, then lie it against the ball several equally-spaced times, radiating outward from the center. 

In the center, use the tip of the toothpick to make a hole. If you really want to know what that hole is, go here. Bon appetit!  

 Sprinkle the urchins with pearl dust, after they've dried enough to form a skin.

 Switch tips to the round #2. Squeeze rows of tiny little dots from the outer edge to the center (you can follow the grooves you made earlier or leave them visible).

 Here's the finished urchin. You could take all sorts of artistic license in the colors you use, of course.

Royal Icing Cockle Shells

This is yet another one of those projects that I thought of while doing something completely unrelated to cake decorating; probably driving or doing dishes. I was thinking about the curved petal tips used for piping violets and, well, not much else. It seemed to me they might be the right shape to pipe shells; after looking around on Wikipedia, I figured the exact shell I had in mind was the cockle, a "group of (mostly) small, edible, saltwater clams." Here's all I needed; medium consistency royal icing in a bag fitted with a #61 curved petal tip, parchment paper squares, a flower nail, and a glue stick.

First, stick a parchment square to the nail with a dab from the glue stick.

 Here's a close-up of the tip. As you can see, one side is wider than the other.

 Hold the wide side in the center of the nail, almost perpendicular to the surface. As you begin piping, keep the wide side in the center and rotate the narrow side clockwise while pulsing the tip up and down to form ridges.

 When the shell is the right size and shape, stop piping and draw the tip toward you. You might need to tap any rough edges into place with a fingertip or back of your fingernail; touch your finger to a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch, if need be.

 Here's another view from the other side:

 Here's another, slightly wider, shell…

 …and another view of it.

 The shells turned out very tiny, and they were made with the largest curved petal tip I own. They'd be ideal any time a tiny decoration is required (like for petits fours, mini cupcakes or cake pops), and could definitely be piped with a striped bag or dusted with Pearl Dust.

Forming Fondant With Makin's Push Molds

I have a favorite new discovery: Makin's Push Molds. According to the packaging, they're intended for use with clay, but I recently found them near the gum paste department of Sugar 'N Spice in Daly City. As much as I love gum paste, I'd prefer to make cute little things like this out of something more delectable. I had a small amount of a recent batch of fondant left over, so I gave it a try. Other than fondant, all you really need is a mold, a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch, and a gum paste storage board (the flip side of which makes a great work surface). 

Start by dusting the cavity on the mold you're going to use.

Roll a ball of fondant the approximate size of the mold (you can always add more or less if it doesn't fit; just pry out the first attempt, adjust the size, re-dust, and try again).

Press the fondant into the mold.

Flip the mold over; you can see right through to any overages that should be wiped away.

To make the underside of the mold really flat you might want to press it flat against the storage board.

Push the mold and the piece should pop right out.

Some shapes will deform during the "pressing out" step (especially those that are thicker). For these I dusted the cavity extra generously, molded quickly, and slapped the mold against the counter; the shape popped right out. Allow them to rest on the storage board to dry (or on a piece of parchment paper on a cake cooling rack).

When the shapes are dry, you can dust them with Color Dust…

…and maybe also a layer of Pearl Dust…

 …or just straight Pearl Dust.

 You could also color the fondant, marble it, draw on the pieces with food-safe markers, paint them with paste food coloring dissolved in a tiny amount of clear vanilla extract; you're limited only by your imagination!

Fondant Shamrocks

Ever on the quest to provide alternatives to environmentally-hostile plastic cupcake decorations, I made some little fondant shamrocks today. I didn't have quite enough fondant to cover a cake for our St. Patrick's Day dinner, but definitely had enough to make some decorations. Today's project was all about working with leftovers from other projects, so here's what I had on hand: green cupcake papers, shamrock cupcake sprinkles, Duff Goldman's Electric Green paste color, and Wilton's White Pearl Dust. I made the shamrocks with my fondant recipe, rolled the fondant out to about 1/8", cut the shamrocks with a tiny cookie cutter, poured some pearl dust into the palm of my hand, and laid the shamrocks one at a time in the dust, coating them generously. I'm sorry I don't have photos of the whole process; I didn't know I'd be writing about this project for today's post! I think the biggest revelation of today's project is the fact that Pearl Dust doesn't taste bad or have a weird mouthfeel! I was hesitant to eat one of these shamrocks, but when I did I was stunned to find there was no unappetizing, inedible crunchiness. I was also stunned to see that everybody else at the table wolfed down their shamrocks with no complaints, so score one for the Pearl Dust!

 I wanted the dark green cupcake sprinkles to really stand out against the icing, so I didn't use much of the paste color. To ice half a dozen cupcakes, I used about a half of a can of frosting:

 I loaded a disposable pastry bag with the Wilton 1M star tip (and no coupler), and piped a classic swirl. Start near an outer edge with the bag at a right angle to the cake, and spiral around about twice toward the center. The spiral should end at the center, at which time you should stop pressure, then pull the bag away perpendicular to the cupcake.

 See what I mean about those sprinkles popping? The other bonus to not dying the icing a more intense green is no one at the dinner party looked like they'd just arrived from Mars after eating one of these.

 The fondant shamrocks were firm by now; I'd laid them on parchment paper on a baking rack a couple hours prior, and they stiffened up sufficiently.

One last note on the subject of working with what I had on hand; I must say I really like the shamrocks in white! For a moment I thought I should color the fondant green, but let's face it: that's been done. These really came out looking unique and actually rather expensive (which is a hoot, considering they probably cost about a dime each in materials). Definitely making a "note to self" about sparkly white shamrocks for next year's St. Paddy's Day…