Royal Iced Easter Themed Sugar Cookies

Howdy everyone! 

I'm in a bit of a poorly state this week, which sucks! I've spend all week having smoothies and what good has it done me? Nothing I tell you, as I have still caught a cold! 

Anyway, take a look at these beautiful and cute little Easter Egg cookies that we're made a while back! I know I should of posted these up for Easter but then I feel I would of been cheating as I never even made them around Easter! Although I did make them as a belated one! 

I was practising my Royal Icing skills for my college course, which I finish next month! I can't believe it, I don't know where I'll be without it, but I will hopefully be going on to Level 2 so it isn't all bad! :) I will do a post to 'celebrate' the end of the college year with everything I have made.  

I used the Wilton Easter Egg cutter for both sets of cookies, the recipe was a new one that I tried and made which I have now Christened Vanilla Spice. I will post the recipe for the cookies onto another post so you can give them a go yourself! :D 

I'm really happy with the way they both turned out and feel that I am getting better at Royal Iced cookies, plus my college teacher started following me on my Instagram account, so I felt I had to really really try haha, not that that I don't anyway as I always give it 100%! 

I just love the little chicks in their little egg shells, all the colours on the Easter Egg ones too! Especially seeing as they're all pastel colours! 

Hope you will enjoy making the cookies too! 

Post more later!

Much love as always, and baking wishes, 

Three Tiered Chocolate Monster Cake (Katherine Sabbath Inspired)

Hey everyone!

Would you just look at that Monster?! 

I had such a blast making this cake! It is inspired by the wonderful and talented Katherine Sabbath and her own cakes, which are just out of this wold! Take a look below!

ALL CORYRIGHT FOR THE ABOVE PICTURE IS KATHERINE SABBATH, I DO NOT OWN THIS PICTURE OR THE CAKE DESIGN.

Isn't it just beautiful? Look at all those colours, though this is a cheesecake not a cake, but its still brilliantly impressive! I cannot find her online through a website to link to or on Facebook, but she is on Instagram so go search for @Katherine_Sabbath and give her a follow!

So this was my cake, and the first of taking on the inspiration for doing a Kat inspired cake! I loved designing and making this cake, it was such fun and was completed in 48 hours which I was very surprised with if I'm honest!

The cake itself is a three tiered sponge cake, with two layers of chocolate and one layer of coffee cake which is in the middle of the two chocolates. The sponge was then all sandwiched together using coffee buttercream and then crumb coated in the same buttercream. 

The cake was then covered in Coffee buttercream, and chocolate bark shards we're placed on top as well as white and blue meringue kisses, chunks of golden crunchie bar was also sprinkled over the top of the cake. A full on chocolate and coffee overload! 

Here's a close up of the Chocolate Bark before it went onto the cake! White, milk and dark chocolate with crushed crunchie pieces and crushed meringue kisses sprinkled on top! Such a golden effect! It reminded me a bit of gold nuggets hehe 

Side view of the cake, with the meringue kisses, chocolate crunchy and the chocolate shards! 

And there we have it! That's the big monster of a chocolate cake haha

Think this photo is my favourite out of all of them. Big thanks to my younger brother for taking some fab pics of the cake! 

Much love and baking wishes! 

Detailed Meringue Kisses How To!

Hey everyone! 

Did you see the post on the Meringue Kisses that we made? Fancy having a go at them yourself? To impress people or loved ones? But don't know where to start? Then look no further! All recipe rights and copy rights are from the Meringue Girls, two wonderful and creative ladies! Go check out their site! The Meringue Girls - Meringue Kisses

Wording in this recipe is my wording, but the actual recipe is from the lovely girls. Please go to their website and pay them a visit, they're wonderful! 

The Recipe - Taken from Meringue Girls site

 ALL RECIPE COPYRIGHT TOWARDS THE MERINGUE GIRLS

Ingredients: 

5 Medium sized eggs

300g Golden Caster Sugar 

Flavouring if desired, I used 2 teaspoons of Vanilla 

Directions:

1. Line a large FLAT baking tray with grease proof paper, possibly making it a little bit bigger so you are able to pick the paper up once out of the oven if you wish.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 200c / Gas Mark 5  - Place 300g Caster sugar into the baking try and place into the oven.  Leave for 5 minutes (Also put a timer on your phone, I find it helps me!)

3. Whilst the sugar is in the oven, crack the egg whites into your bowl - Make sure that your bowl is free from any grease, grease will cause the meringue not to form properly resulting in a dull and floppy mixture and the egg wont be able to reach stiff peak.

4. Whisk the egg whites up until they form little bubbles, keep going until the whites have doubled in volume and are forming stiff peaks. You can do this by using the whisker or a fork, place into the whites and pull out, if the mix stands stable and does not flop, you have reached Stiff Peak, if it droops, keep going! You need those peaks! 

5. Once you have stiff peaks, your sugar will be ready to come out of the oven. TURN THE OVEN DOWN TO 100c / Gas Mark 1 - BE CAREFUL, SUGAR IS VERY DANGEROUS WHEN HOT AND CAN BURN!..Plus it's very painful! 

You will know the sugar is ready the the edges starting to caramelise, now, you can either get a large spoon and spoon the mixture into the eggs spoonful at a time, but I find it difficult as I have a hand held mixer and I'm only good with my right hand - see where I'm going with this? So! I grab the edges of the grease proof paper, lift it out of the tin and poor the sugar into a deep microwavable bowl, I find it easier. 

6. So to elaborate on that more, whisking on a slow speed, either spoon the sugar into the egg whites spoon at a time, mixing all the time with the whisk to get the meringue texture. Or you can pour the sugar into the egg whites bit at a time and mix it the same.

7. Once all the sugar has gone into the eggs, add the vanilla and keep whisking it all in starting on slow to begin with then speeding it up keep whisking for 5-7 minutes on a high speed until the meringue mix forms and you start to get stiff peaks again. Get some meringue mix between your fingers and feel it, if it still feels gritty, it needs more of a mix. This is just the sugar that has not been incorporated into the mix. 

You will know the meringue mix is read when it forms beautiful smooth and glossy peaks! Gently give the mix a stir, don't beat it otherwise you will knock out all the air and you need that air!

You are now ready to get piping! 

1. Line a baking tray with some fitted grease proof paper

2. Grabbing a piping bag, preferably a disposable one, turn the bag inside out and with a chosen colour, paint 5 big, bold colourful lines on the inside of the bag starting from the tip and ending somewhere in the middle of the bag (you don't want to have dye at the top and get it on your hands when turning it inside out) Turn the bag back inside out so the dye is on the inside now. 

3.With a large spoon, gently place some of the meringue into the piping bag, in my experience from learning a whole bag will give you a tray full of 24 meringue kisses with a little spare - I have made a print out diagram but I just need to host it first!

4. Get the air out of the top of the bag, place your hand on top of where the mix ends, grip it tight and let the air come out at the top, once done lightly grip it and place on a work surface and gently beat the air out of the bag making sure none of the mixture comes out the other end - This will give you nice and smooth flowing meringue mix with no air bubbles ruining those perfect kisses! 

5. I find it's best to hold the piping bag upright, tip at the top since when you cut it off it wont suddenly start to pour out from the gravity. Once done, tightly spin the piping bag till it closes off the Meringue from falling out, when your ready snip the top off of the piping bag, your looking to cut off about an inch and a half. 

6. Hold the top of the bag with your strong hand (See how I'm holding the orange Piping bag?) and the other hand resting on the bottom near the tip so you have a grip on where to guide it. In a spare bowl, gently sqeeze some of the meringue out until the white has gone and you start to see streaks of colour. Once this happens you can start to pipe onto the baking tray! :D 

7. So the grease proof paper stays still as you pip (as meringue can get quite sticky!) pipe little dots into each corner of the tray then stick down the paper. Once ready, hold the piping bag as mentioned and then hold it at a straight so you are piping downwards. Hold it about two inches from the baking tray, do not hold it near the tray base itself, this was my mistake when learning and created really flat kisses, not the lovely bulbs. I think of when I pipe royal icing at college as it helps me. Your wanting to create a bulb, say like the shape of a bulb you would plant in your garden. 

8. So piping it a little off the baking try, gently squeeze the piping bag, don't lower the bag into the meringue 'blob' or start to bring it up as it pipes. When it starts to bulge upwards slightly, bring it up and stop piping suddenly, this will stop the flow of the meringue and give the meringues a nice flick. Once piped all the meringues, you should have 24. if not if you have less or a bit more it's perfectly fine! The recipe makes about 50 but depending on what size you do them you could make up to 100! To be honest when I first started I didn't believe they would all fit onto the tray so I did 6 rows of 3 meringues ;) Keep practicing! 

9. When all the meringues are on the tray and you cannot fit anymore on, place them into the oven on the middle shelf. Now it depends with all ovens I know, I made some at Mr. B's and kept them in the oven for 30 mins and they we're perfect. Did the same at mine with the same temp and time but they slightly went a caramel colour, which was fine! I thought they looked a bit 'Vintage' hehe still tasted lovely though!

So if I We're you, I would place them in the oven for 20 mins and put a timer on, you are looking to be able to pick them up from the tray easily, if they still stick to the tray they aren't done. 

10. After 20 mins, if they are still sticking place them in for another 10 mins. If they are fine then it's all good! Roughly place them in for 20-30 mins :) The center should be still soft and chewy when you take a bite! 

Hope this helps anyone wishing to make Meringue Kisses! As mentioned every inch of the recipe and recipe instructions are from The Meringue Girls so please give them credit, the detailed description on piping and how to's are from us here at Sprinkle, Sparkle and Magic. Hope this has helped anyone! Any questions you can email, tweet, facebook message, instagram message or even message or comment us on here! Happy to help!

P.s: DON'T BE AFRAID! It's practice, take a deep breath and if you don't do it right the first time, don't give up! You will get there! I know, I've been there myself and still getting the hang of it!  ;) 

Much love and Meringue Kisses!

Meringue Kisses!

Afternoon everyone! 

Got another post for you today, yes I hear what you're saying! "Two in the past couple of days? Is she okay?" I'm pretty well thank you, I just feel the need to tell you all what has been happening in the world of SSM (I sometimes think I should of chosen a better name, more suitable sounding when I shorten it down, but I don't know what I could change it too! All ideas welcome!) 

As you can see with these pictures, they are colourful, cute and very tasty and moreish - In the words of Mr. B. The recipe is from the wonderful Meringue Girls who are a couple of brilliant women who go by the names of Alex Hoffler and Stacey O'Gorman, who have opened their beautiful business in London! 

I've been wanting their cookbook for a while but I'm still waiting haha, it might end up being wrapped up for my 21st or even under the tree later this year. In the meantime, I will persist with this one wonderful recipe and colour and change taste by my own accord. 

The recipe is simple, much more simple than I thought it would be though I did have to shuffle through a few sites to see what other people we're putting the oven temp too, as it doesn't mention it on the recipe page on their site. 

It has taken me quite a few attempts with the Kisses to get them just right, the colour, the taste and the size. The first time wasn't a success and I remember my dad saying that I had done something wrong (A past food chess and patisserie chef too - It's where I have got my foodie life from I have decided) 

But since then, whilst I was practising, I made the recipe smaller so there was no wastage. But now I am slowly mastering it and I can go back to the normal recipe which is ace! I just love making meringue! Whether it be the kisses or a pavlova, there's just something about it that's so soothing. Think on the same par as bread! 

If you wish to make some lovely little meringue kisses yourself, then I will be doing a follow up post with the recipe from The Meringue Girls  and a detailed description my myself on how to get those lovely meringue kisses and how to keep practising! 

More posts to come soon so keep your eyes open! 

Much love as always, keep baking! 

Easter Specials!

Hey everyone! 

How are we all? 

I know the title may put you off a little, Easter posts, on the 10th? I know I know, it's my fault and I need to update more often, I'm not doing bad though! 

I've been a bit busy, what with making a dozen 80th Cupcakes then an 80th Birthday cake and testing some new cupcake recipes out, it's all been a bit hectic. So I'm trying to post ASAP. But! You will be happy to know that after this post we will be (soon) up to date, we are more up to date now with the posts than we we're a bit ago, let's just say that! 

Eee! Just look at those cute little pink and green Easter Eggs inside those cookies!

These are "slice" sugar cookies, there is a word for it but I can't remember it! Basically, it's a Vanilla Sugar cookie recipe, and then halved into colours of your choice and the design you wish to use. The recipe is  by a wonderful woman called Ruth Clemens A.K.A The Pink Whisk, go check out the recipe here ---> The Pink Whisk - Sugar Cookies

Such a great recipe, Ruth truly does have some great recipes and I have used quite a few of hers in the past, go and take a look! She's a bloody star!

I've been wanting to do something like this for a while but didn't really know how too, so I thought I would give it a search and found so many things to do with it on Instagram, such a wonderful place for any kind  of inspiration! 

So I found this incredible woman who makes cookies that just blew me away! I first saw Eugenie Kitchen on Youtube whilst scrolling through different youtubers pages and I was just fascinated by what she has baked! There are tutorials as well which she has kindly filmed and they helped me to create these wonderful Easter Egg themed sugar cookies. 

Copyright of Eugenie Kitchen

It is based on the Heart cookies above, but I decided to do mine a little different and go for an Easter Egg seeing as it was Easter! I sadly forgot to get the sprinkles though, I will have to remember them next time! 

So here is what the dough looked like before the finished cookies (Top pic!) I Just love the way they look, cute isn't even close! So there you have it, Vanilla sugar cookies with a lovely Easter twist pattern inside. Big thanks to the super ladies and their blogs, make sure you go and check them out!! 

We also made a big batch of triple chocolate brownies! Which was white, dark and milk chocolate, then filled with milk chocolate chunks! As requested by Mr. B! Do love making brownies, do you like making brownies? Have any new recipes you wish to share? Let me know and I'll give them a go! 

Much love, hope you all had a lovely Easter! (Bit late I know! Haha) 

Ooh! Check that out! Brand new signature, we're moving up ladies and gentlemen! 

Mother's Day Cake

Ahh! Hey everyone! 

How are we all doing this evening, morning, afternoon, wherever you are in this big wide world! 

I for one am feeling great, this blog is finally starting to pick itself up (by itself, I mean me...of course...or am I?) 

Anyway, all pages are getting updated, and most of them are all up to date, though sadly apart from this one. BUT! We've nearly got you all covered, seeing as we have a few final posts to go then everything will be all in sync!

We currently have some Banoffee cupcakes in the oven, but we will post them at a later date...hopefully tonight or tomorrow. It has only just occrred to me that I should of probably been putting the dates on these posts to when they actually took place, but I haven't. Sorry guys, may do it at some point! 

So the above photo is the second, yes I did just say second, Mother's Day cake. The first was a dummy and it was made for my college course, but this! Oh no, this beauty was a fruit cake and decorated too! 

It's pretty much the same as the one I made for college, except it has pink roses instead of really pale pink roses, it's mint green instead of pale baby blue and it has some different flowers around the outside and different embossing on the cake board.

So basically, the design is the same, the colours are a tad different, only a tad though! 

I loved making this cake and my Mum and Auntie enjoyed it too, sadly my Nan didn't but she was with us in spirit I'm sure! 

I made the lovely roses, but I know they need working on..I'm sorting that out don't worry, still learning in some ways but aren't we all! I was aiming this page to be a website but it's kind of turned into a blog (which it is I suppose, I know!) But I do prefer it as a blog, so hey ho!

I embossed little flowers around the top of the cake, made thin little pink daisies to go around the outside of the cake too! I then piped 'Happy Mother's Day' in graduated line work on top in white then pink. To top it all off, I pipped a snail trail around the base of the cake in pink and embossed the cake board.  

Ta-Da! All piping was done with Royal Icing :) 

Speak soon and much love, 

Sprinkle, Sparkle & Magic 

Paris Themed Birthday Cake

Evening everyone! 

How are we all doing? 

I've just finished going through all the posts, seeing as half of them had photo's missing! Can you believe it, no? Me neither!

Anyway, I don't have many more updates to give you all, well, I do but I will do them all in a batch post. You will all soon see!  For now I will grant you the access to view some of the last cakes that I have recently done, there are three but will all be posted in separate posts (They need their glory! Haha) 

And here we have it! The two tiered, Paris themed birthday cake. I really did enjoy making this cake so much and for once I wasn't really stressful, Hoozah! It was great and so fun!

Now to the specifics: The bottom layer was a Funfetti cake with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam sandwiched together, the top tier is chocolate cake sandwiched together with chocolate buttercream. 

The bottom layer was then covered in white sugar paste and the top in mint green. Emerald stripes of sugarpaste we're placed around the bottom tier, whilst emerald polka dots we're placed around the top tier. 

Using modelling paste, I created one large pink rose to sit on top, and four little white roses to be placed on top of the bottom tier. I made silhouettes out of black sugarpaste and placed them inbetween the emerald stripes. Making the black stand out more on the white background. 

Last but not least, there's an Eiffel Tower stuck on top, constructed out of Rice cripsies and covered with many layers of white chocolate and then green. We then placed black and white ribbon around the base of each cake to make it look even more pretty, and pinned them in with a pearl coloured bobby bin (Don't worry, it was brand new, not used for anything else and sterilized first) 

I really enjoyed making this cake, especially the silhouettes, I just love them!  I really liked how it looked and everything. It was a surprise for the customer as her partner had bought her tickets to go away to Paris for the weekend and surprised her with her birthday cake! How wicked is that! Very happy to be a part of it. 

Much love, 

Sprinkle, Sparkle & Magic