December 22nd, 2011 §
I’m getting down to basics today with a very detailed step-by-step picture to making homemade caramel sauce. For this baking basic, I will be going through the wet process vs. dry process for making caramel sauce. The wet process utilizes water to dissolve the sugar (stay tuned for the dry method tutorial). I’ve done this tutorial before in a previous post but not as detailed. Today, I’m breaking it out on its own with a color chart for the different stages of caramelizing since many of you have had a few questions regarding certain steps-specifically, “What is dark amber”.
How to Make Caramel Sauce
For this caramel sauce tutorial, I will go through the different color stages including the dark amber that you so often see me directing you towards in my dessert recipes. You will often hear me refer to it as a ‘burnt caramel flavor’. I should mention it’s not truly burnt, since burnt caramel is disgusting and not usable. But it’s a term adopted because it’s the smoky point during the dark amber stage. I like my caramel taken just beyond that smoky point by about 30 seconds before I add my heavy cream and butter. This is when the sugar caramelizes to the point of actually imparting a deep flavor rather than just being sweet. » Read the rest of this entry «
November 2nd, 2011 §
Today’s post is from one of Diane of Created by Diane. Diane and I met a year ago and I consider her friend and a very talented blogger, so I’m excited and honored to have her guest posting. She’s here to share with us her tips and tricks to decorating cupcakes with one my favorite tips, Wilton’s 2D. If you’ve been to her site, then you know she can wield some decorating magic with this tip. If not, head over after you are done here not only to see her beautiful cupcake creations, but all her delicious sweets and mouth watering savory dishes.
. . . And, look how sweet she is, she even used my favorite color orange.
I’m thrilled that Naomi asked me to guest post today. I’ve been drooling over Naomi’s blog for sometime now. Did you know she and I have actually met. She is not only extremely talented but one of the sweetest most sincere people I’ve ever met. My blog is filled with sweet treats and savory eats. Today I’ll be sharing with you some cupcake decorating.
» Read the rest of this entry «
October 17th, 2011 §
Today I’m excited to feature a guest post by one of my friends and favorite bloggers, Callye of The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. If you haven’t been to her blog make sure you head on over to see what else she has to share when it comes tips and tricks to sugar cookie decorating with royal icing and of course just to check out her awesome artistry.
Jack Skellington by SweetSugarBelle
While there are many very talented sugar cookie decorators out there Callye stands out to me for sheer ingenuity. She has the ability to look at practically any cookie cutter shape and then bend and sculpt it into something completely different. She is what I describe as an artist meets engineer.
I’ve asked Callye to share with us a short and simple tutorial on the basics of royal icing and decorating sugar cookies. Since many of you have asked and we have commiserated, about how difficult this seemingly easy art is-yes, this is an art. I’m thrilled that Callye has broken down the basics for an easy-to-follow tutorial with these Jack Skellington cookies.
Please welcome Callye . . .
» Read the rest of this entry «
