How to Construct a Gingerbread House: Part 3

     Now that the roof has set up overnight on top of the sides, the only thing left to do is accessorize your gingerbread house. I first put the trees on. The trees with the pretzel rod trunk need a little special attention. Since I use a cake board for my gingerbread houses, I cut a small circle out of the board where the pretzel rod will fit. After dry fitting it, I remove it, fill the hole with royal icing and put the trunk back in. I then put a ring of royal icing around the base. This gives it extra stability. The flat siting trees can just go on the board with a rim of royal icing along the bottom.
     Since all my gingerbread houses are made for Christmas, I like to cover my board with "snow". I make a thin border all around the 4 sides to hold the icing in, using a #3 tip with my pastry bag. I then thin royal icing out to pouring consistency, and pour it all over the board, letting it flow right up to the house. Then I place my trees, bridges or other landscaping down right into the thin layer of royal icing that I poured. You need to work quickly and know where you want to place everything as the royal icing begins to set immediately and if you start moving things around, you can end up with a mess. Again, this is where a dry fitting will come in handy.
     With our cabin in the woods, my daughter wanted a stream and pond. We have down water before and there are numerous ways to achieve the look. You can easily color piping gel blue and put it on your board, ringing it with candies or mini marshmallows. You can also melt crushed blue hard candies on a cookie sheet covered with a silpat, but you have less control over the shape. You can move the melted candy around with a spatula as soon as it comes out of the oven but you literally have seconds to work before the candy hardens. For our cabin, I saw some tiny flat pieces of mirror at the craft store and bought some small squares and an oval. I put the squares in a line right onto my royal icing covered board and at the end of the line, I put the oval. I then placed the bridge right over the line of squares so it looked like a bridge over a stream that ended at a pond. I then ringed the whole thing with my chocolate river rocks. (The same rocks that I used to cover the chimney.)

     I put my snowman in, the pile of logs next to the front steps and my well with bucket. On the front porch, I placed the chairs and a broom. On the roof, I put a ladder and a sugar Santa popping out of the chimney and a small string of lights. We added a wreath on the door and some poinsettias over the windows. I then sprinkled confectionery sugar over it all to simulate snow and even placed footprints in the royal icing from the porch steps to the bridge. I added a store bought deer (the only non edible thing besides the lights) and we were done.
     I hope you enjoyed this as much as we did. Tomorrow, the gingerbread house goes off to school and will go home with a lucky little boy or girl right before the holidays.
     I have attached a link to the recipe I use for construction grade gingerbread but there are many out there on the Internet. http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/articles/2002/12/11/20021211gingerbreadrec12-CR.html

Bridge with mirror stream and pond

Visit us at www. pattycakesncookies.com to see some of our other work.

How to Construct a Gingerbread House: Part 2

simple and easy

     Now that we made the trees, we can make a few other things that are simple and fast and will make our log cabin more realistic. My daughter wanted a snow man and some chairs for the front porch. I decided on a pile of logs for the fireplace, a broom for the front porch, a ladder for the roof, (someone was looking for Santa) and a well and bucket since there is no plumbing in our cabin. All of these things can be made from pretzels, hard candies and royal icing. The snowman was made from cereal treats covered in white fondant but you could just cover the cereal treats with white royal icing. Just one bag of pretzels sticks went a long way.

Hole in back for wire

      Now on to making the sections of the log cabin. I use a construction grade gingerbread that has no eggs or butter and thus is sturdy and doesn't spread much in baking. I roll my dough out on my silpat or parchment paper so that I can just pick the sheet up and place it on my baking sheet without distorting the pieces. I roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness but you could even go to 1/8. Bake according to the directions. If you are putting lights in your house, as we are doing, make sure you cut out a small section in the back for the wire. Also don't forget to cut out your windows and door. 
                                                           Once the pieces come out of the oven, I always re cut them because even with construction grade gingerbread, there will be some spreading. I just lay the pattern over the pieces and cut them where needed. Do this while the pieces are still warm, if you wait until they cool, they are harder to cut and you run the risk of breaking them. If you want "glass" in your windows, wait until the pieces have cooled and then put some crushed hard candies in the window openings and put back into the oven for about 5 minutes or until the candy has melted into the opening. I use a butterscotch candy because I like the yellow look through the window but any color will work, it is your choice. Allow the pieces to harden overnight before attempting construction.

Gluing on logs with royal icing

     The next day, it is time for construction. If I am covering the walls with fondant or, as in this case, "logs", I do that before I put the house together. I find it is much easier to work flat on the table. The same holds true for the roof and chimney, if there is one. In this case, I used pretzels sticks to simulate logs and glued them on all 4 sides with royal icing, breaking them to fit. I covered the chimney with chocolate river rocks to simulate stone. Allow the walls to dry before putting the house together. I find using a pastry bag works better that a spatula for gluing the pieces together. If you don't have a pastry bag, a ziploc bag works just as well. Just cut the corner off. You have better control and the icing doesn't go all over the place. Dry fit your house on your board before you start gluing. You may not want the house right in the middle of the board because of the landscaping, ours was going to one side to make room for the bridge, stream and pond, and well. Have some heavy cans and jars put off to the side to use as supports as you work. Do the 4 sides first and allow to dry overnight before putting the roof on. Do all 4 sides at once so that you can adjust the angles so they all fit. Put royal icing along the bottom of each piece and up the sides and fit them together. Use the cans to prop the sides and allow to dry. Fill in any gaps with royal icing. If you are using lights, make sure you put the back piece over the wire so that the lights are inside and the battery pack or plug is outside. Once the house has set up and before you put on the roof, I secure the lights inside where I want them to be using the royal icing.

bridge

     As I mentioned, my daughter wanted a bridge over a stream. To get the arch in the gingerbread, I took a small empty tin can and cut it in half. I cut a piece of gingerbread to the width I wanted and put it over the well greased half can and baked it according to the recipe. Once cool, we decorated it with gumdrops and a piece of rolled candy over the top to simulate a railing.
     The roof can go on the next day. Again, if you wanted to use shredded wheat to simulate thatch or necco wafers for tiles, it is easier to do it before the roof goes on. Here we wanted a rusted tin look, so we used red cinnamon gum sticks and glued them on. Once they were dry and the house set up overnight, we put the roof on, again using a liberal dose of royal icing with our pastry bag. Our pattern had a roof overhang so we also used candy sticks in a coordinating color for support. We put the house away again to dry overnight. If you try doing everything on the same day, you run the risk of knocking something over. It is easy to do as the royal icing doesn't completely harden for hours, and you are trying to put small pieces with big hands. I find it best to do everything in stages.
     Tomorrow, we landscape and put our finishing touches on. Stay tuned. While you are at it, visit us at www.pattycakesncookies.com.
    

How To Construct a Gingerbread House: Part 1

Every Christmas, my daughter and I construct a gingerbread house. Then we bring it to school to my daughter's class where it will be on display for a few weeks before Christmas. It gets raffled off on the last day of school before the Christmas break to a lucky child in the class. We enjoy the time together while we construct the house over a few days, and gives my daughter a sense of accomplishment. It also teaches her about giving and sharing the joy.
     Over the next few blog posts, I will take you step by step in the construction of the gingerbread house, and hopefully be able to share with you my tips and secrets. Our houses have come a long way and are getting more detailed and elaborate. This year we are going to attempt a bridge for our rustic cabin in the woods.
     Over the years, I have collected many photos and blue prints of gingerbread houses. I keep them all in a binder so we stay neat and organized. If you search the Internet, you can find many free patterns and directions. When I find a free one, I download it and put it in my binder. I have amassed a large collection, you will be surprised with what is out there.
     The key to making the process fun and enjoyable is preparation. I can't stress that enough. I gather what I need over a period of time. If I am at the candy store, I will check out the selection and see if there is anything that may work with my design, purchase it and put it away until needed. Before I begin baking, I make sure I have all the ingredients in the house the day before. I also put my board together and make some decorations ahead of time, namely the trees.
     First, determine what design or style of house you are going to construct. As I said, this year, my daughter chose a rustic cabin in the woods. I have a pattern for the cabin, having found it on the Internet a few years ago. I enlarged the pattern pieces on my printer to the size I thought would work for us. I printed them out on heavy card stock because I like to save them for future use. You can use regular paper but they would only be good for one use.

ribbon on the side of cake drum

     Next, based on the design and size, prepare your board that the gingerbread house will sit on. I have seen some suggestions to use heavy cardboard. I strongly do not recommend that as I find it can easily collapse with the weight of the house and landscaping. A piece of plywood would work, most of the big box stores will cut it to size for you. I use a cake drum that you can get in any cake decorating supply store or craft store like Michaels or AC Moore. Hint, use the coupons that are always in the newspaper and the drums aren't expensive. I am using a 16 inch square drum because I like to have lots of room for my landscape and house. The top is silver on most drums but that won't matter as you won't see the top when you are done as you can landscape with "snow", covering the entire board. You can also leave part of the silver showing to mimic water but we will get to that later. To dress up the sides of the board, I cover the sides with ribbon, using double sided tape. I found a red and green plaid ribbon and used that for the sides.
     Now on to the other things that can be done ahead of time, namely some landscaping ideas. This year we are attempting  a bridge over water. I bought some small pieces of mirror at the craft store that we will use for the stream. Last year we did a pond and used blue tinted piping gel. We wanted to try something different this year. Now onto the trees which are probably the most labor intensive.

2 different styles of trees

     As I said preparation is key and I like to do as much as possible ahead of time. Since we are doing a cabin in the woods, we need lots of trees. They can be time consuming so before Thanksgiving, my daughter and I made our forest of trees. We bought a box of ice cream cones and a bag of pretzel rods. We made some royal icing and tinted it greens. We also had a bowl of multi colored dragees nearby for decorations. Some trees were going to sit flat on the ground and some were going to be on long trunks. Those that were going to have long trunks must first be filled with royal icing and a pretzels rod inserted into the icing and allowed to dry for a few hours. I used different lengths of pretzels rods to make the trees different sizes. I used a Styrofoam block to hold them upside down or you can use a glass or cup. I used some left over royal icing in various colors to use as the glue since you won't see the underside. Nothing goes to waste in my house. While the trees with trunks were drying, my daughter and I started piping the ice cream cones. I used a leaf tip but even a star one would work. Since my daughter is only 8, her piping skills left a little to be desired but that is the charm of the trees. Nothing in nature is perfect and if there were some big spaces, we just filled in with dragees. Start at the bottom rim of the cone where it is the widest and start piping around and around, working your way up. When you are done with one tree, sprinkle with the dragees while the icing is still wet so they will adhere. You can also leave off the dragees or use whatever you want for decorations. Leave aside to dry. We did the entire box of ice cream cones, but did it over a few days as it can be tiresome to pipe them all at once.
     That is far as we got so far but preparation is the key. Tomorrow we are ready to bake and then actual construction, which should be a breeze. Next time I will go over the mechanics of cutting and baking your pieces so that fit together well. Stay tuned.
     If you would like to see more of our creations, visit my website, www.pattycakesncookies.com

American Cancer Society, Baking for the Cure

     Recently, I was invited to participate in a bake off for the American Cancer Society, Baking for the Cure on Tuesday, August 28, 2012. It was held at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, NJ. As my mom died of ovarian cancer many years ago, it is hard to say no to the American Cancer Society. With not much time and a busy schedule, (it was my daughter's 8th birthday party for 50 people the weekend before), I had to come up with a design that would fit the theme (purple, and celebrating more birthdays) but that would be easy to execute quickly.                                                                                                                                                      The flavor was easy, my best selling key lime pound cake with Swiss meringue buttercream. As for the design, what says happy birthday better than presents? I opted for three stacked presents, two boxes and one wrapped gift. Also, I wanted to incorporate their special logo and pay homage to all the walks and runs they sponsor so I made a pair of purple sneakers out of sugar paste  and their logo in an edible image. I called it presents for Grandma, gifts my daughter would give her grandma (my mother) if my mother were still alive.

Pattycakes & Cookies entry

       Samples of our cakes were given out and those that made a donation were allowed to vote for the best in the two divisions, professional and amateur. There were some great cakes there in both divisions and some note worthy bakeries were represented. In the end, Pattycakes and Cookies won the grand prize in the professional division. It was a great and humbling experience for me to win and all for a great cause.

Patty from Pattycakes & Cookies with her daughter

      Check out the article and pictures in the local paper about the event. http://paramus.patch.com/articles/bake-for-a-cure          

Cake Truffle Centerpieces

     We recently celebrated my daughter's 1st Holy Communion at Gianna's Restaurant in Carlstadt, NJ. I was trying to come up with some inexpensive centerpieces for the table that worked with the religious occasion and the earthy decor of the room. I knew I was making the cake and all the other desserts, cake truffles and cookies. So why not make the desserts the centerpieces?

     That is exactly what I did. I made about 200 cake truffles and cookies. I bought the bark encased tins and the tree stump cake pedestals. I hot glued a half round of styrofoam on top of each pedestal, put the truffles in paper and used tooth picks to hold them on. I put a religious pick on top and I was done with the cake pedestals. I put cookies and left over truffles in the bark encased tins and put a set on each table. They were festive and delicious, (and so easy to do).

This was the cake, a cross on top of a Bible with a spray of sugar flowers.

     Check out our website for more delicious confections. www.pattycakesncookies.com

Denim Day Cookies

     Last Thursday was Denim Day and Pattycakes and Cookies was asked to participate for a second year in a row. The YWCA of Bergen County, Rape Crisis Center partnered with the three Panico Salons in New Jersey to raise awareness of sexual assault. At Panico Salon in Ridgewood, everyone wore jeans, the salon was decorated and they had a buffet. Rape Crisis brochures were available to explain the great work they do, and conversations were encouraged between mothers and daughters about sexual assault. Of course, denim day cookies were supplied by Pattycakes and Cookies and were available for a small donation. All money raised went to the support of the Rape Crisis Center.

Helen, CEO of the YWCA, Patty of Pattycakes & Cookies, and Chrisula, Director of Rape Crisis

     The cookies were made in the shape of a pair of pants. We made the cookie cutter ourselves from some metal flashing. They were a sugar cookie, covered in blue, white chocolate fondant. Some were solid blue and some were stone washed and acid washed looking. Details of stitching, pockets and belt loops were added for a final touch. They were then individually wrapped and delivered to the three Panico Salons.
     We had a great time at Panico, meeting with Jack Panico, his wonderful staff and getting a tour of their beautiful full service salon. Hopefully, we will be invited to participate next year.

     Check out our other great creations at www.pattycakesncookies.com

How to Make Cookie Easter Baskets

     With Easter right around the corner, make some cute cookie Easter baskets that you can fill with candy or use as place card holders on your Easter dinner table. It is an easy project that you can even do with your kids.

     With your favorite sugar cookie dough, roll out and cut 3 rounds, 3 rounds with a circle cut out of the middle and 1 slightly larger round for each basket you want to make. I found that 1 recipe of no fail sugar cookie made 12 baskets, about 2 3/4 inches in diameter. You can make them as small or large as you want.

     Bake and cool them. Next ice the 3 solid rounds and 2 of the rings with royal icing in the color of your choice. Each basket should be done in one color. Allow them to dry completely.

     Now on to construction. Place the 1 large uniced cookie flat on your work surface. Put a dab of royal icing as glue on top and put the solid iced cookie on top of that. Follow with the next 2 solid cookies followed by the 2 iced ring cookies. Finish off with the uniced ring cookie. Allow royal icing glue to dry completely.

     Now the really fun part. Decorate them as you wish, add handles, a basket weave pattern on the sides, little dragees, or other sugar decorations. I used 1/2 of a brown licorice stick as the handle, attached with royal icing as glue. Then I did a quick basket weave pattern down the sides but you can skip this and allow the pretty colors of the royal icing to show through.
     Now fill with candies, cookies or anything else you want for a fun and delicious cookie Easter basket.

Visit our website for some other cute Easter confections.  www.pattycakesncookies.com
    

Presentation Makes A Difference

     On a recent vacation to South America, I got to thinking about the desserts I was eating. Specifically, how the presentation of the dessert elevated something simple to something special. I will confess that ice cream and gelato are my guilty pleasures in life. I have tasted some delicious gelatos in Europe that needed nothing more than a spoon to make me swoon over them. In South America, and especially in the Galapagos Islands where the following pictures were taken, the ice cream was good, but not spectacular in the taste. Yet, at the time I was eating them, I thought they were great. I realize it was the presentation that elevated the simple ice cream to a special dessert.

Courtesy of The Finch Bay Eco Hotel.

                                       

Courtesy of The Finch Bay Eco Hotel

Courtesy of The Angermeyer Waterfront Hotel

     Now, don't get me wrong. I am not advocating beauty over taste. A bad tasting dessert will always be bad tasting, no matter the presentation. However, I now realize the truth in the saying that we eat with our eyes first. Looking at the pictures that I took of my different ice cream desserts, you will see what I mean.
     At Pattycakes & Cookies, taste and presentation always go hand in hand. Check out our website and see how we can make your next occasion spectacular. www.pattycakesncookies.com

Homemade Fondant

Homemade fondant tastes so much better than the commercial stuff and is a lot cheaper than buying it. I have had a lot of success with Michelle Foster's recipe. And yes, she is a real person. Here is the link to her recipe.
http://cakecentral.com/recipe/michele-fosters-updated-fondant
A couple of quick notes.
Where the recipe call for cream, I use whatever I have on hand, 1/2 & 1/2, milk, heavy cream, doesn't matter. Also I use white chocolate chips in it as the recipe suggests. Don't leave them out, makes a world of difference.
I buy my glycerin at the health food store, I get a big bottle for about $9.
Humidity in the air makes a difference. On humid days, you will probably use all the powdered sugar in the recipe. On dry days, you definitely won't.
If you need a lot of fondant one color, put the color in with the liquids. If not, when you are kneading it on the table, cut off how ever much you need and color it then. Much easier to do it at this stage then after it has cured overnight.

The handbag pictured above is covered in fondant made with the recipe quoted. It was a dream to work with.

How to Make a Gift Box Cake

     I thought I would share with you a simple way to make a stunning presentation of an edible gift box of cake. Bake a 2 layer cake of your choice in whatever size and shape you want your gift box to be. I find square to be the best but it is really a matter of personal choice. After cooling, torte, fill and frost the cake.
     Now the fondant. I make my own, so delicious, it tastes like a Tootsie Roll. I use Michelle Foster's recipe which is easily found on the web. Cut a piece of white fondant to sit on top of the cake. Then I make panels of colored fondant to go around each side of the cake so it looks like a box with seams.I let a little bit of the fondant stick up past the top of the box, maybe 1/4 inch or less. Then decorate the box with whatever you can come up with. I love black polka dots on a pink background.
     Now the lid. This actually should be done a few days ahead of time so the lid has time to dry. (It can even be made weeks ahead of time.) Use the same pan that you used for the cake and turn it over. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap. Roll out a piece of gumpaste in the color of your lid and smooth over the bottom and sides of the pan. Trim the sides to even them out, making the sides about 3/4 inch long. Put aside to dry and then carefully remove it from the pan and allow the inside to dry. Now you have a lid to perfectly fit your cake. Embellish with bows or whatever decoration/bling you want. Make some tissue paper for a realistic touch. The tissue paper is made from thin sheets of gumpaste that I scrunched up and left to dry.
     To assemble, place the tissue paper on top, hanging over the edge somewhat and place the lid on top of that. You can use a dab of melted white chocolate to hold everything together. Add a gift tag and you are done.