Fondant Christmas Figurines

A friend of mine held her daughter's 5th Birthday Party just before Christmas and the Birthday girl wanted a Christmas Party! What fun...Christmas just before Christmas!

She asked me to make her some Christmas figurines for her daughters Birthday Cake, which was a beautiful Gingerbread House (she baked it herself). I decided to make Santa, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and a Snowman.

HOW TO MAKE A FONDANT SANTA CLAUSE



You will need:

Red fondant
Light pink or skin coloured fondant
White fondant
Black fondant
Yellow fondant
Pearl luster dust
Edible glue














Make Santa's hat with red fondant, add a white fondant ball to the top. Let it dry. Form his body, arms and legs out of red fondant and let dry. Attach some hands from pink fondant. Make a belt from the black fondant and a buckle with the yellow and attach to the body. Add white to the bottom of his jacket, sleeves and pants. Make his head out of the light pink or flesh coloured fondant. Attach head to body with small dowel stick or kebab scewer (just remember to tell the mom that there is a stick in the figurine) Make small "snakes" out of the white fondant and attach to face with edible glue, also make some hair out of the white fondant and attach to back of head. You can attach the hat once the hair is dry. Add eyes to face. Dust beard with pearl luster dust for that magical glow!

I made a bag of gifts for Santa out of green fondant and added a red fondant bow and a tag with the Birthday girl's name on it.

                    

HOW TO MAKE A FONDANT RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER

You will need:

Brown fondant
Black fondant
White fondant
Red fondant
Green fondant
Edible glue















Form Reindeer head, body, arms and legs out of brown fondant. Let the arms, legs and head dry completely before you attach it to the body. The scarf I made out of red and green fondant that I rolled out into thin "snakes" and put them next to each other, then rolled them with a rolling pin. Attach scarf to neck. Attach eyes, mouth and nose to face. Make some antlers out of black fondant and attach to head.

I made some carrots with orange and green fondant. Reindeers have to have their carrots!

HOW TO MAKE A FONDANT SNOWMAN

You will need:

White fondant
Green fondant
Red fondant
Black fondant
Orange fondant
















Make three balls out of the white fondant. Let them dry completely before attaching to each other. Make a hat out of the green fondant, make some decoration for your hat from white and red fondant. I like the red and white trimming on the hat as it had the candy cane colours. I made our snowman a red scarf and put it around his neck. Attach some coal (black fondant) eyes and a orange fondant carrot for his nose.

I also made a few candy canes for her to put around the cake. They are pretty easy to make, just roll out "snakes" of fondant, and put two colours together. Shape the candy cane and let dry. I made some white ones which I dusted with silver luster dust.

It was alot of fun to make, but very difficult in this heat! I think it came out pretty cute in the end and the Birthday girl just loved it! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Baby Gender Reveal Cupcakes

It is so much fun to reveal your unborn baby's gender in a creative way! There is so many ways that you can do the reveal, but I think something sweet like cupcakes are a great way to break the great news! This way everyone can share in your happy news and "discover" the secret at the same time.

A few days ago I went for our gender ultrasound.  Unfortunately hubby could not come with me as he had to work, I decided to find out what the baby's gender is, and then I went home to bake these cute cupcakes that will reveal the gender to hubby and our dear son....

When hubby and our son came home that afternoon, I gave them each a cupcake and told them to guess what the baby will be? They bit into the cupcake and it revealed.......

It's a BOY!!! Yes we are going to have a beautiful baby boy! We are so excited. My son is absolutely ecstatic that he is getting a brother :) and hubby is over the moon with another boy! Mommy can't wait to meet my little little guy!

Vanilla Cupcakes

1/2 cup white Sugar
1/3 cup soft Unsalted Butter
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cups Self Raising Flour
1/2 cup Milk

Cream the Butter and Sugar together till light and fluffy. Beat in the Eggs and stir in the Vanilla.
Add the Flour to the mixture and mix well. Stir in Milk and beat till smooth.

Spoon half of the cupcake mixture into another bowl - add pink or blue (blue in my case) food colouring to half the mixture. Spoon blue mixture into cupcake liners and then top with vanilla mixture.

Bake for 15-20 mins at 180 degrees Celsius, until a test pin comes out clean.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ice (frost) with any colour icing that you like and put in a pretty cupcake papers. Decorate in any way you like. I frosted my cake in purple icing and decorated with a sugar flower and blue and pink glitter.

              

Plenty to go around........have everyone share in your wonderful news!!

Animal Baby Shower Cake

I recently organised a Surprise Baby Shower for my friend Hanna and decided to make her a special cake for the occasion. She loves the idea of animals for the baby room, so I thought I would make the cake to fit her theme. I made a Jungle themed/Safari themed Animal Cake with Fondant Animals and a Fondant Baby in a crib.

Animal Baby Shower Cake

 For the cake I made a Simple White Cake that is very moist, but firm.

Simple White Cake Recipe

1 cup white Sugar
1/2 cup Butter (soft)
2 Eggs
2 tbsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour
1/2 cup Milk (full fat or reduced fat)

Cream the Butter and Sugar together till light and fluffy. Beat in the Eggs and stir in the Vanilla. Add the Flour
to the mixture and mix well. Stir in Milk and beat till smooth.

Bake for 30-40 mins at 180 degrees celcius (9x9 inch round pan)

I made 2 cakes for this cake - so above recipe times two!


Fondant Animals


How to make a Fondant Zebra

Fondant Zebra

You need
White fondant
Black fondant
Edible glue

Form head and body out of white fondant. Roll out a piece of black fondant and cut zebra stripes out of fondant. Stick to body with edible glue. Make hair and feet out of black fondant and pupils for eyes.

Zebra from fondant

Fondant zebra stripes

How to make a Fondant Giraffe

Fondant Giraffe

 



You need
Yellow fondant
Brown fondant
Edible glue

Form the head and body with yellow fondant. Make some spots with the brown fondant. Make the circles for the feet and the horns with brown fondant. Stick horns to head with edible glue and spots to body with edible glue.


How to make a Fondant Elephant

Baby elephant from fondant

You need
Blue fondant
White fondant
Grey fondant
Black fondant
Edible glue
Blue Edible marker

Make the head and body out of the blue fondant. Form legs and trunk out of blue fondant. Let trunk dry before attaching it to the head. Form inner ears out of grey fondant. Make baby bib out of white fondant and feet and toe nails out of white fondant. Black fondant for eye pupils.

Fondant Baby Elephant

Elephant from fondant

How to make a Fondant Lion

Lion out of fondant

You need
Yellow fondant
Orange fondant
Black and white fondant
Edible glue
Black edible pens

Form the head and body of the lion out of yellow fondant.
Roll out orange fondant and cut into strips of 1cm. Cut slits into strips. Attach to head with edible glue as mane. Orange for feet.
Use black for nose and eyes and black pen for details.
White for eyes.



How to make Fondant Baby in Baby crib

You need
Flesh colour fondant
White fondant
Blue fondant
Green fondant
Orange fondant
Edible glue
Edible pens

Form baby out of flesh colour fondant, add white diaper with blue pin and blue dummy.
You can make the crib by rolling out long "snakes" of orange fondant. Stick them together with edible glue to form a bassinet.
Make little bunny out of white fondant. Add details with edible pens. I kept it rustic looking, that is why the bunny is not perfect :)
Roll out green fondant and cut out leave shapes with leave cutter, add details and let dry.
Put it all together and put leaves over baby for a blanky.

How to make Chocolate Truffles?

Want to make some quick and easy treats that look and taste real good, why not try to make some Chocolate Truffles?

HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

I always thought it was really difficult to make Chocolate Truffles, but once you get the ganache right (don't worry ganache is just chocolate melted with double cream,) the rest is easy, and the ideas are unlimited. I had a lot of fun playing around with different flavours.

This recipe can be used to make all sort of truffles, the basis stays the same, only the flavourings and chocolate type will change.

200g Milk Chocolate/Dark Chocolate/Milk Chocolate
1/4 cup Double Cream
flavouring (anything from teas, coffees, spices, liqueur etc)
Nuts/coconut/coco powder etc. to roll truffles in
(if you use liqueur or alcohol to flavour the ganache, don't use more than 3 tsps)

Grate or break chocolate into small pieces. Place in heatproof bowl.
Heat up the double cream in a pan till just about to boil (the edges will starts boiling). Pour the cream over  the chocolate pieces.
Stir gently till all the chocolate have melted and is smooth. If there is still solid pieces of chocolate, put the bowl over simmering water (not touching the water) until all the chocolate have melted.
Stir in the flavouring.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Allow the ganache to firm up in a container, preferably deep rather than shallow. Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop up room temperature ganache and roll the balls between your palms to round them off. Roll in nuts/Coconut/coco powder etc. and place on tray till set. Once set you can put them in small cupcake papers.

Makes about 20 truffles.


CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER TRUFFLES


Use Milk Chocolate and 3 tbsp Crunchy Peanut Butter. Coco Powder to roll truffles in.

 WHITE CHOCOLATE NOUGAT AND COCONUT TRUFFLES

Use White Milk Chocolate. Chopped nuts (macadamia, pecan, cashew) and chopped nougat pieces. 1 tbsp Coconut extract. Grated coconut for top.

CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA TRUFFLES

Use Milk Chocolate. Blend White Chocolate, Tobelerone and Macadamia nuts to fine and use for rolling.

HOW TO MAKE HONEYCOMB COVERED IN CHOCOLATE
(CHOCOLATE CRUNCHIES)


1 cup Granulated White Sugar
3 tbsp Runny Honey or Golden Syrup
3 tbsp Water
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Put the sugar, honey/syrup and water into pan and gently bring to boil. Do not stir. Gently boil till all sugar has dissolved, it takes about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda, work quick. The mixture will bubble up when you add the bicarbonate of soda. Pour into heatproof dish that is lined with parchment paper. Let completely dry before you cut or break into pieces.

Can be enjoyed just like it is, or dipped in chocolate. Makes about 10 honeycombs.

 

 


I decided to dip mine in chocolate as it reminded me of a favourite South African chocolate of mine called Chruncies.

Now this was a true "Death by Chocolate" experience  for me, thank you ladies for a great challenge. I cannot wait to start with the September 2011 Challenge!

SpongeBob Birthday Cake

I made this Spongebob Cake for my son's 7th Birthday Party. He wanted SpongeBob with his Pineapple House, his pet snail Gary and his friends Patrick Star and Squidward Tenticles. I decided to make the whole scene into a birthday celebration, with little party hats, cupcakes, cake and party blowers.

I decided to add a bit of irony and let Squidward jump out of a birthday cake. I also made Plankton who is seen running away from the party with a Krabby Patty.

It took me 35 long hours to complete the cake, but at the end it was worth it, just for the look on my son's face!

SpongeBob and Friends Birthday Cake

The square cake is a Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream icing and covered with fondant. The pineapple house is a Vanilla Cake with Coconut Buttercream icing and covered with fondant. I baked it in a giant muffin pan and then sculpted it into a pineapple.


VANILLA CAKE

2 1/2 cups (625ml) Self Raising Flour
2 cups (500ml) Sugar
4 large Eggs
1 cup (250ml) Milk
1/4 cup (65ml) Vegetable Oil
1 tsp (5ml) Pure Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
Mix the eggs and sugar together till thick.
Add the flour, milk, oil and vanilla
Beat till smooth and creamy. Pour into two prepared round cake tins (20cm)

Bake for 30-40 mins. It is done when a test pin comes out clean.

LET THE CAKE COOL COMPLETELY

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM ICING

2 cups (500ml) Icing Sugar
125g Unslated Soft Butter
1 tsp Vanilla extract

COCONUT BUTTERCREAM ICING

2 cups (500ml) Icing Sugar
125g Unslated Soft Butter
1 tsp Coconut extract
You can add a tbsp schreded coconut

All figurines are hand sculpted and totally edible.

 

SpongeBob with fondant

To set the party mood I made Spongebob with a funky party hat and a plate of yummy cupcakes.



SpongeBob's Pineapple house from fondant

Patrick made with fondant

Instead of giving Patrick a party hat, I decided to put a dripping ice cream cone on his head. If you watch Spongebob, you will know why ;) I thought this just added to his personality.



Squidward made with fondant



Squidward jumping out of a birthday cake, now isn't that something! I thought it would be a funny twist. The cake was made with covering a small round plastic container with fondant. Let dry. If you want this to be edible, remove the container. I decorated the cake with royal icing, which basically dries instantly and hard!

Gary the snail made from fondant

Gary the Snail

I made a little bowl for Gary, so he can have his piece of cake too!  

Plankton with Krabby Patty

Plankton with Krabby Patty and Jelly fish

I just love Plankton, so I decided to invite him to the party, little did I know he was going to run away with a Kraby Patty! Maybe the jellyfish stung him on his way out....anyway we all know Plankton is 1% evil and 99% hot gas :) so he might still return the patty!

I must say I really enjoyed creating the cake, it was hard work but it was worth it in the end.

SpongeBob Party Invites with SpongeBob Cookies

I just wanted to show you how the finished SpongeBob Party Invites looked like that I made for my son's Birthday Party. Each child recieved a cool SpongeBob cookie with their invite!

SpongeBob Sugar Cookies with fondant

SpongeBob Cookies

I made these SpongeBob Squarepants Cookies for my son's class as part of his invites for his SpongeBob Birthday Party. They were such a hit among the kids and the parents wished they got some too... ;)

I know this blog is all about easy, and this is pretty easy to make but I must admit it is time consuming, so do start early and also remember the fondant/sugar paste parts can be made in advance and stored in a airtight container till later.



Spongebob Cookies with fondant

SPONGEBOB COOKIES

2 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour
1 cup Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups White Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to (190 degrees C (375 degrees F) C
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
You can use immediately!
Roll out the dough on a well floured survice till about 3mm thick. Use cookie cutter to cut out rectangular shapes.
Place on prepared baking tray and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden. Cool on wire rack.

Fondant SpongeBob Cookie

 DECORATING SPONGEBOB COOKIES

You will need premade fondant in Yellow, White, Red and Blue. I flavoured the Yellow fondant with banana flavouring. You can also use sugar paste for this - it will dry harder.
A black edible marker
Edible glue

SpongeBob's body
Roll out your yellow fondant about 2mm thick, cut into rectangles with knife or cookie cutter - preferably the cookie cutter that you used for your cookies.
Using a tool with round tip, make some "sponge holes" in his body.

SpongeBob's face
Take some yellow fondant and form a nose by rolling a small ball into a small "log"
Roll out the red fondant 1mm thick and cut out circles. Then cut the circles in half and attach to SpongeBob' body with edible glue. This will be the mouth.
Cut out little ties from the red fondant.
Roll out white fondant till 1mm thick and cut out small strips and then cut it into small squares for his buck teeth. Stick teeth on mouth with edible glue.
Cut out small circles from white fondant and attach to SpongeBob's face with edible glue.
Take a small piece of blue fondant and roll into a little ball, flatten slightly. Stick onto the white of SpongeBob's eye with edible glue.

Spongebob's clothes
Cut small rectangles out of the white fondant attach onto SpongBob's body for a shirt. Stick the red tie onto the white shirt with edible glue.

Finishing touches
Use black edible marker to draw eye lashes and a dot on the blue fondant for his pupil.
Let dry overnight and enjoy!

SpongeBob Cookies