Butter cream embroidery on fondant covered cake

I made this cake for a friend of mine. I always get fascinated by butter cream embroidery on cakes. Since this is my first project in butter cream embroidery, I wanted to try it on fondant. Fondant is easily stretchable and can be molded into any form. It gives a smooth and silky appearance. You can find the fondant recipe here. Butter cream embroidery is done by outlining the designs with thin consistency butter cream icing. For further details and tutorials visit wilton's website

 

 

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

Ingredients

• For smaller batch
• Mini marshmallow - 1 cup
• Crisco vegetable shortening - 1 tbspn
• Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups
• Water - 1 tbspn
• For bigger batch
• Mini Marshmallow - 16 oz package
• Crisco vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
• Powdered sugar - 2 pounds
• Water - 2- 5 tbspn

Marshmallow Fondant

Method

Melt marshmallows and water in a microwave or double boiler. To microwave, place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted.

Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.

Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle.

Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands.Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking.

If the mix is tearing easily, it is too dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.

It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.

Prepare the fondant icing for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible.

MM Fondant icing will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks.

How to puree tomatoes

How to puree tomatoes

method

1. Wash the tomatoes thoroughly.
2. Boil some water in a stock pot. In another pot prepare ice cold water and set aside.
3. Cut a shallow X at the bottom of the tomato.
4. When the water starts to boil, turn off the stove. Put the tomatoes into the boiled water and leave it for 30 seconds or till the skin starts to loosen up.
5. When the skin starts to loosen take the tomatoes quickly from hot water and place it in the cold water to stop the cooking process. This method of drenching the veggies in boiling water and cooling in ice cold water is called blanching. Blanching helps to stop the enzymes responsible for ripening the fruits and veggies. By blanching the fruits and vegetables, we are preserving their freshness for longer time.
6. Once the tomatoes are cooled, peel the skin and puree it in a blender.

Tomato puree can be stored in the freezer for longer shelf life. It is hard to scoop out the frozen puree so I usually freeze the puree in ice cube trays & store the frozen cubes in a freezer safe container

Curry Leaf Kuzhambu

Ingredients

• Onion - 2 Medium size
• Garlic - 8 pods
• Tomato - 2
• Fresh Curry leaves - 4 cups
• Almond or cashews - 6
• Coconut - 4 pieces
• Poppy Seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Black Pepper - 1 tspn
• Chilli Powder - 1 tspn
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Tamarind - 3 pods or 1/2 tspn paste

health tip

Curry leaves improve functioning of the stomach and small intestine and promote their action. They improve the quality of digestive juices secreted during digestion. Certain ayurvedic research says that curry leaves have some role in controlling non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.

Curry Leaf Kuzhambu

method

1. Chop the onion, tomato and garlic.
2. Grind Curry leaves, Almond or cashews,Coconut, Poppy Seeds, Black Pepper, Chilli Powder, Cumin Seeds and tamarind pods(if using tamarind paste, no need to add it at this stage) into a fine paste.
3. Heat some oil in a pot & season it with mustard & urad dhal. Saute the onion, garlic & tomato till tomato gets mushy.
4. Add the ground paste, half a cup of water & salt to taste.
   Using sesame oil for seasoning gives a nice flavor.
   
5. Cover the pot with lid and let it cook till the oil separates. Stir it from time to time since the gravy settles down and sticks to the pot if unattended.
6. If using tamarind paste, mix in the paste and let it boil for one more minute. Consistency of this kuzhambu is little thinner than chutney.
   This Kuzhambu can be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days. It goes well with rice, Idli & Dosa.
   

Cranberry Puliyodarai

Ingredients

• Cranberry - 1 cup
• Rice - 1 cup
• Channa Dhal - 1 tspn
• Coriander seeds - 1 tspn
• Fenugreek powder - a pinch
• Red chillies - 3 nos
• Sesame oil - 1 tbspn
• Hing - a pinch
• Mustard, Urad dhal & Curry leaves for seasoning

health tip

Cranberries are rich in Vitamin C. Studies show that Cranberries lowers LDL (Bad cholesterol) & increases HDL (good cholesterol) & also helps prevent urinary tract infection.

Cranberry Puliyodarai

method

1. Cook the rice separately. I used Basmati rice but you may use raw rice too. If using raw rice, you might want to increase your cranberry volume by half a cup.
2. Dry roast channa dhal, coriander seeds & 2 red chillies & make a coarse powder.
3. Heat sesame oil in a wide pan & season it with mustard, Urad dhal & curry leaves. Add one broken red chilli, hing, fenugreek powder & cranberry when mustard begins to splutter.
   

   You can also make this paste ahead of time & store it in the fridge for future use.

   
   
4. Add the powdered spices, salt & some jaggery when the cranberry starts to get mushy. Saute all for two additional minutes & turn off the stove.
5. Mix in the rice and add some salt if needed.

Modhagam

Ingredients

• Raw rice - 2 cups
• Moong Dhal - 1/4 cup
• Jaggery - 2 cups
• Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
• Cardamom Powder - a pinch
• Ghee - 4 tspn
• Water - 6 cups

health tip

Modhagam dish has protein from moong dhal, carbohydrate from rice, iron and calcium from Jaggery.

Modhagam

method

1. Wash rice and dhal separately. Drain and spread them separately on a towel and let them dry for 2 hours.
2. Grind the rice and dhal separately to a course powder. Make sure the powder is bit bigger than that of rava or sooji. This mix can also be made ahead of a day but make sure to dry the rice and dhal completely for a day.
3. Heat ghee in a kadai and roast the rice dhal powder together.
4. In another pan heat 6 cups of water and dilute the jaggery. Filter it through a strainer to remove any impurities.
5. Add the filtered jaggery water to the roasted dry mix of rice and dhal.
6. Cover the mixture with a lid and let it cook. Open the lid and mix it from time to time making sure the mix is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.

You may speed up the whole cooking process by pressure cooking the mixture for 4 minutes or until you hear the hissing sound of the first whistle, whichever is earlier. Only two teaspoons of ghee is needed for the pressure cooking method.

7. Mix in the cardamom powder and grated coconut when the rice is cooked. Turn off the stove and let it cool.
8. When completely cooled, make them into small balls and steam it in a steamer or idli pan for 5- 8 minutes.

Red Pepper Chutney

Ingredients

• Red Pepper - 1
• Medium Onion - 1
• Tomato - 1
• Red chilli - 1
• Ginger - 1/4 inch(optional)
• Hing - pinch
• Tamarind - 1 inch piece
• Sesame oil - 3tspn
• Mustard & Urad dhal for seasoning

health tip

Tomato & red pepper are rich in Vitamin C. An anti-oxidant in tomato called lycopene gets concentrated after cooking the tomato. Anti-oxidant helps to prevent cancer.

Red Pepper Chutney

method

Red pepper chutney is a slight twist to tomato chutney. Red pepper adds unique flavor, color & sweetness to the chutney. The flavor & color gets intense when the pepper is roasted in the oven. Halve the pepper & remove the seeds. Place the halved peppers skin side up in a baking sheet & broil them till the skin gets blisters & charred. Put it in a bowl and cover it with a lid till the roasted pepper gets warm to handle. When it is warm remove the skin & dice it to make chutney. Since I had lot of red pepper sitting in my fridge, I wanted to adopt easier version & used fresh ones instead of roasting them. Though the color and flavor was little lighter, it tasted equally good as the roasted version. This chutney can be used as a spread, dip or as a side dish for dosai & idli. I usually freeze the extra chutney for later use.

1. Remove the seeds from the pepper and dice the pepper(if not using roasted ones), onion and tomato.
2. Heat some oil in a pan (reduce the oil if planning to freeze) & season it with mustard, urad dal & hing.
3. Add the diced veggies along with red chilli, ginger & tamarind. Saute the mixture till the veggies get tender. Let it cool.
4. Grind to a fine paste when cooled. Add salt to taste and the chutney is ready to serve.
5. This recipe is little milder. You may want to adjust the number of chilli to suit your taste.