Bite-size Checkerboard and Zebra stripes cookies

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoon Hershey's cocoa powder

DIRECTIONS:
Cream butter and sugar till the mixture is fluffy. Add vanilla and mix it again. Gradually add flour, scraping down sides of bowl.
Make it into dough and knead dough well for about 1 to 2 minutes. Divide dough in half. Add the cocoa powder over one of the halves. Knead until cocoa has been fully incorporated.
Place each half of the kneaded dough between two sheets of parchment paper and with a rolling pin, shape dough into two 4-inch squares, about 3/8 inch thick. Using a sharp knife and a ruler, slice each square into 3/4-inch-wide strips (9 of them).

Cover work surface with plastic wrap. Place three strips of dough on plastic, alternating white and chocolate strips. Gently press strips together. Repeat, forming second and third layers, alternating colors to create a checkerboard effect. Wrap assembled log in plastic. Refrigerate for around 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice each log into 1-inch slices; place on baking sheet. Bake until done, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven, and let cookies cool.

For the zebra stripes effect, you have to just alternately place the vanilla and chocolate strips over one another and refrigerate the log and then cut into 1-inch slices.

This recipe is adapted from www.marthastewart.com/314590/checkerboard-cookies
I cut down the original recipe into half and made some changes for these bite-sized snacks.

Flower Sugar Cookies

For these cookies I used the "No fail sugar cookies" recipe on the Cake Central; it is one of the best sugar cookies I have ever tried. The ingredient measurements are so perfect that the cookies taste heavenly good. I had to try my new Wilton flower cookie pops pan so I baked the cookies in that pan and hence they are so big in size. They are decorated with royal icing. I had cut down the original recipe to half as the original recipe makes 5 dozen cookies. This dough yielded me around 16 flower cookies of around 3.5-4 inches each.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

DIRECTIONS:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together. Chill for 1 hour. Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees F  for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. If you are using the Wilton flower cookie pop pan, just pat the dough in the pan and let it bake for the same time and temperature.

Pirate Ship Cake

This is the cake I made for a 3-year-old girl. It had to be a pirate ship cake. The cake is basically a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and chocolate buttercream covering. I had baked two 9-inches square cakes and refrigerated them after cooling down overnight. That helps to carve the cake easily as it becomes more firm. With the help of an iron I had drawn the template (shape of the iron) on a paper. I placed the paper on each of the cakes and carved out the shape with a sharp knife. I glued both of these cakes using the chocolate mousse. Then with the leftovers of the cake, I created a small raised deck on the back side of the ship and glued it again with the chocolate mousse. After this, I covered the whole cake with chocolate buttercream. To give it a more ship like effect, I drew the ridges on the sides and also the planks on the top of the deck using a butterknife. With black buttercream, I piped out the rings on the side of the boat.

The chocolate gold coins were used as treasure (got them in the candy section at Wegmans) and the gobstopper candies as the cannon balls. The sails were paper-crafted by me by printing out the required design and putting them into skewers. I had got the pirate figurines from Party City. After placing all the toppers, I just piped out the blue buttercream with tip #21 around the ship to give the water effect.

Modelling Chocolate Roses

This was just some experimenting with the leftover modelling chocolate. I had watched some online videos on youtube regarding making the modelling chocolate roses and wanted to give it a try. They were pretty easy to make especially after watching the videos. I have already shared the recipe for the modelling chocolate in the blog in earlier post.

First knead your modelling chocolate paste well and make it smooth. Then take a small piece of the modelling chocolate and roll it into a ball of about a small marble size. Make this ball into a cone shape and let it sit on parchment/wax paper. Then take another small marble size ball of the chocolate and roll it into a D shape, thinning out the edges to give it a look of petal. Attach this petal as to cover the whole cone. Trim off if there is any extra chocolate. Again take another small ball and roll it into a D shape thinning out the edges. Then just curve the petal in the middle and also slightly roll it back at the edges to give it a natural look. Attach this petal to the covered cone and bring it over the cone but not fixing it completely. Repeat the procedure for the petals and go on tucking each petal inside the previous one till you get the desired size rose. Around 10-12 petals give you a big rose. Its much easier if you watch the videos and do it instead of understanding it by reading. This is surely a great start for decorating some cakes in creative way!!

Chocolate Ganache Cake

This is a chocolate cake filled and frosted with chocolate ganache and modelling chocolate decorations. I tried out the chocolate ganache for the first time for this cake, it turned out very good. I followed the recipe from one of my favorite site www.joyofbaking.com which I am going to share below.

INGREDIENTS:

For Chocolate cake:
1 cup sugar
1 whole egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels

For Chocolate ganache:
8 ounces semisweet chocolate (chopped)
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla essence (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In another bowl mix eggs, milk, oil and beat well for about 2 mins. Add the dry ingredients to these wet ingredients and mix well. Then add the boiling water and stir well for another 2-3 minutes. The batter will be thin. Stir in the chocolate morsels and pour the batter into 7 inch greased and lined cake pan. Bake for around 25-30 min or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For the ganache, take the chopped semisweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Take the heavy cream and butter in a saucepan and heat over the stove until it just begins to boil. Pour this onto the chocolate and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then gently stir the mixture until well incorporated.DO NOT BEAT THE MIXTURE. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it on the counter overnight if you want to frost the cake so that it thickens. If it does not thicken, you may put it into the refrigerator for about 1-2 hours before frosting the cake. You can also immediately pour the ganache on the cake if you like but it is very thin and liquid; so place your cake on the wire racks and then pour the ganache over the cake.

For the modelling chocolate bows, I watched some youtube videos and followed them for decorating my cake.

Strawberry mousse

We had picked up some strawberries this weekend and I decided to try my hand over making strawberry mousse. I always used instant strawberry mousse for filling the cakes until now as I had never made homemade strawberry mousse. After trying this recipe out I am so happy that I will now use this recipe whenever I have to use it in any recipes.


INGREDIENTS:
1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and cut in half
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup chilled heavy cream
1/2  tbsp unflavored gelatin (1/2 envelope)
1/4 cup cold water

METHOD:
Put the strawberries in the blender and grind it to puree. Add the sugar and lemon juice. Sprinkle gelatin over the cold water for five minutes. Melt the gelatin by placing it in the double boiler over boiling water. Once melted, take it out of heat, do not overheat. Stir the gelatin into the strawberry puree and let it cool until a bit thick. Till it cools down, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the puree into the whipped cream with a spatula until well incorporated (make sure the puree has cooled down and at room temperature). Put it into the serving bowls or dishes and refrigerate it for about an hour before serving.

Yields around 2 cups of strawberry mousse.

Royal icing butterflies

I followed the Wilton's royal icing recipe but cut it down to 1/4 measure as I was going to try this icing for the first time. I took 1 cup confectioner's sugar, 1 tbsp meringue powder, 1 1/4 tsp + 2 tsp water(for thin consistency) and mixed this with a hand-held mixer for around 7-10 mins. I wanted it a bit flowy so I went on adding water 1/4 tsp at a time till I reached the desired consistency.

For the butterflies, I drew a template of the butterfly and then copied it on several wax papers. For the colors, you divide the icing into three parts and color them yellow, green, and blue. Be sure to cover your icing with damp cloth to prevent it from drying. Fill out the decorating bags with respective icings with the tip# 3 attached. Once you have filled out the icing into the decorating bags, keep the bags inside the damp cloth and covered continously. Then pipe out the icing on the butterfly with one color at a time. Once you have done that, using a toothpick run it along the wings in outward direction to get the design on the butterflies.

As I had not used any molds for butterflies, they are a bit out of shape I guess and also I needed a more flowy consistency of the icing to give more smoother effect for the wings. Will do that next time for sure!! Enjoy decorating your butterflies!!