There’s more to craft stores these days than plaster of Paris.
Among the faux flowers and oil paints, you’ll find an entire aisle of cake-decorating paraphernalia. The array of products, from powdered meringue to paste food coloring, can be a little intimidating, but they do what they say they do. With a little imagination, some do quite a bit more.
Remember those little tubes of colored gel you saw years ago on the baking aisle at the grocery store? “Yes, that was about 1973, the last time I made a cake,” you say. Well, what if I told you that the 1990s version–called piping gel–can glaze poached fruit or a store-bought cheesecake?
Rolled fondant, a confection that, when rolled out, can be used to decorate cakes or shape into flowers, also makes dandy molded cookies or little edible placecards.
And butter flavor extract can flavor things other than cakes and frostings.
Here’s a short introduction to some of these products–convenience products, really, for the cake-decorating set–and ways you might use them beyond cakes. Look for them at cake decorating stores such as Wilton, with a store in Darien. Other stores that carry cake-decorating supplies include Michael’s Arts and Crafts, JCPenney, Frank’s Nursery and Crafts, Wal-Mart and Lechter’s Housewares; supplies vary.
Meringue powder: Made of dried egg whites, food starch and sugar, it whips up like real egg whites, only lighter. Never quite as flavorful and dense as the real thing, it nevertheless provides a good substitute if raw eggs are a concern. Plus, it’s more stable. It comes in 4- and 8-ounce canisters, priced about $4.50 and $7, respectively. To make meringue kisses, heat oven to 150 degrees to 175 degrees. Follow the recipe on the powdered meringue container for cold meringue, whipping until stiff but not dry. Put the meringue in a piping bag without a tip–the 1/2-inch or so opening will do just fine. On a cookie sheet covered with non-stick paper, pipe 2-inch circles, fill them in and build them up to a point on top so they look like “kisses.” Place in the oven with the door slightly ajar 1 to 2 hours until hardened. Remove to cool.
Serve as they are, or dust with a little cocoa. Or sandwich the bottoms of 2 together with some melted chocolate. These meringues can also be shaped like pastry shells instead of kisses to form the base of tarts or cakes. One recipe on a canister (about 4 tablespoons of powder) makes about 96 kisses.
Rolled fondant: Even if you’re not the crafty type, you can easily shape this sugar-based confection into placecards or press it into molds for cookies. It comes in white blobs that you tint with food-paste coloring. One block of fondant, rolled out, will cover an 8-inch cake. The blobs come in 32-ounce boxes for about $4.50 each.
One idea is to make fondant placecards: Break off some small pieces of fondant and knead food-paste coloring into them. To do flowers, color some pink and some green. Roll out remaining fondant to about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 1 1/2- by 3-inch rectangles. Decorate with bits of the remaining fondant shaped like clay into leaves and flower petals. Or use items such as beads, buttons or the tops of forks to press a design into the edge for a border. Set on a cool rack for 1 to 2 days until they are dry to the touch. Do not put in a drafty spot or they may crack. When dry, write names or your message on the placecard with a non-toxic pen.
Piping gel: You can use this combination of gelatin and sugar to glaze just about anything sweet. It’s relatively flavorless and comes clear in a 10-ounce tub for about $3.25. For color, you add food-paste coloring to the amount of the gel you need. Then pipe it on with a pastry bag or even brush it on like paint. It dries at room temperature.
For glazed berries or whole fruit, color piping gel with food-paste coloring if you wish. Thin the gel with a little lemon juice until you have a brushable consistency. Brush onto clean, dry fruit and allow to dry at room temperature 1 hour.
Flavorings: These come in a handful of flavors, including almond, clear vanilla, coconut, rum and butter. They’re usually used to flavor icings and cakes, but you can use them in any recipe calling for flavor extracts. The flavors come in 2-ounce bottles for about $1.80 each.
Candy melts: These bags of flavored pellets that look and feel like chocolate are made of vegetable and palm oils, sugar, emulsifiers and milk solids. Flavors include chocolate, mint, cherry and white chocolate. A pound of pellets costs from $2 to $2.50.
Color-Flo: Mixed with water, this powder turns into a diluted version of royal icing. You can “float” or pour the color on top of a cookie. It comes in a 4-ounce canister for about $7.
Food-paste coloring: These thick colorings are more intense than the watered-down versions in the grocery store. Use a tiny amount; a dab on the end of a toothpick is enough to color most items. They cost $1.50 to $2.25 for a 1-ounce bottle.
CHEESECAKE FRUIT GLAZE
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 12 servings
1 cup piping gel (tinted with food-paste coloring, if desired)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 cups fresh fruit, such as strawberries, kiwi or thinly sliced peaches
1 ready-made cheesecake
1. Mix gel, lemon juice and honey. Arrange clean, dry fruit on top of cheesecake. Spoon gel mixture over fruit.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories….385 Fat……………21 g Cholesterol…..50 mg
Sodium…190 mg Carbohydrates…..39 g Protein………..5 g
