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Make your own Christmas Prezzies!
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Thinking of trying to make cake pops. The recipes I'm looking at say you need "frosting", is this icing? Or something different?
yes by frosting they often mean buttercream, usually the more commercial recipes recommend the betty crocker frosting in a tub, however you can make the usual buttercream and it works just as well, and tastes better!Would anybody have any idea where to get the sticks, not online.
If anyone has made these before and has some advice - great!
The sticks can usually be bought in a cake supplies shop like Decobake or kitchen complements in Dublin. It depends where you are in the country. I've not been able to source them in the past and have used thick wooden skewers with the sharpened end cut off for safety, but tbh the real sticks work better.
Tips? Well, they are tricky and time consuming to make, so be prepared. If you are covering them, you can buy "candy melts" in a cake supply shop, again kitchen complements in Dublin have these. I've only ever used coloured White chocolate and milk choc. Cool the cake balls inverted with the stick in them before covering them, and add a little melted choc to the end of the stick before you skewer the ball for added sticky
Then when you want to cover them, melt the choc/melts in a Bain Marie so you can keep the choc liquid. Dip and twist them, working quickly. Look at YouTube tutorials for this. This is an excellent video tutorial.
I also recommend using some styrofoam to hold them upright, although one very smart poster here before mentioned using a large potato, cut in half to stick them into to dry I found that aspect quite tricky in the past, without a solid base to hold them during drying, it can all fall apart.
If all else fails, you can always make "cake truffles", which are non-skewered cake pops. That was the outcome of my first attempt at cake pops, and they are just as tasty, if not quite as pretty!
Finally, get creative with the icing and flavours, crumbed up lemon cake with White choc buttercream for limoncello pops, peanut butter and chocolate crumb cake for snickers/reeses pops, etc. The combinations are endless!
But most of all, don't underestimate the fiddly-ness of cake pops, they require time and care to make them into true pops and not a truffle-tastrophe :P0 -
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You can get icepop sticks in the arts and crafts section in most Euro shops!
If you mean the flat oblong type used in ice lollys, I had no luck at all with them, their large surface area caused the cake pops to crack - did they work for you? I've found only the narrow lollipop type work for me.
Thats a great ideaI love nuts, and after opening a bag of cashew nuts the other night, (approx. e1.70c in Tesco) I threw them into a jar to keep them fresh. The jar was a cute shape, and I had a thought about making those sugary/ honey nuts you can buy at market stalls. Does anyone have any idea on how to do them? The bag of cashews in Tesco would happily fill two cute little jars so it's cheap enough as a gift to put into a hamper. This is a delicious honey roasted peanut recipe that works well, and it would undoubtedly work for cashews too. 0 -
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Thats a great idea This is a delicious honey roasted peanut recipe that works well, and it would undoubtedly work for cashews too.
I am only shortly after my dinner, but the saliva that this recipe produced is shocking! Yum yum yum yum yum :P0 -
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I love nuts, and after opening a bag of cashew nuts the other night, (approx. e1.70c in Tesco) I threw them into a jar to keep them fresh. The jar was a cute shape, and I had a thought about making those sugary/ honey nuts you can buy at market stalls. Does anyone have any idea on how to do them? The bag of cashews in Tesco would happily fill two cute little jars so it's cheap enough as a gift to put into a hamper.
I swear by Smitten Kitchen for most things and she has a candied nut recipe that looks divine (if you're not set on honey).
I've just taken Delia's Christmas cake out of the oven - I baked it in two loaf tins (1lb and 2lb I think) and had them in for 2 hours. They passed all the "ready" tests but I'm still a little nervous* about them being fully done, as she calls for 4+ hours (though for a single deep cake).
Sad to think my kitchen won''t smell this good again for another year!
*Might be just looking for an excuse to *have* to cut one in half to check...0 -
RoseBlossom wrote: »I swear by Smitten Kitchen for most things and she has a candied nut recipe that looks divine (if you're not set on honey).
I've just taken Delia's Christmas cake out of the oven - I baked it in two loaf tins (1lb and 2lb I think) and had them in for 2 hours. They passed all the "ready" tests but I'm still a little nervous* about them being fully done, as she calls for 4+ hours (though for a single deep cake).
Sad to think my kitchen won''t smell this good again for another year!
*Might be just looking for an excuse to *have* to cut one in half to check...
Oh I think you HAVE to do a taste test ;-)0 -
Oh I think you HAVE to do a taste test ;-)
If you knew how little I can resist temptation you wouldn't even joke about it!
The smaller one is making eyes at me...
I have distracted (compromised? :pac:) myself with mulled wine in the meantime, at least it can be enjoyed today!
I think I am going to make Rachel Allen's white chocolate fudge next weekend. I've made it a few times but it has never turned out how I wanted - it is always gritty (like sugar) rather than smooth. I don't think I ever got it to the right temperature, I always chicken out when I see flecks of black appearing. I have since invested in a cast iron skillet so that might be the "heavy bottomed pan" I've been missing out on...0 -
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What's your recipe for the cookies?
Cranberry & White Chocolate Cookies - makes about 3 dozen
2.5 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter
.75 cup "normal" sugar
1 packed cup demerara sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups dried cranberries
1 cup chopped white chocolate
1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour & baking powder.
3. In another bowl, beat the butter for a minute or so until creamy. Add the sugars and beat again until the mixture is pale & fluffy in texture. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour mix a third at a time, beating well after each addition. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the cranberries & chocolate.
5. Drop the cookies by lightly rounded tablespoons onto baking trays lined with parchment paper. Leave a good gap between each of them, as they will spread quite a bit. Bake for 10 - 13 minutes each, switching the positions of the trays halfway through to make sure they brown evenly.
6. Remove from the oven while they're still slightly soft to the touch (you want these to still be chewy when they cool). Leave to rest on the baking tray for 3 minutes, then move to a wire rack.
Thought I had pics of them somewhere, but I can't find 'em. I'll add them later if I do.
Edit: Don't have a "naked" pic of them, but here's how I packaged them for last year's hampers.
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