Ok guys, if you have not signed up for our newsletter yet then you are missing out ! Here is the latest project that Susan Carberry put together for The Cake Cottage Newsletter.  We will be putting more and more info in our newsletters so don’t miss out on great projects like this and tip and tricks to help you on your cake decorating skills…..Pete

Bird House Cookie

By

Susan Carberry

The Cake Cottage

Supply List

Sugar Cookie Dough (see recipe and baking  hints)

Bird House Cookie Cutter

Small Round Cutter (to cut out the hole in the center)

Veining Tool

Knife and scriber tool

Fondant : Pastel Yellow, and a very small amount of black

( Call us for availability)

Canary Yellow Luster Dust

Decorator Tips: # 2, # 3, # 5 and #  349

Icing bags

Icing bags

Royal Icing ;’ light blue, electric green, avocado green, yellow and pink

Sugar Birds

General tools, spatula, rolling pin, scissors, cornstarch puff

Sugar Cookie Recipe
Makes approx 3 Dozen 5” Cookies

Ingredients:

2 Cups Unsalted Butter
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tsp Lemon Extract (or flavor of choice)
5 ½ to 6 Cups All Purpose Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt

Directions:

In at least a 5qt mixer or a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Then add the eggs, mix.  Add  vanilla and Lemon extract, mix.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.  Gradually add to the butter mixture until incorporated.  For 3D cookies it is best to hold back a bit on the flour (5 ¼ or 5 ½  cups). Scrape bowl and mix until dough comes together.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Roll out cookies on parchment paper, cut shapes leaving space between the cookies, then place the parchment paper with the cookies onto a  cookie sheet.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees in a regular oven or 300-325 degrees in a convection oven until golden brown around the edges.

Cookie Baking Tips

1 – Roll your dough out onto a piece of parchment paper.  This way you do not need to place any flour under the dough, as the extra flour can cause it to dry out.

2 – Roll out the dough between two dowels or thick skewers for a consistent cookie shape and size.  Another option is using a wood rolling that has wood spacers on the side.

3 – Place the same or similar sized cookies on the same tray to ensure proper baking times as the smaller cookies will bake faster.

4 – Royal Iced Cookies – Use a Tip #3 and  stiff royal icing to pipe an outline around the edge of the cookie.  Then, thin  down the icing, place in a bag without a tip, cut off end and flood the center of the cookie.  note: For cookies that do not have a lot of detail or small areas, you can spread the icing with a Spatula if it is the correct consistency and you do not need to outline the cookie first.

5 – Fondant Covered Cookies – attach the Fondant using  water, shortening.or Piping  Gel.

Instructions

Step 1

After your cookie has cooled,  knead your Yellow Fondant to give it elasticity (while kneading use a bit of shortening on your hands and work surface to prevent sticking).  Dust your counter with the Cornstarch Puff and place the Yellow Fondant on top of the cornstarch, begin  to roll out the Fondant.

Roll your Fondant approx 1/8th of an inch thick and cut out the shape using your Bird House Cutter.

Brush the back of the Fondant with water, then place the Fondant on top of the cookie with the water side down.  Smooth the surface.

Step 2

Cut out a small whole just below the roof line using the small Circle Cutter.  Roll out a bit of Black Fondant, cut out a circle using the same round cutter.  Brush the back of the circle with water and place inside the round opening on the cookie.

Step 3

Using the Veining Tool, draw lines from the top of the cookie down to the bottom, approximately 1/2 an inch apart.  This creates the wood  planks.  Using  the Knife Tool, draw random lines up and down in various lengths on the wood planks. This will give you the wood grain look.

Step 4

For the perch, roll a small ball of Yellow  Fondant  into a tube shape and attach using water, just below  the Black Fondant .

Step 5

With a dry brush and Canary Yellow Luster Dust, brush the Yellow  Fondant  to give a variation of color.

Step 6

With light blue royal icing and a Tip # 5, pipe a zig zag pattern from one end of the roof line to the other end. Using the same bag and tip, pipe a zig zag on the base the bird house.

Step 7

Use Tip #2 and Electric Green Icing to pipe random vines. Using Tip # 349 and Avocado Green Icing, pipe leaves on the vine.

Step 8

Flowers ; using  Tip #3 and Pink Icing, pipe a small  balloon shape for each petal (hold the tip at a 45 degree angle and slightly off the surface, pipe and let the icing build up moving the tip up with the icing but still keeping it slightly imbedded in the icing, Once the icing  has built up a bit, then lower your tip, relax your pressure and drag  the tip at the end). Pipe five petals for each flower with the small ends of the balloons meeting in the middle.  Fill a small bag with Yellow Royal Icing and cut a small amount off of the end.  Pipe centers of the flowers with the bag at a 90 degree angle to the surface.

Step 9

Attach the sugar bird using a bit of royal icing. There you have it. Now go show your friends and watch them be amazed……..!!

 

 

 

Hey guys,

Just wanted to point out to you all that we have 2 amazing instructors coming to teach at The Cake Cottage in the next two months. First up we have Charity George. Now she can show you how to make your cakes taste just fantastic and for those of you who would like to learn about gluten free baking then does she have a class for you. Here is some info on her and her classes:

 

Charity Pykles-George is a Pastry Chef and Cake Artist in San Diego, CA.  She specializes in chocolate and sugar art particularly with regards to wedding, specialty and extreme cakes. She has also specialized in baking and cooking for those with food allergies and sensitivities. Charity owns d’Zrt Cake Studio in La Mesa, CA.

Charity is a native of Southern California and was raised in San Diego.   She wrecked 2 Easy Bake Ovens as a child so her mother decided to teach her to cook on the “big oven”.  By age 12 she had “tapped out” her mother and grandmother’s cooking knowledge so she resorted to reading cookbooks (which you can still find her doing if she gets 2 seconds of spare time).  During her senior year of High School she went to work for a local cake shop where she cut, filled, iced, delivered and occasionally got to decorate cakes.

She attended Brigham Young University for her freshman year of college, and then attended Le Cordon Bleu in London & Paris and Le Ritz Esscoffier in Paris but did not finish her degree there.  After returning to the States she gained experience in the “corporate world” in graphic design, marketing, advertising, radio, film & TV.

Charity continued throughout her career to teach baking, pastry and culinary skills in the private sector and created cakes for friends and family.  She created “cooking clubs” in each city she lived in, most of which are still holding meetings monthly.  After a 15 year “culinary school hiatus”, during which she married, had 3 children, divorced and moved back to San Diego, Charity went back to school to finish her Culinary degree in Baking and Pastry Arts.

For the last 6 years she has worked exclusively with cakes and has been a contestant on TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off twice in season 2; winning the taste competition, and was most recently featured on TLC’s Fabulous Cakes and the Niecy Nash Wedding Bash.  She has been a judge at numerous cake shows/contests and teaches sugar arts across the country.

So check out her classes on our schedule and learn something new.

 

Next up we have Peggy Tucker. She will be teaching Isomalt like you have been asking for. Here is a little info on her:

 

 

 

 

 

Hey guys, I just wanted to give you a heads up on some great Free info today. On November 19th we are having a Cake Class on Isomalt Sugar with guest instructor, Peggy Tucker. She knows a ton about working with sugar, and in our class she will teach you sugar, pouring, casting, and basic pulling techniques plus a whole bunch of other things as well,…..all the details of the class are on our Classes Schedule, if you want to take you skills to the next level this is the class for you. Now here is the Free part. Peggy just did an interview on “CakeFu Master Series” ( Susan did one of these earlier this year on extreme cake infrastructure) and right now you can go and watch it and learn about Peggy and how she creates some of her amazing Sugar Art…….so go take a look and start learning………….here is the link to her interview…..Cakefu Master Series Remember seating will be limited in this class so sign up as soon as you can……….Pete