SNOWFLAKES!

It's Christmas time and what better thing to decorate cakes, cupcakes, and cookies with than snowflakes. Also popular in the last few years have been "Frozen" and "Elsa" cakes. Snowflakes are the perfect way to finish these off or to add a quick pretty topper for cupcakes swirled with blue and white buttercream. I have several ways that I make snowflakes to decorate my creations - molds, fondant cutters, plunger cutters - but one of my favorite ways to make snowflakes is just to pipe them on a board using royal icing or melted chocolate. I like chocolate best because... well because it's chocolate and it just tastes better. They also set up quicker with a little help from the freezer. These snowflakes sometimes look more delicate than the cutter ones and are really easy to make. Start with a simple snowflake design, and duplicate as many as you want onto a page. You can download this pattern sheet of my favorite snowflakes to use if you wish. These should fill an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. 

I tape my pattern sheet to a cardboard cake board, then tape a piece of wax paper over the the pattern sheet, fastening it on the back of the cake board. Now you can pipe the snowflakes directly onto the piece of wax paper. Fit a decorating bag with a #2 tip or cut a small opening in the tip of a parchment bag. Fill your bag no more than half full with icing or melted chocolate and carefully pipe over the snowflake designs.  If you make a mistake, go ahead and scrape it off and do it over again. If you are using melted chocolate, you can pop the board into the freezer for a few minutes until the snowflakes are set. If using royal icing, just let the snowflakes set until hard. Then, carefully remove the tape from the back of the board, put your hand under the wax paper, and gently loosen the snowflakes. Then carefully pull each off and set aside until needed.

 Attach pattern sheet to cake board and cover with wax paper.

Secure wax paper to back of cake board with tape.

 This is my favorite white chocolate to use.

 I have these great little silicone bowls that are great for melting chocolate.

 Melt  in 20-30 second increments, stirring after each.

 Stir until smooth.

 Fit decorating bag with #2 tip.

 Fill decorating bag no more than half full.

 Carefully pipe over each outline.

 I usually pipe the straight lines first, and then the star part in the middle.

Complete entire sheet or as many as needed. Be sure to pipe extra in case a few break.

 When you have completed piping, put the board into the freezer for a few minutes until set.

 When set, carefully remove tape from back of board.

 Gently loosen snowflakes from wax paper with your hand.

Carefully lift off each snowflake and put aside until needed.

Snowflakes on blue and white swirled buttercream.

Making Carissa's "Frozen" Cake

What little girl is not in love with Disney's "Frozen" right now? My granddaughter Carissa turned 5 today. One of her gifts from Mom and Dad was the "Frozen" DVD, so I decided to make her a "Frozen" cake with Olaf as the central figure. I started making the pieces a couple of days ahead, and assembled everything this afternoon. The flavor was vanilla with fresh strawberries and strawberry mousse. I didn't want to refrigerate it because of the fondant and isomalt pieces, so I assembled it just before we needed it.

First of all, what winter cake is complete without snowflakes? I had a few left over from Carissa's preschool cupcakes from last week, so used those plus made a few more. White chocolate is perfect for piping snowflakes. Just copy a bunch of snowflakes on regular paper, tape them onto a board and cover with waxed paper. Then just pipe over the patterns and let set up. Very easy. I made a few snowflakes also with a First Impressions blue silicone mold. They were very difficult to make, as the mold is very shallow and intricate. I tried using gumpaste, fondant, modeling chocolate, 1/2 modeling chocolate with 1/2 gumpaste or 1/2 fondant. I tried putting the molded snowflakes in the freezer before unmolding them. Some of them turned out beautifully, but several just fell apart when trying to unmold them. Not the most favorite mold I've used. 

Next I made Olaf. I looked for 3-D pictures online, and then just patterned Olaf after the pictures. He was made from 1/2 modeling chocolate and 1/2 fondant, His arms and hair were piped out of dark chocolate. Pipe plenty extra because most likely you will need them if one breaks while you are assembling him. I also made a few snowballs out of the same 1/2 and 1/2 mixture, and then rolled them in sanding sugar.

Next I made the ice pieces and a few curly cews from isomalt. If you've never used isolmalt, you must try it. The results are amazing. It's not hard to use once you learn how. You can go to the CakePlay website and watch their video tutorials. CakePLay Isomalt To give it a "crinkly" look, I bunched up a piece of aluminum foil, then smoothed it out and sprayed it lightly with cooking spray, then spread the melted isomalt out thinly on the foil. 

I iced the cake with vanilla buttercream and then covered it with blue and white marbled fondant. I love the look of marbled fondant. Here is a good video on how to marble fondant. She also uses "The Mat" to roll out her fondant like I do. How to Tie Dye Fondant

After the fondant was on, I started assembling the pieces on the cake... here's where you can use your creativity. The last thing I did was cut out Carissa's name with my Tappits and white modeling chocolate, and then sprinkled the entire cake with clear edible glitter.

Carissa's reaction to the cake was priceless. She couldn't stop laughing at Olaf! It made all of my work worthwhile. Happy Birthday Carissa!