Cake and Candy Decorating Blog, Page 2

Discover new cake decorating techniques and candy decorating techniques that will make your cakes and candy the envy of your friends and family on the ShopBakersNook cake and candy making blog.

Different Uses for Meringue Powder

March 7th, 2015 at 11:39 am star

Many of you will pass by the meringue powder in the store without ever giving it a second thought. Next time, you might just stop and pause after I tell you all the cool things you can use meringue powder for.

First of all, did you know that you can add meringue powder to your icing to help stabilize it? This is especially important for an all butter icing in a warm climate. Simply mix 1 Tbsp. of meringue powder into each pound of powdered sugar you are using before you add it to the icing. This will help your piping and flowers keep their shape in warmer temperatures.

Probably the most know use of meringue powder is to make royal icing. Royal icing is considered the food glue of the cake world. You can use royal icing on cookies, gingerbread houses, for flowers and more.

To make royal icing you mix 3 Tbsp. of meringue powder to 1 lb. of powdered sugar and 5 Tbsp. of warm water. Mix on low speed for about 7-10 minutes or until peaks form. If your icing is too stiff you can add more water, but be careful it doesn’t take much to thin the icing.

Here is recipe for boiled icing using meringue powder. First you dissolve 2 cups of granulated sugar, with ¾ cup of water, ¼ cup of corn syrup and a pinch of salt. Boil on high heat until it reaches 240 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a mixing bowl put 6 Tbsp. of meringue powder and 1 cup of cold water. Begin to beat using a whip attachment. Slowly add 1 cup of granulated sugar while this is beating. Then slowly add the boiled syrup. Beat all together at high speed until the mixture has cooled. This is a great icing on red velvet cake.

Did you know that you can also use meringue powder to make meringue for the top of pies? To make meringue you need to mix 1 Tbsp. of meringue powder with 1/4 cup of cold water and 3 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. of sugar. Mix with whip attachment at high speed for approximately 5 minutes. Slowly add an additional 2 Tbsp. of sugar and beat approximately 5 minutes more or until stiff peaks form. Top your pie and bake according to recipe directions.

There are a couple of things you need to remember when using meringue powder. Make sure that all of your bowls and utensils are grease free. Grease will keep your meringue from whipping properly and keep your royal icing from setting up.

For royal icing, make sure you keep it in an airtight container. Also when using royal icing in bags for piping make sure you keep the end of the tips inside a damp cloth when not in use to keep them from drying out.

So I hope the next time you pass by the meringue powder you will stop and give it a try.

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How to Use the Melt-N-Decorate Bottle with the Decorating Tip Set for Melted Chocolate.

November 25th, 2014 at 1:16 pm star

In this blog I am going to show you how to use the melt-n-decorate bottle with the decorating tip set to cover and decorate your treats.

Let's start with the melt-n-decorate bottle. The cool thing about this is you can melt the chocolate right in the silicone bottle. This bottle comes with two tips. The first one is the coating cap that is great for covering cakes, cookies, rice krispies and other treats.

The second tip that comes with this set is a round tip. This is great for fine detail work with your melted chocolate.

Some other great features about this bottle is the lid and collar come apart for easy cleaning. Since the bottle is silicone you can put it in the freezer and then once the chocolate has frozen you squeeze the bottle and break the chocolate into little pieces. Then just pour the pieces out of the bottle into a bowl and they are ready to use again and it makes clean up a snap.

The bottle comes with two different tips, but we also sell a decorating tip set that you can also use with the bottle. The cool thing about the decorating tip set is it comes with a coupler that you can use with a disposable decorating bag if you don't want to use the bottle. We also sell a two pack of extra couplers that you can buy as well.

The tip set comes with 3 tips. The first one is the round tip which also comes with the melt-n-decorate bottle. The second tip is the ribbon tip. This tip is a thin smooth basket weave type tip that will pipe a 1/2" line of chocolate.

The final tip in the set is the drizzling tip. This tip has 3 small holes that you can use to drizzle melted chocolate onto your treats.

I hope you will try out these cool new candy tools. Whether you use the silicone bottle or the disposable decorating bags, I know you find fun and creative ways to decorate your treats with melted chocolate. With so many different colors of chocolate to choose from the possibilities are endless.

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How to Use the Dipping Tongs and Dipping Scoop to Make Chocolate Dipped Treats

February 7th, 2014 at 1:30 pm star

How do you make a delicious treat better? Well the answer is to dip it in chocolate of course. With our dipping tongs and dipping scoop it is so easy to make chocolate covered treats.

Let's start with the dipping tongs first. What these are great for is dipping cookies, pretzels, etc. These are best to use when you only want to dip something 1/2 to 3/4 of the way in chocolate. The tongs will securely hold onto whatever you are dipping. They are much more sanitary then using your fingers.

Here are two examples of a pretzel and a cookie that I dipped in chocolate using the dipping tongs.

The next candy making tool is the dipping scoop. The dipping scoop is a curved screen. It has a nice large area that measures 2-1/2" x 3". It will easily hold a nice sized cookie or pretzel. Since it has a screen when you tap the tool against the edge of the bowl the excess chocolate will run off so when you place your cookie on the parchment paper you will not have a large puddle of chocolate form at the base.

The other thing I loved about using this dipping scoop is the cookie slid easily off the scoop and onto my parchment paper. So I never had to touch the cookie. So you will avoid fingerprints on your chocolates. This dipping scoop also worked well for petit fours.

Here are two example I have of using the dipping fork. I have used it to cover a petit four and a cookie.

As you can see the screen is plenty big enough to accommodate both products. I always like to lay my dipped treats on parchment paper to set up. It will not stick at all to the chocolate.

So I hope you will try making some dipped treats for your next celebration. Be sure to use our new candy tools. I know you will love them as much as I do.

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