Beginner piping techniques tutorial

This post is about some beginning piping techniques.  You may have a few question before we start.

What kind of icing do I use? – Use what ever you have on hand.  Whipped ganache, Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Italian Buttercream, Whipped cream, Wilton style Buttercream.  Almost anything thing but a royal icing.

What do I pipe it on?  A piece of wax paper, parchment paper or even a plastic wrapped cake board,  You want a surface you can scrap the icing back off of so you can reuse it to practice.

Must I practice?  Well no, but remember you will then be learning and making mistakes on the finished product,Sometimes it is not that easy to scrap off and cover up the mistake.

Can I reuse the icing?  Sure, but I try and only reuse it for practice or something I am going to eat.  I do not want to sell or serve an inferior product

If you have other questions, please ask me in a comment below.

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Zebra Fondant Layer Cake Tutorial

This is a beautiful cake with a number of thin layers of cake and thin layers of filling. Don’t be tempted to  overfill.  Fondant is used to cover the cake and black fondant is used to simulate zebra stripes.  Add as many strips as you wish, some thin, some thicker. Make it your own.  This cake is decorated with a few extra fondant items for a client.  There is no right or wrong way here.

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4 loaves of the best dark rye bread

How To Make The Best Dark Rye Bread

This is the second rye bread I am sharing . Here I am using a dark rye flour and I have left out the caraway seeds.

This is another versatile bread.  It can be made into one big loaf, 2 loaves, small rolls, or even 4 loaves as shown here.  As with any bread you have plenty of lead-way how to go, the mixing techniques is the same, the differences come in with shaping and baking times.  Of course smaller loaves/rolls/buns will take less time than one loaf, so bake it until it’s done or hollow sounding inside with a golden brown crust.

Remember, once you try home made you will never want store bought again.

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Cake covered with light blue fondant.

How To Cover A Cake With Fondant

Many people like purchasing/making cakes covered with fondant ( sometimes called rolled fondant or plastic icing or sugarpaste or Ready to Roll ( RTL) depending upon the country you are in. And you can even make your own – there are many marshmallow fondant recipes out there.)

You first start out by preparing your cake.  The cake gets crumb iced.  Remember, the way the cake looks with the crumb ice is close to the way it will appear once coated with fondant.  This means dips and bumps, frosting lines may all appear in the finished product.  Take you time and do the base right, it will payoff in the end.

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How to Make Best Focaccia Bread

Focaccia bread is my absolute favorite bread.  It tastes nothing like store bought.  This is soooooo much better.  And best of all it is not difficult to make.

Topping ingredients are optional.  Some suggestions, olive oil, garlic, granulated onion, coarse salt, crushed red pepper flakes, rosemary, grated parmesan cheese, basil, Italian spices, oregano to name a few.  Customize it to your tastes.

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