Valentine’s Cards Interpreted in Decorated Cookies
I am sure most of you have heard about Pinterest.
And if you have, I am certain you have also wasted countless hours spend a lot of time looking at beautiful images and getting inspired.
You can find my Pinterest profile here or through the new Pinterest social button on the right side of the header. I am only just getting started there but I would love to connect with you through this great tool of creative inspiration.
On one of my recent inspirational sprees I came across these super cute Valentine’s cards and couldn’t help but wonder what these lovely designs would look like on decorated cookies.
The Valentine’s cards were designed by Muffin (aka Pauline Grayson) from Sweet Muffin Suite. I was thrilled to find out that she has been sweet enough to make these cards available to download from here site for free. Either follow this link or simply click the image above.
These are perfect as little greeting cards for your child’s school party, or as gift tags or little note cards.
But now, let’s see how we can bring the sweet designs from the cards to cookies.
These are one of the first decorated cookies I created in Thailand and it was also one of the first times for me to use glaze icing to decorate cookies. The newly discovered Thai icing sugar came in real handy for this.
Some of the cookies are decorated with a design that comes right from the Valentine’s cards, while other designs were simply inspired by the general theme.
Here you can see the designs side-by-side in the cards and the cookies.
I admit, some designs were easier to create on iced cookies than others. MY favorite were the multi-colored hearts on white and the white roses on pink.
What are you preparing for Valentine’s Day this year?
Going with the Valentine’s Day theme I have a few other posts prepared for you. One of them is a picture tutorial on how to make red velvet cake. I hope you’ll be on the lookout for it.
And hopefully, you are having lots of fun, just like me, being creative with all the pinks, and hearts, and utter cuteness of this time of year.
How to Make Icing Sugar
Do you remember how I was really sad when we first came to Thailand because I couldn’t find icing sugar? Before I realized I had to be creative to be creative?
Turns out there was no reason to be sad as I eventually got lucky and found icing sugar.
If you find yourself in a similar situation with no icing sugar available, or you simply ran out and have no time to go to the store, you don’t have to despair – not even be sad or cry.
You can make icing sugar at home!
All you need is:
- granulated sugar
- a blender, grinder, or food processor
This will make pure icing sugar, but if you are looking for the commercial quality that you know from the store, you can also add one teaspoon of corn starch per cup of sugar.
Here is how you make powdery goodness from regular granulated sugar:
Add a cup or two of granulated sugar to the blender and turn it on until the sugar gets a powdery texture. You can stop to feel the quality, if it still seems a bit grainy continue blending it a bit longer.
Not too long, however. If your device starts getting too warm it might melt the sugar and it will get stuck to the blades. I would say no longer than two minutes.
Another thing to consider, the sugar crystals might scratch a plastic blender/processor. I you are afraid of that, use a grinder or blender with glass jar.
Chinese New Year – Auspicious Apples
The Chinese New Year begins tomorrow. Here in Thailand festivities have been observed for the entire weekend already.
There are many traditions, many food related, connected with the Chinese New Year celebration.
Another tradition is greeting family, friends and neighbors with auspicious greetings wishing luck, happiness and prosperity for the new year.
In the supermarket I came across these apples that are combining a food related tradition with auspicious greetings.
I was so intrigued and really curious how the writing was brought onto the apples. So I picked up a couple, ready to do some online research once home.
Turns out to bring the writing onto the apples a sticker is put on before they fully ripen. The sticker blocks out the sun so that where it is placed the apple does not redden. Pretty cool.
I believe that the top apple says something like congratulations, but I have no clue for the writing within the heart. If you are able to read these, would you be so kind to fill me in?
Chinese New Year is a family holiday, and here in Thailand it is mainly celebrated within the homes. So we can’t observe too many of the details.
What we have noticed are the beautiful lantern garlands decorating the town streets and the extensive use of fire crackers. Really loud crackers. At any time of time.
Both, my husband and I half jumped, half fell out of bed this morning from the sound of the first crackers by a neighbor. They sound an awful lot like gunfire or like hail on a corrugated iron roof, depending how close you are.
Although it was quite a rude awakening, I still have to chuckle thinking of us jumping out of bed terrified and ready to run for cover 
Joy In The Simple Things – Icing Sugar In Thailand
When we first came to Thailand I was pretty stumped at the few options for my creative outlet of baking and decorating.
First bummer, ovens are no standard in a Thai kitchen. I guess the main places with an oven here are bakeries. Not many options for home use.
Secondly, the fondant cake decorating trend has not reached Thailand, yet. In my online searches I couldn’t find one single cake decorating supply store in all of Thailand. Sure, there are bakery supplies, but their inventory has a different target.
(Should you know of any place, or have different information, I would love to here from you.)
Going south just a little bit, to Malaysia or Indonesia, things look way different. Cake decorating as we know it is not so uncommon there. Unfortunately, ordering from an online store in Malaysia will cost me just as much in shipping as ordering from the States or Canada. So far I haven’t done that, but maybe soon.
So, I realized I had to be creative to live out my creativity.
My plan was to make home-made fondant. I was able to find gelatin, shortening, cornstarch, and a sugar syrup that works in place of glucose, but nowhere was icing sugar to be found. The MAIN ingredient for cake or cookie decorating.
But I wasn’t going to give up just yet. Online I found instructions how to make icing sugar from granulated sugar, all one needs is a blender or grinder.
I was ready to invest into a small appliance very similar to this blender with grinder attachment
While looking for my other needed ingredients like gelatin and corn starch, I was struck by what else caught my eye. There it was. In all its white and powdery sweet beauty… Icing sugar!
I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. After shopping in the same stores for close to two months for the first time this store had icing sugar in stock. You will not believe what joy filled my soul over something most people, including myself just a short while ago, would consider an ordinary staple.
Of course, I had to stock up, just in case it would be another two months before I would get a chance to buy more of the sweet goodness my creative streak feeds on.
Now, I cannot explain why icing sugar was unavailable for so long, leading me to believe I wouldn’t be able to buy it here. Whether it is a really slow restocking system, or if maybethe floodings in other parts of the country were the cause.
There have been several other occasions when we tried ordering something from a menu that we were told the item was not available at the moment due to the floodings. 7/11 stores have signs up apologizing that because of the flooding situation they are not able to keep up their usual inventory.
The high water levels may have receded and transportation and supply chain logistics are returning to normal, allowing me to have this little icing sugar joy. But I had to think that in the flood regions there are people who will still be affected for a long time. You can read more here.
So, while I am diving into my first creative projects (home-made fondant and decorated sugar cookies) here in Thailand, I am reminded to be thankful for the comforts we can enjoy and keep in my prayers those who are rebuilding their lives now.
From Scratch Chocolate Cake Recipe
If you are reading this blog most likely you like cake. (It is hard to imagine there is ANYone out there who doesn’t, even if they are not reading this blog).
And seriously, it can only be a myth that there are people who don’t like chocolate.
After we have established these two facts, we can boldly draw the conclusion that chocolate cake must be one of the best things ever.
This must be the reason why on several occasions I have received inquiries for chocolate cake recipes. And going through my blog statistics I realized that month after month a lot of people land on my page looking for “chocolate cake recipe“.
Interestingly enough, I do not have a chocolate cake recipe posted anywhere. It is time to remedy this and eliminate frustrations of any future “searchers”.
Here is one if my favorite From Scratch Chocolate Cake Recipes:
For a 8″ or 9″ double-layered cake you need
Start by combining the cocoa powder with the boiling water in a small bowl until smooth and let it cool to room temperature.
(Oops, actually the very first thing to do is preheating your oven to 350F.)
In a medium bowl lightly combine eggs, 1/4 of the cocoa mixture, and vanilla. I use vanilla bean powder, but that’s only my preference. The liquid version works just fine.
In a large mixing bowl combine all remaining dry ingredients on low speed for about 30 seconds.
Next, add the butter and remaining cocoa mixture, also on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Then, and only then, increase mixing speed to medium. Otherwise you, your counter, mixer, and kitchen will be covered in a flour cloud for while.
Beat for a couple minutes to fully combine the ingredients, scrape down bowl when necessary.
Add the egg mixture in 3 parts, mix for about 20 seconds after each addition and scrape down the sides. Do not over-mix at this step. It will mess with your cake structure.
Fill your greased, lined, and floured cake pans with the batter (I also sprinkled a few chocolate chips on top for this one) and bake for 25-35 minutes.
Somehow I forgot to take a picture of this step until the pans were in the oven already.
The cake layers are done when the top springs back after pressing down lightly and an inserted skewer or toothpick comes out clean.
Sorry, for the blurry picture. At this point the chocolate withdrawal must have kicked in.
Cashew Coffee Cake Bars Recipe
Bakeries aren’t all that common here in Thailand. So my husband and I were quite surprised to walk by one here in our town one day. We were even more surprised to see that it was set up like a European style bakery/café.
The selection was exquisite. Aside from all kinds of breads they had many small whole cakes to take home, sliced cakes to enjoy at the café, and many options for already packaged one-serving treats. They even had what looked like chocolate cake balls.
Although it was tempting we couldn’t try everything at once. Both of us have actually started losing weight here and we wouldn’t want to reverse that all in one day.
So aside from a sliced bread we decided on a cashew coffee cake bar for a sweet treat. It was already conveniently boxed so we waited until we got home to enjoy it.
The base was a raisin coffee cake topped with chopped cashews and brown sugar. We really enjoyed flavor and texture of the soft base with a crunchy topping.
For our palates that didn’t have many baked desserts aside from cookies for quite a while it was a real treat. However, I suspect that it wasn’t freshly made that day or the one before. Which really made me wish I was able to re-create home baked version of it.
Since our oven-less situation hasn’t resolved yet, all I can do is day-dream and research recipes. I found a recipe for very similar cake bars with great reviews and with just a little tweaking it becomes a
Cashew Coffee Cake Bars Recipe
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup raisins
Topping:
1/2 cup chopped cashews (can be natural or salted)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4-1/2 teaspoons heavy whipping cream
Combine the flour, sugars, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Add the eggs and beat just until combined. Fold in the raisins.
Spread the batter into a greased 8-in. square baking dish.
Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched.
In a small bowl, combine the topping ingredients. Spread the topping over the cake.
Put the pan back into the oven on the broil setting for 1-2 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.
Cut into bars while still warm. Cool on a wire rack.
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