Eiffel Tower Candy Box!

Valentine's Day is around the corner and what a lovely way to present your home made candy or truffles! You can purchase at  Fancy Flours, one of my fav online shopping spots. C'est fabuleux!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Give your sweetheart a slice of this decadent Valentine's Day Cake made by member Allison King.

Love is the Message - Valentine Cupcakes!

Bake up some sweet heart-shaped cupcakes with this ingenious nonstick silicone cupcake liner by Fancy Flours. Fancy Flours also sells a variety of cookie stencils, and really cute heart and love cookie cutters.

Cakes with Bling!

Diamonds, rubies, gold, and pearls--Oh my! What better way to tell your sweetie "I love you", then with one of these two outstanding cakes.

Member Chef Janet Ben-Ami, owner Hey! Cookie in Long Island created the jeweled heart tiered cake.

Member Ines created the Tiffany ring box cake. Ines hopes to open her own custom cake business in the future.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Photo courtesy of member, Melania

These sweet valentine cookies crafted by member Melania, are so beautifully painted that they look like works of art. Check out Melania's website Palatofino and her cookie creations on Flickr.

Cake Buzz: Say "I Love You" with Message-in-a-Cookie

I was so excited to get Williams-Sonoma's February 2010 catalog. It features among other baking tools, really neat cookie cutters called, "message-in-a cookie cutters".

You can make a personalized message by sliding selected letters into slots in the cutters and then depressing the plunger. "Sweet Heart", "I Love You", "Thank You", and all sorts of messages can be pressed and baked into your cookies with this little gizmo. I think that this would also work great on fondant covered mini-cakes and cupcakes as well.

I searched their website but I couldn't find the cutters for sale online; they may be an exclusive catalog item. However, you can print a scrumptious Valentine sugar cookie recipe on the Williams-Sonoma website. There is also a video demonstrating how to use the cutters on the website. -Dina

Valentine Bedecked Cupcakes!

Remember Sweet Hearts when you were a kid? I made sure I saved enough money to buy a small box of the treats for my mom and my BFF.

Member, Annette so beautifully transformed a retro favorite into a sugar lover's dream. What a cute way to let your sweetie know that they are the best!

Visit Annette's blog, Ladybugluggage, to check out her other cupcake designs.

- Dina

Chocolate Class with Chef Jean-Rony Fougere

Chocolate Box, truffles, and assorted caramel filled chocolates were made by Dina, Organizer

What's Valentine's Day without chocolate, and with Valentine's Day right around the corner, members were excited to learn several chocolate techniques with Chef Jean-Rony Fougere at the DRM Incubator Kitchen in NYC. The Chef took us step by step through the process of tempering chocolate. Guess What? We learned how to temper chocolate using our senses of sight, touch, and smell--no thermometer. Amazing!

The tempered chocolate was utilized to make the lovely chocolate heart and assorted chocolates seen in the above photo. We learned a trick to making caramel which filled the assorted chocolates, created a decadent chocolate ganache, and learned how to duplicate a custom heart design with a food safe silk screen and tempered chocolate. Members sampled the chocolate throughout the class (the best ever!), munched on chocolate covered strawberries, and brought a bunch of goodies back home. Members are looking forward to more classes with Chef Fougere.

Chef stated that when you work creatively with chocolate you may sometimes make a mistake. This is particularly frustrating if you don't know where you went wrong. Here's a hint from Chef: If your chocolate is difficult to remove from the mold it could be that (1) the couveture chocolate was incorrectly tempered; (2) couverture chocolate coating is too thin, or (2) cooling temperature is too low. Here's a tip: one of Chef's favorite shops to purchase custom chocolate molds is the Custom Chocolate Shop in Canadensis, PA.

Chef Fougere's Ganache Recipe (for Tuffles)

500 grams Dark Chocolate
300 grams Cream (Heavy Cream)
50 grams Corn Syrup or Glucose

Start by placing cream and glucose in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat. Have the chocolate ready in a bowl and pour hot cream over the chocolate. Fold mixture with a rubber spatula. Place parchment paper in a square cake pan. Pour mixture into the pan and let set.

Enjoy!

Dina