Fun holly cookies Christmas tutorial

Stamp out and bake holly cookies using the cutter from this set using your favourite non-spread sugar cookie recipe.

Cut out using the same cookie cutter a thin green holly shape from fondant icing. Glue to the cookie by brushing the cookie lightly with edible glue or a sugar syrup. Sugar syrup can be made by microwaving/cooking equal quantities of sugar and water together until melted.

Mark the veins on the leaves as shown using a flute and vein tool  

Using the end of a piping tip 1A or similar  cut three berries to fit. Or you can pipe berries using red royal icing. Make some royal icing to your own recipe or by beating 1 size 6 egg white and approx. 1-1.25 cups of icing sugar together. I beat the egg white until foamy then add the icing sugar in two lots. This used about 1 cup but if you wish to have a stiffer mix to hold piped ruffled shapes you will need to add a little more.

Leave finished cookies as is or arrange in a wreath on a large plate approx. 50-60 cm in diameter. If arranging in a wreath place holly berries after cookies have been arranged. I have glued cookies lightly with small dots of royal icing to hold them in place on both the plate and laying them on each other.

Further decorate with a ribbon bow or a handcut cookie bow. Also add cookie ornaments if required.

Tutorial - Cute Gingerbread Cupcake toppers for Christmas

Today we have the final installment of Christmas cupcake toppers - the gingerbread man. From Lisa at the Whole Cake and Caboodle.

Roll stiffened fondant (with tylo) or gumpaste  out to a depth of around 4-5 mm thick. Overlay with a piece of gladwrap and stamp out required amount of heads using an approx. 4-5 cm round cutter. The gladwrap softens and rounds the edges. You don’t need to do this, its just a nice effect.

Mark mouth low on the face using the end of a scallop/arc/similar tool  and dot the ends of the smiles with a pointed tool to accentuate them.

Dust a circle on the cheeks using a small amount of Rainbow Dust Rose (or pearl blush pink for a lustre effect)

Dot eyes in the centre of the face using some black gel-paste and a toothpick. The toothpick dipped into the gel-paste then poked gently into the face gives even and controlled dots. (see earlier snowman tutorial for picture) Make some royal icing to your own recipe or by beating 1 size 6 egg white and approx. 1-1.25 cups of icing sugar together. I beat the egg white until foamy then add the icing sugar in two lots. This used about 1 cup but if you wish to have a stiffer mix to hold piped ruffled shapes you will need to add a little more. Pipe squiggly lines as shown - I have used a disposable bag with a tiny hole cut at the end. Cut some holly using the smaller of the threeleaf holly ejector plunger cutter set and glue to the face.

Indent the holly with a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush/whatever is handy, this is to help stop the berries rolling off the leaves when it comes to placing them Put a small amount of edible glue in the indent  and drop in a few red non-pareils between pinched fingers. Alternatively roll small balls of fondant for berries and place instead of the sprinkles. Another option is to pipe small red royal icing balls and in this case you don’t need to indent the leaf. If you have placed too many sprinkles use a dry brush to flick off excess or push into better positions.

NOTE : You can use normal fondant for all but fondant stiffened with tylo will make your work so much easier as it will easily keep its shape while working and dry quickly. You need to use enough tylo to get a bluetack feel to the icing.

Christmas drip cake from Kiwicakes

Recently I received a gift of a lovely Kiwicakes Christmas topper from the uber talented Stacey at Design@409 Which of course meant I needed to make a cake for it right away.

I settled on this drip cake design, which uses the Kiwicakes Christmas sprinkle medley  The cake is covered in white Bakels truffle, to which I added Rainbow Dust whitener to make it truly white. The drip is Bakels Chocolate Truffle, which is super easy to apply to a chilled cake

I used Rainbow Dust metallic paints to colour my macarons. I used mine in my airbrush, if you don't have one of these, you can paint or sponge on the colours. There's 22 shades of paint in the range. This was such a fun cake to make.

Friendly reindeer Christmas fondant icing tutorial

Continuing on with our cool fondant cookie tutorials, brought to you by the lovely Lisa from the Whole Cake and Caboodle here in Whangarei. Today's tutorial is the friendly reindeer

Roll stiffened fondant with tylo or gumpaste  out to a depth of around 4-5 mm thick. Overlay with a piece of gladwrap and stamp out required amount of heads using the reindeer head from the Wilton set of mini Christmas cookie cutters The gladwrap softens and rounds the edges. You don’t need to do this, its just a nice effect. The glad wrap will more than likely distort the antlers but they are to be removed. Using the end of the cutter  as shown remove the antlers and soften cuts if needed.

Using a medium snowflake plunger cutter  cut out some black snowflakes and cut in the positions shown into three pieces each snowflake. You don’t need to emboss the detail on the snowflakes. Glue to the back of the reindeer head as shown.

Using a knife press down in the position shown to accentuate mouth/jaw

Using the knife tip mark ears as shown and mark mouth on the jaw using the end of a scallop/arc/similar tool 

Glue a rolled ball of red for his nose quite low on his face near his jaw (approx. pea sized) . I have slightly squashed mine into a oval shape which isn’t essential – just my preference. Dust cheeks right at their edges using a small amount of Rainbow dust rose (or pearl blush pink for a lustre effect) 

Dot eyes using some black gel-paste and a toothpick. The toothpick dipped into the gel-paste then poked gently into the face gives even and controlled dots. I have dotted mine close to the nose and close together. The closer they are the cuter they are.

Cut some holly using the smaller of the three leaf ejector plunger cutter set and glue to the face and indent the holly with a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush/whatever is handy. This is to help stop the berries rolling off the leaves when it comes to placing them

Put a small amount of edible glue in the indent  and drop in a few red non-pareils between pinched fingers. Alternatively roll small balls of fondant for berries and place instead of the sprinkles. Another option is to pipe small red royal icing balls and in this case you don’t need to indent the leaf. If you have placed too many sprinkles use a dry brush to flick off excess or push into better positions. See snowman friend photo above for how to do this.

NOTE : You can use normal fondant for all toppers, but fondant stiffened with tylo will make your work so much easier as it will easily keep its shape while working and dry quickly. You need to use enough tylo to get a bluetack feel to the icing.

Christmas Holly-day fondant snowman tutorial

Over the next few days, we've got some cool fondant cookie tutorials, brought to you by the lovely Lisa from the Whole Cake and Caboodle here in Whangarei. Today's tutorial is the friendly snowman.

Roll stiffened fondant with tylosese or use gumpaste  to a depth of around 4-5 mm thick. Overlay with a piece of plastic wrap and stamp out required amount of heads using an approx. 4-5 cm round cutter. The wrap softens and rounds the edges. You don’t need to do this, its just a nice effect

Using an approx. 2.5-3 cm round cutter holding it at an angle as shown, press down to mark a half round smile on the faces.

Dot the ends of the smiles with a pointed tool to accentuate them and roll a carrot shape using a pea sized piece of orange fondant. Dust cheeks using a small amount of Rainbow dust rose (or pearl blush pink for a lustre effect)

Glue the carrot nose to the face in a position as shown, about halfway between the smile ends and no more than halfway up the face. Make sure you have left enough room to place eyes, angle the nose outwards then up if needed. Dot eyes using some black gel-paste and a toothpick. The toothpick dipped into the gel-paste then poked gently into the face gives even and controlled dots.

Make some royal icing to your own recipe or by beating 1 size 6 egg white and approx. 1-1.25 cups of icing sugar together. I beat the egg white until foamy then add the icing sugar in two lots. This used about 1 cup but if you wish to have a stiffer mix to hold piped ruffled shapes you will need to add a little more. Pipe eyebrows starting with a heavy dot at the end and then drag to get a thin brow shape. I have used a disposable bag with a tiny cut at the end.

Cut some holly using the smaller of the three leaf holly ejector plunger cutter set  and glue to the face.

Indent the holly with a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush/whatever is handy, this is to help stop the berries rolling off the leaves when it comes to placing them

Put a small amount of edible glue in the indent  and drop in a few red non-pareils between pinched fingers.  . Alternatively roll small balls of fondant for berries and place instead of the sprinkles. Another option is to pipe small red royal icing balls and in this case you don’t need to indent the leaf. If you have placed too many sprinkles use a dry brush to flick off excess or push into better positions.

 NOTE : you can use normal fondant for all but fondant stiffened with tylo will make your work so much easier as it will easily keep its shape while working and dry quickly. You need to use enough tylo to get a bluetack feel to the icing.