Sprinkles Galore!

I love sprinkles of any kind. I already have a pretty nice collection of them and I'm always happy to find new ones. There's just one problem. Germany is a little bit behind when it comes to cake decorating and there really isn't much to choose from. Of course, rainbow and chocolate jimmies and nonpareils are widely available, but that's basically it in the sprinkle department. If you want more (or different colors), you have to order online or purchase from specialized baking stores (but those are hard to find. I live in Berlin and there's one that I know of). Needless to say, our sprinkles come in tiny packages and they are prohibitively expensive (as much as € 3 for about 1 ounce).
I do love sprinkles, but I can't afford to spend that kind of money on simple sugar shapes.

So I set out to make my own, figuring it couldn't be that hard. And I came up with a method that will give you a nice selection of simple shapes, using stuff you probably have in your kitchen. You won't need any special equipment for most of them. And by "special equipment", I mean "rolling pin". I used an empty wine bottle and it worked out perfectly.

To make a long story short, the solution is rolled fondant. It's easy to work with, can be dyed in many shades and can be stored almost indefinitely. The resulting texture is more similar to that of jimmies (i.e. soft), but I actually liked that. The sprinkles will still hold their shape and after trying mine for the first time last week, I can safely say that they do not melt into the icing, despite being relatively soft. However, if you want crunchier sprinkles, you can simply dry them longer or even put them in the oven overnight at a low temperature.

The key with these is to be creative with what you have on hand; Certain piping tips, cookie cutters, straws, some toys (try the Barbie kitchen) and scrap-booking or polymer clay tools can all be used, provided they are safe to use with food. And if you don't have any of these things, a big chef's knife is really all you need to get started.
And now, without further ado, here's how to make sprinkles.

Step 1: Preparing the fondant

I don't know about you, but I don't particularly like the taste of fondant. I always add some kind of extract. I've used lemon, orange and almond extract in the past with great results. Just add a few drops and knead them into the fondant. Feel free to skip this step if you don't mind the taste.

The next step is to dye your fondant. If you want to make different colors of sprinkles at once, my advice is to do only one color at a time, starting with the lightest color. You will inevitably get a lot of food coloring on your hands and this way the lighter colors won't get tainted. I usually start with white and proceed with yellow, green, red and blue, in that order. This time, I only made yellow fondant.
Food coloring gel or powder works best, but they are quite strong. Add just a little bit at a time, mix well, then add more if you want a deeper shade. You won't need much. This is the amount of food coloring you'll need for a nice yellow.



Step 2: Rolling out the fondant

If you have one of those fondant rolling mats, good for you. I don't. So I used non-stick baking parchment. Wax paper would probably work equally well. Just put your ball of fondant between two sheets of paper and roll it out. Try to get it to become as thin as possible. Peel off the top paper frequently, put it back on the fondant, then flip the "sandwich" and peel off the bottom paper, too, reapplying it before you continue rolling. It makes it easier to end up with a smooth surface.
If you want to use edible glitter, apply it now. I used body glitter in gold, because that's what I had. It says on the box that it's meant to be licked off the skin, so the amount you ingest by eating a few sprinkles is definitely safe. If you want your sprinkles to be extra shiny, you can apply a layer of very thin royal icing (I'd use royal icing made with meringue powder instead of raw egg whites, for safety reasons). If you do, let it dry a little before you cut out your sprinkles.

Step 3: Cutting out shapes

Squares, Triangles and Diamonds:
These are by far the easiest shapes to make. All you do is roll out the fondant, then cut it into strips right on the wax paper (press the knife down into the fondant instead of doing the normal cutting/slicing motion; You'll get straighter edges that way). Then rotate your knife 90° (for squares) or 45° (for diamonds) and cut again. Make sure you cut all the way through the fondant, otherwise your sprinkles may stick to each other and you will have to break them apart later on. This technique makes a lot of sprinkles in a short period of time and you have the greatest control over their size. I made mine fairly big this time, about .5 cm (1/5 inch).



Circles:
For these, you will have to make an ejector cutter. Don't worry, it's very simple and takes seriously 30 seconds to make (probably less). You need a straw and a lollipop stick that fits comfortably inside the straw (a long wooden pick works well as long as it has a blunt end). Your stick shouldn't be too thin! Cut the straw to approximately 6 inches. Put the lollipop stick/wooden pick inside the straw. That's it.
Now, with one hand, press the end of the straw into the fondant. Twist it gently. Your other hand holds the lollipop stick/wooden pick (=ejector). Make sure the tip of your ejector doesn't touch the fondant or you'll get an indentation in the center of your circle.



The little circle will probably get stuck inside the straw. Now push down the ejector. Your sprinkle will just fall out.


Repeat until you have enough.




Instead of a straw, you can use a round piping tip. The technique remains the same.

Nonpareils:
Nonpareils are made with the same technique as circles. Just use the smallest round tip you can find (mine is 2 mm), then push the nonpareil out with the pointy end of a toothpick or long wooden pick. These nonpareils won't be perfectly round, of course, but they work well nonetheless (and let's face it, who looks at their sprinkles and complains that they're not perfect spheres.). If you want to make rainbow nonpareils, let them dry completely before you combine the different colors.



Crescents:
Again, the technique is the same as making circles. The only difference is that instead of cutting each circle next to the previous one, you only move the cutter over about half a circle before you cut again (I don't know how else to put it, so if you have a better explanation, I'd be glad to include it).


The ejection technique is the same, of course. I just removed the stick for the picture.

I suggest using a bigger straw/round tip for this (I used 6 mm), because the smaller the cutter, the harder it will be to tell you were trying to make crescents.



Jimmies:
Jimmies are easy. All you need is a garlic press, preferably one with a removable insert (easier to clean). Put a little ball of fondant inside and press. When the jimmies have reached the length you like, cut/scrape them off with a flat knife. Repeat with new fondant balls.



Alternatively, you could make a very thick royal icing, put it into a piping bag and pipe lines onto a piece of parchment paper using a very small round tip or a multi-opening tip (Wilton tips #42, 89 or 134). Cut the lines into short pieces.




Tear drops:
The cutter you need for these is a little more difficult to make than the round one. This time, you'll need to invest about 5 minutes of your time. You need a piece of medium thick plastic (craft store or certain food packages). Cut out a rectangular piece of plastic, about 2,5x10 cm (1x4 inches). Pinch together the edges of the longer sides and secure them with a piece of clear tape. You'll end up with a 4-inch straw with openings in the form of a tear drop. Insert the blunt end of a wooden pick. This will be your ejector.
Cut out tear drops using the same technique you used with the circles.



Of course, if you have a decorating tip with a tear-shaped opening, by all means use that. I don't, unfortunately.

"Special shapes":
Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a way to make flowers, hearts or stars that don't rely on store-bought ejector cutters. So if you don't have any, you won't be able to make these. I included them here anyway, because they technically fit the term "homemade sprinkles".



The good news is that these ejector cutters aren't too expensive (between 9 and 19 Euros for a set of 3 or 4, respectively). However, the cutters small enough to make sprinkles only come in 4 shapes- heart, star, flower and clover. I only have the star and flower cutters.



I've mentioned above that you can also use cutters intended for use with polymer clay. Get these if you want. Not only are they cheaper than the kind produced specifically for fondant, the smallest size they come in is perfect for sprinkles.

To dry your sprinkles, simply leave them out on the parchment paper for a few days (depending on the humidity in your area). Alternatively, you can preheat your oven to 50°C (120°F), turn it off and put in the sprinkles on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Leave them in overnight. Store the dry sprinkles in screw-top jars or similar air-tight containers.

This is it. Easy, no? Now go ahead and make some sprinkles. Tomorrow I'll try to make tiny orange slice sprinkles. If it works, I'll let you know how to do it.

The Battle of the Pies

This is a picture of the Vanilla Pudding Mousse Pie. I'm sorry, but I didn't take one of the Milk Mousse Pie - it was gone too fast. It looked the same, though, except that the mousse was a pure, snowy white.

You don't know this about me, but I almost always manage to screw up easy things. I have no explanation for this. I did it with this cake, for example, which I salvaged by turning it into cake pops. I've also managed to ruin another supposedly easy Dorie Greenspan cake since, but I didn't blog about it (I was embarrassed). Funny enough, I've never failed when trying something complicated for the first time. This said, you might understand why I usually go for the more advanced recipes when baking. And sometimes, that tendency of mine makes my life more complicated than it needs to be.
Why am I telling you this? Well, I was asked to make this the other day. I brought back a box from New York last summer and my friends loved it.
Problem: They don't sell the stuff in this country. You can order it online, but it's way too expensive. Once again, it was do it yourself or forget about eating it again.
Second problem: I didn't have a recipe. And while there are tons of mousse recipes out there, I didn't find one for a milk mousse that didn't contain either chocolate or cream cheese, which I figured would be the kind of mousse I'd need. I initially figured I could just dissolve gelatin in milk, then add whipped cream. But then I began to doubt myself, thinking it just couldn't be that easy. There had to be some secret ingredient or at least some complicated step involved.
So instead, I picked this vanilla mousse recipe for my pie filling (scroll down). Since it involves tempering yolks and whisking vigorously, it seemed complicated enough to be bound to be a success. See where it says "pastry cream"? That's actually pudding. I didn't catch on to the fact that I was making pudding until it had happened.
So I ended up with pudding mousse pie. I didn't screw it up and it was very good, just not what I had been looking for.
I was a little disappointed as I went back to my room. I was also determined to master the no-bake pie. Fortunately, I had used my mini springform pan the first time around, because I hadn't been sure if I'd have enough mousse for a 9-inch pan. I had only used up half of the crumbs, so there was still enough left to give it another try
This time, I went with my very first instinct. Turns out it really was that easy. And how convenient to find out that the New York Times had published a recipe since I first started looking. I love the New York Times.


Pie Crust (makes enough for one 9-inch or two 6-inch springform pans):

• 335 g (3 cups) Quadruple Chocolate Almond Cookies, finely crushed (or similar non-chewy dark chocolate cookie)
  
• 53 g (4 Tablespoons) butter

- Line the springform pan(s) with parchment paper.

- Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat (butter should not separate).

- Add cookie crumbs.

- Mix until the crumbs are evenly moistened.

- Spoon mixture into prepared pan(s), press into pan with bottom of drinking glass or back of tablespoon.

- Refrigerate until needed.

- Then fill pie crust with mousse and refrigerate again until firm.

- To remove pie from the pan, run a knife under hot water, then wipe dry. Run it around the edges of the pie to loosen it, then remove springform ring. You can now carefully transfer the whole pie to a cake stand.


Vanilla Pudding Mousse Pie Filling (it's originally part of a French Yule Log recipe from Florilege Gourmand; I found it at Good Eats'n Sweets):

• 1 vanilla bean
• 135 ml (1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon) 2 % milk
• 215 ml (1 cup minus 2 Tablespoons) heavy cream*
• 4 egg yolks
• 80 g (6 Tablespoons) granulated sugar
• 4 g (2 sheets/4 teaspoons) fish gelatin
• 25 g (3 Tablespoons) cornstarch, sifted
• Another 240 ml (1 cup) whipping cream*

- Pour milk and 215 ml cream into a saucepan.

- Split vanilla bean in half, scrape out the seeds and add both the seeds and the vanilla bean to the pot as well.

- Bring the mixture to a boil, then take it off the heat, cover with a lid and let it infuse for at least 30 minutes. When the time is up, remove the vanilla bean.

- In a medium bowl, whip egg yolks and sugar until white, thick and fluffy.

- Add the sifted cornstarch while whisking to make sure there are no lumps.

- Whisking vigorously, gradually add some of the warm milk mixture to the eggs to temper them.

- Put the vanilla milk back on the stove (medium heat) and slowly add the egg mixture, whisking vigorously to keep it from curdling.

- Keep whisking until the mixture starts to thicken considerably.

- When the mixture starts to boil, leave it on for only 2 more minutes. Afterwards, keep whisking and remove from heat.

- Now either put your pot into a cold water bath, stirring very frequently to prevent a skin from forming, until the mixture has come to room temperature.

- Or cover the pastry cream by putting plastic wrap directly on its surface. This will also prevent a skin from forming. Let cool at room temperature. I'm impatient, so I used the former method.

- For gelatin sheets: Let soak in cold water, then melt in a saucepan with 1 teaspoon of water. For powdered gelatin: Sprinkle over 1 teaspoon of water, let it bloom, then melt as described above. Don't let the gelatin boil!

- Pour melted gelatin over pastry cream, stir very well.

- Whisk 240 ml whipping cream until stiff peaks form, then gradually add it to the cream. Fold it in carefully with a silicone spatula.

- Pour mousse into prepared pie crust and refrigerate until firm (at least 3 hours, preferably overnight).

*I have never understood the difference between heavy cream and whipping cream (is there even a difference?). We only have one kind of sweet cream in Germany that I know of, so that's what I used.

This is a very good pie filling. It tastes like a rich, milky vanilla pudding/custard and it has a similar creamy mouthfeel, but it's much much lighter (tastewise. I'm afraid it contains about a million calories). It doesn't produce the gunk in your throat that I often get from eating very creamy desserts. It's sweet, but not throat-searingly so. Very good. I wonder why I was so upset at first. However, it's a good thing I was, because otherwise I wouldn't have made Mousse Filling 2.0. Here's the recipe:


Milk Mousse Pie Filling (adapted from the NYT, June 17th, 2009); double the recipe for a 9-inch springform pan:

• 240 ml (1 cup) milk, divided
  
• 1.5 teaspoons powdered fish gelatin (sooo much better than agar-agar!); I would use 2 teaspoons next time, the mousse was a little on the soft side
  
• 1 pinch salt
• 240 ml (1 cup) heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar

- Sprinkle gelatin over 120 ml (1/2 cup) milk.

- Scald the other 120 ml (1/2 cup) milk with salt and sugar.

- Whisk hot milk into cold milk until gelatin has dissolved.

- Chill until not quite set (about 1.5-2 hours).

- Whisk cream until stiff peaks form.

- Using a rubber/silicone spatula, fold cream into the milk jelly.

- Fill mousse into prepared pie crust and chill until set completely (preferably overnight).

This makes an extremely light, milky mousse. It isn't very sweet at all and there's no artificial taste to it, in fact, I think the taste can best be described as "pure". In combination with the pie crust, it basically tastes like deep chocolate cookies with a glass of cool milk - but more sophisticated.

Conclusion:
We ended up with so much pie that we decided we'd have a big pie testing to determine which one was better. So I invited some friends over to be my jurors. I don't think I've ever witnessed a group of my friends fighting over dessert. Both pies were a huge success. And the final verdict? Undecided. Most of the guys preferred the pudding mousse pie, while most of the girls said they liked the milk mousse pie just a tad better, at least during the hot summer months. They also mentioned they'd like a strawberry coulis with it next time. I think that's an awesome idea.
It was decided I'd had to make both pies again. And more!
Oh, and btw, we all agreed that neither pie tasted like the boxed version. Personally, I think that's a good thing.

Cake Pops

This week's theme seems to be What in the world can I do with this??
In some cases, this question leads to a great result, in some cases, you look at your finished product and all you can think is "What the...?!"
That's exactly what happened to me when I tried to make this Swedish Visiting Cake. I had picked it specifically because I had leftover almonds, a lemon whose juice I had used for cooking that day, and a few eggs. I don't eat eggs by themselves and hardly ever use them in my cooking, so I needed to make a cake to use them up.
I have no idea what went wrong, since I followed the recipe to a T and nobody else seemed to have problems with it, but the cake turned out horrible. It was raw on the inside, yet almost burned on the outside, and waaaaaaay to sweet for my taste. Inedible. I didn't even take a picture, I was that disappointed.
I had used real vanilla, though, and all these other good ingredients, and I wasn't just going to toss them. So I asked myself the above-mentioned question again and stumbled across this.
Bakerella's cupcake pops were possibly the cutest cake related thing I had ever seen. I mean, teeny tiny cupcakes! What's there not to love.
Of course, after thoroughly having gone through her archives, I can safely say that she has made cakey things that are even cuter.
Anyway, I decided to turn my messed-up cake into cupcake pops.

Here's the original recipe again and here's what I did:

• I cut my pathetic little cake into chunks and put them back into the oven to finish baking (didn't want anyone to catch salmonella). They ended up pretty dry, but that resulted in the cake being able to absorb more sugar-neutralizing fluids, which was most definitely a good thing.
• I let the mutilated cake cool completely and afterwards put it into my food processor. It had almonds on top and I wanted to use those, too.
  
• Bakerella says to add cream cheese frosting, but since the cake was so horribly sweet to begin with, I just added plain cream cheese (whipped). My boyfriend asked me to make it more "fruity", so I added some lemon juice. This resulted in the mixture being a little wet, so to balance that I used some ground hazelnuts and almonds I had lying around. I really have no idea how much I used, I just kept adding the stuff until I liked both the taste and the texture. I guess it would have been about 6 tablespoons.
• I also added some sea salt (about 1/4 teaspoon).
  

I ended up with something that tasted like cheesecake cookie dough. Quite good, actually. I went on to shape my cupcake pops according to Bakerella's instructions and put them in the refrigerator overnight. Today, I put the finishing touches on them. My boyfriend even helped me decorate them (which was a first - he hates cooking and especially baking). He did insist his cupcakes be blue, though, not pink, so I dyed the white chocolate a shade he'd be more comfortable with.



He's quite the little boy sometimes. :-)

We used chocolate flavored candy coating for the cupcake bases and real white chocolate for the tops. Next time, I may use candy coating instead of white chocolate. While real chocolate tastes better in my opinion, it takes forever to set.
We had mini Smarties (like M&Ms), colored sugars, chocolate and sugar vermicelli, nut brittles and different kinds of sprinkles to decorate the cupcakes with.



In addition to the cupcake pops I also made some cake ball pops. I added some amaretto to the dough, completely covered them in chocolate flavored candy coating and rolled them in
sliced and crushed almonds. They're the "grown-up" version of these adorable little morsels.


I think they turned out very cute. What do you think?