Easy Gumpaste Flowers to Decorate Anything

Happy Halloween!  This post isn't a Halloween post, but hope you enjoy it anyway.

I love putting little gumpaste flowers on desserts to dresses it up a little and make it super girly. These gumpaste flowers are easy to make, all you need is gumpaste (I bought Witon Gumpaste from Michaels), a little flower cutter (also from Michaels) and food coloring (I like the gel kind). The bag of gumpaste was about 4 dollars (with 40%off coupon), and you can probably make over 200 little flowers. 

To make these gumpaste flowers, take white gumpaste and using a toothpick add a little food coloring.  Kneed until color is consistent.  Roll out until about 1/8 inch thick and cut into flower shapes. Using a spoon flatten out the petals to give it more range in depth.  Place flower on a soft surface (I used a towel with a oven mitt underneath) and using a chopstick push the center of the flower to make the flower curl up.  Roll a small ball from another colored gumpaste (I used yellow) for the center of the flower.  Wet the center of the flower with a small drop of water (you can use the chopstick and dip it in water then dip it on the center of the flower) and place the small ball on top.  Press down gently to ensure contact.

Gumpaste dries fairly quickly and you can store these for a year or longer.

Finished gumpaste flowers.

Roll, cut, press petals with spoon.

Chopstick to push down center and give flowers depth.

Marshmallows With My Name Written All Over Them

Ok, my name isn't Avery, that's my daughter's name and this is her sweet simple treat. Simply cut out letters printed on regular printer paper, slice marshmallows in half, place the cut out letters on the sticky side of the marshmallow and push marshmallow into a tub of colored sugar. Peel off the paper cut-out letter and viola, custom marshmallows.  I'm think of making these as baby shower favors for an up coming baby shower.

Custom marshmallows

Oh, I wish I owned a Silhouette, but I don't.  It's actually not that hard to cut out the letters.  Only took 10 minutes.
I printed a couple of different font sizes because I wasn't sure how big it needed to be. Arial Black 72 font worked perfectly.

Cut marshmallows, stick letter on cut side (sticky side), then dip in sugar.

Dipped on left, then remove cut-out letter.

Treats for my sweet.

Boo! Chocolate Covered Gummy Bears Halloween Edition

I did a previous tutorial on how to make chocolate covered gummy bears. In the spirit of Halloween, I used white chocolate for the body and dark chocolate for the eyes to make ghostly chocolate covered gummy bears.

I'm actually not a fan of white chocolate, but my sister loves it. I decided to make her a batch of these ghostly gummy bears. Trader Joe's carries a white chocolate bar  that claims to me more chocolaty than regular white chocolate. I decided to give it a try. While it is not as good as dark chocolate, it actually tastes more like chocolate than other white chocolates.

White chocolate is harder to work with because it melts at a lower temperature so you can burn it if you are not careful.  When heating any chocolate for melting/dipping, over heating will destroy your chocolate. I usually melt chocolate in a mug (so that it retains the heat) in the microwave (easier clean up). For white chocolate, set the power to 5 and melt in 10 to 15 second intervals. If the chocolate comes out melted, it is probably already burnt. You want to heat it just to the point where when you start stirring, it comes together. It took me only 30 seconds of heating to melt this white chocolate. You do not need to add butter or shortening to this recipe, just straight chocolate, because white chocolate seems to be runnier.

White Chocolate from Trader Joe's.  It is better than most white chocolates out there.

Cut chocolate into equal sized chunks for even melting.  Pop in microwave for 15 seconds at power of 5.
Take out and stir.  If chocolate seems too hard then pop back in for 10 seconds at power of 5.

Melted white chocolate after a lot of stirring.  Skewer gummy bears for dipping with toothpicks.

Dip gummy bears into chocolate. Wait for them to dry.
Then melt a little dark chocolate and using a toothpick, paint the eyes.
 You could also use those edible ink pens to draw eyes.

Packaged for my sister.