Toopy and Binoo Cake

As I have mentioned in some previous blogs, my son wanted a Toopy and Binoo cake for his third birthday cake.  If you are not familiar with Toopy and Binoo, they are a Canadian TV show that are based on preschooler books written by Dominique Jolin (who is from Quebec).  They are huge in our house, but because they are Canadian, it has been a bit of a struggle to find any merchandise.  Thankfully in the last 6 months, I have seen some product appear online and just recently at Toy's R Us.  Nothing for cakes or birthday favours yet, or that I could find.

I did a lot of online searching for cake ideas, and decided to make a cake covered in fondant (marshmallow) and I enlarged and traced the characters below.

I did several tracings of the image so I could cut out key parts (for example Binoo, or Toopy's head).  I lay those cut out parts on to the rolled out fondant and used a knife to cut the outline.  A bit time consuming, but nothing compared to all the kneading I had to do, to dye the marshmallow fondant.  My arms were sore after all that.  To finish the cake off, I did a border with the left over mini marshmallows.  Toopy and Binoo love marshmallows as does my son.

I was extremely happy with the result, as was my son and his little friends.  Can't wait to to see what cake ideas he comes up with next year.

Easter Bunny Cake

My son's birthday is next weekend and the cake I am doing will be covered in Fondant.  Since I have never covered a cake in fondant I thought it would be a good idea to try it out first, and I had received this cute bunny cake pan for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.  The other thing I wanted to try was making marshmallow fondant.  I have used the store bought stuff before for embellishments, but the stuff tasted awful and was expensive.  Then I discovered marshmallow fondant.  How have I not heard of this before.  It was 3 ingredients and dead simple to make and it tastes better then the regular stuff.  Here is the recipe I used.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces miniature marshmallows (4 cups not packed, or half of a 16-ounce bag)
• 1 pound powdered sugar (4 cups), plus extra for dusting
• 2 tbsp water
• Food coloring or flavored extracts, optional

Dust your counter or a large cutting board with powdered sugar. Put the marshmallows and the water in a large microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for a minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and have expanded.

Stir marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. If some unmelted marshmallow pieces remain, return to the microwave for 30 seconds, until the marshmallow mixture is smooth and free of lumps. If you want coloured or flavoured fondant, you can add several drops of food coloring or extracts at this point and stir until incorporated. 

Add powdered sugar and begin to stir with a spatula. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes stiff.

Scrape the marshmallow-sugar mixture out onto your work surface that has been covered in powder sugar. This is going to get messy. Dust your hands with powdered sugar, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.

Continue to knead the fondant until it is no longer sticky and smooth. Once the fondant is a smooth ball, it is ready to be used. You can now roll it out and shape it. To store, wrap well in cling wrap. Well-wrapped fondant can be stored in a cool room or in the refrigerator, and needs to be kneaded until supple before later use.

I also made some cute little baby chick cupcakes.

 



Club Baked: Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

I have to admit that these were a bit of a disaster for me.  I always seem to mess up on the easier recipes.  Everything was going well, until I reached the part of adding the buttermilk.  I was distracted by a massive baby and toddler fight that was happening right my feet.  All because my little one had pulled up on the step stool my older one was standing on.  Geesh.  Anyways I ended up adding a cup of milk and not half a cup.  Of course I did not figure it out until I had put them in the oven.  They baked up alright, but had no flavor at all.  Good thing I live in a house full of boys, add some frosting and some sprinkles and they are the best tasting thing ever :)

Thank to Andrea for hosting and I look forward to reading how the other bakers  turned out.  I will try these again, and next time only add the half cup.