Gingerbread Men

On Wednesday 20th November 2013 I made Gingerbread Men. They were really nice and cooked to perfection. Something that went well was the decorating of the Gingerbread Men. They looked really good. It was really hot and hard to make the gingerbread men because the butter kept melting and making the dough soft.

Overall, they looked really tasty and colourful. They are a lot better than the supermarkets Gingerbread Men because they weren't so hard. They were moist but crunchy. Fortunately the ginger wasn't to strong. This is a great recipe that is quite quick when it isn't so hot.

Note: The Gingerbread Men are soft when they come out of the oven but harden as they cool.

Chocolate Cupcake Comparison

My chocolate cupcakes:

• Moist
• Self-raising flour
• Makes 12
• Decorated
• Colourful
• A quick and easy recipe

Coles chocolate cupcakes:

• Gluten Free
• Makes 24
• Eggs and egg whites                                                             
• Plain chocolate
• Long time to bake

Similarities:

• Cocoa powder
• Patty papers
• Cupcakes
• A lot of the same ingredients

Cheesecake Comparison

My cheesecake:

• No preservatives
• Mini cheesecakes
• Simple ingredients
• Not every sweet

Woolworths cheesecake:

• A lot of different emulsifiers.
• One whole cheesecake
• A lot of ingredients
• Fatty
• Sweet
• White chocolate

Similarities:

• Cream cheese as an ingredient
• Biscuit base
• Raspberry flavour
• Eggs
• Both cooked

 

Rainbow Cupcakes

On Wednesday the 13th of November 2013 I made rainbow cupcakes. They were really well cooked and were moreish and moist. Something I would do differently next time is try and swirl the colours to make a different affect.

The cupcakes were really nice looking they weren't like most cupcakes though. These cupcakes don't brown on the top, so they weren't golden on top they were colourful. This made them look more yummy and interesting. They were colourful and were very beautiful. The cupcakes are a great idea for a kids birthday.

Cheesecake History

Cheesecake originates from Greece, on the Greek island of Samos. The reason why New York is considered the main centre of cheesecakes is because Arnold Reuben went from Germany to America when he was young and especially made a New York style cheesecake after being invited to a dinner party.

 

Some main ingredients in a cheesecake base are:

v  Butter

v  Spices

v  Biscuits

Variations in cheesecakes:

v  Baked cheesecakes have different ingredients in the base e.g. flour, caster sugar and almond meal.

v Different cheeses e.g. cream cheese, curd cheese, ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese, etc.

Usually in non-bake cheese cakes/ chilled cheesecakes contain lemon juice. The purpose of the lemon juice is to make the cheesecake firm. The lemon juice helps the cheesecake set because the acid in the lemon reacts with the dairy making the cheesecake firm. Baked cheesecakes don’t contain any lemon because they are cooked which makes them firm.

Different flavored cheesecakes:

v  Black Forest

v  Cookies and Cream

v  Lemon

v  Butterscotch

v  Chocolate Chip

v  Chocolate Barbarian

v  Oreo

v  White Chocolate

v  Snickers Bar

v  Caramel Swirl

The list goes on and on.

 

Chocolate Cupcakes

Today, Saturday the 9th of November 2013 I made chocolate cupcakes. The cupcakes cooked perfectly. They didn't stick to the patty papers and were moist. They weren't burnt at all. Nothing went badly but something I would do differently next time is use a different piping bag for the icing because the one I used was really hard to work.

They were really well cooked and were nice and moist. They tasted marvellous and are a great afternoon/ morning  tea size. In general they weren't only good looking but were also good tasting.

Garnishing

A lot of desserts are garnished. They can be garnished in all different ways. Recently I went to a cupcake party and I had the chance to garnish some of my own cupcakes. This was a great opportunity and I learnt a lot of different techniques. My favourite thing I learnt was how to use fondant. Fondant is a thick, play dough like paste make of water and sugar. It is very useful in decorating sweets and cakes. This is a picture of two cupcakes I decorated with fondant.

 

There are lots and lots of different ways of garnishing, this is just one of my favourites. So what is your favourite type of garnishing? Why don't you get creative and start decorating your own today!