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Sugar paste to garnish cakes
hello everybody
today we are going to make sugar paste
with which you can realize some beautiful garnish
for biscuits, cakes or cupcakes.
With the quantities I'm going to tell, you you'll create a large pat
to garnish a whole cake.
The main ingredient is icing sugar, which you'd better buy
don't make it by yourselves at home
it would give you a less silk/velvet-like mixture.
So,let's buy it
This recipe doesn't include glucose, which I have replaced with some honey
Let's see the shopping list now.
Icing sugar, as said before
450 gr. which I have already put into the mixer
I want to say first that I am going to prepare all the mixture with the electric mixer
you can choose to make your sugar paste by hand
Nothing will change: do as you usually do when you make pizza's dough
I am going to use the mixer just for handiness
So, 450 gr. of icing sugar
Gelatin sheets, which I have already cut, it is 6 gr.
Water, at room temperature, 30 gr.
Honey, 70 gr.
and 16 gr. of butter, at room temperature too
it is not essential to make your paste
Butter is an added ingredient
but I use it 'cause I like the final result more
It becomes more silkÉ velvet-like and more beautiful in the aspect
Do not worry about preservation, it is only few gr. of butter...
the high percentage of sugar works as a preservative
by the wayÉ your pat of sugar paste must never be placed into the fridge
it would become too hard and you couldn't knead it any more
the remaining part can be plastic wrapped
or can be placed in a freezer bag and then in a tin box
or in a hermetic sealed container
you can keep it in your larder for even two months
whenever you decide to knead it, it will be perfect
in winter, if it comes out to be a bit too hard...
you can either add very little water
or microwave it for 5" or heat it in the oven at 50¡ for 15/20"
at the end the pat will be perfectly soft to be kneaded
and now we can start our recipe
At first let's soften the gelatin in the water, we'll need about ten minutes' time
let's wait for it to become soft
Now we melt the gelatin and the water in a bain-marie
it should take very little time
it must not absolutely boil
it starts meltingÉ
it is liquidÉ
at this point we add the honey and the butter
and make all together melt
we add the butterÉ
When all is liquidÉ
we add it to the sugar and we immediately start the mixer
otherwise it will harden quite quickly
Few touches of mixer
to remove possible lumps
and we add all the liquid components
and we immediately make it start, it takes only few seconds
at medium speed
Here we are
when your mixture becomes a united ball
and all is put aside by the blades
we can say it is ready
yes, it isÉ otherwise it risks to become too liquid
and we won't be able to knead it
Perfect! Now we go on kneading it on a board sprinkled with some sugar
since, at the moment (we will shortly see), it is too sticky
Now we work on a board dredged with icy sugar, I wouldn't put too much
'cause the mixture could become too sweet
Now we knead itÉ with our hands powdered with sugar
as if it was a common ball of doughÉ for pizzaÉ
In few secondsÉ from sticky, as it was
it will get a nice consistency: dry and velvety
With the addition of butter, I think it looks more beautiful
Mind you your hands are not too warmÉ or we could melt the dough
Let's put it to a proofÉ
it still results to be a bit sticky
let's try to add some sugarÉ not too much
Once your pat is ready, you can decide to leave it white
or you can color it as well
the best colors are the gel ones or the powder ones
which give a really better result
But, as to me, I decided to make some Halloween pumpkins
and I have only liquid colorsÉ and we'll see the final effect
Perfect! It does not stick, it has a nice consistency
Perfect for our garnish
This is the 1st time I use liquid colors
so let's say it is a trial for me too
I want to obtain orangeÉ to make little pumpkins
I try to mix the colors, and we'll see the gradation I get
I am going to color little paste as I do not need a lot of decorations
I'm putting away the remaining part
with the clingfilm
Remember, never in the fridge, but in the larderÉ closed in a sealed box
This can be put away
Now I'm going to color a small portion
The trial was practically a failureÉ pitifully
Our pat has become very sticky (as I expected), but it is not even orange at the end
we should fall back on a very pale pumpkin or on a little ghostÉ
Even though the paste is white I am going to model a tiny pumpkin
I'll try to be quick and not to mould it for a long time
I have very warm hands and I could misshape it
I won't use particular tools I can do it with a toothpick
we started from a spheric rounded formÉ I flatten it
and I make the typical lines
of the pumpkin
it is very soft actually
we can decide to make a little leaf
orangeÉ surely would be better
the pumpkin is roughed
Let's try to make the leafÉ with little paste
the stalk
and now a little leafÉ
starting from a drop
now we wet here with a drop of water to make it stick better
Here is my first pumpkin, in sugar paste, white
ready to garnish our sweets