{Sweet Table Contest 2011} My personal favourites

Submissions are now closed for the 2011 edition of the Sweet Table Contest and I can't wait to find out who won it. There are some pretty amazing tables in competitions and here are some of my favourites:

Vanessa - French Chic 
From New Zealand

Amanda
From Australia

Grace
From Indonesia

Christine
From Germany

Etta, Dada e Chiara - Alla festa di natale
From Italy

Monica Lorena e Andriano -  Al Natale
From Italy

Nicole
From USA

Ning Fathia - Wild West Birthday 
From Indonesia

Idoia Torres - Batman Party
From Spain

Merry Christmas

Have a very sweet Christmas 

and see you all in the New year !

{Dessert table} Hansel and Gretel Christmas table

I am very excited to share this project with you. I have been baking like mad this past week and my table is finally finished !

I had this vision of Hansel and Gretel discovering the gingerbread house surrounded by a very tempting forest of sweet. I wanted to create a table that would be exciting for the little ones but still had a rustic woodland feel.

I am pleased with the result, and I hope you will like it too...

Ferrero Raffaelo Tower

Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate gingerbread men toppers 

Chocolate lollipops

Christmas pudding truffles

Thank you favors:

Felt ornaments

Lemon Christmas Tree cookies

On the sweet side...

Candy bar

Mini Marshmallow topiary

Chocolate cupcake with Candy Cane hearts

Meringue Tower

Standing gingerbread Christmas tree cookies

Vendor credit:
Candy Christmas Printables from Shindig Parties



Linky parties

{Recipe} Lemon Christmas Tree Cookies

Today's recipe is one of my favourite: lemon cookies. And this time, I covered them with lemon drizzle to make them extra special.
Recipes at the bottom of this post.

To make little presents for Christmas I made mini Christmas Trees by staking the cookies.
I cut 3 different sizes of stars. For each mini tree you will need 2 large stars, 2 medium stars, 2 small stars and you will need an extra small star to stand on top.
Then simply stack the cookies by starting with the biggest stars and attaching each layer with a little bit of royal icing.

I brushed the last small star with gold sparkle before standing it on the tree and securing with yet more royal icing. You will need to hold the star standing for a couple of minutes.

{ Recipe } Lemon Cookies

200g soft butter
200g catser sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
400g plain flour
zest of one lemon

Cream the soft butter, sugar and lemon zest in an electric mixer (paddle attachment) until well mixed. Stop when it just starts to look creamy. If the dough is overwork, the cookies will tend to spread during baking.
Beat in the egg until well combined.
Add the flour and mix on low speed until the dough forms.
Spread and cut using 3 sizes of star cutters. Place the shapes on a tray lined with baking paper and chill for about 30 minutes.

Bake at 180 degrees C for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on size.
The cookies should just start to look golden brown at the edges and should spring back up when pressed gently.

{ Recipe } Lemon drizzle

Simply mix 125g icing sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice until well combined and drizzle over the cooled cookies.
I recommend placing the cookies on a rack so the excess drizzle can just run down.

{How to} Make a meringue tower

Today I'll share with you how I made the meringue "tree" for my Hansel and Gretel Christmas table.

First up: make the meringues.

Ingredients
140gr egg whites (you'll need about 4 medium eggs)
120gr caster sugar
120g icing sugar
Flavouring: a few drops of vanilla or almond extract

Beat the egg white at medium speed (Kitchen Aid speed 4) for 3 minutes
Add half of the sugars and any flavouring and beat for a couple of minutes at a slightly higher speed (Kitchen Aid speed 6).
Add the rest of the sugars and keep beating for a further 5 minutes.
Finish by beating for 3 minutes at full speed (Kitchen Aid speed 10).

Pipe the desired shapes on a baking tray. I used a big star tip.
The colour effect is achieved by painting stripes of gel food colouring inside the piping bag before filling it with the meringue. More info and pictures here.

Dry/cook small meringues for 1 hour 15 minutes at 110° C (fan oven) followed by 1 hour 30 minutes at 100° C.

Preparing the tower

You will need a polystyrene cone, some foil paper and royal icing.

In order to make the cone food safe, you will need to completely cover it with foil. Wrap and secure with a little bit of icing. This also keeps the cone clean so you can use it again.
Spread royal icing and completely cover the cone so that no foil will show in between the meringues. Leave to dry overnight.
The following day, use a little bit of royal icing on the back of each meringue to "glue" on the cone, starting at the bottom.

Tip: Choose which side is going to be the front and make a little mark to identify it. Keep all the best looking meringues of a similar size for the front and use the slightly misshaped ones for the back. Also you might need to use some smaller ones (or cut some big ones in half) to fill the gaps, this should be "hidden" at the back.

That's it, the tower is done. You can use this technique for any shape, you could easily do a topiary.


Linking to Sunday Scoop link party @ I heart Naptime

{Recipe} Gingerbread

I just finished today my very first gingerbread house (photos to be revealed soon) and to make the task a little bit easier I used a template from Delicious. (my favourite food magazine) to cut the panels of the house.

I followed their recipe which you can find here.
It works well for me since it is quite light on spices, but f you prefer a stronger taste I suggest increasing the quantities.

Photo from www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk

I also used this recipe to create the Standing Tree Cookies from yesterday.

{Cookies} How to make standing gingerbread Christmas trees

There has been a lot of baking in our house lately and this is because I am preparing a little Christmas sweet table. I am going for an "Hansel and Gretel" theme, so the central piece is a gingerbread house and the rest of the table will be representing the forest of sweets and treats.

Today I am sharing with you a little tutorial on how to make standing Christmas tree cookies.

1.
First you need to prepare your favorite gingerbread recipe (I will be sharing mine tomorrow).
Cut some tree shapes as well as some circles or squares for the bases and bake.
Decorate the trees with royal icing and let them dry.

2.
You then need to prepare the bases by digging a little slot for the base of your trees to fit in. I used a vegetable peeler and it worked quite well.
Use more royal icing to cover the bases (that's the "snow") and fill the slot.

3.
Just insert the tree in the slot and let dry overnight.
The icing being quite thick you will not need to hold them once they are in position.

Linking to Sundae Scoop @ I Heart Naptime

{Cupcakes} Christmas tree cupcakes

Found these cupcakes over at And Everything Sweet and I just love them !

I need to try these soon. My girls love the icing so these should be quite a treat for them since there is hardly any cake under the mountain of icing !

Follow the link for the tutorial

{Cookies} Christmas ornaments

Today I'm going back to where it all started: my passion for cake decorating. After all this blog is called That Cute Little Cake !

I got distracted lately... I have been really obsessed with birthday parties this year (so obsessed actually that I have already started planning my daughter's birthday.... July birthday !) and I have dedicated very little time to sugarcrafts.

There are so many things I want to try my hands at. Too often I see something and think "I could make this !" and so I am now trying to craft as much as possible. This is my ME time, away from the chaos of my days (well we have 3 children so our days are busy to say the least).
Therefore, this blog is not just about cake decorating anymore. It is about all my "mum crafts": cake decorating, birthday parties, sewing and paper crafts. Because in the end (nearly) all I create is for my children...

So in 2012 (I know I am starting early with the new year's resolutions !) I have decided to try and bake more because this is my thing and I enjoy doing it so much !

These cookies are the first step I am taking to re-ignite my passion for cake decorating. Hope you will enjoy looking at them. The designs are inspired by Peggy Porschen.

Linking to
Sundae Scoop Link Party @ I Heart Naptime
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