Sweet Me Up: Desserts by miVi » Tips

Baking Pet Peeve #1: Running Out of Icing Sugar

admin — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:38:54 +0000

For some odd reason, I never consider my icing sugar inventory when I start a baking project. I just assume my cupboard has an infinite supply of icing sugar. So nothing grinds my gears more than it being way past midnight (me thinking that’s an ideal time to start the frosting) and discovering I do not have enough icing to make a crumb coat let alone icing the whole thing. What sucks more is I purposely made an ingredient run to the grocery store that day and still disregarded adding icing sugar to the list.

Solution? Make my own!

What you need: blender or processor, granulated sugar (or regular sugar for you n00bs) and corn starch (1 cup of sugar : 1 tbsp. corn starch). Grind the sugar into a powder then add the corn starch. The corn starch acts as a binding agent so that the formerly known sugar can react properly with the other ingredients in your frosting recipe.

Mini Pink and Black Dress Cake

admin — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:12:43 +0000

There’s a mini cake under that mini skirt!

This is actually a prototype for an engagement party I’m doing in October and so far… FAIL:
1. The top part made of fondant kept flopping over (solution: use chocolate?)
2. The skirt shape is a bit off (solution: will shave it a bit for an A-line skirt)
3. Turns out that Wilton’s ready to use black frosting tastes like licorice (solution: use dark chocolate instead?)
4. Not crazy about the dress design (solution: go with simple… and don’t think about creating designs at midnight)

I’m open to suggestions and criticism. Thanks!

Pricing Your Baked Products

admin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:24:32 +0000

I found this article helpful, if anything for the friendly peptalk. From The Business of Cake Decorating #9: Pricing your cakes by Earlene Moore…

Of all the comments (with a question) I hear over and over and over again is. “I feel funny about charging people for what I do. I know it takes my time but, I am learning with every cake. How much should I charge for my cakes?”

Why do you feel funny about charging people for a product that they request from you? Do you feel funny about paying to have the oil changed in your car? Do you feel funny about paying for cookies in the store when you get to the check out stand? I don’t think I have ever heard anyone get to the check out stand and tell the checker “I would like these cookies but I really think that they are only worth 69¢ instead of the 89¢ that they are marked. When people request a product from you it has worth. How you determine the price is by the ingredient cost, the time you put into that product and the quality of that product. Then there is also one more thing that figures into how much you can charge - your reputation and the demand for your product.

[Link]