Homemade Marshmallows

A couple weeks back I was on CHCH Morning Live Hamilton making marshmallows with my business partner from Sweet Table. We made marshmallows live on t.v. but also made three types for display including, cotton candy, Oreo and purple marshmallows. We had a table set up with candy, cookies and cupcakes.  Here are some process pictures as well as the video of our segment.

Cotton Candy

Oreo

Thanks, I'll try to blog more but if you want to read more regular posts check out Sweet Table's blog.

Sweet Table

I'm so excited to share this with you guys. This is my first sweet table and man was it time consuming! I made everything on this table. From the butter tarts, to the sugar cookies and made my first cake which I blogged about here. I made this sweet table for my Dad's 60th birthday surprise party. I based the party on a 1950's diner theme using teal, tiffany blue, light blue and cream as the colour template.

I created sugar cookies in a six and a zero (60), butter tars (for you who don't know what they are it's a Canadian thing!), chocolate covered chips (which made some people go crazy), chocolate milkshake cupcakes, coconut and cherry marshmallows (these were purchased) and a teal ombre cake.

I made the tissue garland out of a lot of tissue paper, it's super easy to make. I also made the cupcake crowns and cupcake toppers with my cricut. All of the signage, invites and photographs were taken my Marc at mkphotographics. He did such a wonderful job!

We held the party at a country club just north of Toronto and about fifty people showed up. It was a total surprise for my Dad which made all the hard work worth it.

Hope you like the pictures and all of the hard work on my first sweet table. I can't wait for the next one I create.

Chocolate milkshake cupcakes

Sweet Table

Marshmallows

Ombre cake

Buttertarts  

Enjoy!

Custom Chocolate Bars

Ingredients

A couple of weeks ago was National S'more Day, as I was surfing the internet looking for s'more related goodies I stumbled across Not So Humble Pie's posting on S'more Chocolate Bars. They looked so good that I had to try them.

Fast forward three weeks and I finally had some time to try them out, but first I needed a chocolate bar mold. Boy, that was hard to find. I went to the wholesale baking place where I pick up all of my supplies from and they didn't have any thick plain old chocolate bar molds, they were either super skinny or had sudoku on them. I settled on a large chocolate bar mold that I would have to cut into smaller pieces.

First off I followed the recipe and made a s'more chocolate bar, I made sure I tempered the chocolate correctly to get the nice glossy finish. Luckily, the chocolate turned out great! The next bar I tried was a neapolitan bar that I came up with while at the grocery store getting ingredients. I already had some strawberry fluff that my Mom brought me back from Florida so I got some Nilla biscuits to go with it for the vanilla part of the neapolitan equation. Of course you can make any combination of chocolate bars, I can't wait to see what I dream up next...potato chips anyone?!

Here is a little photo journal process (recipe steps) I did to make my delicious custom chocolate bars. 

Chocolate to temper

Lindt Chocolate

Chocolate starting to melt

Chocolate tempering

Top part of the bar, chocolate in the mold

S'more Bar

Toasted Marshmallow (you should have
seen the size of the torch)

Marshmallow in the chocolate

Graham Crackers

Finished S'more Bar

Neapolitan Bar

Ingredients

Toasted Strawberry Marshmallow

Biscuits on top of the chocolate and marshmallow

Finished Neapolitan bar

If I could change anything for next time I'd make sure my chocolate was a little more set before I started putting the layers not the bar. As you can see from the picture above the marshmallow came through in the shallow areas because the chocolate wasn't set long enough.

At the end, they turned out delicious. 

Enjoy!

National S'mores Day

If you're a reader of this blog you will know that I LOVE s'mores, anything with the combination of chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker is good in my book!

Here is a collection of s'more baked goods that I have made over the years and one s'more chocolate bar that I will be making as soon as I get home from vacation.

Plan Jane S'more Cupcakes (chocolate cake, marshmallow
frosting and graham cracker crumbs)

S'more Bars (recipe here)

S'more Whoopie Pies (recipe here)

Brownie cupcakes with marshmallow, chocolate
 chips and graham cracker chunks on top

The chocolate bar that I just have to try is over at Not So Humble Pie. The s'more chocolate bar that she has made looks absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to try it!

Happy National S'mores Day Everyone!
Enjoy,

How to videos

About a year ago I went to a studio and did three instructional "how to" videos.  The first, me making one bowl chocolate cupcakes, the second making marshmallow icing and third, me frosting the cupcakes.

I had a great time but they were my first videos so they are quite awkward and I'm very stiff.  I hope you have a laugh!

Enjoy!

Jumbo Cream Filled Cupcakes

Wow these were some awesome cupcakes.  I have made these cupcakes before from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook but this time I used some amazing cocoa powder from Askinosie Chocolate which put them over the top.  I took these to work and one of the ladies said that they were the best cupcakes she ever had.  I think it was because of the sour cream and the cocoa powder.

These cupcakes were light and fluffy (not just the cupcake but also they were filled with marshmallow fluff) and super moist.  Plus the batter tasted awesome which is always a clue that the baked version will turn out just great.

I made regular size cupcakes as I think a jumbo would be a bit too much with the chocolate and marshmallow filling.  They also go great with a cup of tea. For the recipe click here.

Batter

Awesome cocoa powder

Cupcake

Filled

Messy inside

S'more Whoopie Pies

Wow I must really love s'mores this post and my last are about them but this time it's whoppie pies.

I made these pies for a friend Enuka Okuma while she was finishing the sound her new short called Cookie.  Both the movie and the whoppie pies turned out great.  My only issue was with the marshmallow filling called for shortening which I found the taste DISGUSTING and made a pact with myself never to use shortening again, only butter :).

I got the recipe from the great book Whoopie Pies by Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell.  I love all the little notes at the front of the book.  It took me quite awhile to get this book, I kept seeing it at the bookstore and finally decided to get it, I'm glad I did.

The whoopie pie is a graham flour base with chocolate ganache and marshmallow filling. I'd write the recipe out but it's quite long, just go buy the book instead.

Graham batter

Perfect little whoopie pie tops and bottoms

Marshmallow filling

Chocolate ganache filling

Yummy S'more Whoopie Pie ;)