A Royal Slacker



  



It seems that every year around mid-April that my brother emails me to ask if my daughter still plays on Club Penguin.  He pays for her renewal every year, bless his heart, because I find it a little hard to justify the $60 yearly "dues" for an online world of penguin play!  Which reminds me that it's almost my birthday (this week : ) and that I had planned to do a post on my daughter's Club Penguin Puffle birthday cupcakes... her birthday was in January!  I've been a slacker, and I'm sorry!

Anyhoo, her birthday is the week after Christmas, so when she asked if I could make 3 dz Puffle cake pops I was like, no way am I going to have time for that!  How about some cupcakes?  I promise they will be cute...  Ok, mom, sounds good!  Thank goodness, 'cause cupcakes are way easier & quicker to do than cake pops or cookies : )

I decided to do royal icing transfers for the toppers.  They are a time-saver on all accounts - you can make them weeks, or even months ahead of time, and it makes decorating go so quick, whether it's cupcakes, cookies or cakes.  I found an image I liked on Google images, sized it on my PC, and copied rows and rows of them onto a single sheet to make a template.  I have started using page protectors for my transfers (the mid-thick ones - too thin and you are asking for trouble with wrinkling, and too thick you may have issues getting them off.).  Just print out your template, and slide it in the page protector.  I got a package of 250 page protectors at Costco for $11.50 and if you clean them well after (usually a good wipe down will do) you can reuse them.  But being the slacker that I can be, a lot of times I just toss them out... Call me a spendthrift, but I used one sheet to make more than 36 transfers, so that's around $.001 per transfer.

Tip: I always add a piece of card stock or two behind my templates to make them easier to move afterwards, or so that they don't blow around should I choose to dry them in my dehydrator.  I tape them together, making a little tape-handle that sticks out of the page protector so that I can slide the sheets out easily.  This also comes in handy when I need to pipe more than one sheet of the same transfers - just slide it out, and into a new page protector, rather than printing more than one sheet.

As with all royal icing transfers, I rub a very thin layer of Crisco shortening on before piping.  I do this before each row, so that my hand isn't laying in shortening beneath the row I'm piping.  I learned this the hard way...  Oh, and always, always make extras!

Day 1:

I piped the eyes - a whole sheet of them.  I used the wet-on-wet-on-wet technique for the pupils.

(If you made your eyes early enough in the day, they should be dry enough to do the second step by late afternoon, maybe even earlier.  You could even use your dehydrator on low to speed up dry time, or to make them shiny.  I just opted to wait til the next day to finish them.)



 

 

Day 2:

I removed the eyes, and using the same page protector sheet, flooded the Puffles, dropping the dry eyes on the wet Puffles with my handy-dandy offset tweezers (I bought them specifically for dropping transfers and other bling onto wet icing.). I like the offset ones so that you can hold your deco flat & you can better see where to drop it on.  After reaching the end of each row, the first Puffle was set just enough to pipe the smile on.  (If adding anything more than a simple detail like a smile I would wait for the base to dry more to avoid crushing the freshly iced base.). Repeat, repeat, repeat...

 





Day 3:

Bake cupcakes.

Ice cupcakes.

Drop Puffle onto icing, add sprinkles.

Put in cupcake containers & hope they make it to school ok after a trip on the bus.  Think better of your decision, and drive daughter to school with her precious cargo.  Curse yourself for making cupcakes (instead of sending in birthday pencils and stickers) after she drops them upside down before ever making it to her classroom not 5 minutes later!  Luckily, kids don't really mind a messy cupcake : )

 

Another tip:  if you want to save time, and are brave enough to pipe the eyes directly on your Puffles (or whatever details on whatever you are making), when you make your template, do one or two rows around the outside of the page instead of covering the whole sheet.  The bottom layer will need to dry a bit before adding the details (unless you want a wet-on-wet look) and if you cover the whole sheet you would just smoosh them with your hand when going back to add them.  (and yes, I learned this the hard way as well!)

Whew!  Anyway, after the transfers were done, I thought about putting them on cookies instead, but adding a day for making cookie dough, chilling, cutting, baking and yet an extra day for dry time didn't sound all  that appealing : ). After all, I was still recovering from Christmas!

Also, they look super cute in a candy dish - I mean, who doesn't eat their leftover royal icing transfers?

*Update:  It seems that my IT Guy (aka hubby, but not by trade : ) was able to fix my Blogger issues...knock on wood...).  If the format still looks weird to you, let me know - he's on call : )  Thanks honey!

 

Let's Weigh In!

You know, 'cause the holidays are coming up and we want to be sure we eat lots of veggies and aren't overdoing it with all those yummy treats!  Just kidding... I don't think you'll ever see me mentioning my weight on my blog for all the world to see! (not to mention any before-and-after pictures!)

I'm talking about ingredients - powdered sugar to be exact.  As many of you know, my Royal Glaze recipe calls for 2# of powered sugar, which has been a no-weigh no-brainer for me since Domino pure cane 10X powdered sugar comes in 2# bags.  Easy.  And has been a no-brainer, until about a month ago.  When I had a really, really runny batch of it. I NEVER have issues with this icing (ok, once a few years ago but I was still a newbie decorator & still developing the recipe, so I'll never really know what went wrong that day...). I have made TONS of this icing, and it has always been a dream to use.  Some who have tried it have said they don't think it came out right - I always assumed it was the meniscus issue - above the line, below the line (when measuring the water the meniscus is that curve of liquid at the top - I always let the bottom of the meniscus lay on the bottom of the measurement line).  Until about a month ago.  When I had about 20 dozen cookies needing to be iced.  I nearly freaked out, I tell ya!  I thought it was my new mixer - which made me sad, 'cause I really really love my new 7qt Pro Line KA... and making a double batch of icing seemed surreal and totally exciting...

Anyhoo... after working through my runny icing it came time to make another batch.  I have been starting to weigh ingredients for my cookie dough since I can make triple batches with my new mixer, and who wants to sit and measure 12 cups of anything when weighing is so quick and consistent!  Which made me think...my last batch of icing was definitely NOT consistent with all previous batches, so just for giggles, why not weigh my powdered sugar?  (Even though it comes in 2# bags... )  To my surprise, that 2# bag of powdered sugar did NOT weigh 2# at all - it only weighed 31 1/2 oz!  And the bag itself weighs 3/8 ounce, so there was only about 31 1/8 ounces of sugar - that 7/8 ounce deficit is the equivalent of about 1/4 cup!  Which would result in (drumroll please...) runny icing!   (And on that double batch of icing I made, would have been a whopping 1/2 cup's worth!)

I was flabbergasted (to put it nicely)!  Since we were moving and I was aware that our only close store does not carry Domino powdered sugar, I stocked up before the move.  I had 6 bags on hand, and I weighed them all. Not one of them weighed 2#.  They ranged anywhere from 31.125 oz to 2# 2oz /34 oz (which would result in thick icing) - not acceptable, so I placed a call to Domino.  I told them my findings - gave them the weight of each bag, as well as the production codes from each bag so they could research.  I was told that I would be sent coupons to replace the 6 bags, as well as receive a follow-up call from quality control.  I wanted to know, what should I really expect from a 2# bag of sugar?  I would think, well, 2# of sugar!  But, I wanted to hear it from them.

A week went by and I received coupons to replace 4 of the bags - not sure why they shorted me, but I wasn't calling them for free product, I just wanted to know the scoop.  I use a LOT of this stuff, and NEED it to be consistent.  Another week went by, and I still hadn't received any phone call.  So I called back, and got a canned "I'm so sorry for your inconvenience - I will note the file and have someone call you back..." blah, blah, blah...   Here we are, a month later, and I have not heard a peep from them.  I assume that means either a) they think I'm a nutcase or b) they are as baffled as me.  I'm hoping they are re-calibrating all of their scales so that the next bag I buy actually has 2# of sugar in it!

In the meantime there are several solutions.  One of them NOT being switching my brand of sugar, because I really do prefer it for my icing.  But, if I want a slightly runny batch of icing (like if I'm going to do a lot of wet-on-wet designs, or large cookies needing a lot of flooding) I can use the bags that weigh less.  When I want a slightly thicker icing (say, for a lot of detail work) I can use the bags that weigh more.  OR I can just weigh the sugar again and add or subtract enough from my baking-bucket to make 2#.  It's a lot easier than trying to guess how much more/less water to use.

(Or you can use plunger cutters & go un-iced if you get frustrated or want to save some calories - see veggies above : )

I also no longer wonder why so many people can get so many different results with the same recipe.  And am glad to know that it isn't necessarily "user-error" (being that I thought I must have qualified for that club on more than a few occasions... : )

In the spirit of all of this madness, I was wondering - do you all weigh your powdered sugar?  Or use the 1# box or 2# bag?  If not, give it a try - does it weigh what it should?  Leave a comment and I will  SHARE MY SUGAR with you!  I will be giving away 3 of my coupons via random draw from your comments on Tuesday morning, so leave your comments by Monday 10/21.

Happy Baking!  (Or weighing!)