Archive for the ‘More in store’ Category
These beauties were made using an “old family” condensed milk cookie recipe – delish. Although they do come with a warning… you will want to eat them all.
Cuddle up on the couch with these babies, it’s going to be a long winter….. The recipe makes 30 fist size BUTTERY cookies comfortably.
Condensed Milk Cookies
500g butter
1 tin condensed milk
375g sugar/ castor sugar
750g cake flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Add condensed milk and beat well. Add the sifted cake flour, salt, baking powder and flavouring. Roll batter into balls, place on lined baking tray. Press balls down and stamp with your cookie stamp. Bake at 170C for 8 minutes, or until golden.
We can’t do without one of these in our kitchen. With 3 varieties to tickle your taste buds – I LOVE YOU, EAT ME and HOME MADE. What a sweet idea when covering cupcakes / cookies with fondant!! or stamping your embossed message onto cookies.
It’s World Diabetes Day today. At Nicoletta we take the well being of our fans very seriously (this is why we are constantly working to ensure that the ingredients in our products are as “clean” as possible). These products represent some “sugar free” products that our diabetic fans might add to their “yummy goodies” to make them exceedingly special.
Our edible shimmer powders (in silver and gold) will add sparkle to your creations, without containing sugar. In fact, this product has no calories at all!
Nicoletta wafer products do not contain any sugar and are made from wheat / potato starch and beetroot juice. Wafers available from Nicoletta include Heavenly Hearts (mini heart wafers), Love Notes (large heart wafers), Stack O’ Hearts, and Stack O’ Discs as well as the popular Edible Paper Pack – ideal for making those personalised edible greeting cards and special messages “that will self destruct” by eating!
Our Stationery for Cakes food colouring markers are also free from sugar, and are a perfect way to write a yummy note on loved ones food (i.e. any smooth, dry, hard edible surface).
We hope that all our diabetic/ pre-diabetic friends will feel comforted that some sugar free cake decorations are ready for them to use.
8 colours just won’t do?!
Feel free to mix the colours in any combination. Play around; squish it like playdough until you reach the colour you desire. We played around with the 8 basic colours of Nicoletta fondants in different combinations.
The colour chart we created contains the colour mixture of two fondants in equal quantities:
Our fondants are vanilla flavoured, but you can certainly add some of your own flavour to the fondant, by kneading it in, be sure to use very small amounts to ensure that the end result is not overpowering! Try using a good quality almond, orange or peppermint extract.
How to use Nicoletta fondant
Start by dusting your surface with a little corn flour (corn starch). Do not use too much corn flour as this may cause the fondant to dry and crack. Using a smooth rolling pin roll the fondant out to a thickness of about ½ cm. In order to lift the rolled fondant off the surface and place over your cake, use the rolling pin as a support. Place your rolling pin at the one end of the rolled fondant and gently lift or roll the fondant onto it.
Before placing the rolled fondant over the cake, ensure that you have applied a butter-cream frosting or smooth apricot jam and “dirty” iced the cake. This will ensure that the cake surface is perfectly smooth and even, just right for the rolled fondant to be draped over the cake. It is also forgiving enough to allow for final adjustments to the fondant position once covering the cake.
Position the fondant over the cake and start smoothing it from the centre to the sides, and down to the base of the cake. Cut off any excess fondant around the base. Prick any air bubbles with a pin, and patch up any cracks that may occur by rubbing your finger over the crack with a small amount of corn flour.
To attach decorations to a fondant cake – create a “glue” by mixing a little piece of fondant in a small amount of water; the fondant will dissolve and leave you with a sticky paste which can be used to secure your decorations to the cake.
Ta Daa, a professional cake is made! Now stand back and admire the finished product, take pictures and send to Nicoletta so we can make you famous (for a little while) on our Facebook page!
This very helpful chart tells you how much fondant you need to cover your cake. Each fondant block is 250g, and could be used in these quantities when rolling out your fondant to a ½ cm thick.
Pan (1 layer)
cm
Inches
Fondant (250g)
Square/ round
15
6”
+-Â 150g
Square/ Â round
18
7”
+-Â 180g
Square/ Â round
20
8”
+-Â 200g
Square/ Â round
23
9”
+-Â 150g
Square/ Â round
25
10”
+-Â 250g
Square/ Â round
28
11”
+-Â 280g
Square/ Â round
30
12”
+-Â 300g
All shimmers are not created equal.
Nicoletta shimmers are 100% edible and made from a mineral and added colourants.
Other shimmers claiming “food grade”/”food safe”/”non-toxic” are shimmers that are made of tiny pieces of plastic! Shock, horror! These terms are lingo used in the manufacturing of food contact safe plastics; these terms mean that the plastic touching your food will not leach harmful chemicals into it; however it’s not really your plan to eat this plastic/ attempt to pick it off your food! Look out for shimmers claiming to be food safe, and check for ingredients on the label (as required by law for food products).
This is Nicoletta’s blog page where in future we will be posting information on upcoming events where you can spot Nicoletta; recipe and baking inspirations; “how to” lessons (where we tell you secrets on how to become a domestic diva); information on new product launches, uploaded monthly newsletters; and information on places in and around Cape Town where you can view our products being used.
We wish all our fans Happy decorating!