YumSugar

Yummy Links: From Pac-Man Cupcakes to Dog Meat

partysugar — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:00:04 -0700

Wow your geek friends with a Pac-man cupcake cake. - Slashfood
Suggestions for making the perfect wedding toast. - Chow
Speaking of weddings, here are five tips for picking the best caterer. - GlamDish
What exactly is fondant. - Baking Bites
Do you have what it takes to win a Major League Eating competition? Find out when you play Nintendo Wii's new Major League Eating: the Game. - Serious Eats
Use a bundt pan to easily remove corn kernels from the cob. - Simply Recipes
Celebrate the season's first tomatoeswith rosemary, garlic, and a grill. - The Kitchn
Chinese officials have confirmed that dog meat will NOT be served at any restaurants connected to the Beijing Olympic games. - The Epi-Log

Definition: Fondant

YumSugar — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 04:03:31 -0700

Fondant
A typical cake icing made with sugary, syrup and gelatin. It is cooked to a specific temperature (240F), poured over a marble slab, sprinkled with water (to prevent crystallization) and then kneaded to a smooth soft paste. It is often colored and flavored and used for candies and cakes. It can be rolled out and its soft qualities enable it to be draped like fabric.

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Must Read: Chocolates and Confections

YumSugar — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:00:49 -0800

I should have put self-control on my list of New Year's resolutions, because I haven't been able to resist temptation this month, especially when it comes to nostalgic candies, dragées, or any charming confection. At least one publisher appealed to my weakness when I received a copy of Peter Greweling's Chocolates and Confections at Home With the Culinary Institute of America ($23), I think my heart actually skipped a beat. Did it let me down? Find out and read more.

Must-Read: Matthew Mead Halloween Tricks and Treats

partysugar — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:00:08 -0700

Move over Martha Stewart, there's a new kid on the crafty Halloween block, and his name is Matthew Mead. Mead is a producer, stylist, and author whose creative work has appeared in numerous publications including InStyle Weddings. To see what I thought of his Halloween Tricks and Treats ($19) book, read more.

Pros:

The book is full of festive and fun ideas. Each idea is accompanied by a photo.
Mead excels when it comes to fabulous party themes. I love his owl-oween children's party and his mummy cooked dinner.
His decorations are spot on. The fun house section teaches readers how to cover a wall with eyes and create a spooky clock.
The book is very inspiring. While browsing the pages I came up with many ideas.

Cons:

Some of the how-tos lack templates and details. Its assumed that everyone will be capable of cutting a witches face out of pizza dough.
I was bored by the entire chapter devoted to fondant creations. While they look adorable, I'm just not a fondant fan.
Some of the ideas are more hokey than chic. They're appropriate at a cheesy child's affair but wouldn't be stylish at a grown-up party.

Recipes: The recipes are innovative, but too many rely on packaged ingredients like snack cakes or lu biscuits. Still, there are some I'm dying to make:

Candy corn freeze (a layered ice cream dessert)
Green gruel with eyeballs (a broccoli cheddar soup)
Bleeding berry pie (a mixed berry pie decorated with edible candy eyes)
A jack-o-lantern cocktail (a vodka carrot juice concoction)

Imagery: The pictures are clear and plentiful. Each idea is represented with a coinciding image.

Overall Rating: If you're a hardcore, crafty entertainer, whose favorite holiday is Halloween, you will love this book. Its chock full of amazing ideas.

Are you familiar with Matthew Mead? Have you checked out any of his books? What did you think?

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Cupcake of the Week: My Edible Neighbor Totoro

YumSugar — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:28:33 -0700

This week's cupcake comes from A Cat In the Kitchen. Her adorable Totoro topped cupcakes are wonderfully cute and made me squeal out loud. The cupcakes are actually maple, pecan and apple - perfect for the fall - and are topped with a sugar fondant/paste and decorated with a food pen. I love all the detail in them. They're really almost too cute to eat! Well, almost...

The Look: Emmys Governor Ball

partysugar — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:49:11 -0700

The Emmys are this Sunday and the decorating committee is hard at work preparing for the Art Deco themed after party. The look for the post show Governor's Ball is an elegant black and white color scheme that drips of old Hollywood glamour.

The dinner menu -created by chef Joachim Splichal of Los Angeles' Patina restaurant - starts off with a tomato, cucumber, mango, and Dungeness crab tower with a sweet ginger soy reduction sauce. It's followed by a filet mignon and wine braised shortribs aside potatoes fondant and asparagus. Dessert is a milk chocolate mousse with a Champagne gelee served in a dark chocolate cup garnished with fresh berries and cherry vanilla cake. As for the drinks, Voss water, Grey Goose vodka, and Laurent-Perrier Champagne will be served.

And don't forget, there's still time to enter BuzzSugar's Emmy Ballot Sweepstakes!

To take a look at the full gallery - I especially like the diagrams of the decor - read more

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Source: ET Online
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The Next Food Network Star - 3.1 Recap

YumSugar — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:57:18 -0700

I never got into the first two seasons of "The Next Food Network Star." However, when I heard that the producers were "stepping up their game" this season, I decided to give it another try. Last night's two-hour premiere introduced us to 11 hopeful stars and you know what? It wasn't that bad. As the promos say, it's an all new season, all new rules. And from the look of things, it looks like the producers have taken a page out of Top Chef's rule book. There's more behind the scenes, at the dorms and in the kitchen, as well as faster-paced editing. To see what I thought of last night's premiere, read more

The show starts off immediately with Bobby Flay (each week a new Food Network personality will be the guest judge and host) telling them that they have one hour to create a dish for a potluck. The most successful dish ended up being from Colombe, a yoga instructor who wants an organic cooking show.

Next they're told they have 90 minutes to decorate a three-tiered wedding cake, which will be judged by none-other than Duff from Food Network's Ace of Cakes. At this point I was pretty surprised that they'd have a wedding challenge so soon in the game. However, it must be a quick way to sort out the folks that get it, from those that don't (what was with some of those cakes?!?). The winning cake was a simple white cake with blue dots, created by Amy, who also happened to be the only person who had ever worked with fondant before.

After the wedding cakes were rated, they're then greeted by Robert Irvine from Dinner Impossible. If you thought the 90 minute wedding cake was a zinger, he's there to raise the bar. Try a complete semi-vegetarian wedding for 100 people in just 6 hours. That's right 6 hours. The winners of the two previous challenges become team captains, and Amy (in a stroke of genius) purposely chooses the folks who are caterers. Also one team has 6 folks and the other has 5, but gets an extra $500 to make up for it. Surprisingly, the team that has $2300 to spend, only spends $800. Whaaat? I could spend more than $800 cooking for 30, let alone 100.

The show gets pretty interesting around this point as the orange team seems to do everything wrong. They don't buy enough food, they put chicken stock in the vegetarian dish, they run out of food, and my favorite part, they leave their table and Bobby Flay ends up covering for them! I could not believe that, I understand running back to get something real quick, but what went through the last person to leave's head? Oh yah I'll just leave the station alone, no one's going to notice.

At this point there are still too many faces and personalities for me too chose from. No one is standing out and since both "Top Chef" and "Hell's Kitchen" begin this week, I hope my brain can keep all these food hopefuls sorted out. Only time will tell, but until then, discuss:

How many times did Amy say the word Paris?
How about Salmon and "like the fish?"
What was with some of those wedding cakes? Were they channeling 3rd graders?

What would you do if you spilled dessert all over Bobby Flay?
If Colombe ends up winning, would Food Network actually air an all organic, all natural food show? I'd love it if they would, but I thought they were getting away from that.
Did Robert Irvine seem a bit rude to anyone else?
Berry skewers for a dessert? Seriously?
Anyone else notice the lovely fresh lemon wall during the interview portions? So refreshing!

So, did you watch? If so, what did you think?

Pink Purse Cake: Love It or Hate It?

YumSugar — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:19:52 -0700

Look out fashionistas! Now you can have your fancy handbag and eat it too! This bag is described as a "must have" for the fashion forward. Draped in pink fondant, this pink purse cake is a layered Tahitian vanilla bean cake with chocolate fudge and white buttercream. It's not really my style (although it sounds delicious), but I think I can name a person or two who is going to go gaga over it. What do you guys think, is this pink purse cake a must have? Oh and did I mention, it weighs 1 lb 9 oz and costs $150?

Twinkle in My Eye Cake

YumSugar — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:38:03 -0800

Let's face it, I'm a big kid at heart and I'm probably never going to grow up. That's why when I found this ridiculously cute felt tiered cake (and I mean ridiculously cute), I immediately squealed... outloud... just like a pig... (don't try and tell me that you didn't do the same). This adorable interactive cake includes over 50 "fondant" decorations and is made of 100% wool felt from Holland and upholstery foam. It's available from Twinkle Kids and costs $45. It's a little pricey for a toy, but having this in your collection would push any tea party into a whole new realm!

Source: Poppy