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Hints, Tips and Tools (9 Viewers)

Baking tips, helpful hints, how to guides, decorating, tools & their uses...
This Bismark nozzle and the #230 nozzle are ideal nozzles for helping you fill cupcakes, eclairs and doughnuts with a scrumptious filling. Just insert the nozzle straight into your dessert, squeeze and drag the nozzle out slowly whilst piping the filling in at the same time. These are relatively cheap and can be purchased from Cake Shops, Amazon or Ebay. Hints, Tips and Tools Basic Baking and Cake Decorating Recipes and Guides Tutorials
If you do not have a cupcake tray or cupcake box to transport your newly decorated cupcakes in then here is an alternative for you. 1. Get a Muffin tray and some Aluminium Foil which is bigger than your tray. (US - Aluminum Foil) 2. Then start to make a mould of the tray by pressing the foil into the holes like so until you have filled in the holes and scrunched the edges of the foil to the tray. 3. Now carefully remove the foil from the tin. 4. This Aluminium mould can now be put into your container of choice, remember to try and keep as much of the shape as you can. If you wish to transport more cupcakes you could make a mould of a 12 deep muffin tin. Just make as many moulds as you need to prevent the cupcakes from...
If you are making cylinders or towers for a cake you can either use a swiss roll and cover it in icing fondant or you can place cake mix/batter in a greased and lined clean aluminium baked beans or spaghetti tin (removing the label of course) and simply bake the cake in the oven. Once baked leave to cool and then carefully slide the cake out by tugging softly on the baking paper/ greaseproof paper to enable you to remove the cake from the tin. You can then cover the cake in buttercream or jam and use this on your cake. Hints, Tips and Tools Basic Baking and Cake Decorating Recipes and Guides Tutorials
I have now used my Williams-Sonoma cups to weigh out certain ingredients and then converted it to grams on my scales. The conversion is as follows:- Flour: 1 Cup - 120 grams ½ Cup - 60 grams ⅓ Cup - 40 grams ¼ Cup - 30 grams Dried Fruit: 1 Cup - 140 grams ½ Cup - 70 grams ⅓ Cup - 47 grams ¼ Cup - 35 grams Sugar: 1 Cup - 190 grams ½ Cup - 85 grams ⅓ Cup - 63 grams ¼ Cup - 47.5 grams In order to help you gauge the sizes, you can fit a normal sized Granny Smith Apple in the 1 Cup 'Cup'.
A cake levelling wire or cake leveller is used to level a cake; it has segments on the side of the tool for you to set your required height and then it is slid in a side to side motion slowly through the cake in order to slice it. It can be used for levelling a cake to make it straight and remove any peak. It can also be used for slicing the middle section of a cake in order to fill it.
The difference between extract and essence is simple, extracts are taken straight from the source and essence is generally manufactured. For example Vanilla Extract is a natural product, it has a lot fuller and stronger flavour and is taken straight from the vanilla pod which has been mixed with alcohol and water. Essence, however, is more watered down version and is generally a synthetic product. Always check the labels though just to make sure you know what you are buying. Although it is sometimes better to use more natural products these can actually be expensive therefore essences are a cheaper and easier alternative to use.
If you are going to use pre-made puff pastry to make vol-au-vents or turnovers etc, then ensure you take the pastry out of the fridge about 20-30 minutes before use. This brings it to room temperature and makes it easier to work with.
There are different types of Tylo powder (depending on the make you buy): - Granular Tylo powder is widely used to make edible glue; this is because its granules do not absorb well into icing or fondant. Superfine Tylo powder, although superfine tylo powder is made of the same ingredients as granular, its consistency allows it to be used for dual purposes. It can be used to make edible glue. It will also make flower and modelling paste as it acts as a hardener and absorbs straight into your icing fondant. (The consistency resembles powdered milk). If you are buying this variety of Tylo here are the differences:- 1. This is the granular version 'Purest Quality Granular' is used to make edible glue. 2. This is C1000 it's a...
When you have potted your homemade jam/lemon curd, you can use a wax circle to seal and preserve it. The wax circle should be placed directly on top of the jam whilst still hot to form a seal. You can then place the lid on, and this will create a vacuum. Tip: In the event you do not have wax circles, leave the jam or curd to cool fully before placing the lid on, as this will prevent condensation occurring, which may lead to mould. Hints, Tips and Tools Recipes and Guides Tutorials
These message cutters which say Best Wishes, Thank you and Love are great fun and can be used to cut and indent biscuits or icing fondant. They are very quick and simple to use and will add the personal touch to your baking creations in seconds.
This water pen is a great tool and helps you stick your models together with ease. It distributes just enough water to enable you to stick your icing/fondant together and is far less messy than a regular paint brush. They also come in a range of tip sizes. I bought the medium and thin-tipped ones. You simply unscrew the nib part of the pen, fill it will water and then re-attach the nib. Then you just use the pen as a paintbrush and the water inside slowly runs through the nib and onto your icing fondant, allowing you to stick your creations together. Also see Water Pen Review
In order to soften butter take it out of the fridge at least approx 30 minutes before using it, then cut it into small cubes. On a scorching day, the butter will soften quickly on your work surface so the timing will be reduced.
I have recently purchased 'The Mat' and definitely had to share this with you. Basically, it's a see-through plastic mat that enables you to roll out your icing/fondant without the use of icing sugar. You just roll out your icing/fondant on the mat and transfer to your cake. It helps with cost saving and assists the icing/fondant user covering a cake with fabulous results. Also, see Sweetwise for their other products.

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