Decorations

How to make a rose with fondant

I have seen a few tutorials online for how to make a rose with fondant and put them all together.  Here is how I made mine.

Making a rose using fondant is much easier than what it may seem.  All you need is a piece of fondant, some food colouring (a paste or gel food colouring and not a liquid one as it is not suited for fondant) to give the fondant the colour you want and a plastic zip lock bag.

Start by colouring your fondant.  With a toothpick take some food colouring and rub it on the fondant.  Knead it well until the fondant becomes a uniform colour.  You may have to add more colour until you get the shade you want.

Now, make at least 7 small balls with your fondant (the dimension will depend on how big you want your fondant rose to be).  You can make more if you want the rose to have more petals.

Take one of these balls and roll it into an elongated shape.

Put it in the middle of the zip lock bag and cover it with the other half of the bag as shown in the picture.  Now press it with your fingers and flatten it into an oval shape.  The bag will prevent the fondant from sticking to the bench top.

Roll it on itself to make the centre of the rose.

Then press and flatten all the other balls in the same way and attach them one by one to the centre of the rose by pressing them lightly at the base.

To make the rose look better, shape the petals with your hands (you can slightly push them backwards to make the rose look more open).

Use the rose as decoration for your cakes/cupcakes.

How to make Marbled Chocolate Hearts

Ingredients:
Dark chocolate
White chocolate

Melt the dark and white chocolate in 2 separate bowls.

Spread the dark chocolate over a piece of baking paper.  Make it as flat as possible with the back of a spoon.  Quickly drop some of the white chocolate on the top of the spread dark chocolate using a teaspoon.  Now, using a toothpick, drag the white chocolate to roughly mix it with the dark chocolate until you get the marbled effect that you desire.

Put the chocolate in the freezer to set.  When set, take it out and cut out hearts using a cookie cutter.

NOTES:

• You can do the same using white chocolate as a base and then doing the marble effect with dark chocolate, to get white hearts.
• You can make any shape you like using the same method.

How to make a Melon Basket

Prosciutto e melone is one the most classic Italian antipasti… simple and refreshing, it is often present on Italian tables, especially in spring and summer.  It is delicious: the sweetness of the melon and the slight saltiness of prosciutto complement each other perfectly!  For my youngest daughter’s 3^rd birthday party, I wanted to serve it in a special way, so I made a basket out of a rock melon and filled it with prosciutto wrapped melon balls.

Making a melon basket is very easy.  You start by choosing a melon with a symmetrical shape.  Then cut a thin slice at the bottom, so that the melon will stand upright.

Now you can either draw the handles of the basket or cut it straight away along one side of the handle until you reach the horizontal (imaginary) basket line.  Do this on the other side as well.
Now cut the sides and remove them.

Using the knife, remove the melon flesh from the handle.

Now, using a melon baller, excavate the melon basket.

Keep the balls aside and serve them wrapped with prosciutto.