This was my birthday cake...made for me by my sugar-freak-friend...it made me giggle just looking at it! When the boy saw it, (we had been talking about what kind of qualities his friend is looking for in a wife,) he said, "I just want someone who can make a cake like that!" He's no dummy! And neither am I - I know a coma when I see it! I told the boy to have at it - minutes later half the cake was gone! I guess it's been a while since we've had Twinkies and Ho-Ho's in the house!
Thanks so much Joyce!
This post is not about my birthday...it's about what I DID on my birthday - and the day before and the day after...three glorious days filled with with a candy/chocolate class...fondant, caramel, fudge, truffles, divinity...rolling, scooping, beating, pouring, heating, dipping, dipping and more dipping!
The class made fondant cream centers which were dipped in milk chocolate and dark chocolate...raspberry, coconut, peanut butter, orange, vanilla...mouth-watering I tell you!
We also made truffles...raspberry, coconut, lemon, orange, maple-nut, chocolate and probably a few more that my sugared-brain can't recall! And then we dipped them...so, so fun! Playing in chocolate is almost as good as eating it!
We only had a couple of mishaps in three days of confectionary bliss...the caramels cooked so quickly and looked so beautiful in the pan and THEN someone noticed the sweetened condensed milk sitting on the counter! Warming chocolate in the microwave and forgetting to take it out...or forgetting to watch the time! And we had several batches of fondant that didn't work, probably due to humidity...certainly not from the Confectioner's errors! Who knew candy making was a science?!? (And WAY more work that I thought!)
After three days, this is what I came home with:
Heavenly Chocolates!!! Hand-dipped truffles, hand-dipped creams, chocolate-covered caramels...MY OH MY! Marsha, expert in all things chocolate, taught us so many things - let us trash her kitchen - and even fed us lunch! It was such great fun!! While I can't tell you everything I learned, because I've forgotten it already, I can give you some recipes - they're the recipes I've made for years and they are tried and true!
For the caramel recipe, click here. (While this recipe is called Lori's Caramels, I recently discovered it's the very same recipe that Marsha uses, and the same one my Mom used and the same one her friend Janet used...it's a very old recipe so it's probably the same one YOUR mom used! Dang good, my friends, 5 dangs worth!)
For the fudge recipe, click here. (This is another of Lori's recipes and it's called Fudge To Die For, and it truly is! Make it, go to Heaven and see for yourself!)
For the divinity, click here. (It's a Paula Deen recipe and even with a bit of humidity in the air, two determined friends beat it into submission and it worked! One bite took me back to my childhood...it was a very good bite!)
