royal icing

Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls

Day of the Dead Mexican Sugar Skulls

When we used to live in Orange County, California, my sister and I (and later Raj), would occasionally make the trek up to Olvera Street, the oldest part of downtown Los Angeles, via the train. It was an annual trip at the end of September that signaled the beginning of Halloween decorating season and an excuse to buy Day of the Dead items. If you’ve never been to Olvera Street, you need to go. It makes a great day trip to eat authentic Mexican food and to stroll around cool and hip shops full of Day of the Dead figurines, sugar skulls, and lots more. A few years back, I tried to find a local shop or bakery in Virginia that sold sugar skulls and/or Pan de Muerto (Day of the Dead bread), but with no such luck, I’ve had to create my own.

Making your own sugar skulls is really easy, but it does take time and LOTS of granulated sugar. I only made four large skulls and two smalls ones and used 5 pounds of granulated sugar for the skulls and 2 pounds of powdered sugar for the Royal Icing, but your hard work will pay off AND they last for years!

Sugar Skulls

Ingredients

5 pounds granulated sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder (a must; it helps the sugar stick together)
3 tablespoons of water

Directions

Mix all of the ingredients into a large bowl using your hands until all of the sugar is moistened. It should feel like wet sand.
Pack the plastic sugar skull molds (I purchased a small one at Sur la Table and a large one online) firmly with sugar, using a straight edge to scrape the back of the mold flat–I used a piece of cardboard for this.
Tip sugar out of mold and place on a flat surface to dry overnight.

Royal Icing

After the sugar skulls have been allowed to dry at least overnight, prepare Royal Icing recipe to piece the two halves of the skulls together and to decorate them.

Ingredients

2 pound bag of powdered sugar (7 cups)
1/2 cup meringue powder
2/3 cup water

Directions

Mix 2/3 cup water, 1/2 cup meringue powder and 2 pounds of powdered sugar with an electric mixer until icing peaks (about 9 minutes).
Mix icing with food coloring.

colors — I use Ziploc bags with tips for decorating.

Making Your Skulls

My molds are made of two pieces, a face and the back of the skull. With the plain white Royal Frosting, add a small amount to each half and place together, wiping away any excess that comes out of the seams.
Decorate your skulls using sequins foil paper (I ordered this online as well)

tinwrapper — The foil that I used to fill in the eyes and to cover up mistakes I made when decorating.

Alexandria, Baking

Home Sweet Gingerbread Home

Last year for Christmas we were in Cairo…this year Alexandria–not Egypt, but Virginia. As a result, last Christmas Eve, we promised to do next year’s Christmas BIG…well, not that big, but anything is bigger than last year. What a difference a year can make.

Check it out…I’m pretty pleased…but now I have more pressing things to do, like unpack our final shipment of furniture and such from Jordan that arrived yesterday.

Here are the steps:

1. I created a template from thin cardboard, fashioned after a picture of our house.

The bay window on the third floor in my attempt at perspective.

2. Make the gingerbread dough. I used Martha Stewart’s recipe here. http://www.marthastewart.com/342245/molasses-gingerbread-cookies

This picture is really just to show off my new mixer.

3. Roll out the dough; place template pieces over dough to cut out shapes; bake.

4. Here’s my favorite part. I smashed up butterscotch candy to melt into the windows so that they would light up.

Place smashed candy into window and bake at 350 degrees, watching closely until melted.

5. Assemble all of the pieces.

6. Assemble the house using royal icing as the glue. This step got a little dicey with no one to help hold the roof into place, resulting in a slight slope.

7. And the finished product…

…and in the dark, but with the flash you can barely tell there’s light behind the windows…

I cut out a square on the back of the house and placed a battery operate tea light like this one into the center to illuminate the stained butterscotch glass windows.

Alexandria, Baking, Crafting

Sugar Cookies from Halloween & Day of the Dead’s Past

I’ve been living without a functioning kitchen now for over FOUR months now. This means no cooking and no creative outlet. Since I cannot bake or cook or do much else creatively speaking (because everything is on its way from Jordan and isn’t set to arrive for months), and given that I’m at home from work due to the storm, I searched through my pictures of Halloween’s past to reminisce about the beautiful cookies that I could have been baking and decorating if I had a full larder and was equipped with my cookie making supplies.

get-attachment.aspx — Inspiration? Jack Skelington

76013_170030603023979_5577559_n — Dia de los Muertos beauties–my personal favorites

photo-27 — I wish I had a friend like me who bakes and distributes cookies for holidays!

In case you’re inspired enough to want to bake, here’s the recipe for the cookies and the icing:

No Fail Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven thirty minutes before you begin. (This recipe makes a lot of cookies, so I usually cut the recipe in half or save half of it to freeze and use later.)

Ingredients:

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little
at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess – Rather than wait for your cookie dough to
chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator.
Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the
first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus
is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.

Makes 3 cups of base consistency icing

3 3/4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
3 T meringue powder
6 T warm water

Beat 4 to 5 minutes
By hand, stir in optional flavorings and desired tints.

Add 8 T of warm water if you want flow consistency.

Baking

No Fail Sugar Cookies, Just in Time for Valentine’s Day

My favorite recipe for sugar cookies comes from Kitchen Collectibles, a website full of every imaginable cookie cutter. I get most of my cookie cutters from this website, which I happened upon years ago when I was searching for ocean themed cutters to use for my wedding cookie favors. What I love about the recipe is that the cookies don’t spread while they’re cooking, so what you place on the pan is what you get after they are baked.

Kitchen Collectibles’ website has great tutorials and inspiration for use with their cookie cutters.

No Fail Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven thirty minutes before you begin. (This recipe makes a lot of cookies, so I usually cut the recipe in half or save half of it to freeze and use later.)

Ingredients:

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little
at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess — Rather than wait for your cookie dough to
chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator.
Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the
first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus
is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.