Lessons

Lesson Info

Part 1

Okay, So Creativelive asked me to do some cake decorating for the holidays, and I thought about this a lot. Cupcakes are so hot right now. Everybody loves a cupcake and cookies air. Also the number one item that people enjoy at Christmas time. 64% or excuse me. 67% of those surveyed said their most memorable thing about the holidays air the cookies. So cookies is the next focus. Okay, so I want to quickly touch on what what I've done so far, As far as cookies go, one is is Ah. Showed the cookie. That is, um, like, this. Is that good for you to see? Okay, what I've done is I've made a cutout cookie, and then I've used that same cookie cutter in order to do the actual work thes air a little bit time consuming, but they're not difficult. Okay, that's kind of the cool thing about all this stuff. The other thing about these particular types of cookies is Then if I want to package them up, put a little bow on it. I now have a gift or a little present that I can send home with every child tha...

t the party or put on everybody's package, and it makes it just a little bit more special. Did these angels for a church function and we did all types of hair color on him and that sort of thing. We kind of had fun with that. The other thing about the cookies that we can do the funding are that making him a little easier is that I literally just cut out the shape, the same shape that I did my cookie. And in this case I used my holly cutter. And then I just put green Font and on it with some red colored balls. And it is like playing with Plato. So let's get started on some. I lost where my space was. There we go. I have it so carefully set up there. Can't lose that. So the first thing I want to talk about the cookies is is that you want to roll them out about an eighth of an inch to 1/4 inch thick. I just kind of guestimate when I'm doing them because I've done so many of them. But if that's an issue for you, go ahead and use like wooden dowels and roll out between the wooden Dell's to keep your cookie dough all the same level. The other thing that you want to remember about cookie dough is that it's a delicate thing. You don't want to add so much flour to it that you're creating little bricks, okay or something that's really hard. So you take the dough out of the bowl, you gently need it so that it's workable at a little flower underneath and little flower on top so it doesn't stick to your rolling pin in your board. Roll it out to cut your pieces. And then generally, what I do is I just then have my leftover pieces and I add some fresh dough to that and then roll that out. I don't ever throw anything away. I have lots of Children. They'll eat anything well, not always, but sometimes. So that's basically the cookies, and I do bake on parchment. I find that baking on parchment. I get a better finish cookie. You can see the bottoms aren't brown, although that's not to say that I don't have issues. You can see that one's a little browner. But even then this one did some funky things on top. It's because I rolled out my cookies and then I let them sit for several hours before I baked him because I went in and cooked dinner and had dinner and got back too much later. And that just did something funky. But I'm gonna decorate it. It won't matter. It'll taste good. It'll be fine. Okay, now, then onto cupcakes real quick for the class. I've just done white and chocolate those air. Very standard. Very basic, very regular. The one thing I want to bring up about cupcakes is that there are now all kinds of this is a gold. This is silver. These air fancy decorated, says holiday sweets on the bottom and got little pattern on it. There are now all kinds of papers out there and cupcake cups that you can use. I have found that decorating or making a chocolate cake in one of these fancy ones is just a total waste, and they're a little pricey, so you know you don't want to really weigh set. So if I'm doing chocolate, I'm doing chocolate and either just a plain old white or I like putting them into the foil or the gold are very pretty, too. Okay? And you can, you know, every store in the world cells east, the white or the lighter colored papers or cake look great with the papers, and that's kind of an added thing. They also sell little paper wraps that you can wrap on these. They're very they're very pricey. But if you're doing a special event, it's appropriate. If you're putting them on the table for friends and family, maybe you don't want to go to that expense. I don't know. It's up to you. It's your friends and family, you know. How important are they? Okay. The other thing about these particular cup cakes or cupcakes in particular, is that they're displaying. Now. If I wanted to fill them with something, like a cream filling or a Baileys or Grand Marnie A or chocolate good Nagy. I mean, whatever your imagination is, you can do that. It's very simple. You just want to take a tip that has a plane opening and just basically poke it in and squish icing in their or filling. And you can do creams anything your little heart desires. It doesn't not take much. Don't try to fill that little cupcake full of 1/2 a cup of filling? Yes. Do you do that when they're hot so that they will make room for the icing? Um, I wouldn't do it when they're too hot, because then you're looking at melting things. So if you're using, like a whipped cream or a meringue based buttercream or something, if you put it into hot, it's it's gonna melt and then get kind of rookie. You're better off waiting until they're a little bit cool. I was a good question, and you don't have to do it every time. I, me and I do cupcakes all the time and do nothing but decorate. Um, and people still enjoy him. So, um, that was just a couple of different things, and I also included on the website the connection, the white cake recipe. I always like to call that worth the price of the book. I bought a very expensive, very high end pastry book, and that recipe alone was worth it, and I've had students who have managed to ruin all kinds of things, but they're able to pull that recipe off every time. So that's one of those good recipes. A good white recipe, good white cake recipes. A little difficult. But again, use whatever you are happy with. And if that means opening a box of cake mix and stirring it up, do it. It's OK. Um, okay. Quick question. I'm just curious myself on that recipe. Regular flour and cake flour or one of the other, um, right up top my head. I'm not remembering what the recipe calls for. Okay, well, check it out. Yeah, Sorry. I want to say it's just standard baking flour. Might be cake, flour. I'm not I'm I apologize. I'm not remembering what it calls for. Too many formulas. Okay, so the first thing I want to start with the day is making a few little pieces of our of our cookies and cupcakes ahead of time because the cool thing about Fondant is it does work like Play doh. But unfortunately, it doesn't hold up a swell as Plato. OK, but if we let it sit, it will dry and hold its shape. So we need to make some shapes. So the first cupcakes or cookies that we're going to talk about our, um the sunflower and I don't I don't know what to call this one. It's just a orange flower. My yards growing little orange flowers with brown centers. And I thought, OK, I'm calling that a fall flower. I don't know what it's called, though, and then also are poinsettia. Now, in order to do that, we need to have pedals, OK? And to make our pedals, I'm going to start with the yellow. You can use whatever color you want when we work with our gum paste. Excuse me. Not a gun pace. Better funded l organ paste you have. You have to need it. Fondant needs to be needed. Okay, The other thing I need The other thing I need to tell you is that when you work with fondant or gum paste and I'll tell you what the difference is here in a moment. This will tell you if you have clean hands or not. This will tell you if you're wearing clean clothes or not. This will tell you if your counter is clean, it will pick up every little piece of fuzz and dirt and wherever you're working. So you have to be sure that your clean when you're working with it. The other thing is, is I've provided my little containers kind of broken, but that's OK. A little bit of shortening. This is just for my ladies in the UK A little bit of white fat. They'll know what that is. I want just a little bit and I always like to give this example. Fondant needs to be needed. And if we work in a little bit of shortening with it, it's like having a nice warm bubble bath and a glass of wine. And if you have too much wine, you're going to slip under the water and ground. So not too much wine just a little bit, Okay? My non drinkers don't get that way. Had a quick question regarding if you could talk about the differences between fund and and gum paste. Okay, fondant and gum paste. I can take my fondant in. That formula was included on the website also, and this has sugar and gelatin and shortening and glucose and glycerin and egg whites and gum. There are several types of gum and I brought examples. One is a trike terror. Kant gum. Is that how you say it? I don't know how you say I'm not good at saying this is a natural gum. And when I open my containers, sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. Sometimes it's gray. Uh, I have a big container that I bought a ah, while ago that when I opened it, they could have smelled it a block away. It was that pungent, Um, and I kind of shy away from it. There are decorators out there that they will only use a natural gum. I prefer to use what's called CMC or also sodium bicarbonate cellulose, and that is, Ah, food grade gum. And the thing that I like about it is that Number one, it doesn't take a much product as the natural gums, and it's always white. It always has no odor. It always works exactly the way the last package worked. I'm not dealing with the natural product that's coming from who knows where that week. You know what I'm saying? That is the gum in there that makes it a fondant. When we add extra gum into our fund int that makes it into a gum paste. Another gum paste formula is very simple. Basically, it's egg whites, powdered sugar and gum, and your gum paste is the same thing as your AL toys. Men. Sure, Niko wafers your sweetheart Candies. I always like to tell people Altoids mints for somebody's gum paste that went horribly wrong, and now they're wealthy. But you know, so that's gum paste. Now the gum paste. When we're working with gum paste, gum paste, we can work much thinner than fondant, and it dries very quickly and it gets really hard. So when we're done with it, it looks like porcelain. Now my poinsettias that I have here, those are out of gum paste and I can color it. I can paint it. I can airbrush it. I wire them so that I can have total control over where the pedals air going, all of the Berries and holly, that's all gum paste. So it's a lot like it's like like working with Paedo in many ways. But it will dry and look like porcelain when we're done and it's edible, so we can do really, really outrageous fun, awesome things with it. Someone had asked where you can purchase the CMC resource is for that, um, CMC, I would say global sugar art. And that link was also provided. And, um, did I provide another length? It sells it. I'm not. Yeah. Global shuts a good starting point. We'll go from there. Thank you. Global sugar art is awesome. They have everything from everybody. And, um Hey, his shop is much like a warehouse. Except that, um it's a shop. And then he has people that shopped for their online orders, and then they ship out every night, so things go out very quickly. So if you ever need anything in a rush, Okay. So what I want to do is I've needed this. Loved it to death. At this point, I am going to use a pasta machine. Yes, Kathy. Is it possible over meat it? Yes, it is. But it's more likely that you're going to underneath it. Yeah, but you'll know if it starts getting kind of drooping and sloppy, you've over needed it. Um, if you're in a high humidity area or a warm area, it's easy to do that. If it gets too sticky, you can need in either a little more powdered sugar to it, or a little corn starch. You can put a little cornstarch on your hands or your work surface. Corn starch is going to make it dry, faster and crack easier. Your shortenings going to make it slow down on its drying and cracking. So it's kind of a happy balance you have to find for it. Okay, I'm going to use my pasta machine and I My pasta machine goes from 1 to 6. So what? ISS My thickest number and six is my thinnest and I'm going to work. Actually, I'm not going to use my pasta machine. I don't know what I'm thinking. OK, senior moment. Never mind. Quick question. Mitt McHale. Love asks about funding. Do you buy it or do you make it yourself? I make it myself, but you can purchase it and on there are several brands out there. Sat nice is one of them. That's very, very nice. There's fond X. There's all kinds of brands out there, and there's all kinds of formulas for it out there. There are some that are very, very complicated. There are some that are very simple. I prefer the one that I put on the Internet, which has got the glucose and the glycerin and the gelatin and the egg whites. It's a very, very nice fund, and it's very affordable to make, actually a little more expensive to buy, but more affordable to make and flavorful taste. You can flavor any flavor you want and fondant ladies. This is what is actually the center to our cream filled chocolates. So if you want to make this flavor whatever flavor, you want to roll it into balls, dip it in chocolate or hand, roll it. You have cream filled chocolate. That's it. They're filled with funding. They're also filled with buttercream That's thickened up. So are our chocolate tears and our confectioners. We all kind of play together. OK, so what I've done is I've just kind of rolled out a little sausage, and I'm going to take my spatula, which is, um, a palette knife. I like it because it's got a thin blade and it's sharp, and I'm just going to cut a few of these into various sizes. Doesn't matter. Okay, I don't want him to big because I don't want Giant during pedals, and I'm just going to roll it into a ball. How simple is this? You guys know the ball with sausage. You got it. And then at one end of that, I'm going to thin it out to a point. So I have a little teardrop shape, and then I'm going to press it, so I have a petal shape. This is too hard for you. Okay? And then I'm gonna take my spatula or my whatever tool you have, and I'm going to add some veins to it. They also sell vein er's. But you don't have to have a boner. I am. I have a vein or tool. The Black tools or Jim Tools. I like them for good. And this is a vein or tool. So you can instead of using a knife or spatula, use the vein or tool. You can have all kinds of tools, or you can have very little. I didn't give you guys of inner Tool. You have to use your spatula. I only I only I break him And the owner of Jim Show Assistant to what? Nobody. Nobody breaks him. I'm the only one in the world that breaks him. I break him all the time. I pushed too hard on him when I'm making daisies. Okay, so what? I want to do for my little sunflower cupcake is I want to make about eight or nine. Um, pedals. I like having my pedals have a little point time. So if you get a point, great. If you don't pull one out and then at the end, I want to give it a little pinch. See, I give a little pinch. So it has that little petal leaf shape, and then I'm going to give a little turn. So it has some movement and life to it, And then I'm gonna put it over here in my fancy tool, also known as an empty egg crate the's air. Great. Because you know what? Their food grade number one, number two I can use and fill many of them. And then the next thing that I could do, because I do a lot of this, I can airbrush and color right in this thing. When this gets too ugly, I just recycle it and we're watching out for environment. So we recycle, reuse, keep things going. Good. So what we're going to do now? How you guys doing over there? Way too quiet? A lot of times, some of this stuff is like watching paint dry guys. So so again, we're making a little ball. We're turning into a teardrop, crushing it with our finger or thumb. I'm going to add some vain ing in there, using either my little vein in tool or your spatula or a butter knife. Whatever tool you have available the plastic knife from Starbucks. If you're in the coffee shop. Yes, sticky and it gets too sticky. Put in a little cornstarch or a little powdered sugar. Now on everybody's table, I have a big bag of powdered sugar, and I have little. I put my corn starch you a little bit of corn starch. It's really easy to go too heavy on the corn starch, and that will make it crack. And so I usually put mine in like a little knee high stockings. Okay, Ty and some cornstarch on the high stocking. You just kind of puff it onto your hand. The health department is cool with the knee high stocking, as long as that's all it's ever used for. So you don't want to use your yeah, don't use any high stocking on your foot one day, and then it's a corn puff the next. OK, send it from the Internet. How long can you keep yourself made? Fondant yourself made fund. It will last, um, easily. Six months, if not longer. The big trick to keeping your fondant is keeping it from drying out. Um, it can be refrigerated. It can be frozen. It could be stored on your counter. You just need to wrap it in plastic. The trick to keep in a long term is rapid in two or three things of plastic. Give it up. Give it a coat of shortening first before you put it in. Put it in the bag with some plastic. Seal it in near real good. And then, if you seal it into an airtight container, um, that will help. Keep it longer. Thank you, and you can flavor that any way you want. That's the other meat thing, so I flavor mine to go along with my cake flavors. You could flavor it according to what the color is. I mean, whatever your little heart desires, you know, for each cupcake, you're gonna want about 7 to 9 pedals. Did everybody say that for each cupcake? Each cookie. Now here's the cool thing about these particular flowers as I've done them on cupcakes. But truthfully, they can also go on cookies. Um, I actually I actually did one on a cookie. I like how my hands were shaking. Can you guys I'll see how much my what can I ask? What you used to flavor the fund? It's I just use any type of flavoring that I have that doesn't require any special flavor like extracts. Yeah, just any extract. I like using a really high quality clear vanilla, and I use clear because then it doesn't change the color of my things. And because I do a lot of things for wedding cakes, keeping my colors pure and clean is very important. It's hard to match colors for weddings if you've got it muddied up with something else. Okay, so once you get several of these pedals made for the yellow yes, I'm gonna try to remember people's names. But if I don't forgive me, do you add the flavoring, um, at the mixing stage of the fondant or us? Do you add it later after it's it's actually part of the mixture measurements. OK, so in when you're making fondant it calls for three tablespoons of water, and in that three tablespoons of water, you're supposed to also include your flavor. And if you are using um, glucose. Three tablespoons of water is really good now if you don't have glucose, because glucose in some areas is a little more difficult to find corn syrup, you can use corn syrup just cut back on your moisture. So instead of using three tablespoons of water you'd like maybe only used a tablespoon and 1/2 because corn syrup has a lot more water in it than glucose. Same goes. If you're using egg whites as opposed to marine powder, cut back on your moisture, but do it in that portion that you're measuring. Don't do it in your gelatine, okay? And your gelatin. You want me to talk to you about gelatine for a minute if you're a pastry student or you're doing any type of baking, gelatin is very important ingredient for those of us in the pastry industry, and the cake decorating and gelatin is always bloom in cold water. You let it sit for a few moments in bloom. It doesn't matter if using sheet or powder I prefer to use a powder gelatine when I'm making my fondant and gum paste. Um, but there's other formulas out there that sheets or nice sheets are great for decorating gingerbread houses. They make great windows, but you bloom it in the cold water. Let your sheet soften up, lecture powder bloom, and then you melt it over very warm water or you melt it on on warm. So you do it on a low burner or over a double boiler or something like that. I have a couple of questions. Okay, a couple more questions. Okay, A couple of people. One person was asking, If you have ready made funding, Can you add flavors to that? You bet you do. That, you can add. You can add flavors that most of them come flavored. Vanilla, um, Faan decks. He's now selling bold colors with bold flavors, so like it already comes flavored, trying to think what one of the flavors are hot pink. I think it's flavored raspberry Okay, and again, you just need to use an oil if it's already pre made. An oil works a little better, because and it doesnt thin it out too much. But you can add just about any flavor. You want to do it. Okay, if it offends it out. Just needing a little powdered sugar. Okay. And then somebody was also asking about how you would add color to the funding colors the same way we're just gonna need it in OK and prepared for your hands to be a miss. The thing that's gonna take the sea my class of very nicely taking care of you guys. I've already colored all of your funding, right. And then I went to the nail salon and had my nails done, so you couldn't see all the blue and black that was in. So do wear gloves. Sometimes I don't wear gloves because number one I have I have an allergy to latex. So I have an issue with wearing gloves and number two the gloves. When you're working with the gloves and found it, it sticks to it, and I can't tell what the consistency is. Um, so I I don't if you want to, you can. I've had students that were gloves all the time, and, you know, they work with it, But there's a certain tactile experience that you're getting by wearing by hat feeling where you're out with your funding. Okay, now I've changed the orange, so I'm gonna do some orange pedals. You guys working fast enough to keep up here? Sure. OK, how? You're right. It wasn't a quick question. Cookie jar would like to know for any tips on working on funding. And tropical climate says I made a cake ones and the fondant melted off. And do you find that here in Seattle, we have a better or worse? As far as our climate is concerned, as far as this type of we're we're pretty wet in this area to our wet is not as warm. Of course, Dang. Um, but my suggestion work with more powdered sugar in it, and then also maybe a little more corn starch. The corn starch puff might be to her advantage, and she probably wants to stay away from the shortening all together. Great. I assume it's a sheet that was very bold on my part. Cookie jar could go either way. Yeah, he he or she remember. And the cool thing about funding is I have to Basically, its origin is from Australia. So they they worked the fondant in Australia. That's where it came from. Um, England has just started using funded within the left. I'll say within the last 2030 years, Um, those of us in the States, It's very new to us. When we brought in an Australian decorator to show us how to do gum paste and fondant back in 1983 we couldn't give it away. We snuck it onto people's cakes, and I remember the first time somebody showed up at my doorstep and they had literally a piece of cake in their hand that had some of the, um, fondant work that I had put onto the cake. And they said, Did you do this? And I remember thinking to myself, Oh, no, I'm going to get sued. Here it comes and knife And I thought about lying. I really did. I stood there for several seconds and thought, Do I lie and say No, I have never seen this before and finally decided Fess up and I said, Yeah, and they go, Well, you do our wedding cake on. I thought, Yes, it's finally happening. It can charge money for it. And now, of course, everybody wants it because they've seen it on TV and but the ace of cakes and, ah, question on, like what you guys working on right now? If you're making these for a party, how long would you let the pedal sit before putting the cupcakes out? Like, Is it supposed to be hard or kind of soft? Or like I wanted it? Yeah, I want it firm enough to be able to decorating cupcakes, so it's gonna take a few minutes for it to become firm enough in our area, where it's humid. It's gonna take a little longer and it's raining today, so it's gonna take even a little longer in someplace like Arizona or Australia or, um where, or maybe Denver, where it's not as wet. It's dry, it's cold. It's not gonna take very long. You're talking maybe 30 minutes before they're ready to stick on. And I could make thes days ahead of time and then set him out for my party because what's happening is is that when you decorate a cookie or a cupcake or cake and you're putting the icing and the sugar on it, you're essentially preserving that cake. That's what the whole purposes is to preserve the cake. And that's why the Australians and the English came up with this method because they make the fruitcake and they work for weeks on their cake. Um, Americans. We like to do it and have it, you know, through the McDonald's drive through as fast as they can produce it for us. I'm vain in my orange ones. I don't have to, but I am. You don't have to vein any of these. Actually, they could all be playing pedals. He still look cool. Um, so Americans have kind of we're taking a little longer to do our work than we used to. We used to always spit everything out. That's why buttercream was so good for us. Um, because it's fast and easy and it's fatty and Americans love fat. The English love sugar and the Americans just love fat. So I see another question coming. We do have a couple more questions. One person says funding hugs a cake, but said some top of cookies and cakes. How do you attach it to the cook years? We're going to attach it with butter cream. I like. I put my nice, tasty butter cream on top number one. It adds that flavor that, as Americans love the fat just said that right? And And, um, the other thing is, is that it keeps our cookie moist and adds a nice little flavor to it. And then it keeps our fondant sticking because fund it does, it doesn't stick anything by itself. You have to stick it on a cake. We put on ah layer of boiled apricot or a layer of buttercream American Jews buttercream your English and Australians use the boiled apricot. You can also use piping jail, which is a flavorless, sticky stuff, but it doesn't stick by itself. It will fall off the things if you don't attach it. Are you guys just about ready to move? Teoh the point? Citta pedals. Okay, the point set of pedals. I'm going to do a little bit differently. Um, get that one. So we have another question from on audience member who's in the UK, and he's asking if there's a light version of funding for those of us who are concerned about our way. There is a company in the US who has just come out with a sugar free powdered sugar that I am in the process of doing some research with. I've made a buttercream icing with it. It's a little greenie. Um, I have not tried a fund it with it yet. I'm hoping that I have enough left from what they sent me to work with to try it. So there is hope on the horizon, but it's a lot of sugar. I mean, we're talking, you know, £34 of sugar in a single formula. Yeah, and I'm trying to think pounds. That would be how many grams and I guess lost. Sorry. So Joiner Joiner curve has a question says here in the UK We call them buns and biscuits. But is gum paste the same as they called Mars? A pan? No Mars. A pan is an almond based product with sugar mixed in it, and gum paste is sugar, egg whites and gum. It's it's closer. Almost. It's almost closer to a pest. Yage, an almond paste almond paste is what, uh, the Europeans, Australians and English put underneath their fondant and royal icing. And they do that in order to cover earthy darkness of the fruitcake. You keep it sealed and um, the other thing that it is affordable. It's affordable over there. It's very expensive over here, so we don't use it as much over here, and it's not as well received over here. So we have people who wouldn't who hate almond paste. You know, You either hate it or you love it. It's there's no in between over here. Unfortunately, I'm a lover, so I could slap almond paste on all kinds of stuff. Be happy. Yeah, Fruit. Asked about royal icing and whether you ever use royal icing for decorating, I do, um, it gets hard as a rock. It's great at Christmas time for building our gingerbread houses. We can do a lot of flowers and stuff. We don't use it the same way they do in England by adding by covering our wedding cakes and that sort of thing, we just we don't do it that way. Ours is buttercream. And now the funding. I actually have a book out on color flow, multi dimensional color flow, which is based on royal icing. So, yeah, I've worked with royal icing a lot over the years, and I developed that technique after I had my first child and realized I couldn't focus on anything for more than maybe five minutes at a time. So that particular technique is one of those things that you can work 5 10 15 minutes on or walk away from it if you have to. Okay, now, I'm going to start the point, said Elise. And these were going to be a little bit different. Very similar to what we've just done. Got a fuzz, and there pull that out. I told you would tell me if I had first. And this time, instead of aiming it with the palette knife or the vein, er, I'm going to create it the same way I'm gonna crush it. And then this time, what I'm gonna do as I'm gonna make a center vein by pinching it on each side with my thumb and finger to cause a little vain and the little lumpiness on the outside edge of that pedal. And then I have to come back in and form of point on it. I'm a stretch it and pull it out a little bit. So I got quite a large pedal on that one, and then I'll go ahead and give it that fold and then let it drip over one of the edges. You betcha. Uh huh. So I want to roll it first. We'll have to need a little more. It's underneath it. I could You can. Once you start working with this for a while, you be able to tell when it's under needed over needed. Okay, so make that point. Press it. Okay? We tried to get it thin as you can, and then I'm gonna come back with my finger and thumb and just press on the edges to thin the edges and cause that center toe look like a vein. And years ago, when we were first taught how to make the fancy gum paste flowers, they didn't really have any cutters. And we had to do this with every pedal. Now we have all kinds of fancy cutters and tools. We don't have to. Okay, Did that help? You? Got it. You do it again. Seven or 89 times. Okay. Well, you're pro Europe pro with I'm watching it unfold going. Wow. So let's get our ball. Let's give it a little point. Press it, then. I'm gonna come again. Finger and thumb And now, um, I'm getting a little sticky. So where to put my little corn starch puff? I have a little corner. Short profit put someplace. I hit it. Good. It's not a pretty one, so I hit it. I did a good job of it. I'm just gonna pinch it like this. It just adds a little interest to that pedal is supposed to being flattened kind of dull. And I've ruined my point. So I'm gonna pull one out. Uh, now point. Set us the cool thing about point services. That's not really their flat. That's not the flower those air leaves that have just changed color around the flower, which is actually little tiny yellow green things in the center. So you can have all kinds of shapes and sizes. And there's no set, you know, seven pedals, a lot of flowers. You have exactly six pedals. Exactly seven pedals points. It is air. Not like that. They're very free. Full. They're free spirited little things. Okay, so just a senior moment. You're not. So if you're doing it in advance, how would you recommend storing it clean and dry? So would you put it like wax paper and throw it in the fridge or No, you don't want to put him in the fruit. Your fridge. It's actually quite wet if you just left it on your counter and put wax paper over the top of it. So that just doesn't fall on it. Um, generally speaking, bugs don't come to this. I say, generally speaking, then in course of fly will fly in and land on it. So, um, it is not going to attract insects. You know what I'm saying? It shouldn't. It might, in some parts, attract dance. I should take that back. Um, the point is that if you want to be, have it be cleaned, right? China hutches are a great place to store things if you're not using your oven. Um, a lot of times when my oven is turned off, I have a huge deck oven. I store a lot of my stuff like this in the oven because I can close the door. It's dry. It's clean. They can dry in there some more. You just have to know not to turn the oven on. I have a glass door, so I can see. But, uh um, for you for, like, a giant cake. Would you have used your pasta maker and then cut these out? Or would you have done each individually like you're doing now? Well, I probably would have used my pasta maker and use my my point Said it. Cutters. I have beautiful points out of cutters. So, um yeah, and I would have been cutting out hundreds and hundreds of pedals. Yeah, Lucinda. Police would like to know Is it safe to use raw egg whites in the funding, or is it safer to use meringue powder? I prefer to use the marine powder for safety purposes. Then we're not dealing with any salmonella poisoning issues. Um, especially because we don't do anything to cook this. The hottest it gets is melting are gelatin. Um, I have a riel. Salmonella poisoning with eggs is a real issue, especially in the states. If you are to use a raw egg because that's what you have and you don't have a marine powder or access to it, be sure and wash the egg before you crack it. Because a lot of times so salmonella poisoning is not so much with the egg white inside. It's the germs and bacteria on the outside egg. So if you washed the egg little warm, soapy water, I wouldn't get it too hot because you want to be starting to cook it. But I would do that first and then used egg whites, and then I wouldn't worry. Great, Thank you. You're welcome. And I'm gonna cut in with a public service announcement and just want to let everyone out there know that we are posting in the next few minutes. Pdf with all the links and recipes that will be on the course page. And of course, you will need to enroll in this in this class first. And once you enroll, you be able to get to the course page and set yourself up with all these recipes in length. So thanks for being patient should be just a few more minutes. Recipes and links. The recipes are worth signing in for guys like I said, that one white cake recipe that was worth the price of the book. So the cool thing about that white recipe I haven't worked it out yet. With the chocolate. I'm still work. I haven't put any effort into it lately. But, um, it makes I mean, if you do a mango or a peach or a raspberry or anything that you want to stir into it make it a different flavored orange orange cake. It comes out beautiful every time. And I've had, um when I was teaching at the college, I had students doing it in trying different things and students can you pretty well miss something up pretty good. So I figure if a student can make it turn out, you know, it's a good one. Now that you were talking about salmonella, the egg cartons that we're using Are those from like, real eggs or is that from like a supply stores? You can get him from a supply store. Okay, all right, on. But I also wanted to ask someone else had asked about the pasta machine if they came in different sizes because they were having a hard time getting there. Open up wide enough to take the funding. So do you special down a fair amount before you kind of push mind down a little before? And they also sell she eaters that air made just for doing fondant? Um, the shooters air commercial grade, and I think they're about six or $8000. So my pasta machines about $10 at a garage sale, right? 45 if I buy it new. So, yeah, I want a shooter. So if anybody wants to get me a Christmas gift There you go. Uh, we did have a question about this, uh, salmonella issue again. You are OK using the egg cartons. Do not worry about that movie. The other thing that works really well, this type of cartons are apple crates or any other type of You are, like oranges and things like, Yeah, yeah, because they pack those. You know, you can get a clear, easy to get. And usually usually, if you asked the right person, they sometimes just hand you a handful of. So here you go, you go. Thank you. You have to be near a chicken farm Note. I'm trying to make his move any point set of pedals as I can because I would like to do not only the cupcake, but also the cookie. And if you'll also notice is you're looking at What I have here is I have some color that I've dusted onto the inside, and I'm gonna wait until that's a little closer to dry. Anytime you color with a dust or powder, it's best if you let it dry a little bit. So then it goes on smoother. Yeah, way making. And then you're like different sizes. You could make a difference. We have big ones because I noticed on your cupcake in the picture. It looks like it's multilayered. It is multi layered, and I do have smaller pedals on the inside, so you want some various shapes. And that's kind of the fun thing about poinsettias is that they're all different sizes and you can use. I said 100. I was kind of joking. Um, you want to think anywhere from about 5 to 6 minimum up to nine or 10 even depending on the size of your cupcake in your pedals and your cookie and all that sort of thing. I used to work in a lot of miniature, created a lot of things and manager, and one of the things I've discovered is that if I worked bigger, guess what. I don't have as much work, so I have a tendency to make my pedals a little larger now. Quick question. Kind of going back a little bit. A couple of people have asked about applying the funding, using water to what surface to a cake or cookie. The question is, doesn't really work, because I guess they've heard it, but they're not sure that it actually water is good for applying. Fund it to fund it, um, as a faras, applying it to a cake surface. If I have a buttercream underneath and it's been sitting some place and got a little crusty, I could spray a little light dusting of water on it, and that would help it stick to put it on my cookie. No, you'd be better off putting a little honey on your cookie. Even a little strawberry or raspberry jam, right? Something that's a little something a little sticky, Little moist. Yeah, perfect. Thank you. And this into going back to the salmonella question again. I just want I just want to let you know that, um, it was asked by your neighbor Lily in Utah, who said that she just wanted to harass you. She's laughing, laughing out loud. Tell Lily I love her and miss her. Lily, I miss you. And I'm still mad that you moved. I got a really, really good friend, and we had lots in common, and we spent time together, and then she moved a Utah. How often do you ask your friends to come over and help with the making of the leaves? You know, I rarely asked anybody. I just and I have a lot of people to say. Well, let me come over and, you know, watch. No, uh, I'm kind of that Lone Ranger. Um, I do a lot of work at weird hours. It's not uncommon for me to be up until midnight working on something, and I work in my garage. I used to have a big fancy bakery, and I worked all the time by myself there. And then, uh, I no longer have my bakery Divorces air. Wonderful. Uh, so now I have a little tiny house. I had the smallest kitchen I've ever owned in my entire life, including when I lived in apartments. And I have a wonderful husband now, who is building me this nice work area out in my garage. So now I'm out in my garage and the cold Well, You gotta put some heat in there. So it's coming. Okay. Over time, it's called insulation first. Yes. Lily. Lily says she misses you, too. Ah. Huh. She was harassing me. Caution. I probably have other friends watching me too. Um, question from brown sugar. Speaking of meringue powder, I have some that's hardened. Is there a way to get it back to its powdery state? Has it changed color? I will wait for a response. Okay. I was gonna say if it's changed color, it may not be worthy. Um, if it's not, I would suggest putting it into a blender or a grinder and seeing if she couldn't blend it back into a powder state, they say no. Yeah, I would. Yeah. Try the blender, then see if she can blend it back that way. You know, that's how they make powdered sugar. They just take granulated sugar and then grind it. And in the big companies that make powdered sugar, this is what they do. It's so cool. I used to work for a company, know how they do it. They bring in the trainload of granulated sugar, they loaded into their hoppers, and they put it through the grinder, and they have a big fan that blows. And when the sugar gets to a certain level, it blows out into a funnel. And that's how they make powdered sugar. That's cool. Yeah. Hey, I'm speaking of sugar. What's your opinion on granulated sugar versus Super fine sugar for your baking? Means? Um, I think they both work, but I think that super fine is awesome for things like cookies and cakes. Um, I don't think it's absolutely necessary to have super fine, I think granulated Fine. If I making ah, Swiss buttercream that starts with the granulated sugar, it doesn't matter because, quite frankly, it's going to be cooked and melted down, so makes no difference. I like a super fine sugar for things like Ah, shortbread. It's just more elegant. But then, of course, there's other types of cookies where you have the super core sugar. That makes it even more interesting. So there's all kinds of fun things about Should I will say this about sugar, though I prefer cane sugar over beach beet sugar, especially when we're working with it like this or in buttercream. It has a stretch, and you cannot get your product toe work as well. If you're using a beet sugar, you can tell in the end in what you're working with. It just feels different. You don't even have to see the label. You could just tell. Okay, so now I've gotten out my green, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to use my pasta machine now, OK? And I'm starting with it at one. And I just rolled in. What? Looks like Oh, rid. Nice picked up. Okay, now, these air working tools. So if then Cameron, you can see the grunge on it. Sorry, I did wash it, but, you know, and I start with the thickest. So I wanted it at the one. And I'm gonna work until about number four. I don't want to go too thin, because then I'm got something that's just too thin. So four is a good three fours, good for this sort of thing. And what I'm going to do now is I did bring this out. I'm going to cut some holly now, These particular cutters and I've put some on everybody's table. These air called P m E cutters. And here's what's so awesome about him. First, I'm going to cut with it and then I'm going to push down and I'm going to vein it, and then I'm gonna kind of wiggle it again. And then I'm going to push out on that and it pops at out so that I have a nice vein, little holly leaf, and I'm going to make about nine of them like this. And my poor students. I didn't provide them with pasta machines. They're gonna have little rolling pins were going to have to roll. They're gonna build arm muscles today. Tomorrow they're gonna call me and say my arms hurt so bad. Yeah, You prepare the surface in any particular way. You can put a little bit of shortening on your surface so you're doesn't stick. Or you can even put a little bit of the corn starch on your surface. Either one or even powdered sugar. Any time. And especially, I should tell you, ladies, I made this fondant fairly soft because my hands were much stronger than yours. So I made it a little on the soft sides. You build work with it. The other thing that I have going on right now, is I have a really sore elbow. I'm getting that carpal tunnel. It's now moved up to my elbow. And so, ah, lot of times when I'm needing, it's like, OK, I've reached the point where I have to be done And I always tell people, Take care of your body. Don't make your stuff too stiff or too hard Because if you're you know, in my situation, this is a living and I can't be destroying my hands in my arms. So take care of yourself. Don't work with stuff that's hard. Too heavy. Too hard, Too tough? Yes. So when you're should have helped, it should be you want? You want it fairly thin. Okay. You don't want it so thin, you can see through it. But it's maybe a 16. Maybe, maybe a little less. Could you repeat the name of that thing you're using to cut its a PM me? Um, hold it here. It's appear me Holly cutter. And they come in a set of three, three different sizes. So the letters P m e. Okay, net. That's something Global sugar are also carries. Okay, I love P m E tips. They're cutters. Air fun They also have a snowflake cutter. I'll be showing you later too. Pretty awesome. I tried not to have too many tools for you to have to invest in. I always say tools, toys. I mean, yeah, there. I mean, you could do this without it, but it's a little more fun if you have some tools. The right toys. Jennifer would like to know at global Sugar. Are we also find the high quality clear vanilla extract that you were talking about or can you have recommendations for that? I I use Watkins cooks. Is, um I think cooks is okay, but yeah, they'll have still have a clear vanilla that you can use. Um, they're several out there. It's really it's kind of a personal preference. I think you need to shop around until you find a clear vanilla that you like. How you guys doing? You're leaves or stick spatula underneath. And how about surfaces? Wood, Marble. What's your favorite general? That you like that you would like to work on flattened clean. But yeah, stainless steel is nice, but stainless steel will often give you a gray to your product. Um, would, of course, you had the issue with the the grains of the wood. Um, your well used Baker's bench is not will be fine. It just seems to be clean and flat, like if you have granted or something like that, that's really, really know that works. Not that I do right now, but you know, a friend of mine does. I know people who dio exactly. You wanted to be clean and flat. You don't want to have too many, um, ridges and that sort of thing because some of those granite or tile and then you have the cuts in the surface that shows and Levina wanted to know going back a little ways. When you use paper liners, do you also use muffin the muffin pans, or can you put them on a flat on a flat? No, There's muffin. Those paper liners have a have a muffin tin. Yeah, and you can use a tin or you can use Thea. I want to say it's not latex. What's the ones that are flexible? Silicone. Thank you. Or you can use the silicone. They work either way. Okay, so now what I've done while you guys were continue to make your leaves is I've taken some yellow and some of the green, and I've mixed it into a lime green. I also call this loosen degree because I like it. I actually ice an entire wedding cake in this lime green and decorated it with five pedal flowers. Little power Austin power type of flowers. And it was published in American Kick decorating several years ago. And the food color companies had so many requests for this color that they call that Lucinda Green and developed a color just for me. Yeah, I got a free drove color out of it. I don't even have enough to buy coffee with that one. That okay? And I've rolled it out to a three. I got a little air bubble there. I'm not gonna fret or panic at all about it. I'm going to take my round cookie cutters that I've given everybody a set to have. And if you have round cookie cutters around cutters perfect. If you don't, don't sweat it. Find a glass that's the right size and use that. Okay, Minor used sticky. We'll just wipe that off here. And what I want to do is I want to take Let's use a gold, because that's kind of pretty. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take my little cupcake and I want to have it be much larger than what my cupcake is. That's a little on the large side. So let's try. Let's try this one. Okay, so I haven't much larger because I'm going to build up a mound of icing on top of my cupcake, and then I'm gonna put the funded on top of it. And I wanted to come down enough to cover my edge so that that keeps my cupcake moist. And they were moist when I baked him a few days ago. Yeah, there, getting a little dry. Okay, then what I've done is I want to talk real quick about parchment papers and bags. Okay, so I have lots of options. The's air parchment paper triangles, and we have to fold those into parchment paper bigs. Okay. And I'll show you how to do that. I like the parchment paper because it doesn't transfer the heat. If you have hot hands, doesn't transfer. The heat is easily When I'm done with it. I switched out my extra. I seen and I throw it away. I'm done. I don't have to clean. Then we have what's called decorating bags, and the's are soft and pliable. They come in various sizes. They weren't great. You have to cut them when you get them. You have to cut them so that your tip or coupler will work on it. And you have to have a couple er in it, which I also gave myself a coupler. It's here someplace. I gave all my students a couple, or maybe I didn't give myself one. That's okay, so we'll have to put a couple er in that in order to use it. The advantage of that is, of course, is that it's reusable, but it's easy to work with because it's soft and pliable. Just worked with it that way. The disadvantage, though, is it transfers heat fairly easily. So if you have nice, warm hands, that's going to be an issue, Okay? And last but not least, are the disposable decorating bakes. Now the thing about the disposable decorating bags again they're disposable, So when we're done, we can throw him away. There also firm enough that if you're on a budget, you can wash them and reuse them a few times before you have to check him. The disadvantages is that they transfer heat really easy. So if you have hot hands, you really need to be thinking about going with just apartment. Okay, The other disadvantage toothy disposable plastic bags is the fact that they have stretch and give. They were not developed for piping buttercream. They were developed for piping chocolate or whipped cream. So they're not supposed to be for buttercream. For what we're doing today, it's gonna be just fine. It would not be a problem at all. And again, I can put my tip directly in here. When I was pulling this off the role, I gave a little tear. So I'd have to be careful and make sure that I had a coupler and hair so that I wouldn't have a spot where would break or lose out of the end or something before I wanted it to, um, the other thing about thes worthies air huge. This is a really big bag. And so one of the tricks that you can do is, rather than using the whole bag, is you can just cut it off, and then you have a big that's more appropriate size. So those are the types of bags? I I use the disposables mostly for class and for my students because they're clean. They're easy for the students to use. They can throw him away, But I don't usually use them. They're not. I do a lot of piping and their two stretchy for me. I use a lot of partial paper. Okay, So on our parchment paper, I'm gonna show you the hardest part of doing this parchment paper. Okay, guys, how to fold it. So I'm gonna hold it with the point down. Can you guys I'll see. Everybody can see. Okay, I'm gonna take one corner and I'm gonna bring it down to the center corner. And just as I get down there, it's gonna do a back foot. Who? Back foot. So now I have a cone. Now I'm gonna take the other corner. I'm gonna wrap it around the back so that all the corners air down in one spoke portion. That one the first corner. Now, the trick here is that if get my hands wet so those if I pull the corners this way to tighten up the cone. All that's going to do is make my cone smaller. It's not going to tighten it up, and I want to tighten up that point right up there. So the way to do that is, rather than pulling those corners in, is I'm going to pull them down by pulling down. I tighten up that point to a close point in pastry school. We will pour water in these to see if they hold water. They should hold water, and then once I have it a single loop, I don't want to have one to be smaller than the other. I don't wanna have the inside one bigger than the outside and have it wants to be once continuous loop. At that point, I am then going to fold or tear. I am not, am not, am not am not going to staple take paper? No, that's very bad. If you fold it, give a little twist. Some bakers like or pastry people like to give a little tear. I think it's too much work. I don't do that. As long as I fold it, give a little band. It's good to go. Okay, This is a fairly This is a commercial size. I want to see. These are about 16 Inch is what they're called the commercial size. So this is a pretty big cone. I generally split them in half and then make smaller cones. Okay, listen, that we have a couple of questions. You show that folding again, please. I knew that was gonna So what I want to do this time because I brought it up. I'm going to tear the partial paper in half, so I'm not doing one large one, and you can either just tear these or you could get a knife and cut a pile of them. This was one of the things that come when I get it. Get my parchment papers in. I have a kid stand and punch holes in one corner so I could hang him on a hook, and then when I was working with him, I just pull it off. That's a good kid job. Okay, so we've got that point down. I'm gonna bring it over. Then we're going to flip, then wrap it around the back. So now we have it wrapped its in that comb. That's the hardest part. It's like the big Fig Newton. We just got that done. OK, then I'll just go ahead and pull it down in the center and fold. No paper clips, no tape, no foreign objects in here. You would be amazed at what can come out of your bag onto your surface. I have seen incredible things come out of students bags. Yeah, One lady had a piece of plastic this long. That was all the way on her borders. And she came out one little ticket theatricals. What's this? And she goes like this and that much. Plus, it came off the case and you could not tell. So So now we've got a couple of these and I filled one of them. And here's the thing. When you fill a bag, you only want to fill it about 2/3. I don't want to fill it all the way. So I have one already filled. And when I feel this, I'm gonna fill it 2/3 and then I'm gonna do it this way. I'm gonna fold it, fold in each side and then roll it so that that seem is rolling in. Okay. And then when I hold it, I'm going to hold it right here between my thumb and finger so that it doesn't unspent. That's part of it. And then I'm going to apply pressure with my whole hand. Not my I'm not holding it like this. I have no pressure control. And then somebody's gonna have to unlock your car doors. You can drive home because you won't have any way to undo your hand. So you want to hold it with your whole hand and squeeze with your whole hand. That gives you more pressure control. And it's all about the pressure control. There's my couple. Er, I found it. Okay, So here's what's gonna happen with a coupler, and the first thing I'm gonna do is this bag is too big. So I'm going to take my scissors and cut off a few inches of it. Wasn't that slick level of garbage baked there? You always fold down a cuff on these bags so that you have that top that you can keep clean and not cookie. And then when you feel it, you hold it like this with your hand Here, you take your spatula. Okay. Coupler two parts. Take the outside part off. I have to say that because guess what? I've seen people not do that. How do you get the tip to stick on now? I take the large part and I put it down into my bag. And you can see this is why I'm doing it on this bag so you can see what I'm doing. That cool. It's like a glass. Now, the next trick is I'm gonna take that outside coupler, and I'm just going to put it right on the outside. Screw ahead and screw it into place If I'm doing this with one of my new decorating bags, this is why I brought this one. At this point where this is, I would mark that with a pen and then take it off and then cut it and then put it back on. And when you do these bags, when you cut them the first time always cut less. Because they do stretch when you put that couple in. And it's really easy to ruin a brand new bag by cutting too much off. And you only do that a couple of times or once before you go. Not a good plan. If this were parchment, I could just tear this off so I can use a couple are on parchment on my feather way bags on my decorating bags. Any big, you can use your couplers, but you don't have to use it on every bag. I don't have to use it on every parchment paper. I can just dump it in sometimes. Okay, so I've cut off that excess plastic that allows me the ability to take my tip and just put it right on the outside and attach it to the strippers. So the advantage to having your coupler on your on your decorating bag is that I can change tips, which today we're gonna pretty much being using a standard tip. But just in case you needed to change, and that's ready to go. Any questions? Yep. We're just using the round tipsy question from earlier. Jennifer went to know if you had a recommendation for a brand of meringue powder marrying cutters. Pretty much marine powder. I will say this if she buys it commercially. A lot of the marine powders in the big buckets. Like when I buy my marring powder, I'd buy a £5 bucket. Most people buy a little eight ounce jar. Okay, I discovered that when I was getting towards the end of my bucket, I was having issues with it. And what I was discovering is that the sugar that was mixed in with it had kind of settled to the bottom. So mostly what I was using with sugar and not Marine. So if she gets a commercial grade, she there needs to fluff it up every once in a while and keep the sugar mixed in. Or when she gets to a certain level, just dump it because it's mostly sugar. Your son and I don't think she have that problem using an eight ounce jar. I've never run into that issue. That was my big £5 bucket. There was issue. Okay. How you ladies doing? Awesome. Awesome. Okay, so what I want to do now throw my tip on the floor? I'll leave it there, Have a backup tip. So to do my cupcake. I chose a larger cutter. Right then I could just cut a circle. Uh, and I did. Mine was sticking to the surface to OK, there we go. So I had that nice surface. So then what I want to do with my bag and I have my bagel filled and you can see pink and red stain your bigs, but not your I see. Thank goodness I'm just going to build up a nice little swirl of ice in here. I don't want to take it all the way out to the edge, because when I put on my Fonda and it's going to try to put it on centred. So what I want to do then, is just attach it. I didn't get it centered Stretch and pull it. So it's centered. And now I have a surface. It's all set to decorate. Okay? And I'm just gonna let those sit there. In the meantime, I move this out of the way because I want those pedal to sit and dry for a few more minutes. Okay? This is that We've had a couple of questions out there about making funding with marshmallows. Can you comment on that? I don't like it. I don't think it works really Well, um, I know that there are a lot of people that like it. I think it gets too stiff and too hard, and a lot of people like it because of the flavor. But if you're enjoying working with it, I say Go for it. Um, I personally, it's It's too. It gets too hard and stiff toe work with him. Yeah, that's been my experience with it, but I do know that a lot of people really enjoy it. So if you enjoy it, go for it. That's the cool thing about cake decorating your cookie making or baking, and then the that sort of stuff. I mean, once you get your basic formula down, that's the science. The rest of it's all art commits and were No, we're not performing brain surgery, so there's no hard and fast rules as far as you can and can't do this or that. Um, as long as you're making something work and you're liking it, go for it. Terrific. And along those same lines, Rick T. Smith would like to know if you're just starting out in front and what tools of the absolute must haves. Um, I would say, a ball tool, some some good rolling pins or rolling like a pasta machine. And, um, some good brushes are the absolute must haves. I think the rest of them are you can add to and there toys. And there are a lot of tools and a lot of things out there. There's a lot that you will use and many that you will never occupy once you purchase. Yeah. Did that help? No. Yes. This is going to stick to the cupcake without having put anything under it. You put Need to put your buttercream underneath. All of the buttercream goes under. Okay, Kathy, Keeper up. Would you? Now, if you'll notice in order for mind to be it nice and smooth. I used the palm of my hand If I used my fingers, it's gonna have little bumps and ridges in it. Can you kind of see how that works if I use the palm of my hand and kind of love and Chris it And I know this sounds like a horrible thing to say, but it should feel kind of like a baby's bottom. Nice and soft and smooth. Okay, that's a horrible thing to say. You shit feels like maybe bottom eat up. How you guys doing? Okay. Okay. I'm gonna keep pushing you here. Listen to brown sugar had a question. Um, if you know, if there any specific requirements for the golden silver liners to make them ovenproof for the golden silver liners to make him ovenproof Yeah. Can they be used in the oven? Oh, yeah. You baked right in there made to do that. Thank you. I actually, my cupcakes actually bake higher in the golden silver line ones and they do in the paper, so they make a little better. I'm going to do some tree shaped cookies Now is what I'm going to do. I'm gonna kind of bounce around. I know that's a little confusing, but I'm still kind of waiting for these things to set up a little bit before I get too far involved. So what I want to do is do some some of the tree ones. And I did. I had fun with my trees. I am. I did one that's all white. And I was thinking, Could be, you know, real stylistic about it, you know, Haven't all white stepped on my tip now? Haven't all white cookie tray and all the decorations being wide. I thought that the rial you know, Sheikh and then it would come. Your kid. How come they're all white, Mom? Because I saw in a magazine. It looked cool. You talked earlier about baking on parchment. Do you ever use a Silpat? So pads air. Nice to, um I use full she pants. And so I have a few cell pads, but normally I'm loading up seven or eight trays at a time consist easier for the parchment. The thing I like about the parchment to is that I will bake all day using the same parchment. And if I'm baking the next day, I could even use it the next day. You can use it for quite a while before you really have to check him. If they start to stink, Chuck him, they get too much burnt sugar on him, Chuck of, you know? Okay. Okay. So what I'm going to do for I have this whole box of toys here. Where's my treat? Oh, there it is. I was looking for a metal cutter. Forgot what I was. So you can see I used plastic. I use metal. I used plain plastic I you know, whatever. I just him or whatever. If it gets what I want. I'm happy and again for these. I just literally I mean, does it get any simpler than this? Just cut him out. And I I only have one. So when you guys get to, your trees will have to share. So put that over here, get my get my cookie and what I'm going to do to pipe on for my cookie. Now, I'm not piping on mass quantities cause I don't want the icing to squish out the sides. So I'm just going to kind of give a little pipe down. The center was rocking back and forth, Put my fund in tow on Can you guys see how that's looking? Glad I asked. Your hair looks fabulous. Thank you. So I just used exactly the same cutter that I used on the cookie, and it gives it a nice, clean, sharp, professional look. Makes it look, I know like I know what I'm doing. Well, you're doing that. You look like you know what you're doing. He's a wanted to know and the pdf that we're gonna be providing with recipes with whether you're including your buttercream recipe. Um, my buttercream recipe is I have a standard buttercream must be that I've included. Yes, it's not my recipe, but it's a recipe. It's a good one, but not as good as my. Which, of course, is I'm taking it secret. Um, I have been sharing that with people who are buying my beautiful borders DVD. So if you buy the DVD, it comes with the DVD and you go full sugar ball stage by asking that, right? I've made it a couple times. Um, mine. My The standard American buttercream is mostly butter, shortening and sugar. Um, what you're talking about is an Italian buttercream that you make a hot syrup as the base. Yep. And don't ask me. Remember what temperature comes to you normally have a therm thermometer on my sleeve, and I'm looking to go on reaching that. And for years, you make the standard. American is of those to the Italian. It's it's Yeah, I use it. I use an American base. I like the American base because I could make all my icing on Monday and have it ready to go. And then when I'm doing my cake orders on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays, it's all set to go. I don't have to try to revamp it or any of that sort of thing. Your Italians in your French and your Swiss, you pretty much have to make him as you use them. There's some tricks to revamping. It includes blowtorches. Um, and I don't have time when I'm dealing with, you know, £50 of stuff at a time. It's mostly business, I'm gonna say, passing around. So the question Use things like glittery powders. Oh, yeah, you do kind of dust those on, like with a brush or something. You mix it with a funded. It doesn't do much to mix any of that stuff with the fondant. It's pretty well eaten up. You need to brush it on afterwards and negotiating with art brushes some of the things you can brush on, like your gold and your silver. She want to brush on when they're dry, goes on a little better. And if you mix it with like vegetable oil, some people like to mix it with lemon extract because there's more oil in the lemon extract. I find it gets chunky. And then, of course, I've added that her incredibly lemon extract on everything, Yeah, and so I have an issue with that. I don't do that. I use vegetable oil, glides on like glass goes a lot further. Uh, the only disadvantages If I'm creating something that needs to sit around for months, it does discolor with time. And when I say months, I mean months. You know, next week it's gonna discolor. Okay. Thank you. No problem.