Baby Shower Desserts - Part 2 Onesie Cookies with Fondant Icing

First let me say, that although my roll cookie is fantastic to work with, decorating these cookies, if you do it like this, with all of these variations, takes a LOT of time.  It took me about 10 hours to decorate 65 cookies.  If you are going to making these with kids, stick to the easy decorating - patterned "fabric", tie-dye with or without the 3-D flowers, etc. On the other hand, if you have the time or inclination to make many different ones, these are the cutest things and everyone will love them.  Don't let the fondant icing scare you away - it's homemade marshmallow fondant, which tastes good and is pretty easy to make.

Before you start, you'll need to buy the cookie cutter set.  I wanted the mini cookies (about 2-inches) because I knew that I would be making other desserts.  I bought a set that included the the onesie cookie cutter and a bib cutter (which I didn't use) and 3 texture mats.  If you search on Amazon for 'Onesie cookie cutter", this item will come up - Texture Cookie Cutter Set-Mini.  This will give you the duck, ABC and striped designs.

You also need some food coloring, good brushes (Loew-Cornell) - the pointy one in the middle is the one I used most for painting the detail.  The left-hand brush was used for brushing off excess powdered sugar, and the one on the far right was great for brushing on luster dust for a shimmery look (it's a very inexpensive watercolor  brush that I bought in the supermarket).

nonstick fondant rolling pin

Long rolling pin and Perfect-A-Pie (rings) - Available from http://www.fantes.com/ (nice to have but not required - this will help you to roll the dough and the fondant to a consistant thickness)


Makes 75 Mini Onesie Cookies

Ingredient List

2 packages (10 ounces each) miniature marshmallows
4 pounds powdered sugar
1/2-1 cup solid vegetable shortening (Crisco)
3-1/2 teaspoons vanilla or other flavoring
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
4 cups ( 520 grams) all-purpose flour, fluffed, scooped and leveled into measuring cups
6-8 tablespoons pasteurized egg whites (about 3 egg whites)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
corn syrup
food coloring
2.5 gallon ziptop bag - not required but very nice for rolling out dough and fondant

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Ingredients will be repeated for each recipe - they are INCLUDED in the ingredient list, above.

For the Marshmallow Fondant
2 bags (10 ounces each) miniature marshmallows
4-10 tablespoons water, divided
9-1/2 cups powdered sugar divided
2 teaspoons vanilla, or other flavoring, divided

It will probably be too hard to make all of the fondant at once, so use the directions below and make it twice:

Place 10-ounces of marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave 30 seconds on high; stir until mixed well. Continue microwaving 30 seconds more; stir again. Continue until melted (about 2 1/2 minutes).  Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla.

If you want to make the fondant in a heavy-duty mixer, grease the bowl well with some of the vegetable shortening.  Add 4-1/2 cups of the powdered to the mixer bowl.  Grease a spoon and spoon the melted marshmallow mixture into the greased bowl.  Mix the ingredients together on low until the mixture becomes dough-like.  You can now use a dough hook, or knead the mixture by (greased) hands on a greased countertop, until the mixture is smooth and non-sticky.  Add more water or up to another 1/4 cup of sugar to get the texture the way you want it.  It should not crack, nor should it be overly sticky by the time it is finished.  It should be supple and smooth.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients to have 2 batches of fondant.

If not using a mixer, add about 4 cups of sugar to the marshmallow mixture.  Stir with a greased spoon until shaggy.  Place 1 cup of powdered sugar on a countertop and transfer the mixture to the powdered sugar.  Knead together (with greased hands), adding more water (up to a total of 5 TB per batch) as necessary to get the powdered sugar completely mixed in  and the ball of fondant smooth and supple, but not overly sticky. 

If you know what colors you want, it's easier to knead it in now, while the fondant is still soft. You might want to wear gloves when kneading in color.  I used a toothpick  to spread a small bit of color onto the fondant, and then kneaded it in, adding more color as necessary.  After you are done, coat the fondant with solid shortening, wrap in plastic and place into a plastic bag.  Let the fondant rest at least overnight.  For longer storage, place it in the refrigerator.  If refrigerated, it will be very firm when you take it out.  It can be softened in the microwave prior to using, but don't overdo it.  Depending on the size of the ball (you may have broken off small balls to color them), it could take a few seconds on power 1 or 2, or up to 10 seconds on power 1 or 2.  Better to under heat than over, because over heated fondant will be too soft to work with, and it will get stale as it cools.  It will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.

For the cookies
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter – cool room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg, room temperature

4 cups ( 520 grams) all-purpose flour, fluffed, scooped and leveled into measuring cups
up to 4 teaspoons room temperature water, if needed

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. with shelves in the bottom and top thirds of the oven. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixer bowl beat together the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla extract on low to medium speed, just until well blended.

Break the egg into a small bowl and fork-whisk until blended. Gradually beat the egg into the butter mixture.

Add the flour, all at once, to the mixer bowl, and beat on low speed until the mixture comes together into a dough. If the dough does not form, add the water a little at a time, using just enough to bring the dough together. Press the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Cut the dough into 4 pieces and return 3 pieces to the refrigerator.

For a foolproof rolling method, cut open a jumbo zip-top bag so that it is hinged on one long side. Flour the inside of the plastic and place one piece of dough inside.

To roll dough to an even thickness, you can use a pastry board with a dropped bottom or a plastic dough ring that is the exact thickness needed (see picture, above). The rolling pin runs on the edges of the ring, or the pastry board, allowing the dough to be rolled to the exact thickness needed (see Easy Dough Rolling Technique).

Roll the dough to 1/8-inch thick or slightly thinner. Cut out the dough using cookie cutters of your choice. Set the cookies on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for a total of 12 -15 minutes, moving the top cookie sheet to the lower shelf and the bottom sheet to the top after half of the baking time, until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges.  Slide the parchment onto cooling racks, and let cool completely before storing. 
If using the cookies within 2 days, store covered with waxed paper to retain the cookies crispness.  Otherwise, freeze the cookies for up to 3 months.  Defrost them on wire racks, and then place in a storage container, loosely covered with waxed paper.

Decorating
Remove the fondant from the refrigerator  and soften it as directed in the fondant section above.  Cut three sides of a ziptop bag so that you have a hinged piece of large plastic. Sprinkle on a light coating of powdered sugar.  Roll a piece of fondant out between the sheets of plastic to about slightly thicker than 1/16th inch, using the Perfect-A-pie Rings, mentioned above.  You don't want to cut more than 5-10 pieces at a time, because they will dry out, especially if you are piecing together to make stripes, for example.  If using the texture mats, you want to place them on the fondant, roll the nonstick fondant rolling pin over the mat and then use the cookie cutter to cut out the onesie shape.  I like to use the texture mats with the convex side facing up, so that the design in the fondant will be raised not convex.  It's easier to paint the raised designs than try and fill convex ones.  Once you have them cut, brush a light coating of corn syrup onto a cookie and place the fondant on the cookie.  Place the cookies on a cookie sheet and cover them with waxed paper to prevent them from drying out too much.  You'll want to go back and paint these once you have all of the cookies done.

To make patterned onesies like these:

You can make the dominant color and the accent color reversed onesie at the same time.  Roll out the two colors of fondant.  In one of the pieces, cut out the accent pieces. For the ones above, I used a mini-poinsetta cutter, but you could use a star, circle, fruit blossom, or any other tiny cutter that you have or buy.    Place the cut-outs on the other piece of dough, and roll the two together. 

Now you can see that besides the patterned piece of fondant you have just made, you also have the purple piece with the cut-outs removed.  Lift up the purple piece and set it on the unpatterned pink piece. 

You can either roll the two together to make a patterned piece of "fabric" in opposite colors from the one you just made, or you can affix the purple piece with corn syrup, making a onesie with depth. Now use the cutter to cut out the onesie, and affix it to the cookies with a light coating of corn syrup. 

To make this onesie with dots, I cut out the circles from the purple piece and then affixed the purple piece to the cookie.  Then I cut out the white and pink circles, and inserted them into onesie.  If I had tried to roll the circles into the purple piece, they wouldn't remain round, although that probably would have been an interesting pattern, too.

To make wide-striped onesies, you can use the striped onesie texture mat.  Roll out the colors you want to use, and press the texture mat into the main color.  Cut out a onesie and then use a sharp knife to cut the onesie where you want the stripe to be.

To line everything up, I like to place the cut pieces on top of the piece for the stripe and recut everything so that I can make sure that the cuts will line up nicely, and then I place the cookie cutter back onto the onesie and recut it so that I know it's the right size. 

Brush a cookie with corn syrup. Place one piece of fondant on the cookie and press down lightly so that it adheres well ( I usually work from the shirt downwards). Place the second piece on and push it upward so that it nicely abuts the first piece, and then put on the last piece.

In the picture below you can see that I used the texture mat on purple fondant to get the duck.  I cut that piece rougly and then set it on top of the white fondant. Then I used the cookie cutter to cut the onesie through both layers of fondant, and then I cut out the white piece underneath the purple fondant.  Then I attached everything as described above.  You can see that when you do it that way, the onesie looks seamless like the stripe was woven right into the "fabric".

If you want to make a 3-D flower, cut out the shape with a tiny flower cutter (I used a gumpaste fruit flower cutter).  Cup the flowers with your fingers or a wooden skewer, and let the flowers dry for 15 minutes on the skewers.  This will dry them just enough so that they will retain some shape, but they won't be so dry that you wouldn't want to eat them, and they will still be soft enough to reshape them if you have cupped them too much.

If you are very gentle, you won't make a hole in the center, as I've done in the flower, below.

But whether you have a hole or not, you can put a tiny yellow ball of fondant in the middle to finish the flower.  Attach the flowers to the fondant onesie with a dot of corn syrup, after the fondant has been affixed to the cookie.  In the picture below, you can see the 3-D pink flowers and also some flat white flowers.

To make the tie-dyed onesies above, simply put some food coloring on the fondant, but don't knead it in completely.

You can also use luster dust to give the onesies a glittery effect.

At this point you could be done OR you could really punch up the designs by painting accents on the cookies.  For that you need royal icing, which dries hard.

Royal Icing
I use pasteurized egg whites that come in a carton.  Don't follow the conversion chart (amount from carton to equal 3 egg whites), but instead just use the 3-5 tablespoons listed below.  If separating out the whites from pasteurized shell eggs, be very careful not to get any yolk or grease into the whites or they won't whip up.

3-5 tablespoons pasteurized egg whites (about 3 egg whites)
3-3/4 cups and 1/4 cup powdered sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring
water, as needed

Reserve 1/4 cup sugar and mix together all other ingredients. Beat for 7-10 minutes until the icing holds a strong peak, adding the remaining sugar if necessary.

Keep the bowl of frosting covered with a damp cloth to keep it from drying out.   Divide the frosting into however many bowls of different colors you need.  I used yellow or white (no food coloring) on the ducks, white with a tiny bit of purple in it to accent the white cookies, a few shades of purple for the ABC's and to punch up the purple multi-striped onesies, several shades of pink, etc.  Here you can see that I've painted not only the duck and ABC but also the detail on the onesie.  It really makes a difference!

Baby Shower Desserts Part 1 - Cabbage Patch Chocolates

You don't need a recipe to make cabbage patch chocolates - just a technique guide to show you the way.  To begin you'll need quite a bit of equipment and ingredients.  There are two sites that I like for supplies - each one has its shortfalls.  The one with the biggest selection is http://www.sugarcraft.com/.  The drawbacks with using sugarcraft are that they are very impersonal - there is no phone number if you have a problem, and if you don't have your order number, you are completely out of luck - they cannot tell you anything about your order without it.  In addition, they are very slow - no inquiries until at least 10 days, and that's when they ship.  From this site, you also cannot order a small quantity of candy eyes, unless you take whatever color they give you (and some of the colors are very funky and not suitable for baby dolls).  They do, however, have a huge selection with photos which makes it easy to see what to buy.  The site that I actually bought the supplies from is: http://www.chocomolds.com/.  They are very personal and friendly, shipped quickly and had a package of 48 eyes.  It is hard to use their site, however, because they don't have any pictures, so you need to know what you want.

Here is what you need:

Baby Face Lolly Chocolate Mold (3 per mold)

Mercken's Peach Wafers (this is very delicious tasting coating- Do not buy Wilton wafers which are yucchy).  If you are filling the molds completely with this, you need 2 ounces per face (you won't use that much but you lose some to hardening on utensils and bowls).  

Dark Chocolate, if filling the centers with it - about 1-1/2 ounce per face.  I used chocolate chips because they were cheaper (Ghirardelli).  If I were making fewer and spending only my money, I would have used bar chocolate.  Bar chocolate tastes better (to me) and is easier to work with because it melts into a thinner state than chocolate chips.

Instant-read thermometer - if you plan on tempering the chocolate

Mercken's Cocoa Dark Wafers (ok tasting - I use it for decorating only) - 1 bag  if you want to paint on dark hair.  You can also paint the hair with real chocolate, but if you don't temper it, it might turn whitish or rainbow-colored.  If you want light brown hair, add brown food color to the peach wafers.  If you want blond, you will need to buy 1 bag of Mercken's Yellow or White Wafers(not super white) and add food coloring to these.  You might also need Paramount Crystals to get the yellow coating to melt ( I didn't need it for the peach wafers).

Candy Eyes - each small package has 48 eyes. Don't forget that you need 2 per face!  You can make your own eyes, but you will need fondant and food coloring to do that.

4-1/2-inch sucker sticks

Petal Dust or something like that in a pink color to brush on the cheeks - I think I bought mine at Michael's, but any place that sells gumpaste supplies will have some. 

Assorted brushes - you'll need some good quality brushes so that the hairs don't come off in the chocolate,

and one cheap, bushy  brush for putting on blush.  The pointy one I use for attaching the eyes and the one on the right I use for brushing blush.  The pointy one was part of a set  of more expensive brushes
by Loew-Cornell. There are two nice pointy brushes in the set.  #1 and #4 370 round and 370 liner.  You'll have to do an Internet search as I don't know where I bought them.

This is also from the Loew-Cornell set. 370 Shader #8.  It's useful if you need to brush on chocolate to spots that you missed.  Also good for fixing errors (more on this later).

Heating Pad  for keeping the chocolate and chocolate wafers melted and at the right temperature.

Small cake decorating spatula - I like the one that is angled (I got mine at Michael's - it's manufactured by the The Ace of Cakes guy, Duff).  It looks larger in the photo, but the blade before it bends is actually only 3-1/2 inches long.

 Tweezers that you use only for food prep.  I bought a special pair from a gumpaste supplier, but you could use regular tweezers as long as they stay in the kitchen!

Full-size muffin papers in various colors - one for each head

Tissue paper for the clothing - about a 5 or 6-inch square for each head

Ribbon - at least 6-inches for each, or more if you want to tie bows

Waxed paper

INSTRUCTIONS

Wrap the heating pad with a dishtowel, and turn it on to low.

 Place no more than 1 pound of the Merckens peach wafers in a microwave-safe bowl ( use a bowl that doesn't retain heat, such as a pyrex dish or a plastic container).  Heat on medium power (5) for 1 minute.  Stir, and continue to heat and stir in 30 second increments on power 5, until the wafers are melted (don't let the coating get hotter than 120 degrees F.).  Set the bowl on the heating pad.

If you're going to fill the entire mold with the coating, do that now, filling each mold right up to the top.  Set the molds in the refrigerator to chill until the coating is completely set- anywhere between 5 -15 minutes.

If you plan to fill the centers with chocolate, you'll need to coat each mold with the peach coating.  There are two methods for coating the mold with chocolate.  I prefer  to spoon in about 1-1/2 teaspoons of the peach coating into each of the 3 holes and then to swirl the chocolate around inside of the molds until they are completely coated.  You'll be doing all three at once.  I like this method best because it spreads the coating evenly and is much faster than painting each cup.

When you use the swirl method, the coating might swirl slightly out of the mold cup.  This is actually good.  It ensures that the entire mold is coated.  Simply wipe off the excess coating with a paper towel or rag.   If you want an extra thin shell, you can hold the mold upside down over a piece of waxed paper and let the excess coating drip out of the mold.

If you have trouble with this method, you can paint each cup individually.  Start by putting in the 1-1/2 teaspoons of coating and then use the 370 Shader #8 brush to paint from this pool of coating.  After you get the whole thing coated, you might have to go back and daub on more chocolate on the spots you missed - you can see a few in the photo below.

 In the below photo you can see that I have missed some spots at the top, too.  These will be especially problematic if you don't notice them, as the dark chocolate and coating might not adhere well and you might get some separation when you try to unmold the chocolates (more on this later).

Make sure that the space where the stick goes is clear of chocolate, as the sticks won't be properly set into the chocolate if there is hardened coating in the stick space.

Place the molds in the refrigerator for no more than 3 minutes to set the shells.  Now you have to decide if you want to temper your chocolate or not.  Untempered chocolate will take much longer to set, will never be as firm as tempered chocolate, and can turn white or streaky when dry.  Since the chocolate will be encased in the coating, the white or streaky color won't show but you'll have to wait a lot longer for each one to set. 

If you do want to temper the chocolate, place about 9 ounces (chips or finely chopped bar chocolate) in a microwave-safe bowl.  Finely chop another 3 ounces of chocolate or set aside another 3 ounces of chips.  Microwave the chocolate on power 5 for 1 minute.  Stir and then reheat the chocolate in 30 second increments on power 3, stirring between each. Use an instant-read thermometer to make sure that the temperature is in the 90-110-degrees F. range.  When all of the chocolate is melted, add the remaining 3 ounces of chocolate and stir and rest until all of the chocolate is melted and the temperature comes down to 84 degrees, but not lower.  Place the bowl back in the microwave and heat for 10 seconds on power 2 to bring the temperature to between 88-90-degrees F.  If the temperature goes about 91 degrees, you have to let it cool back down to 84-degrees, and try again ( you can add more chopped chocolate to get the temperature down a little faster).  If the temperature drops below 84 degrees, you repeat the entire process.  Once you have successfully tempered the chocolate, place the bowl on the heating pad to keep it at the right temperature.  Stir and check the temperature often.

Spoon about 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons of chocolate into each cup ( I use 3 molds at a time to make 9 babies, and then repeat the whole process, but you can do whatever will fit your refrigerator and counter space), so that the chocolate comes to within 1/16 inch of the top.  Set the lolly sticks in the stick holes. You might need to press down on them to make sure that they are all the way into the space provided for them.

 Place the molds in the refrigerator to set the chocolate.  This will take about 5 minutes if the chocolate has been tempered and 15-25 minutes if the chocolate was not tempered.

Cover the top of the chocolate with 1 final layer of coating.  I find it's easiest to just spread it with a teaspoon.  Make sure that the molds are completely filled up, and then set them back into the refrigerator for about 3 minutes to set the coating.

Let the molds stand at room temperature for a minute before you try to unmold them.  If the coating and chocolate are too cold, the coating will crack when you try and flex the mold to get the chocolate out.  Place a piece of waxed paper on the counter or in a pan onto which you'll unmold the chocolate.  To get them out of the molds, press on the noses of the babies.  If the chocolate don't pop out, let them rest a little more and then try again.  They should pop out of the molds pretty easily.

If you haven't done a good job in sealing in the chocolate, or if they were too cold when you tried to pop them out, part of the shell might stick to the pan and separate from the chocolate.  Don't despair - it can be fixed!

 Just use the decorating spatula (metal) or brush to add a glob of coating  to the chocolate.

 Then heat the spatula in the flame of a gas stove or over the coil of an electric, just for a few seconds to get the spatula warm.  Press the spatula on the glob of chocolate and smooth it out.  You can use your finger to do the final smoothing.

Another problem you can have when the chocolates pop out, is that there is excess chocolate around the edge of each form because you put just a bit too much coating into the mold.

This also gets fixed with a warm spatula - if you look at the photo of the spatula, above, you'll see that's exactly what I'm doing.  Just run the warm spatula around the edge of the form and the little excess tails of coating will melt away.  Again, your finger is the perfect finishing smoother.

You're now ready to do the hair.  You can use that nice tempered chocolate you have warmed on the heating pad, or you can melt some of the cocoa wafers for dark hair, or use one of the other combinations mentioned above, for other colors of hair.  Use the fine pointed brush, above, to brush chocolate onto the curl that is molded into each chocolate.  You can then use your imagination to do other hair styles.  For fine, wispy hair, use an almost dry brush.  If you want some spiky hair sticking out, you will need to let some of the chocolate or dark wafers to start to cool and thicken, otherwise it will be too thin to stand up.

For the eyes, use a fine pointed brush to dot a small glob of melted peach coating in the socket of each eye.  Use tweezers to set the eyes into the sockets, and then press lightly so that the eye will adhere to the melted chocolate.

If you want to make your own eyes, I think it is much easier to use fondant than to pipe royal icing eyes.  Roll fondant into small round balls - they should be smaller than the sockets.  Into the center

of each ball, press in a small colored ball. For the iris, use black food coloring.  Eyes will look more natural if the iris is slightly cut off at the bottom of the eye (not as shown here), so that it gives the suggestion of a lower eye lid.

The last thing to do is to give the cheeks a little blush.  Use the petal or luster dust in a pretty pink color.  Don't put too much on the brush at once.  The dust has a little bit of a glittery effect, but if you put it on sparingly, and brush off any excess, it really gives the babies depth and personality!

For the bonnets, use scizzors to make a slit in the side edge of the muffin papers, and then set the heads into

the bonnets.  You can do the bonnets or the sleep sacks first.

To make the sleep sacks, set the tissue paper square either under the lower third of the head or at the neck.

 Fold in the two sides.

and then tie the ribbon around the top. 

You can also make a wider bottom, so that they look more like sleep sacks.

Voila!  You have now made some of the cutest looking chocolate lollypops in the world!

Baby Shower Desserts

CABBAGE PATCH CHOCOLATES -

ONESIE BUTTER COOKIES WITH FONDANT ICING -

CHOCOLATE AND VANILLA MINI-CUPCAKES WITH BLACKBERRY CASSIS BUTTERCREAM AND ROYAL ICING BOOTIES -

I've been busy baking, as you can see.  The recipes are coming, but they take almost as long to post as they do to create.  Stay with me as I guide you step by step in making these beautiful desserts for your loved ones.