Dried Fruit as Holiday Treats

Every year, I'm always on the look-out for something new to include annual cookie boxes or to give as a hostess gift. However, that's not to say you can't include a favourite or two, or have a holiday treat make an annual appearance as part of a holiday family tradition.

Dried apricots and figs have a become an annual holiday "must have" for me, as it:

1. Saves time in the baking department, as there is no baking involved.
2. Are dead easy to dress up for the festive season.
3. Brings a bit of the nutritious factor in to balance their calorie laden cookie friends.

Dried fruit can be purchased at your local bulk store or supermarket. In this case, I went to my ever trusty local Bulk Barn. ALL HAIL THE BULK BARN! Love it! Anyways, buying in bulk allows you to buy as much or as little as you need.

As pictured above and to the right, I dipped them in chocolate. If you're feeling particularly motivated, you can temper the chocolate. If not, you can always use chocolate candy melts. They're quick and easy to use and come in an array of colours. So colour coordinating for the holidays would be a cinch.

TIP: These yummy treats are great for cocktail parties or when served with a rich red wine. They are also fab when paired with champagne for that extra special New Year's toast.

YUMMY FACTOR: Infinity

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Gingerbread Cookies Decorated with Fondant

Everything gingerbread seems to abound during the holiday season. My kitchen is no exception either, with Gingerbread Biscotti, Pfeffenrusse and now gingerbread cookies decorated with fondant.

The reason I decided to decorate with fondant and not do flooding this year, was simply due to a time issue. So I decided to cheat and use fondant. And I must say, I am rather pleased with the results.

How I did it, is as follows:

1. Take your favourite gingerbread cookie recipe and bake into any cookie cutter shape that you have tucked away.


2. While your cookies are baking, and of course cooling afterwards, colour your fondant with the colours of your choice (i.e. green for trees, red and yellow for the lightbulbs, etc.)


3. Once the cookies are completely cooled, rolled out your fondant and cut out pieces using the very same cookie cutters you used to cut your raw cookie dough


4. Brush the back with water and place the fondant cut-out directly on the cookie, allow to set


5. Repeat the last 2 steps with the rest of your cookies

To add that finishing touch to the cookies, I used Metallic Snowflake and Metallic Classic Gold lustre dusts from Squires Kitchen (gold for the light bulb and snowflake for the doves). I also used the Poinsettia petal dust mixed with the Metallic Snowflake lustre dust for the candy canes.

For the trees and holly, I used coarse white and green sugar to resemble frosted snow for the trees and to add more texture and dimension to the hollys. Just brush the desired area with water and sprinkle on your desired coloured sugar.

TIP: Fondant can be used for more than just covering a cake. If short on time and a smooth clean finish is what you're after, try fondant. It can not only be mixed into a variety of colours, but it can also be textured with impression mats and textured rolling pins.

Cake Shoe Diaries Welcomes Chrissie Boon

The Sugar Cove is excited to welcome Chrissie Boon from 'Too Nice to Slice', in the second instalment of the Cake Shoe Diaries, as Chrissie shares with us what ignited her passion for all things sugar. So cake shoes ready! Get set! Walk!

Growing up, I loved everything to do with arts and crafts. I was lucky enough to have two very creative parents. Mom, a creative grade school teacher, always had a unique project we could work on together. Dad was always in the workshop designing new toys. I think I was the only girl at school who knew what to do with a jigsaw (Dad and power tools would later come in handy more then I realized for cake construction).

Back in grade school, I remember our next door neighbour's husband lost his job. With my Mom’s love of baking and our neighbour’s wife not knowing how she would afford Christmas presents, my Mom suggested they bake and sell Christmas cookies. Using mom's favourite recipes, this became a yearly event and when I got to high school I started to take over the annual Christmas cookie baking. Today, I still do the Christmas cookies just like when Mom started them, using the exact same recipes she began with.

After highschool, I moved away to Ottawa to study and left baking behind (That doesn't mean my roommate and I didn't throw a cheesecake party or two though). While at home during summer break, I took a Wilton cake decorating course. I was hooked! I can't say my parents were thrilled when I told them I'd be quitting my psychology program to become a cake decorator. But as always, they stood behind me and helped make it work. From there, I took every class I could get my hands on: cake, pulled sugar, chocolate, gumpaste, anything confectionery interested me.

In the fall of 2005, my husband (then fiancé) and I started ‘Too Nice to Slice’ and by January 2006 we were on the hunt for a store front and commercial kitchen. By the spring we'd found the place and started the renovations. Amidst wedding preparations, our wedding day and raising our one year old we officially opened the doors in November 2006. Since that day things have only grown. Every new idea is a wonderful and exciting new challenge. My husband Justin is my strongest supporter and biggest fan. ‘Too Nice to Slice’ would not exist today without him. I cannot imagine running this business without my family and friends.

My favourite moments are meeting with a client and helping them design their dream cake. Watching them flip through my portfolio and seeing them imagine the possibilities is always so inspiring. Knowing I am about to be part of their special day is an honour every time. I especially love when clients come in with a theme in mind, but have no idea how it will translate into cake. Seeing their delight as you share ideas and they begin to envision their cake keeps me motivated every day. Better yet, hearing the words "I trust you" come from a client as they put their faith in me to create their cake gives me the push every day to give 110%.

The journey to get where I am has been exciting but I can't say it’s been easy every step of the way. It's definitely not the typical forty hour work week. Unfortunately, most of my days are spent at the shop and evenings working on sketches for clients or teaching classes. Every waking hour seems to be filled with things that need to be done: updating our cake online supply store, designing new cakes for a show or replying to emails. There is always something to do.

My family will always be what pulls me through. No matter what the situation, a wonderful new opportunity or all nighters at the shop, my husband and family have always been there. There is never a, “It can't be done” attitude, but a "What do we need to do to make it work?" Actually, that applies to most of my aspirations... opening a shop, raising a family, expanding the shop... all were met with the same "we'll make it work" attitude. With them as such an integral part of the business it also means they are my true test to know if I have done a cake right. Having my five year old daughter Emma and Justin walk into the kitchen unaware that a finished cake is sitting on the table is still nerve-racking for me. I stand outside the kitchen and listen for the reaction. The wonderful thing about children is that they are extremely honest. Emma and Justin have seen a lot of cakes. If I hear the squeal of "OH Mommy!!! It's B-E-A-Utiful!!" I know I've done my job.

Chrissie Boon
Too Nice to Slice
14 Hoffman Street, Unit 4 (behind the buddhist temple)
Kitchener, Ontario
519-576-3364

Click here to shop online or sign up for classes at Icing Inspirations (Located within Too Nice to Slice).

Click here to read more about Chrissie Boon and ‘Too Nice to Slice’ as featured in the Waterloo Record.

Linzer Cookies Thumbprint Style

Yummy, yummy, yummy is all I can think of after I made these cookies. My Mom loves savoury cookies and that's what these are. Except for their sweet jam centers, these cookies are a great afternoon treat with coffee or tea and thus made it into my holiday cookie boxes this year.

The recipe is as follows:

350g Soft Unsalted Butter
200g Sweet Margarine
8g Salt
235g Sugar
4 Eggs
410g Ground Filberts
10 Cinamon

• Cream together soft butter, margarine, salt and sugar
• Add room temperature eggs
• Add dry ingredients
• Chill dough in the fridge to firm up (1-2 hours or overnight)
• Roll into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls, using your thumb to make a well in the center of each cookie
• Pipe raspberry jam (*any jam of your choice) in to the center
• Bake at 385F until golden

This recipe makes a lot of Linzer cookies. When making this yummy treat, my mixer was filled to capacity, so feel free to half the recipe or freeze part of the dough for later use.

YUMMY FACTOR: 8 out of 10 sugar cubes (*only because it yeilds ALOT of cookies)

Pfeffernusse

I was first introduced to this sweet confectionery delight, while taking a baking and pastry course at George Brown College. A German sweet called Pfeffernusse, this confection is made using simple gingerbread dough.

Take your favourite gingerbread dough recipe and form into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes and voila! Pfeffernusse! To finish them off, you can dress them up in 3 ways:

1. Coat with thinned out royal icing (*as pictured above).
2. Toss in icing sugar.
3. Dip in chocolate.

To give an added ginger kick, I added chopped crystallized ginger and finished off the cookie by dipping it in thinned out royal icing. Mmmm...yummy!

YUMMY FACTOR: 10 out of 10 sugar cubes.

Spiced Walnut Butter Cookies

This spicy little number was featured in The Toronto Star's "The Great Cookie Countdown", and made it into my cookie boxes this year simply for its 'zing' factor. And people, this cookie definitely packs a 'zing' in the taste department.

That special 'zing' factor comes from the 1/2 tsp. of pepper called for in the recipe. While also incorporating nutmeg, ginger, cloves and cinnamon, the pepper lends a nice surprising kick to an otherwise savoury cookie.

Not everyone might like the peppery kick taste of this cookie, but for that extra special wow factor at holiday time, this cookie definitely fits the bill.

YUMMY FACTOR: 7 out of 10 sugar cubes

To download the recipe, click here.

Gingerbread Biscotti

This yummy treat made it into my annual holiday cookie boxes because it followed my 3 rules of holiday baking:

1. Recipe yielded a lot.
2. Ingredients were easy to find and purchase.
3. Instructions were easy to follow.

It also made it in because it was a "gingerbread" holiday flavoured treat (*and the pic was to die for). This recipe came from last year's "Fine Cooking" holiday magazine edition, which featured cookies galore.

The apricots and orange zest, used in this recipe, add a nice subtle sweet flavour to the biscotti, complimenting the ginger flavour of the molasses and ground ginger. Plus, by making the biscotti yourself, you can control how chewy or how dry and crunchy you prefer your biscotti.

Me, I'm a chewy kind of gal. But in the sugar world, it's as you like it, especially if you're the baker.

YUMMY FACTOR: 10 of 10 sugar cubes

To download the recipe, click here.

Ordering Cake Tools from South of the Border

I don't know about you, but as an avid cake decorator and sugar artist AND a Canadian, I've always had difficulty ordering supplies south of the border.

1. As a Canadian, you have to deal with the fluctuating dollar. It seems to go up and down like a toilet seat sometimes.


2. Shipping costs can border on the ridiculous, if you live outside of the US. Some companies have a standard inflated shipping price no matter what or how much you order.


3. Customs and C.O.D.'s ~ HATE IT! Depending on who you order from, payment of customs is due upon delivery. (*Paying the postman or the UPS guy in my bathrobe is not my ideal situation.)

So what is a Canuck to do? Well, since I'm always looking for the better buy when investing in new tools and/or ingredients, I've come across a little secret. Wait for it.....ENGLAND! (*God Save the Queen playing the background) I always try and find things local because buying local beats ordering from abroad hands down. But if making sugar flowers is your thing, a lot of those tools come from England anyways. Get this:

1. Exchange rate from CDN$ to GBP is BETTER than dealing with the US dollar.


2. No customs and duty fees to deal with.


3. Supplies get delivererd right to your door.


4. Shipping times are little as 48 hours.

And I'm not joking about the shipping times. Just got a package from "A Piece of Cake" in Thames, England, which I ordered about 2 days go. It was fabulous. Those English are scarily organized.

What's been your exprience ordering from south of the border?