Meringue Mushrooms

This family really loves mushrooms [check more posts here].
If the mushrooms are made of sugar and chocolate, are even better!




These little treats can be made with ingredients that you (probably) already have at home!

You will need for about 12-15 mushrooms:

meringue:
2 eggs' whites
80g sugar
pinch of salt

ganache:
80g dark chocolate
40ml heavy cream

1 tbsp cocoa powder




Whip hard the meringue for 10mins or until is fluffy and thick.




Use a wide open pipping pin and fill your bag with meringue

Start pipping "mushrooms' hats" about 3cm/1,5inch big on wax paper, then wet your finger with water and smooth out the pointed edge

 Pip "mushrooms' feet" by press and pull up the piping bag. These picks need to be pointed.

 

Cook them in the lowest heat of your oven until they get a bit golden.
I usually cook them in 100C for about an hour.
After the meringues are done leave them on wax paper for 5mins in room temperature (otherwise they'll get stuck and you'll break them picking them up).

Heat the heavy cream until you see the first bubble. Then add the chopped chocolate.

Stir it until you have a chocolate cream . Optionally you can add a pinch of sea salt, cayenne, or a bit of light oil to make it looks glossy

 

Collect the "hats" together and add cocoa powder to make them look dirty

 Using a toothpick make holes on the back side

Deep them in the melted chocolate

And finally peg, carefully, the feet.

Meringue mushrooms are ready!

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DIY Christmas Tree

Xmas is a great time to show off your creativity!
Last year I've made a really quick and cheap Xmas lill' tree.
All you need is a piece of...

cardboard!
Take a cardboard and design on it 2 simple trees with a star on top, like on the pattern below.

Cut your trees and then cut two lines as you see on the image

After that, put your two pieces together by haling the one tree vertically to the other.
Your DIY Xmas tree is ready (in less than 15 minutes)!




You can now decorate it as you wish.
I glued sheets of gold on the star, I hand-sewed some mushrooms and I put necklace with colorfull beads.
Have fun!





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Mini Cupcakes for little Phoebe

Looks like someone liked mushroom like cupcakes...

   


So I made some more for Phoebe's b-day party!

I baked my super-fluffy cupcakes, I filled them with chocolate ganache and I decorated them

I designed some "Φ" (φ spelt like "ph" from Phoebe)

just to make them more personal...

How cute are they look, in the box?
I love the final result!

The feedback from the party was super positive and as they told as both children and parents adored mushroom-cupcakes!  I hope to make more stuff for Phoebe's parties in the future : )

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(Infected) Mushrooms Cupcakes

Happy October guys!
Although in Athens the weather is hot hot hot, we can pretend is Autumn...
Autumn means : umbrellas, rainy days and of course mmmushrooms!

I was thinking a lot about my next post and I decided to combine some things that I love.
Mushrooms, cupcakes, chocolate and creepiness! Boo!





I had bought this Ikea pan and I had never used it.
So that's my chance to bake some cupcakes using my favorite recipe





"White" cake seems plain to me,
that's why I filled them up with chocolate ganache creme...

Then I used modeling chocolate to cover them with.
I coloured the paste using "Christmas red" food colouring by Wilton.

I kept some white modeling chocolate for the spots.
I cut a piece of straw and I used it as cutter for my paste. I also used a bamboo stick to put the chocolate out.

After 20-30 spots I get bored and i keep on spotting using white "super easy to" icing (sugar &water)

And that's my mushroom bouquet!

Red, spotted and full of chocolate!

And that's a bonus tip!
If you want to carry them out and you're fed up of buying all these useless accessories (come on now... how many times you will use a cupcake carrier?)
just use a cardboard egg carton!!!





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