A quick DIY for you to try this week, and one of those delicious ones which is simple to do but will (hopefully) provoke gasps of admiration from friends when you reveal your efforts. Inspired by seeing little monogrammed patisseries in Paris last year, I experimented by rolling little balls of fondant icing and stamping them with a regular wax seal embosser (most good stationers and craft stores sell these). I have one with my initial on, so as of today all baked goods emerging from our kitchen will be branded as MINE. Ha!
You can do this with any store-bought or homemade fondant; I keep an airtight tin of leftover bits from projects like Harry’s pirate ship cake and the Star Wars cookies of last week. Simply roll little balls and then press the seal into them before gently lifting or peeling off. Put a dab of cooking oil on the seal first if your fondant is quite sticky. For these I used a buff coloured fondant and then brushed it with edible gold powder. the fondant hardens slightly as it dries, making it pretty robust and ensuring that it holds the pattern or monogram beautifully…
I also made some monograms from red fondant and sprayed them lightly with sparkly lustre spray and used them to decorate some mini raspberry and lemon loaf cakes…
You can keep the monograms for a couple of weeks in an airtight container, and they look gorgeous on all manner of things (envelope cookies, perhaps?). Harry’s not fussed about the cakes but loves eating just the seals; one per day, as an after-tea treat. Simple pleasures….
In other news, to highlight the extremes of my life I will be setting aside sugarcraft and tomorrow plunging from a rope into a huge vat of freezing mud, having foolishly entered a local MudRun race; 7.5km with 60 military-style obstacles, in what promises to be torrential rain. For those who are unfamiliar with such events, this is a typical photo;
(I love the sunglasses don’t you? A sort of triumph of optimism…). I’ve not done an event like this before – nor, I suspect, will I ever do one again – but Harry is very excited and has promised to cheer me on. ’Daddy and I will bring you a towel and Daddy says you can take all your clothes off before you get back in the car’.
Have a warmer, dryer, cleaner weekend, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing!