This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the 2007 Capital Confectioners' Cake & Sugar Art Show and Competition here in Austin, Tx.

As luck would have it, I went off Saturday and forgot my camera. Grrr...

There were demonstrations and competitions throughout the day on topics ranging decorating cookies to a 90 minute three teired wedding cake competition to painting fondant.

Many well known cake afficionados (and Food Network stars) were in attendance, including our very own Bronwen Weber, a former pastry chef at the Texas Culinary Academy and current Executive Chef at Frosted Art Bakery & Studio in Dallas. Bronwen is a bubbly blond who posses wonderful pastry skills. Competing in the 90 minutes wedding cake challenge were two cake decorators who were featured and placed in the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show, the largest sugar art show and competition in the United States. They were Janette Pfertner who is actually from my litte town of Pflugerville, Tx and Ruth Rickey, a two-time gold medal winner at the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show. Aslo in the competition was Steven Stellingwerf who was one of the judges in the 2006 OKlahoma show.

Sadly, this show was rather poorly organized. The demonstrations were done at tables with chairs in front of them in rows. There was a camera focused on the table which projected onto a drop-down screen but the camera never seemed to be in the right place and even when it was it was difficult to discern what was on the screen. There was a fellow who came and occasionally fiddled with the camera to get a good angle but apparently he had no remote because every time he did this he blocked the view with his body for a few minutes. One of the instructors, a very entertaining british lady named, Lesley Frymire, kept running through the audience to show us her fabulous gumpaste flowers.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the show and learned a few cool tips.

1. During the wedding cake competition, I noticed that both Ruth and Steven were using clear vinyl sheets on which to roll out their fondant. They were pressing hard but still able to pull the fondant up with no trouble. I was intrigued as they were usuing no corn starch or powdered sugar. I asked the Emcee to find out what kind of vinyl they were using and it turns out they were using upholstery vinyl. They said it sticks just enough to allow you to roll out your fondant but not so much that it sticks to the matt! Steven was even using two matts. After he rolled the fondant out to the appropriate size, he lifted it up and placed it over the cake still attached to the bottom piece. Once he got it where he wanted it, he peeled off the vinyl!
2. Pizza Cutters were the decorators choice for cutting off excess fondant. A cheap and useful tool!
3. Master Cookie Decorator, Penny McConnell, was there giving some great tips for cookie decorators. She dipped cookies in a fairly wet royal icing and after they dried she used regular stencils to decorate them by simply laying the stencil over the cookie and swiping a stiff mixture of a different coloured royal icing over the top. She pulled away the stencil and voila!
4. If you want  your royal icing to maintain it's sheen and not go dull, set them to dry in front of a fan.
5. If you need custom stencils, you can get them at any trophy shop for the unbelievably reasonable price of $10 or less!
6. During the summer use LESS meringue powder in your royal icing. I have Penny's cookie dough and royal icing recipes that I will post toward the end.

I was totally entralled by all the beautifully embossed acrylic rolling pins. I want one! Miss Janette also used a large rectangular stencil on her fondant. First she rolled out the fondant and then overlaid the stencil and rolled over it again so that bits of the fondant were protruding through the stencil, she then dusted the protruding bits with pearl luster dust and then laid it on the cake. The effect was just beautiful!

Ok, so I'm sure you want to see the pics! :-)
























































If you'd like to see the rest of my photos, you can find them here.

Here are Penny's Recipes:


You're going to love using this dough in your home. It's really quick to put together, doesn't need to be refrigerated before rolling, and is formulated to accept additional flour as y ou roll our the cookies. Feel free to make as large a batch as your mixer will hold.

Yield: 3-4 dozen cookies
Temperature: 325 degrees F

2 Cups butter, salted
2 Cups sugar, granulated
2 large eggs
4 Tabldspoons pure vanilla
4 Tablespoons Almond (or other flavour) extract
6 Cups flour, all purpose
1 Tablespoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare cookie sheets with kitchen parchment.
2. In mixer bowl, mix butter with sugar until smooth. Remember to just incorporate these ingredients, do not cream until light.
3. Add all liquid ingredients to bowl. This mixture will probably curdle but the finished dough will be just fine.
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour with baking powder.
5. Add the dry ingredients all at once to the mixer bowl and process until heavy dough forms.

Penny mentioned that if your cookies come out inconsistent then you're probably not thoroughly mixing your dough.  She said your cookies should look almost uncooked with the bottoms being a slightly darker blond.



6 Tablespoons water
3 Tablespoons meringue powder (half this in very  hot weather)
3.5 Cups powdered sugar, sifted.

1. Put water in mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients.
2. Put the mixing speed on low. Mix ingredients untill they form a thick frosting. Depending on the freshness of the sugar, you may need to add additional water. The frosting at this point should resembel thick cookie glaze.
3. When thie icing is smooth, put the mixer on it's highest setting an process until the icing goes from shiney to dull and will stand in stiff peaks.

Note:  After you make the icing, keep it covered with a damp cloth at all times (including when you have tinted it and put it into the pastry bags) or it will crust over. This icing is not a "keeper". It does not have a long shelf-life so make jast as much as you need for the day of decorating.

Another super cool technique Penny showed was colouring your cookies with dough. She took a walnut size piece of the cookie dough and added water until it was of a consistency that it could be piped onto the cookie in a piping bag with a number 2 tip. She then coloured the dough and put it in a pastry bag. She cuts out her cookies and then pipes the coloured dough on to outline words. The effect was really pretty. I am so going to try it this week.

This would be a great time to make a cookie boquet for your special someone!

Penny's Cookie Tips
From Penny McConnel of Penny's Pastries

Cookie decorating should be fun!

I've been baking and decorating cookies for most of my life for family and friends and then in my business, Penny's Pastries, for the last ten years.

Here are some tips I've learned over the years that will support you and make your cookie baking memorable.

• Work with a dough that's easy to handle. (see recipes above) These are the recipes we use for all Penny's decorated cookies. Not only can you roll this dough immediately afte mixing (no need to chill before rolling), it will handle beautifully for you and give you delicious cookies.
• Bake cookes at 325 instead of the usual 350. It's easy to over bake or burn cookies. Keeping your oven 25 degrees cooler than is usually recommended helps you better control the short baking time.
• A fully baked roll and cut cookie usually takes 8-12 minutes in the oven. Perfectly baked cookies are dark blond on the bottom and light blond on top. Watch over baking!
• Use kitchen parchment paper on your baking pans instead of greasing the pans. Neater and you'll avoid the edges of the cookies "fringing" with the additional fat.
• Don't forget to rotate your baking pans. Reverse the top and bottom and also rotate each cookie sheet from front to back
• Take the time to measure and mix ingredients carefully. An uneven cookie with "spread" or "fringed" edges usually means the butter/suger mixture was not creamed correctly or the recipe was butter/sugar hyeavy. Dark streaks in the finished cookies? Baking powder/baking soda was not incorporated correctly into the dry ingredients before adding to the wet ingredients.
• Royal icing cn be used for both your base icing (just thing the finished Royal icing with a little water) and your top design. Remember to hand royal icing with care. Always cover the icing with a damp kitchen or paper towel. Also cover the tips of y our pastry tubes that contain tinted icings.
• On humid days use less merigne powder then is  usually recommnded - not more! Meringue powder contains a vegetable gum that holds moisture. On humid days that gum will attract the moisture in the air and soften your icing.
• Flip through your kids colouring books or browse the greeting card aisles for design/colour ideas. Kids coloring books are great for eye placement on character cookies. Greeting cards are great inspiration for design possiblilities.
• Keep your desing work simple. Cookie surfaces are small. Simple designs are pretty and professional.