Reported by Anam Stubbington
All to often, craft supplies get relegated to the particular craft they are labelled for in the shop, but there are so many cross-over opportunities, not just in the paper craft work. We have yarn and paper crafts mixing with crocheted flowers on scrapbook layouts; oil pastels and watercolors for making your own paper backgrounds for cards; and fabrics used for texture in clay work.
Today I decided to use my
ProvoCraft Cuttlebug Embossing folders for something new. I use and abuse my folders because they are just so versatile and easily cleaned - a big bonus in my book.
We have all done the inking trick with the embossing folders, used them on velvet to extend their usability and used them on fimo and clay to make jewelry pieces. I had made the traditional clay ornaments with them - perfect for the Christmas season - I gave them as party favours using handmade air drying clay to match the invites I made also using the embossing folders.
(don't know why the purple one looks dirty but in real life its got a gold and silver sheen)
In making these, I thought that I would try and see if I could continue the theme onto the cupcakes using icing and chocolate. I have the basic standard embossing folders so all I added was a rolling pin.
Turns out the embossing folders are awesome for making edible decorations - and I cleaned mine by sticking them in the dishwasher afterwards.
I started with Ready-to-roll icing because I will admit that I suck at baking. It was super easy - decide what folder you want and if you want the image in relief or embossed into the icing - remember with text plates, the relief version is in reverse when you place it down on the icing.
If you have a steady hand, you could even color the embossed images with food coloring. Food coloring though does not stick to the folders so you cannot coat the folder and then emboss like you would with an inkpad (which admittedly was a disappointment for me).
Then cut out your shapes either by hand or use cookie cutters to make awesome cake toppers.
Imagine the fun you could have with the whole image embossing plates for the tops of cakes or as frame bases for cake flowers.
I then tried chocolate to see how much fun I could have with the folders. I tried a few ways to do it and found these two worked best.
- Firstly melt your chocolate to a runny dough consistency - I would suggest you buy proper cake chocolate so the chocolate stays harder longer once it is solid as my very yummy milk chocolate melted in my regular kitchen temperatures.
- Add a little oil or cake release to your folders - I used olive oil and no-one mentioned any taste issues.
- Put the folders on a flat tray with some greaseproof paper underneath them.
Option 1 is to pour the melted chocolate on top of your folder and allow to harder. once hard you turn the folder over and peel the plate off the chocolate - it should come over very easily. You can then use a cookie cutter to cut out the shapes you want - I found it worked better with a metal cutter that was heated in some hot water first.
Option 2 is good when you only want a specific part of an embossing folder. Place your cookie cutter (slightly oiled) on the area you want as your image. Pour the chocolate into the cookie cutter and allow to harden. Once hard, you can remove the plate and then pop the chocolate shape out - this way seemed to give me thicker shapes.
I left them in the fridge for a few hours and then added them to the cupcakes just before I served them. That said, some of my guests decided they would have happily eaten the chocolate toppers on their own so maybe make them with dark chocolate and serve with coffee for adults?
Remember to leave the cut shapes for a little while to dry out if you want them to be used flat or standing. Making cupcake toppers with the folders was so easy and would be a great addition to anyone's DIY arsenal of tricks for wedding or party cakes.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Lots of designs available
- Easy to clean afterwards
Cons:
- Not all designs work well
- Have to work in small batches due to size of folder
- Lots of chocolate left that needs to be eaten
I hope you also find uses for those crafting supplies in the kitchen!
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