Food Tutorials - I'm Topsy Turvy

Rainbow Sprinkles

October 8, 2012 by Ashlee · 18 Comments

This whole week I’ll be sharing all the parts of Baby Boy’s birthday party! I’ll be sharing all the recipes I used over the next few days, then the cake, favors, decor, etc… and finally a recap of the entire party!

To start out with I needed rainbow sprinkles!!!! Now most rainbow sprinkle mixture have brown (which I didn’t want) and don’t have all of the rainbow colors. They are often missing pink, even orange and often blue! So I decided to make my own to make sure it was just want I wanted! Nice bright colors!

Check out the AMAZING collection of Sprinkles and Sugars Gygi’s has!!! LOVELY! Brights, darks, pastels… But if you aren’t local you can also order mixed Sprinkles online

These are the colors I picked! Aren’t they pretty against the white! I wasn’t sure If I’d want even amounts so I just started playing around.

In the end I went with even amounts of all the colors, but double the white! I mixed up two full bags and used ALL of it on the party! In fact I ran out of my own mixture, but luckily had bought a gygi’s rainbow package JUST in case!

Cake Mix & Sprinkles Party posts
Cake Smash, Sprinkles, Truffles, Muddy Buddies, Sprinkles Sandwiches, Cake Batter & Sprinkles dip, Popcorn, No-bake Cheesecake, Fudge, Bark, Cookies, Pretzels, Marshmallows, Rice Krispies, Ice Cream, Dipped Cups, Bunting, Favors, Cake, Cake Batter & Sprinkles Party

Filed Under: birthday, Food Tutorials, Parties · Tagged With: cake batter & sprinkles party, gygi

Salted Caramel Marshmallow recipe

October 2, 2012 by Ashlee · 4 Comments

Last month I was invited to participate in a caramel challenge by my favorite baking/cake supply store, Gygi’s! I was thrilled!

While I was trying to narrow down what to try I originally wanted to do a caramel cake with caramel frosting, but then the weather started getting cooler and I started making my weekly (sometimes more often) double batch of Homemade Hot Chocolate! Mmmm And while I often like fresh whipped cream in my hot chocolate I thought the idea of Salted Caramel Marshmallows sounded DIVINE.

Trust me they are. They might not be the prettiest of the entries, but I’ve made 3 batches so far and am in LOOOOOOVE! I have one cup every morning for breakfast when I drive the kids to school and often another cup at night after they’ve all gone to bed!

I heated the 5 lbs of caramel in my crock pot. This way it was easy for dipping apple slices and pretzels for the kids while I worked on my project. Salted Caramel Marshmallows!

I spooned out the cup (8 oz) of caramel into a sauce pan and on low heat incorporated the cream to get a softer caramel for the middle of my marshmallows (the goal in my head was to have a thin ribbon of caramel going through the marshmallows- this did NOT happen).

I ended up cooking my caramel too long and burnt my caramel a bit. I’m going to add some cream to soften the burnt caramel, I’ll let you know how it goes! Gygi’s suggests heating your caramel in the oven, I am so going to try that next time!

Salted Caramel Marshmallow
4 – 8 oz Peters Caramel
1/4 – 1/2 C Cream or sweetened condensed milk
4 tablespoons of gelatin
1/2 cup of water
4 cups of sugar
2 cup of water
2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup of mixed cornstarch and icing sugar (¼ cup of cornstarch, ½ cup of icing sugar)
fleur de sel

Melt the Caramel and add cream to thin it down (the reason for the open ended measurements is to let you choose how much or litle caramel you want in your marshmallows- I opted for a LOT).

Soak the gelatin in the 1/2 C of cold water in a small bowl and set aside to swell for 10 minutes.

In a large saucepan pour the sugar and second measure of water. Gently dissolve the sugar over a low heat stirring constantly. Add the swollen gelatin and dissolve. Raise the temperature and bring to the boil. Boil steadily but not vigorously for 15 minutes without stirring. Remove from the heat and allow to cool until lukewarm.

Add the vanilla essence and whisk the mixture with a mixer or beater (I use a Bosch Mixer, it whips up the marshmallow really well and fast) until very thick and white. Rinse a 9×13 glass pan under water and pour the marshmallow mixture into the wet tin.

Add the caramel over the top and swirl. sprinkle the fleur de sel over the top. Refrigerate until set.

Cut into squares and roll in mixed cornstarch and icing sugar.

I actually made two batches of these marshmallows, and plan on making a third this week! I WILL eventually get them just they way I first envisioned, but I think the first two “mistake” batches will still be my favorites. The first time I mis-measured (late night and we’d been sick) and I ended up only adding 1/2 the gelatin. The second time I added way to much caramel.

When I beat the sugar mixture in the first batch it turned white, but never did get as thick as usual (it wasn’t until the next day I realized what I’d done wrong). So instead of marshmallow squares I had marshmallow fluff consistency Even after it set overnight I couldn’t cut it up. I figured this batch was a failure BUT I spooned it into my hot chocolate to try it out and it was SO delicious!

I loved it all squishy BUT it wasn’t very pretty! So I made a second, batch. This time I got the measurements for the marshmallows all right, but ended up adding more caramel than I meant to!!! GRRRR I let it set and I cut them up. The caramel had gone all the way to the bottom rather than stay as a thin ribbon through the middle. The bottom ended up a sticky mess. BUT I rolled the squares in the cornstarch/powder sugar to de-stickify them and walla! I actually really LIKED the extra caramel. Because of thinning it with the cream the caramel stayed super soft and easily melted in my hot chocolate. Even my husband, who doesn’t care for caramel (yes, he’s crazy) LOVED the extra caramel-ly squares best!

My kids and husband ate the rest of the second batch before I could enjoy a second cup of Hot Chocolate. Luckily for me I still have a huge batch of my soft and squishy version to enjoy in my hot chocolate for the next few days. I’ll give it a few weeks, but once we’re all feeling better and my sleep isn’t so erratic I’m SO going to make these again, let’s hope the third attempt is not only prettier, but just as tasty!

Salted Caramel Marshmallow recipe
4 – 8 oz Peters Caramel
1/4 – 1/2 C Cream or sweetened condensed milk
4 tablespoons of gelatin
1/2 cup of water
4 cups of sugar
2 cup of water
2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup of mixed cornstarch and icing sugar (¼ cup of cornstarch, ½ cup of icing sugar)
fleur de sel

Melt the Caramel and add cream to thin it down (the reason for the open ended measurements is to let you choose how much or litle caramel you want in your marshmallows- I opted for a LOT).

Soak the gelatin in the 1/2 C of cold water in a small bowl and set aside to swell for 10 minutes.

Add the vanilla essence and whisk the mixture with a mixer or beater, I use my Bosch Mixer Attachments“>bosch shredder slicer bowl with the whisk attachment, until very thick and white. Rinse a 9×13 glass pan under water and pour the marshmallow mixture into the wet tin.

Add the caramel over the top and swirl. sprinkle the fleur de sel over the top. Refrigerate until set.

Cut into squares and roll in mixed cornstarch and icing sugar.

Filed Under: Food Tutorials, Recipes, treats · Tagged With: bosch, tutorial, whisks

Homemade Philly Cheesteaks

October 1, 2012 by Ashlee · 6 Comments

I love Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches! I have never had and “authentic” one, but someday I’m going to go on a food tour of the USA and I WILL get to try an official one! For now homemade ones will have to do!

So the sandwich is actually really easy to make, we tried it with this provolone sauce from One Sweet Appetite, BUT we were not impressed with the sauce!

Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches
2 lrg onions- thinly sliced
2 green peppers- thinly sliced
2 lbs top round steak thinly sliced
olive oil
salt and pepper
hoagie roll- toasted

Saute the onions and green peppers in the olive oil

I like to saute mine for a nice long time for these sandwiches so they carmelize a bit

my grocery store didn’t have sliced top round, so I actually just ASKED! I picked a gorgeous 2 lbs piece and asked them to slice it as THIN as they could! CLOSE to the amazing steak in Japan! This was perfect.

When the meat is this thin it cooks REALLY fast, so add it at the last min. Also don’t just throw the meat in, you’ll want to separate each slice and place them in the pan, but go fast. This is also when I added some salt and pepper, with the meat.

I love provolone, and was so excited to try this provolone sauce from one sweet appetite, but it ended up much blander than I wanted. I like my cheese STRONG, maybe if I had gotten a stronger provolone, rather than this mild ???

The next day I had the leftovers with just slices of provolone melted on the top and I liked it a lot better! I won’t bother trying the sauce again unless I find a sharp provolone (do they MAKE sharp provolone?)

The sauce is really PRETTY I have to say! And I love my food SAUCY and goopy! Some people like CHEESE WHIZ in their Philly Cheesesteak, I just couldn’t go that far… but maybe I’ll be brave enough next time. Also some people like mushrooms, feel free to try it, they aren’t my thing usually.

What would YOU want on your Philly Cheesesteak???