My new year's resolution was to blog every week. Oops! It's March. Never mind - here is my first proper post. If you click 'like' at the bottom you can see hearts fly!
Every year, tradition demands that I 'pimp' my kids' eggs. That basically means, adding bits of icing to make a shop-bought egg look cooler. Or that's the aim, at least.
Now, I'm not pretending that this is anything close to a 'tutorial', because that would mean that I was some sort of Egg Pimping expert. (Eggspert?) Whilst I've done it every year for a good few years, I'm still making it up as I go along. Every year, without fail, it's the very last thing I do on Easter Saturday - at about 1am. It's late, and I'm tired. But we all know that 1am is the best time for parental creativity - especially when expectations have been raised beyond belief, right? So, with apologies for the lack of step-by-step instructions, here's some things I've learned along the way.
- I've got an easter egg mould....which I've never used. If you can temper chocolate then by all means, make your own, but if - like me - you're doing this at midnight ad can't be bothered, then don't beat yourself up.
- I use the eggs that come in minimal packaging, for obvious reasons but also because they tend to have the sweets on the inside of the egg, which is critical in my opinion!
- I tend to use what ever bits of sugar paste, modelling paste or modelling chocolate I have kicking around. If you don't make cakes for a living you may not have cupboards full of sugar paste. You can use the supermarket 'ready to roll' stuff, or coloured marzipan, or anything you can find. For bold colours, ready-coloured is best. Modelling chocolate is great, too, and very easy to make using Wilton Candy Melts and liquid glucose (check the wilton website for the recipe).
- The question I am most often asked is 'how do you stick it all on?'. I usually find that the sugar paste is sticky enough by itself - and after all, I'm making this at 1am, the kids will be up at 6am, it doesn't have to cling on for long. You can use a bit of royal icing if you're worried, or melted chocolate, or water.
- My number one tip is probably an obvious one (but it wasn't to me)...chocolate melts at body temperature. When I painted the Beatrix Potter egg, I held it in one hand and - of course - my fingers left melted holes in the chocolate! Make a little 'bed' to sit the egg in while you decorate with a bit of sugar paste or some crumpled up cling film. I use a squished ball of sugar paste to hold the egg upright once it's done, too.
- For this year's eggs, the designs meant that I needed to cover the whole egg in coloured paste. Or does it? Actually, I only cover the front, so the back isn't covered. much easier, and trust me - your kids won't complain. I just slap the rolled-out sugar paste on and then neaten the edge with a sharp knife.
That's it - have a ball! And have a very happy easter - don't stay up too late xx