Homemade Edible Arrangement

 I love to make homemade gifts for Valentines Day. It seems more personal and its always more fun.  This year I decided to make an Edible Arrangement. The idea started with chocolate covered strawberries and evolved from there. It was an adventure just trying to gather all the things I needed. I went Michaels to buy styrofoame and a container,  HEB to buy chocolate, fruit, and then Wal-Mart (because HEB was out of strawberries).

To get started I googled "homemade edible arrangement". What came up was a website called Plan the Perfect Baby Shower. There are possibly endless pages and blogs that will tell you how to do this, so search around some more and and find what you like.

For my bouquet I used a Square Container, Styrofoam that fit in the container, Plastic Sticks, 1 Pineapple, 1 Cantaloupe, 12 Strawberries and Dipping Chocolate, Flower Cookie Cutter, Melon Baller and Knife.

Using a knife, I cut the pineapple into 1/2 inch thick slices (about the width of my flower cookie cutter).I ended up using 5 slices. Next using the cookie cutter, I pressed each slice of pineapple and cut a flower put of the pineapple slices.

After that I cut my cantaloupe, and with the melon baller I scooped out balls for each flower. They were too round, so I cut the cantaloupe balls in half so that they would have a flat side to sit against the pineapple.

Next I stuck my strawberries on the plastic skewers and dipped them in chocolate. I had some extra styrofoame so i stuck them in that to let them harden up.

Once everything was on skewers I place them in the container. I started with the pineapple flowers, 4 on each corner and one in the middle. Then I found holes for all the strawberries.

 

I don't like to brag but..... The end product looked amazing!!

Cooking Class with Cheff Eddy

I am a fan of Imperial Sugar on Facebook. Why? Because I love sugar of course! Actually I think you got a free recipe if you "liked" them, and I am always on the look out for new recipes!  So one hot day in October, I was on Facebook during work (taking a well deserved break) and a saw that they had posted a contest about winning a baking class in Houston. So of course I commented, and I won.

I was a little nervous asking my boss for the whole day off, but since everyone at my work knows I have a passion for baking he let me go. It turned out to be an amazing experience. The class ended up being taught by Chef Eddy Van Damme, Imperial Sugar's Chef Partner. There were only 4 of us in the class. 

He taught us to make Belgin Truffles, Mendiant Chocolates and Fruit Tarts. He also took us out to lunch and dinner to places that I honestly don't think I could afford except on special occasions. 

Hopefully i will be able to take what i learned in class and make some awesome new desserts. Here are some pictures from that day:

Tempering Chocolate

Yummy Goodies to take home!