Gold Dusted Chocolate Gryphon

This is made of dark Belgian chocolate and edible ‘gold’ dust.  If you know me, you’ll know my first love is metalwork.  My favorite medium to work in has always been metal.  Especially lost wax cast bronze and cast precious metals.  So I really enjoyed putting a ‘patina’ on this.  It really makes me want [...]

How to Make a Chocolate Lab Puppy

How to Make a Chocolate Lab Puppy And ideas for black and yellow Lab cakes This is really easy.  Little ones need a bit of supervision with hot, melted chocolate, but the technique couldn’t be simpler.  All you’ll need is your favorite chocolate, a bowl to melt it in and a pastry brush (and of [...]

I ♥ Low Fat, Healthy Brownies

HEART-HEALTHY BROWNIES Easy, Chocolaty & Guilt Free (Also Cute)! I first tasted black bean brownies at a party after an Aikido seminar in Boston.  I thought they were fantastic; fudgy dense and chocolaty.  These will definitely appeal to kids and are easy to make with a little adult help with the food processor. These brownies [...]

Did I Mention Toffee?

TOFFEE! I’m going to make toffee again soon, but next time I will make all of the scrollwork and flowers in chocolate as well.  The back is also coated with a thick layer of dark chocolate (of course!).  The technique I used for making the chocolate butterflies was the same as in the directions for [...]

Butterfly Brunch

How to make a Butterfly-Themed Garden Party/Tea Party   Yes, I had to wait patiently for the apple tree to bloom for this shot – and for a sunny day! Jump over to the Zanda Panda website to see how to make all the goodies pictured above, such as butterfly cake and cupcake toppers, embossed [...]

New Video, New Chocolate Technique!

Kaleidoscope Heart and Kaleidoscope Butterfly Molds Make two-tone chocolate cake toppers or No-Bake Backwards Cakes™ I’m very excited about this new chocolate technique!  I had been making multi-colored chocolate cake toppers by filling just the hearts or butterflies with a separate color.  I realized, quite by accident, that the scrollwork and flowers could also be [...]

Valentine’s Day Kaleidoscope Heart Chocolate Cake Topper

Kaleidoscope Heart Cake Topper for Valentine’s Day See step-by-step instructions below. Watch the VIDEO to see how easy it is! This Kaleidoscope Heart Cake Topper is very easy to make and is perfect for Valentine’s day. All you need is: ♥  Silicone spatula ♥  Gel food coloring ♥  White chocolate I used Ghirardelli’s Candy Making [...]

Molly’s Fabulous Fudge – And Another Puppy

My friend Molly McG gave me her fantastic fudge recipe for the Puppy Mold packaging.  Here it is and here’s a puppy made of it!   Molly’s Fabulous Fudge My friend Molly’s fantastic fudge recipe! ◊   3 cups sugar ◊   3/4 cup butter ◊   2/3 cup evaporated milk ◊   2/3 cup cocoa ◊   4 tablespoons [...]

Pup-O-Rama!

    I’m back from QVC training.  The Kaleidoscope Heart and Butterfly Molds will be featured there soon.  I’ll post the date when it’s finalized. So I finally had time to have some fun with the prototype Puppy Mold.  Here are cake, cookie and chocolate puppies of various breeds.  

BUTTERFLY CUPCAKES

These cupcakes are ridiculously simple to make and look adorable.  With the pastel colors, they would be great for a child’s birthday party or especially cute for a baby shower.  You can adjust how you make these to the amount of time that you have.  If you have spare time, bake the cupcakes and make [...]