Choosing a Cake Topper for Your Wedding

A wedding cake topper is one of the few things that represents the personality and tastes of both the bride and groom, so it should be given as much priority as the cake itself. Years ago, the traditional bride and groom figurine was always a great way to go, but, more recently, we’ve been noticing couples take quite a creative turn when it comes to their cake toppers. Here are a few tips to consider when choosing a cake topper for your own wedding:

Pick a theme.

If you already have an overall wedding theme to consider, choosing a wedding cake topper becomes much easier. You simply need to accent your cake with a symbol or motif from that theme. For example: snowflakes for a winter theme, birds for a fall theme, anchors or seashells for a nautical theme, etc.

What’s your personality?

When you choose a topper based on personality, you want it to be a direct representation of your union. This is definitely a more personal and artistic choice that has the potential to radiate a specific vibe or emotion throughout your wedding. Through custom-made figurines, monograms, flowers or lacy wedding toppers, you can depict the style of your relationship, whether it be romantic, trendy, quirky, funny or dramatic.

Consult your baker/pastry chef.

It is crucial to coordinate your cake design and cake topper decisions together. Keep your pastry chef in the loop about any decision relating to your wedding cake. He or she can help you decide if the cake topper you have your heart set on will integrate well with the design of the cake or perhaps even fit on it at all.

Bring a picture.

The perfect way to keep your cake designer updated is to show him pictures of the cake topper you want to buy. Figuring out the logistics beforehand and having the dimensions readily available is advised as well.

If you have a specific theme in mind and don’t see what you’re looking for on our site, please don’t hesitate to contact us with your desired look. We would be happy to locate more options for you to choose from.

As lovers of everything wedding and baked-goods related, we’d love to hear your own experience choosing the perfect cake topper for your special day. Let us know in the comments below!

Illinois Adventure #1706 "Gridley Telephone Museum"

How To Temper Chocolate the Easy Way

The sheer idea of tempering chocolate can be scary for many inexperienced candy makers. This fear leads many new candy makers to shy away from creating tasty chocolate masterpieces using some of the best melting chocolate available, such as our Merken’s Marquis Milk Chocolate. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With our step-by-step guide, you’ll see how easy this technique can be once you get past your fears.

Using a microwave makes it super easy to temper your chocolate to get it to the perfect consistency, so we’re going to show you how to temper chocolate that way.

For best results, you’ll need a:

• Large microwave-safe bowl
• Melting chocolate
• Spoon
• Chilled bowl
• Immersion blender

Roughly chop your melting chocolate and add the pieces to your microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate for 20 seconds at a time, stirring well in between each 20-second interval. Keep putting the chocolate back into the microwave until the chocolate is mostly melted but still has some lumps. If you got a little overzealous while heating your chocolate and it all melted, don’t fear: Just add a handful of chocolate pieces to your melted chocolate and stir.

Once your chocolate has gotten to the right consistency, transfer all of it to the chilled bowl and use your immersion blender to smooth out the lumps in your chocolate. Your chocolate will be ready to mold into candy when it dries in less than a minute.

Once your chocolate is ready, ladle it into the candy mold of your choice and create delicious chocolate candies that your family and friends will love.

Are you more of a visual learner? Watch our favorite video to learn how to temper chocolate in the microwave. The video also goes on to show how to mix different colors of chocolate to create beautiful candies.

Have you ever tempered chocolate? Share your tips and tricks with us and other readers in the comments below!

Three Reasons Why You Should Make Your Own Candy

Candy making is a great year-round hobby where you can unleash your creative genius making the perfect sweets for every holiday and event. Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and other holidays are just around the corner. While candy makes any day better, you can add a little extra sweetness to your holidays by making your own candy.

Here are three of the best reasons why you should switch over to home candy making for this year’s festivities:

1. There are plenty of easy candy recipes. You might be worried that making your own candy will be too difficult and quickly become a nightmare, but home candy making can be as easy or as hard as you want. Sites like Wilton have a huge variety of recipes that you can sort by difficulty level so you can find the recipe that’s perfect for your skill level.
2. You can control the ingredients. Don’t like nuts? Leave them out. Love peanut butter drops in your candy? Toss some in. When you make candy at home, you get to choose the ingredients so you can make candy that you’ll enjoy. Also, making the candy yourself lets you skip some of those more questionable ingredients. Those chemicals you can’t even pronounce can be left out of your candy, making it just a little better for you.
3. It’s fun! Making your own candy can be a fun activity for the whole family. You can work with kids or loved ones to choose ingredients, break up chocolate, fill candy molds and, of course, enjoy the finished product. There aren’t many things better than sharing homemade candy with someone special, so start planning your candy making adventure today.

Have you tried making your own candy before? How did it turn out? Let us know in the comments!

Super Bowl Party Tips

The Super Bowl is approaching quickly, so it’s time to get started planning your party! You’ll need to consider invitations, food, drinks, desserts and decorations so you can throw the Super Bowl party your friends talk about all year long.

Invitations

If you haven’t gotten your invites out yet, it’s definitely time to send them! A digital invitiation will allow you to save some trees while making cute invitations for free. An online invite will also make it super simple for your guests to let you know they’re coming. We love Evite’s football invitations for a cute take on a Super Bowl party invite.

Food

It’s vital to have all of the football party staples for this important game. Chips and dip and wings are pretty much required for a Super Bowl party, so make sure you plan ahead. This year, miniature foods are a big trend for parties, so plan foods that are bite size. Bite-sized pizza, burgers and even pickle chips are sure to delight your guests. Get a little inspiration for bite-sized party food from Buzzfeed’s list.

Drinks

Your selection of drinks will probably vary depending on whose attending your party, but it’s a good idea to have a variety of drinks to suit anyone’s tastes. Tea, juice, soda and beer is a great place to start customizing your Super Bowl drink menu.

Desserts

Even after your guests have eaten all of the wings and bite-sized snacks they want, they’ll still have room for dessert. Dessert is the perfect place to really let your creativity shine, too. Wow your guests with homemade football shaped chocolates using our Football Mold, make helmet shaped cookies using this cookie cutter, create a football helmet cake with this baking form or just integrate the team’s colors into the icings and batters you use to create your desserts.

Decorations

Adding a few fun, football-themed decorations can really pull your party together. Think about adding a couple of decorations with team colors, spreading a little football confetti around your house or hanging up a football banner in your living room.

We hope you have a fantastic Super Bowl party this year! Let us know what fun things you have planned in the comments.