How to make cotton from caramel. Caramel decorations

Not sure how best to decorate a homemade cake? Look here, caramel is one of the best decorations.

Caramel is a thick sugar syrup. For professional caramel preparation, auxiliary tools are needed, a cold table on which caramel will be poured. And plates showing the heating temperature, since there are different types of caramel and the degree of heating is different.

But we will cook caramel at home. Those who cooked burnt sugar or caramel figurines in the form of cockerels, bunnies, etc. in childhood will easily understand the cooking process. Prepare caramel for decorating cakes and pastries.

Ingredients for 1.
Portion.

Sugar 6 tbsp. spoons.
Water 2 tbsp. Spoons.
Vinegar essence 3 ml.
Citric acid 2 g.

Time for preparing:
30 minutes.

Take thick-walled dishes. Take sugar and water at the rate of 3 parts sugar to 1 part water. Pour sugar over water. Put on fire and heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves.
Then boil the syrup for 10 minutes until tender over low heat. Caramel will begin to turn golden from the edges of the dish, so stir, make sure that the caramel does not burn.
Add vinegar essence, stir, then citric acid or fruit essence. This is so that the caramel does not sugar when cooled, and to add flavor.
To stop heating the caramel, you need to lower the dishes into cold water, but carefully so as not to burn yourself with steam. And immediately start drawing with caramel.
In the event that you drop the finished caramel on a spoon, it will harden without spreading.

Caramel decoration for the sides of the cake. Measure the height of the cake and cut out strips of parchment paper, grease with butter so that the caramel can be easily separated. Take a tablespoon of caramel and draw an arbitrary lattice. Until the caramel has hardened, you can adjust it with the edge of a knife.
Then take it off before it is completely set and stick it to the cream on the cake. This should be done when the cake is already on the finished dish.
Caramel basket. A basket can be made on any object, rounded in shape: on a ladle, on a grapefruit or an orange. Lubricate the ladle with oil, pick up the caramel with a tablespoon and, holding it over the dishes, apply a lattice pattern. First thick lines, then thin ones.
When the caramel cools and hardens. Just grab the basket and turn it with the palm of your hand, it will detach from the scoop.
A caramel basket is suitable for serving dessert in it or it can be covered with a basket, like a dome, for example, in the middle of the cake.
Only if you make the middle of the basket a solid bottom and draw rays from it, then in such a basket you can serve ice cream balls or another non-loose dessert.

Drawn caramel figures. Draw shapes on parchment paper, such as curls, flowers, hearts. And on the reverse side, along the translucent contour, draw with caramel. Such figures can be displayed in cream on cakes or decorate cakes. There is already a huge scope for your imagination.

Mesh - cobweb made of caramel. On parchment paper, randomly draw strokes with caramel.
When cool, carefully break into pieces.
Decorate the top or sides of the cake with them.
Caramel leaves. Draw large drops with caramel, shape the leaves with a knife, pressing down the sides of the drop until the caramel is soft, apply a vein pattern.
Then, with your hands, stretch and rotate the leaf so that it is not flat. Leaves can be used to decorate a cake, or you can make a caramel stalk and attach leaves to it. From thickened, but not frozen caramel, you can pull out any figures.

Tips.

- At the moment when you cook caramel, nothing should distract you.
- Prepare all additional tools, parchment paper with drawings in advance, as the caramel quickly hardens and thickens.
- Do not overexpose the caramel on fire, otherwise you can burn it and the taste will be bitter.
- If you did not have time to draw, and the caramel has thickened, just heat it over low heat, it will melt.
- To wash dishes from caramel, you need to pour water into the dishes and heat it. The caramel will dissolve on its own and you won't have to peel it off the dishes. Or just fill a bowl with water and leave overnight, the caramel will dissolve by itself. Author of the recipe and photo: Vera.

Laces, spirals, monograms, whole bouquets of transparent colored caramel look very professional. However, in order to create such masterpieces at home, it is not at all necessary to be a confectioner. Caramel is easy to cook on your own, and then form any decorations from it, from drops and cobwebs to spectacular bouquets.

The advantages of caramel decor are many. It looks beautiful in photos and videos, gives any product a professional and stylish look. After hardening, caramel decorations are very difficult to spoil. Unlike chocolate, cream or jelly, they do not spread, melt, or change color. The natural shade of caramel is all shades of gold and honey. With the help of dyes, the mass can be tinted, a pleasant aroma will be given by essences that are added drop by drop after cooking.

Caramel jewelry keeps well. They can be made in advance, placed in boxes and put away in a cool, dry place. The only drawback of the material is fragility. Beginners should not make complex monograms, flowers and three-dimensional designs. It is better to limit yourself to cobwebs, openwork hemispheres, drops, leaves and spirals. It looks unusual and stylish, and is made quite easily. Professionals advise making jewelry with a margin, in case of breakage, the affected element can be quickly replaced.

Caramel decor is ideal for cakes covered with fondant, cream (butter, protein, custard), chocolate or sugar icing. Caramel is not combined with nut sprinkles, grated chocolate or streusel, in which case you should choose a different decor. Losing weight should take into account that sugar decorations are quite high in calories.

How and why confectioners use caramel

The history of the viscous sweet mass of sugar began presumably in India a couple of millennia ago. Then, as a delicacy, people belonging to the untouchable caste fried chopped sugar cane on fire, getting a kind of caramel. However, in the form in which sweetness is known today, it did not appear until the 16th century. And the first product made from caramel was a regular lollipop.

Now there are several types of caramel:

• hard,
• soft,
• candy,
• with various additives.

There are, of course, others, but they are already a mixture of those presented or their varieties.

Any caramel can be used to make cakes and decorate them, but each of them will have its own “function”. So, cakes are usually layered with soft, and exquisite decorations are made from candy.

Recipe for making caramel

The simplest caramel is made from water and sugar. Do it like this:

1. Take 4 parts of sugar for 1 part of water.
2. Water is poured into a stainless steel pan, sugar is poured into the same place.
3. Stirring continuously, bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.

Sometimes vinegar or lemon juice is added to the water and sugar to prevent the sugar from crystallizing and the sweetness from hardening prematurely.

Ready caramel begins to darken, but it should not be allowed to become completely brown. Now it must be immediately poured into glass or ceramic dishes - and caramel can be used to decorate cakes.

How to make caramel figurines

If you decide to decorate the cake with caramel, then you can not only pour the top layer with it, but make unusual decorations. To do this, you need to act quickly, while the sweet mass has not had time to cool.

If you dip a wooden stick into caramel, then a thin “thread” will follow it, which will be the main material for decorations.

With this thread, you can write on the cake or twist it into intricate caramel figures. Separately, butterflies, flowers, cobwebs, notes and treble clefs are “drawn” on a silicone mat, and then the frozen “sculpture” is placed vertically in the cake.

The most common decoration made from melted sugar is a spiral. It can be round or oblong. A flat round one can be made on the same silicone mat, and if it is necessary that it be in the form of a hemisphere, then the caramel “thread” is wound onto a ladle. An oblong spiral is obtained by removing the frozen decoration from the round handle of the whisk or ladle.

But if you make multi-colored caramel from isomalt and dyes, then you can sculpt a variety of figures. It is done like this:

1. Isomalt is melted without water in a saucepan.
2. Add dye to it.
3. Pour onto a silicone mat and cool slightly.
4. The mass is kneaded with hands, stretching it.
5. Figures are quickly molded until the material has hardened.

In order to have the material of the desired consistency at hand all the time, it is divided into two parts, they work with one, and at the same time keep the other under a lamp so that it does not cool down, and then they are changed.

Caramel is not the most capricious material. With him, having adapted, even a novice pastry chef can handle it. And it gives a huge scope for imagination.

Have you tried making your own caramel? Tell us what you got in the comments.

Sugar caramel. How to make caramel:

• We fill a deep plate with cold water and put molds next to it - everything should be at hand.
• We put the pan on medium heat, pour sugar into it and heat it to a liquid state. Do not stir the substance until most of the sugar has dissolved.
• When the sugar has completely melted, switch the toggle switch to the lowest heat and dip a spoon or mold into the solution. As soon as it is full, move it for 10 seconds into a plate of water, then put it on a damp towel and take on the next form.
• Fill a saucepan with water to scrape off any leftover caramel and remove the finished treats from the molds. Making your own caramel from sugar turned out to be easy, right?

And now - little tricks that will help make your sweet treat even more attractive and tasty.

Cunning 1.
To prevent sugar from rolling in pieces, add a drop of vinegar or lemon juice to the pan during heating, then the caramel will turn out homogeneous.

Cunning 2.
To get a transparent and voluminous caramel, pour 4-5 tablespoons of hot water into the dissolved sugar. In the process of languishing, a ball will swell from this water, after which you need to catch it and just wait until it cools down.

Cunning 3.
To give the caramel a piquant taste, after removing it from the heat, drop cognac or any citrus juice into it; if you add herbs, you get homemade cough drops.

Are you wondering how to make sugar caramel to make lollipops? This is also quite simple - you will need wooden sticks, for example, from ice cream, or, in extreme cases, toothpicks (for mini caramels). When the pan is on low heat, simply wind the thick mass around these sticks and wait for the excess to drain.

So we learned how to make caramel from sugar, spending a minimum of time and improvised means. Now you can please both your little guests and your friends with a delicious dessert - who said adults don't like lollipops? In the future, after a good workout, you will be able to cook cockerels and other complex figures at home.

1. Caramel decorations

Caramel is sugar syrup heated over a high heat. The accuracy of caramel preparation is very important, the difference between a thin and sweet taste and a few seconds burnt. It is advisable to start cooking caramel on high heat and after a minute reduce to low heat, stirring occasionally. It is important to prepare in advance all auxiliary tools. Since the caramel cools quickly, you need to have time to turn it into the desired shapes. If the caramel has had time to harden, you can gently warm it up and it will return to the desired state.
Very important: Since caramel can reach a temperature of about 160C, you need to work in such a way as not to cause burns to yourself or others.

Caramel. Basic recipe.

Ingredients:

½ st. (100 g) sugar
2 tbsp. l. water (the amount of water should just barely cover the sugar)

It is advisable to use a saucepan with a thick bottom, which provides uniform and not sudden heating. As mentioned above, start heating for a minute on high heat, then reduce to less than medium. Until the boiling point, you need to stir the sugar completely. After that, there is no need to interfere. It will take 7-10 minutes for a golden mass to form around the edges of the pan, which gradually fills the entire pan. You can rock the pan from side to side to improve the process. When the golden mass covers the entire pan and all the sugar is dissolved, then the caramel is ready. We wait until all the bubbles disperse (we shake the pan) and the caramel becomes transparent.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and lower (carefully) into a large saucepan filled with cold water to stop the caramel from heating up. Sometimes it is advised to take a brush, dip it in cold water and draw it from the inside along the edges of the pan during cooking (do it very carefully). We prepare decorations, thought out in advance, so that the caramel does not have time to harden.
The taste depends on the color of the caramel. When it is light, the taste is simply sweet, the darker the caramel, the more interesting and subtle the taste.

Problems that may arise during the cooking process:

If the crystallization of sugar begins and it gradually turns into a solid mass, you will have to redo it first or warm it up more easily (the main thing is not to burn it).

In order to tear off the hardened mass from the pan, you will have to pour boiling water over it all and scrape it with a rubber whisk or something else without damaging the coating of the pan.

Strawberries in caramel

Lubricate the surface with oil, where the strawberries in caramel will be laid out. String strawberries on a wooden toothpick or skewer. Gently dip into caramel and spread on the prepared surface.

Caramel basket

Turn the silicone mold upside down. If there is no suitable one, you can use a similarly shaped plate covered with aluminum (foil) or just an iron plate of the desired shape and oiled (some people use the ladle upside down). We collect caramel in a spoon and first make a thick strip of caramel at the base of the mold or plate. Then we make longitudinal, and then transverse stripes, trying to reach the picture - the prison bars. We are waiting for the caramel to cool down a little, but remove it, while still warm. Carefully release the basket from the foil or silicone.

The amount of caramel obtained from the main recipe should be enough for 8 molds.

caramel ball

This will require a device in the form of two skewers (skewers) at a distance of 20 cm from each other, fixed motionless. Take a fork and sprinkle caramel over the skewers. We collect the resulting threads from skewers into one ball.

Caramel decorations at home. Secrets of caramel for decorations

Standard caramel from water, sugar and citric acid, used to make well-known lollipops, is not suitable for making elegant decorations; in extreme cases, it can be used to make a decorative mesh formed from thin streams of foil squeezed onto a sheet and chilled caramel mass. Or a cast stand-base for other decorations. You can’t make a caramel flower from such a mixture; it is only suitable for casting.

To make the caramel mass suitable for modeling, it is made more plastic by adding molasses during the manufacture. It's hard to find molasses at retail, so if you want to make caramel flowers at home, try replacing it with maple syrup or fresh, uncandied honey (it should pour off a spoon). As a last resort, use artificial honey as a plasticizer.

Cooking method:

First way

1. Pour 3/4 cup water into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Add sugar, vinegar essence and mix well.
3. Bring the prepared solution to a boil again, and cook until a caramel sample is taken (taking a few chilled drops of caramel that should not stick to the teeth or bend).
4. Pour the caramel into a chilled dish greased with vegetable oil.

1. Add sugar, stir and bring to a boil again.
2. Add molasses to the resulting solution and bring to a boil.
3. Strain the resulting mass through a sieve and boil until caramelized.
4. Cool the mass slightly and add vinegar essence, coloring and flavoring, mix well.
5. Ready caramel can be bent or stretched with a wide knife, oiled.

Tip: so that the caramel does not freeze ahead of time, boil it in small portions in a small bowl.

One of the most striking ways to decorate a cake is with chopped caramel, laid out on a cream of whipped cream or yogurt. To make chipped caramel, butter a frying pan or large sheet of parchment paper. Then spread the caramel over its surface so that you get a layer about 3 mm thick. Leave the caramel to harden. When it hardens, separate it from the paper or pan and begin to carefully break off small pieces from it.

Also, caramel goes well with fruits, giving them a pleasant sweet and sour taste. Make caramel and decorate the cake with kiwi slices, mandarin slices, strawberries and cherries. We are sure your guests will be delighted.

In addition, spirals can be made from the remains of caramel, which are suitable for decorating cakes. To do this, grease the sticks with oil and roll the caramel in the form of bundles. Wrap the resulting bundles on sticks or a rolling pin, and leave until the caramel hardens. When the caramel has hardened, carefully remove the spirals and decorate your dessert with them.

Various abstract patterns can be made from caramel: scoop slightly cooled caramel with a knife or fork and pull it onto parchment paper. Caramel can be twisted, change its direction, giving it any shape.

Another interesting option is an amber scattering of caramel. To create it, add citric acid instead of vinegar essence while making caramel. Next, arm yourself with a silicone baking brush and parchment paper. Dip the brush into the hot caramel and scatter drops over the baked goods.

You can make a whole dome out of caramel. Cut the grapefruit in half, brush the peel with oil. Also grease the parchment paper with oil, roll it into a bag, fill it with caramel, make a small incision on the tip of the bag. Squeeze the caramel onto the grapefruit halves so that you get a fine mesh. Once the caramel has set, carefully remove the mesh from the grapefruit. Ready!

Video DECORATIONS FROM CARAMEL for desserts.