Sweet is ready. Chocolate fudge for cakes: cooking features, recipes and reviews

Cake without decoration - regular pie. After preparing the cakes and cream for the cake, the most difficult stage begins - decorating it. Of course, you can use cream, fruits, candied fruits, nut crumbs for this purpose, but to become a true confectionery professional, you need to know and be able to do much more.

famous cakes – « white locust”, “Leningradsky”, “Esterhazy”, “Prague”, “Sacher” and others culinary masterpieces remembered by all lovers popular dessert, including its glossy sheen that adorns the surface of products. How to make homemade cakes have the same elegant look? Let's deal with the main secrets of making fondant for cakes at home, and find out which secret ingredient makes it shiny and flexible.

Fondant for a cake at home - basic technological principles

As a decoration for cakes, fondant in home conditions the good thing is that it can be prepared for future use and stored in the refrigerator until use, in a sealed container, which significantly reduces the time spent directly in the manufacture of the cake. The second advantage of decorating cakes with fondant is the availability and low cost of ingredients.

Fudge is boiled down sugar syrup, with the addition of molasses or invert syrup, or citric acid, and the addition of fruit components, milk or cream, cocoa and various flavors to these ingredients allows you to diversify the taste of cake decorations, add a “zest” to the recipe.

Fondant is different appearance, consistency and its properties from syrup and icing sugar thanks to in a special way cooking.

To begin with, let us consider in detail the description of the technology for preparing the main fudge sugar for a cake at home to understand with an example basic recipe All important subtleties cooking, and then on the basis of this recipe it is easy to prepare other types of fudge, supplementing them with milk, cocoa, chocolate, nuts or fruits. By the way, even if you are not going to cook a cake in the near future, then fudge - great addition for a sandwich and tea. You can also try to make your favorite sweets from it.

1. Basic fondant for a cake at home

The basic recipe for making fondant requires only three ingredients, not counting the essence that is added for flavoring:

Water 265 ml

Sugar 795 g

Molasses - 120 g; or invert syrup - 135 g; or citric acid - 12 g

Essence 1.8 ml

Cooking technology:

It is this quantity and set of ingredients that will be required to prepare 1 kg of fudge. In the technology of making fudge, 4 main stages can be distinguished:

Making sugar syrup

Sugar is dissolved in water and boiled, removing the foam. When foaming stops, the pan must be covered with a lid so that splashes of syrup settling on the walls of the dish do not form crystals. Condensation forms under the lid, which, flowing down the inner walls of the pan with syrup, prevents the sugar from crystallizing. The syrup is boiled until tender. The temperature of the finished syrup is 108 ° C, the consistency is a stretching thick mass of golden brown color. The time of boiling the syrup until the “thick thread” test is 25-30 minutes, the sugar concentration in it reaches 80-85%.

Adding molasses and boiling until the test "on a weak ball"

Molasses or invert syrup, or a solution of citric acid is heated to 45-50 ° C and injected into the syrup, mixed, the container is again covered with a lid and the heating temperature is increased to 115 ° C, boiled for about half an hour.

Important: it is not recommended to increase or decrease the amount of molasses added, as failure to comply with the norm leads to a deterioration in the quality of the fudge. Insufficient molasses content leads to rapid sugaring; if the norm is exceeded, the finished lipstick does not dry for a long time on products.

Fondant cooling

Actually, you need to prepare for this stage in advance and, since we are talking about making fondant for a cake at home, you need to stock up big amount ice. In production, there are special cooling systems for this.

Fudge from the end of cooking must be quickly cooled to 40 ° C, lowered into a saucepan or basin with ice, and continuously and intensively stir it for even cooling. Slow cooling also starts the crystallization process, which must be avoided.

whipping

The warm mass begins to beat vigorously. There is practically no time interval between cooling and whipping the fondant: you need to pay attention to this. A small mass can be whipped with a spatula, manually.

At first, fondant syrup becomes cloudy, but as it becomes saturated with air and the smallest sugar crystals form, it takes on the appearance characteristic of ready-made fudge. It is immediately transferred to a closed container, covered with water on top, tightly closed with a lid and left for 18-24 hours to ripen. The container is placed in the refrigerator.

To apply the finished lipstick on the cake, it is again heated to 40 ° C in a water bath. At this time, flavors and dyes can be added to the lipstick. To enhance the shine, add to the heated fondant for the cake at home egg white, whipping the mass to uniform consistency. Protein is introduced at the rate of 2% by weight of sugar. The mass of one protein, on average - 30 g; this amount is enough for 200-240 g of finished fudge.

Other types of fondant for decorating the surface of confectionery products have a similar preparation technology.

2. Chocolate fudge cake at home

To make chocolate fudge you will need:

Fudge, basic 200 g

Dark chocolate 250 g

Cognac 30 ml

Cooking method:

The chocolate is crushed and heated in a water bath to 40°C. In the same way, I warm up the sugar fudge prepared according to the main recipe (see description above). Both masses are combined, a tablespoon of cognac or rum is added to them, after which they are beaten until smooth and shiny.

The mass is applied to the surface of the confectionery product with a spatula or a wide spatula. Tools for applying fondant are pre-moistened in alcohol to make the surface even and shiny.

This homemade chocolate fondant cake recipe is perfect for spreading on cakes: bird's milk”, “Slavutich”, “Prague”.

3. Fondant with cocoa for a cake at home with milk

Ingredients:

Milk, whole 0.8 l

Sugar 600 g

Cocoa 35 g

Molasses 200 g

Vanillin, crystal 8 g

Yield 1.0 kg

Cooking:

Technological process similar to making fudge according to the main recipe, but sugar is pre-combined with cocoa powder, and the cooking time increases, since more milk is taken than in the main fudge. Vanillin is added after the fondant syrup has cooled. The amount of cocoa can be increased if a richer flavor is required. chocolate taste sweets.

4. Creamy fondant with cocoa for a milk-based cake at home

Ingredients:

Butter 82.5% (extra) 180 g

Whole milk(or cream 15%) 550 ml

Sugar 630 g

Dried cream (30%) 200 g

Molasses 195 g

Cooking:

Warm milk(25-30 ° C) is combined with dry cream, stirred until dissolved, heated to 90 ° C, sugar is added and boiled over low heat until a test for a thick thread. I add molasses to condensed milk and continue to boil until a consistency thick sour cream. Then they are quickly cooled, whipping the mass on an “ice cushion”. After daily maturation, milk fudge is combined with butter, heated in a water bath to 40 ° C. Beat until smooth. When whipping fondant with butter, add vanillin and apricot or other liquor to taste.

5. Fruit fondant for cake at home

Easy way to cook fruit fudge involves the use of fruit essence and food coloring. More difficult option- fondant based on natural fruit syrup(fruit molasses). The fact is that the presence of acid in fruit juices undesirable at the initial stage of cooking fudge. Therefore, under production conditions, juices for fruit fudge are preliminarily leached, but after boiling, acid is added to avoid the appearance of large crystals sugar, although this method of making fruit fudge is also for industrial production is not profitable.

At home, you can deviate from the standard requirements and add concentrated syrup from fruits and berries containing acid (invert syrup based on natural juices) to the boiled sugar syrup, and use essences, fruit tinctures, food colors to enhance the flavor.

Ingredients:

Syrup, invert

Food coloring and essence

Cooking:

The cooking technology and composition of the ingredients of fruit fudge are similar to the preparation of the main fudge (recipe No. 1), but instead of molasses, invert syrup is used with the addition of food colors and fruit essence.

6. Fondant for a cake at home: a recipe for making molasses

Watermelon "honey"

Ingredients:

watermelon juice, purified - any quantity

Cooking:

Purified watermelon juice is brought to a boil over high heat in enamelware. After the juice must be filtered to remove the foam. Then it is boiled over low heat, until the volume is reduced by 6-7 times. A soft drop test is done. Hot watermelon "honey" is packaged in dry sterile jars.

Fondant cake at home - tricks and tips

It is worth paying attention to molasses, since it is this product that plays a decisive role in cooking. confectionery fudge.

Molasses is a product of hydrolysis (dissolution in water) and fermentation of starch. Of course you can buy it at ready-made or cook it yourself in several ways. Preparing molasses at home is a rather troublesome and lengthy process, but it is an ideal additive for kvass, it can be used to make jam - during the harvesting season. The addition of molasses to ice cream contributes to its deeper freezing, not to mention the fact that the taste of gingerbread and rye bread finalizes this particular product.

Why add molasses to fudge? Molasses prevents the process of reverse crystallization of sugar, helps to obtain more fudge High Quality, plastic and delicate texture. fruit molasses can be cooked from grapes, apples, pears, melons without adding sugar. Molasses can be made from barley malt, honey. All these types of molasses are successfully used in the preparation of confectionery.

less troublesome and available options molasses replacements - invert syrup or citric acid, in the absence of ready-made maltose dextrin. Invert syrup - in short - ordinary sugar syrup, boiled down to a "thick thread" sample with the addition of citric acid.

On the day when the preparation of the cake is planned, you should not waste energy and time on the preparation of molasses, invert syrup and fudge. Moreover, after cooking, the fudge should ripen: it is kept for a day in a closed container, covered with a layer of water.

In fact, fudge is a syrup of granulated sugar, water and lemon juice, which is boiled down to 115 degrees, then quickly cooled and whipped until white with a spatula or mixer. The result is a homogeneous mass white color, consisting of the smallest sugar crystals, which make the texture of sugar fudge supple, soft and uniform.

Making sugar fudge at home is not too difficult. The main thing is to clearly follow all the above recommendations: observe the proportions (the ratio of water and sugar is 1: 3), cook the syrup until desired temperature, add in time lemon juice, cool quickly. In total, you will get approximately 550 g of fudge. This amount is enough to glaze 20 rum broads or decorate 3 large cupcakes. The finished fudge can be stored for 2-3 months in the refrigerator, so there is a reason to cook a large portion at once and spend it as needed.

Total cooking time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 550 g

Ingredients

• sugar - 500 g
• water - 160 ml
• lemon juice - 1 tsp

How to make sugar fudge

Pour into a saucepan or heavy bottomed saucepan granulated sugar, fill cold water and put on the stove, setting medium fire. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the sugar grains are completely dissolved.

Remove the foam and rinse with a brush tiny crystals sugar from the sides of the saucepan.

Simmer for 4 minutes without stirring, then add freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Continue to boil without stirring (!) until the temperature of the syrup reaches 115-117 degrees Celsius. Approximately it can take 2-5 minutes, it all depends on the intensity of the boil, the width of the pan and other factors.

If you don't have a thermometer, do a soft ball test. To test, drop a little syrup into a bowl of ice water and use your fingers to roll it into a ball. If the resulting ball is soft to the touch, then the syrup has reached the required temperature. If it is difficult to roll it up, then continue to cook further.

Now the syrup needs to be cooled as quickly and evenly as possible. To do this, place the saucepan in a deep bowl of cold water and ice. Slightly rock the pan from side to side to mix the syrup evenly. After about 10 minutes, it will cool down to the required 40 degrees (it feels like pleasant warmth to the touch).

Now the syrup needs to be whipped. stir it up silicone spatula about 10 minutes until it turns white and thickens. You can use a mixer with a hook attachment for this purpose, but it’s more convenient to do the procedure manually, so you won’t over-beat the fudge and definitely won’t spoil it.

The finished fudge should be soft, white, not sticky to your hands. It will be thick, but at the same time plastic. Remember it with your hands, collect it into a ball and place it in a container.

Tighten the bowl cling film and leave it in this form for a day somewhere on the table with room temperature- the fondant needs to settle in order to complete the process of micro-crystallization. Then it needs to be kneaded again, cover with a lid and put in the refrigerator for storage.

How to use fondant to cover desserts?

1. Scoop a serving of fondant out of the container (3-4 scoops are usually enough).
2. Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or boiled cold water, stir and heat in a water bath until it melts. But do not overheat higher than 55 degrees! Otherwise, the fondant will crumble and will not be glossy, but matte. Add more water, if necessary, until the fondant reaches the consistency of liquid sour cream and drips off the spoon like a ribbon.
3. Cover hot glaze pastry- work very fast, as it freezes instantly, in just 7-10 seconds! If the fondant froze faster than you had time to apply it, then warm it up again in a water bath. You can warm up the fondant in microwave oven, impulsively, for 5-10 seconds, each time intensively stirring with a spoon.

Appetizing snow-white sugar fudge is often the finishing touch in the preparation of many sweet dishes. Undoubtedly, you can do without it, but a sparkling glossy hat not only makes finished goods finished and refined - it is also very tasty. At proper preparation sugar fondant remains soft and tender, perfectly cut with a knife, while not sticking to hands at all.

A little theory - without it in any way. Fudge (fondant mass) is commonly understood as sugar syrup boiled to a certain temperature. At home, making real sugar fudge is not very difficult - it is important to strictly follow the instructions and recommendations. In fact, everything is quite simple: syrup is boiled from sugar and water, which is then quickly cooled and whipped with a spatula or mixer.

The basic principle of the miraculous transformation of granulated sugar and water into a sugar mass is the formation of very small sugar crystals, which, due to their softness, distinguish the finished fudge with a special texture. And in order to get exactly the smallest crystals that do not increase in size, it is important to add acid (citric or lemon juice) to the boiling sugar syrup. By the way, for making sugar fudge perfect proportion water to sugar is considered 30% liquid.

From the indicated amount of products, approximately 630 grams of finished sugar fudge is obtained. It is quite enough to cover 3 large cakes, 4 large Easter cakes or 20 pieces of rum women. Snow-white fondant can be stored for quite a long time in the refrigerator, so it is advisable to make it in advance and use it as needed.

Ingredients:

Cooking step by step with photos:

Take a saucepan or saucepan with a thick bottom. Pour all the granulated sugar into the dishes and pour water (you can cold, you can hot - it doesn’t matter).

When the sugar syrup boils, remove the foam. Then, with a wet cooking brush, wash off the remaining sugar from the walls - this is very milestone, since even a few crystals can cause the sugar fudge to crystallize. We close the dishes with a lid and cook the syrup on a fairly strong, but not maximum heat for about 3-4 minutes (do not interfere!). Then add lemon juice or diluted citric acid to it. I won’t tell you how much to cook the syrup further - it depends on the volume of the dishes and on the intensity of heating. But here it is important to simply navigate visually. At first, the syrup will boil strongly and actively - outwardly it looks like boiling plain water. Then you will notice how it began to thicken and the bubbles became smaller. It's time to check the readiness of sugar syrup. Who has a culinary thermometer, it's easier - boil the syrup to 112-114 degrees. As practice shows, my thermometer gives out 113.5 degrees when the syrup is boiled into a soft ball.

A test for a soft ball: scoop up quite a bit of boiling syrup with a teaspoon and drip into a bowl of ice water (I put it in the freezer at the very beginning of cooking). If the drop immediately dissolves, the syrup is not yet ready. I grabbed it a little, but you still can’t pick it up - we cook the syrup further, but already on the alert.

But when a drop of chilled syrup can be taken in your fingers and rolled into a ball that keeps its shape perfectly, but is soft and elastic, the sugar syrup is boiled down to desired consistency. I usually have the syrup ready for the third test.

Immediately remove the pan with boiling syrup from the heat and quickly cool it. This is very important - so we stop it further heat treatment, otherwise you can digest the syrup and get caramel. In order to quickly cool the syrup, you need to place the saucepan in a larger container (bowl or sink) with ice water and mix the syrup with a spatula.

It is recommended to cool the sugar syrup to 40 degrees (if there is no thermometer, just try with your finger - you will feel a pleasant warmth). Properly prepared and already cooled to the right temperature, sugar syrup should be thick, shiny and silky. From the shoulder it flows like jelly.

Now the last jerk - you need to beat the sugar syrup. You can do this with a spatula or a mixer. With a spatula, of course, it is longer and harder, but with the help of a mixer, you can easily beat the fondant. Here it is even more difficult to say the whipping time - how much strength and patience you have to do it with a spatula, but it is advisable not to stop and finish what you started. Scared? No, not very long - 10-12 minutes you will have to work hard with a spatula, but this is offhand. Mixer - literally a minute. But in this case, even in a couple of extra seconds, you can spoil all the work done. Therefore, do not be lazy and work with a spatula - actively stir the syrup without missing a single untouched piece. No need to beat directly, but just stir the syrup vigorously. You will see how the almost transparent contents of the saucepan begin to thicken. Then it will become whiter and whiter, and drain from the shoulder blade with a wide ribbon. We stop at this - sugar fudge is completely ready. Let her cool down.

In just a couple of minutes, it will turn into such a snow-white plastic mass. You can easily make something out of it. If desired, you can immediately cover with such fondant homemade cakes, but for better crystallization, sugar fudge is recommended to stand for at least a day. That is why it is most convenient to prepare it in advance, store it in the refrigerator and use it as needed.

How to store the finished sugar fudge. Then I just took it out of the saucepan with my hands and gathered it into a ball - it is so smooth, pleasant to the touch and not at all sticky. Transfer to a suitable bowl.

It is advisable to tighten the surface of the sugar fudge with cling film and only then tightly close the lid. That's it, put the fudge in the refrigerator, where it can be stored for quite a long time - a month for sure. Well, on the other hand, what can happen to her if there is no perishable products?

Everyone knows that dessert is not only sweet and tasty, but also very beautiful, appetizing and aesthetically pleasing. You should not invent something supernatural, just make chocolate or cocoa fudge. It is suitable for decorating cakes, muffins and buns, donuts, cakes and rolls, eclairs. As for the variety of sweets, there are 3 of them: they can have a very soft dough, there is a form of glaze and a rather viscous mass. The purpose of fondant is to transform regular dessert into a culinary creation, a masterpiece, to make a “candy” out of it. Despite the many recipes, use proven and better ways cooking.

chocolate fondant, cooked at home, it turns out tender, sweet and tasty. If you still don't know how to make fondant for a cake and for buns, cakes, muffins, a simple and simple recipe preparations from cocoa powder. As for the chocolate fondant for the cake, it should have the perfect consistency.

The right recipe for chocolate fondant will help to significantly transform any cake, make its surface attractive, smooth and glossy. Chocolate fondant has a rich, bright color And pleasant aroma. It is important to note that this icing is great not only for cakes, but also for buns, muffins.

The main ingredient in this recipe is cocoa powder, the quality of which directly affects the final result, namely, color, aroma, taste and texture. It is desirable to use a high-quality, dark powder, which does not contain flavor enhancers, a variety of herbal supplements.

Ingredients:

• butter- 100g;
• cocoa powder - 5-6 tablespoons;
• milk - 150 milliliters;
• white/ Brown sugar- 10 tablespoons.

Cooking algorithm:

1. Mix cocoa with the right amount Sahara. Rub them thoroughly with a regular spoon, it is important that they connect. Make sure there are no lumps of cocoa powder.
2. Melt the butter over low heat, then add to the sugar mixture and pour in the milk. Stir thoroughly, send to the stove and boil. Remember to stir constantly, as the chocolate fudge can burn easily.
3. When the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a minimum, boil and stir. When the cream gets more thick consistency, it must be removed from the stove and cooled.
4. Before applying the fondant to the confectionery, cool it to a temperature of 38 degrees.

If you make chocolate fondant according to the proposed recipe, it will turn out shiny, smooth and without white bloom. This can be achieved if you used fatty butter, namely at least 82-83%.

white fudge

Many are interested in the question of how to make chocolate fudge from white chocolate? The answer will surprise you, as the cooking process is extremely accessible and easy.

Ingredients:

• brown sugar - 100 grams;
• butter 82% - 65 grams;
• white chocolate - 140 grams;
• starch - 20 grams;
• egg yolks - 2 pcs.;
• cream - 75 milliliters;
• lemon zest - from 1 lemon;
• liquor - 20 milliliters;
• vanillin - 1 sachet.

Cooking technology:

1. Making white chocolate fudge is very easy. First you need to break the white chocolate, send it from a deep bowl.
2. Mix cream with lemon zest, then add any liquor. This will help reinforce taste qualities glaze.
3. Place chicken yolks in a container, add brown sugar and vanilla. Do not beat with a blender / mixer, just use a wooden spatula and grind the ingredients. Make sure to learn a homogeneous structure.
4. After that, the cream with zest should be sent to the stove and slightly heated, not boiling. After that, the yolks are added to the cream, everything is mixed. This is done quite intensively, it is important to avoid the formation of lumps.
5. Carefully introduce starch (corn, potato) into the resulting mixture. Keep on the stove until the mixture becomes thick. After waiting for this moment, you should add the butter and stir with a spoon. Thanks to the manipulations done, the finished white chocolate fudge will be smooth, shiny and uniform.
6. The resulting mixture is poured into pieces of white chocolate, thoroughly whipped with a whisk. The fondant is ready, you can safely decorate buns, cakes, muffins and cakes.

Dark Chocolate Fudge East West

For cooking, you need to prepare necessary products that are listed in the recipe.

Ingredients:

• water - ¾ cup;
• dark chocolate - 60 grams;
• sugar - 9 tablespoons;
• citric acid solution - 12 drops.

Action algorithm:

1. To make chocolate fondant, you need to pour sugar into a small saucepan, pour hot water and mix thoroughly. All crystals must be dissolved. Wipe the edges of the pan with a damp cloth to remove any sugar that may have stuck.
2. A container with syrup is sent to the stove, the strongest fire is needed. Bring to a boil, remove the foam formed on the surface. Cover the pan with a lid, cook until a hard ball forms.
3. How to determine whether the syrup is ready or not? To do this, it is enough to do the following: a drop of syrup must be poured into ice water, the syrup is ready if a solid ball is formed.
4. Two minutes before the end of cooking, add a solution based on citric acid. When the syrup is ready, sprinkle it with water, place the pan in cold water to cool in minutes.
5. After that, it is beaten with a wooden spatula for ten to twenty minutes, until a white mass is obtained. After that, you need to add grated dark chocolate, heat the mixture to 55 degrees.
6. The finished fudge is placed on a baking sheet, it should look like a layer, its thickness is about two centimeters. The surface can be leveled with a spatula, cool. Before serving with tea, cut into pieces, you can sprinkle powdered sugar And coconut flakes. You can add nuts to the chocolate mixture if you like.