Sweets and Treats Workshop

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, our February "Sweets and Treats Workshop" turned out to be the perfect preparation for the big holiday! We began the morning making individual pavlovas to take home. Each sister formed their dough into hearts and circles and then sent their creation off to be baked.

We were then inspired by Roz Hawk's devotional, during which she encouraged us strive for a "broken heart and a contrite spirit" during this season of love.

Afterward, we divided into groups and met with our workshop instructors, Julia Blake, Shannon Blackerby and Mischell Shapiro.

Julia Blake taught us how to make candy, focusing her demonstration on sugar candy. She taught us to always heat on low until the sugar is completely dissolved, stir constantly and brush the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to wash all the sugar crystals into the solution, to make sure the sugar is dissolved by rubbing some between your finger and thumb and to never boil until all the sugar is dissolved. It is also a good idea to transfer the candy mixture to a clean pan before boiling and to not scrape the pan when done cooking, just in case there is a stray sugar crystal. The caramels that she demonstrated turned out fabulous!

In Shannon Blakerby's workshop, we had the opportunity to dip homemade biscoti, macaroons, strawberries and shortbread in chocolate. She taught us to temper the chocolate, how to pipe chocolate and the correct methods for dipping. We all left with great ideas on how and what to dip, as well as a beautiful plate of dipped sweets to enjoy!

Mischell Shapiro brought her frosting tips and bags and taught us how to make decorative frosting and then how to turn that frosting into beautiful stars, flowers, swirls and twirls. Her take away advice in cake decorating was, "Words to remember when cake decorating are icing consistency, pressure applied, and angle. Get well practiced at these 3 things and you'll be awesome. They are simple skills that everyone continues to improve at." With dozens of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, we each had the opportunity to try these skills and decorate several treats to take home.

We ended our morning with a lunch of appetizers brought by several sisters, salads, breads and punch. For one last sweet, we were able to try a pavlova that Roz Hawk made, demonstrating how to serve our individual pavlova's that were ready to take home. The morning turned out to be educational, inspirational, nourishing and completely full of fun!