Making things easier

The other day I mentioned heading out to grab some tools to learn how to make sugar flowers. I'm still busy practising.

 In doing so, a few things have been highlighted.

The right tools for the job.

I don't always give this little snippet the attention it deserves. I'm a "make do" kinda girl. Often having trouble parting with my money if I can think of a cheaper way to get around it. But the other day, I discovered how important having the right tool can really be. Not just for completing the task. It goes further than that. Having the right tool can make the job so much more fun, less time consuming and give you a better result. I'll share my recent example (I will apologise in advance...it's cupcake related..lol)

When it comes to rolling out fondant I've always just used my regular wooden rolling pin. Sounds pretty logical to me! That was until I bought a small plastic fondant rolling pin. How on earth can these 2 things offer such different results? I've discovered the new rolling pin can roll the fondant thinner, faster and used little to no cornflour to prevent sticking, making my fondant looking so much better, and the final product on the cake amazing. I don't like cakes with thick layers of fondant. If you can make it thinner, you don't overcome the flavour of the cake.

Since this has made using fondant so much easier, I've found I've been more inclined to use it. My family are now "Icing Snobs". If my cakes aren't iced, they won't touch them. They're the same with muffins, if they've lost the "out of the oven warmth" they don't eat them. Spoilt! The idea of using the fondant isn't filled with the dread of being a hard task, it's quick, easy and looks great.

The second thing I've realised is

Make things easy to access

I have alot of baking bits and pieces which I keep in plastic containers - almost organised! But I had them in the back corner of the pantry, making it an effort to get to them with out dropping bit and pieces off the shelf. I've committed to using these more often, so I've bought even more containers to sort things even more, and rearranged the pantry so I can quickly grab the right container without creating a new mess.

You don't need to spend alot of money on containers if you look after them. The big containers were $3 from Cheap as Chips and the smaller ones were $2. I've got mine seperated into the following.

Liners and Sprinkles

Cutters and Fondant Tools

Icing Tips, Colours, Ingredients

Flower forming Pieces.

The pink box at the bottom is my daughter's. She has a small collection of her own personal cupcake decorating bits and pieces. Cupcake decorating has become a bit of a Mummy/Daughter activity for us. I'll talk more about that box soon.