Caramel web. Croquembouche with caramel threads. Caramel tube

Don't know how best to decorate a homemade cake? Check it out, caramel is one of the best decorations.

Caramel is a thick syrup made from sugar. To prepare caramel professionally, you need auxiliary tools and a cold table onto which the 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 prepare caramel at home. Anyone who made burnt sugar or caramel figurines in the form of cockerels, bunnies, etc. as a child will easily understand the cooking process. Let's prepare caramel for decorating cakes and pastries.

Ingredients for 1.
Portion.

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

Cooking time:
30 min.

Take thick-walled dishes. Use sugar and water at the rate of 3 parts sugar to 1 part water. Pour water over sugar. Place on the fire and heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves.
Then cook the syrup for 10 minutes until tender over low heat. The caramel will begin to turn golden from the edges of the pan, so stir and be careful not to burn the caramel.
Add vinegar essence, stir, then citric acid or fruit essence. This is to prevent the caramel from becoming sugary when cooling, and to add flavor.
To stop heating the caramel, you need to immerse the dish in cold water, but carefully so as not to get burned by the steam. And immediately start drawing with caramel.
If you drop the finished caramel onto 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 is easy to separate. Scoop a tablespoon of caramel and draw a random lattice pattern. Until the caramel hardens too much, you can straighten it with the edge of a knife.
Then remove it before it completely sets and stick it to the cream on the cake. This should be done when the cake is already on the finished dish.
Caramel basket. The basket can be made on any rounded object: on a scoop, on a grapefruit or an orange. Grease a ladle with oil, scoop a tablespoon of caramel and, holding it over the dish, apply a lattice pattern. First thick lines, then thin ones.
When the caramel has cooled and hardened. Just grab the basket and turn it with your palm, it will detach from the scoop.
A caramel basket is suitable for serving dessert in it, or the basket can be covered 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 you can serve ice cream balls or other non-free-flowing dessert in such a basket.

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

The mesh is a cobweb made of caramel. Draw random strokes of caramel on the parchment paper.
When cool, carefully break into pieces.
Decorate the top or sides of the cake with them.
Caramel leaves. Draw large drops with caramel, use a knife to form leaves, pressing down the sides of the drop, while the caramel is soft, apply a pattern of veins.
Then use your hands to stretch and turn the leaf so that it is not flat. You can use the leaves to decorate the cake or make a candy stem and attach the leaves to it. You can pull out any shapes from thickened but not frozen caramel.

Adviсe.

- When you prepare caramel, nothing should distract you.
- Prepare all additional tools and parchment paper with drawings in advance, as the caramel quickly hardens and thickens.
- Do not overheat the caramel, otherwise you may burn it and the taste will be bitter.
- If you didn’t 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 up. The caramel will dissolve on its own and you won’t have to remove it from the dishes. Or just fill a bowl with water and leave it overnight, the caramel will dissolve on its own. Author of the recipe and photo: Vera.

Lace, spirals, monograms, whole bouquets of transparent colored caramel look very professional. However, in order to create such masterpieces at home, you don’t have to be a pastry chef. It’s easy to cook caramel yourself, and then form it into any decorations, from drops and cobwebs to spectacular bouquets.

Caramel decor has many advantages. It looks beautiful in photos and videos and gives any product a professional and stylish look. Once hardened, 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. Using dyes, the mass can be tinted; a pleasant aroma will be given by essences, which are added drop by drop after cooking.

Caramel decorations store well. They can be made in advance, placed in boxes and stored 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. They look unusual and stylish, and are quite easy to make. Professionals advise making jewelry with a reserve; in case of breakage, the damaged element can be quickly replaced.

Caramel decor is ideal for cakes covered with mastic, cream (butter, protein, custard), chocolate or sugar icing. Caramel does not go well with nut topping, grated chocolate or streusel; in this case, you should choose a different decor. Those 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 made from sugar supposedly began in India a couple of thousand years ago. Then, as a delicacy, people belonging to the untouchable caste fried chopped sugar cane over a fire, obtaining a kind of caramel. However, in the form in which the sweet 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.

You can use any caramel to make cakes and decorate them, but each of them will have its own “function”. So, soft cakes are usually sandwiched between layers, and candy cakes are used to make exquisite decorations.

Recipe for making caramel

The simplest caramel is made from water and sugar. They do this as follows:

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

Sometimes vinegar or lemon juice is added to water and sugar to avoid sugar crystallization and premature hardening of the sweetness.

The finished caramel begins to darken, but you should not allow it to become completely brown. Now you need to immediately pour it into a glass or ceramic bowl - and you can use the caramel to decorate cakes.

How to make figures from caramel

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

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

You can use this thread to write on the cake or twist it into intricate caramel shapes. 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 you want it to be in the shape 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 a whisk or ladle.

But if you make multi-colored caramel from isomalt and dyes, then you can sculpt a variety of figures. This 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 your hands, stretching it.
5. Figures are quickly sculpted before the material hardens.

So that the material of the required consistency is at hand at all times, it is divided into two parts, one is worked with, and the other is kept under the lamp at this time so that it does not cool down, and then they are changed.

Caramel is not the most capricious material. Even a novice pastry chef can handle it, once he gets used to it. And it gives simply enormous scope for imagination.

Have you tried making caramel yourself? Tell us what you did in the comments.

Sugar caramel. Method for making caramel:

• Fill a deep plate with cold water and place the molds next to it - everything should be at hand.
• Place the pan over medium heat, add sugar and heat it until liquid. Do not stir the substance until most of the sugar has dissolved.
• When the sugar has completely melted, switch the switch to the lowest heat and lower a spoon or mold into the solution. As soon as it is full, place it in a plate of water for 10 seconds, then place it on a damp towel and move on to the next form.
• Fill the pan with water to scrape up any remaining caramel and remove the finished treats from the molds. Making your own caramel from sugar turned out to be easy, didn’t it?

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

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

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

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

Are you wondering how to make caramel from sugar to make lollipops? This is also quite simple - you will need wooden sticks, for example, from ice cream, or, as a last resort, toothpicks (for mini caramels). When the pan is on low heat, simply wrap the thick mixture around these sticks and wait for the excess to drip off.

So we learned how to make caramel from sugar, spending a minimum of time and available materials. 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 good practice, you will be able to cook cockerels and other complex figures at home.

1. Caramel decorations

Caramel is sugar syrup heated over high heat. The precision of caramel preparation is very important, the difference between a subtle and sweet taste and one that burns in a few seconds. It is advisable to start cooking the caramel on high heat and after a minute reduce the heat to low heat, stirring occasionally. It is important to prepare all auxiliary tools in advance. Since the caramel cools quickly, you need to have time to turn it into the desired shapes. If the caramel has already hardened, you can gently heat 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 tbsp. (100 g) sugar
2 tbsp. l. water (the amount of water should slightly cover the sugar)

It is advisable to use a pan with a thick bottom, which ensures even and not sharp heating. As mentioned above, start heating on high heat for a minute, then reduce to less than medium. Before boiling, you need to stir the sugar completely. After this there is no need to interfere. It will take 7-10 minutes for a golden mass to begin to form along 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 has dissolved, the caramel is ready. We wait until all the bubbles disperse (we shake the pan) and the caramel becomes transparent.

Remove the pan from the heat and lower (carefully) into a large saucepan filled with cold water to stop the caramel heating. Sometimes it is advised to take a brush, dip it in cold water and run it from the inside along the edges of the pan during cooking (do it very carefully). We prepare the 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 crystallization of sugar begins and it gradually turns into a solid mass, you will have to redo it first or warm it up easier (the main thing is not to burn it).

To remove 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

Grease the surface where the caramelized strawberries will be placed. Thread the strawberries onto a wooden toothpick or skewer. Carefully dip into the caramel and place on the prepared surface.

Caramel basket

Turn the silicone mold upside down. If you don’t have a suitable one, you can use a plate of a similar shape, covered with aluminum (foil) or just an iron plate of the desired shape and oiled (some people use a ladle upside down). We scoop the caramel into 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 achieve the picture - prison bars. We wait for the caramel to cool down a little, but remove it while still warm. Carefully remove the foil or silicone from the basket.

The amount of caramel obtained from the basic recipe should be enough for 8 ramekins.

Caramel ball

To do this, you will need a device in the form of two skewers (skewers) at a distance of 20 cm from each other, fixed motionless. Take a fork and drizzle caramel over the skewers. We collect the resulting threads from the 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 cooled caramel mass. Or a cast base for other decorations. You cannot 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 production. It is quite difficult to purchase molasses in retail stores, so if you want to make caramel flowers at home, try replacing it with maple syrup or fresh, uncandied honey (it should flow from 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 it to a boil.
2. Add sugar, vinegar essence and mix well.
3. Bring the finished solution to a boil again and cook until taking a caramel sample (taking a few cooled drops of caramel, which should not stick to the teeth or bend).
4. Pour the caramel into a chilled bowl 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 it tastes like caramel.
4. Cool the mixture slightly and add vinegar essence, coloring and flavoring, mix well.
5. The finished caramel can be bent or stretched using a wide knife greased with butter.

Tip: to prevent the caramel from hardening ahead of time, cook it in small portions in a small bowl.

One of the most colorful ways to decorate a cake is with crushed caramel placed on top of whipped cream or yogurt. To make the crushed caramel, grease a pan or large sheet of parchment paper. Then spread the caramel over its surface to form 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.

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

In addition, you can make spirals from the leftover caramel, which are suitable for decorating cakes. To do this, grease the sticks with oil and roll the caramel into ropes. Wrap the resulting strands on sticks or a rolling pin and leave until the caramel hardens. When the caramel hardens, carefully remove the spirals and decorate your dessert with them.

You can make various abstract patterns from caramel: scoop the slightly cooled caramel with a knife or fork and pull it out onto parchment paper. Caramel can be twisted, changed direction, giving it any shape.

Another interesting option is an amber caramel scattering. To create it, add citric acid instead of vinegar essence when preparing caramel. Next, equip yourself with a silicone pastry brush and parchment paper. Dip a brush into the hot caramel and sprinkle drops over the baked goods.

You can make a whole dome out of caramel. Cut the grapefruit in half and brush the peel with oil. Also coat the parchment paper with oil, roll it into a bag, fill it with caramel, make a small cut at the tip of the bag. Squeeze the caramel onto the grapefruit halves to form a fine mesh. Once the caramel has set, carefully remove the mesh from the grapefruit. Ready!

Video CARAMEL DECORATIONS for desserts.