Not a single purchased cake can truly replace the care and sincerity that the hostesses put into homemade pastries. However, despite the warmth of homemade sweets, they rarely look as attractive as the masterpieces of experienced pastry chefs. You can fix the usual state of things with the help of mastic prepared by your own hands.
A few words about the famous decor
Confectionery mastic is considered to be a great edible material for decorating all kinds of products: muffins, cakes, pies, cakes and even cookies. Having designed your pastries with its help, you will be able to turn it into a real work of culinary art.
From which only mastic is not made: edible gelatin, condensed or dried milk, chewing marshmallows, honey. However, sugar mass is considered to be the most popular by right. Most often it is used to create all kinds of figures, ornaments or cover the whole cake.
Of course, the preparation of sugar mastic needs certain skills and dexterity. In addition, it is very important to learn how to skillfully work with this capricious material. But in reality you only need a few hours of free time and following some recommendations. Believe me, in fact this is completely uncomplicated. Having mastered the technology of preparation and the recipe for sugar mastic, you can easily decorate literally any of your pastries.
Description
Of course, finished material can be purchased at any specialized store. But if you want to cook sugar mastic at home, it will not be difficult. Moreover, the availability and low cost of homemade desserts have always been considered important arguments in their favor.
By its consistency, sugar mastic is unusually elastic, easily takes the necessary shape and is perfectly molded. That is why it is considered the best material for decorating desserts. This mastic is perfect for wrapping cakes and creating a variety of edible figures.
Features
A few simple tricks will help you skillfully cook high-quality and surprisingly tasty sugar mastic.
- Usually the basis of this material is powder. It is advisable to purchase a store product and sift it at least a couple of times before use. After all, if at least one sugar crystal gets into the mastic, then the mixture will simply burst when rolled out or even turn out to be heterogeneous.
- After mixing, the material should be sent to the refrigerator at least half an hour.
- When working with mastic, the table should be periodically sprinkled with powdered sugar or starch.
- Finished material can be stored in closed containers on a shelf of the refrigerator for two weeks. And in the freezer it can be left completely for 2 months.
- If you want to make colored mastic, you can add liquid, dry or gel food coloring to it. The latter option is the most affordable and easy to use.
- Keep in mind that sugar mastic is extremely sensitive to moisture. It is usually used to cover dry and oily cakes. If the base is too wet or the cream drains from the surface, send the dessert to the refrigerator for solidification. Please note that at the slightest contact with the liquid mass, the mastic can simply dissolve.
- Figures are best built in advance, about a week before making the dessert itself, so that they can dry well.
- Do not neglect the addition of citric acid to the mastic dough. This ingredient not only gives a tasteful accent to the product, but also prevents premature drying of the material.
Do-it-yourself classic sugar mastic
The material prepared according to this recipe is very tender and tasty. Working with such mastic is a real pleasure. Making the sweet mass for the decor is actually not such a laborious task. Only one thing is important - to precisely follow the manufacturing process of the selected recipe.
So, to prepare the mastic you will need:
- 200 g of milk powder;
- the same amount of powder;
- 3 teaspoons of cognac;
- the same amount of lemon juice;
- 270 g of condensed milk.
Be sure to stock up with a lot of powdered sugar - always keep it nearby when kneading. After all, it may well turn out that the prepared product is simply not enough for you.
How to make sugar mastic
First of all, sift powdered sugar several times in a row. Then add milk powder to it and mix thoroughly. It is most convenient to knead the mastic directly on the table. Gently pour the condensed milk into the dry mixture. Gently knead the dough until smooth. Now add freshly squeezed lemon juice and treat the mixture with your hands for 15 minutes. As a result, you should have a pretty elastic, soft mass with a viscous consistency. It is very pleasant and easy to work with such mastic.
If you want to give your product a shade, you need to do this at this stage. Please note that a few drops of dye are enough. After adding the dough, you need to knead manually so that the color is evenly distributed. To begin with, it is best to tear off a small piece of mastic, add it with dye and knead. So you can evaluate the resulting color and decide whether more or less pigment is needed. By the way, in addition to purchased dyes, you can use natural products, such as carrots, beets, citrus zest, blackberries or currants.
Wrap the prepared material in polyethylene and put in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. The cooled mass is much easier to roll and glue. Properly made sugar mastic for cakes has a pleasant matte finish. At the same time, it remains very tasty and elastic.
Gelatin Sugar Decor
To prepare such a mastic you will need:
- a third of a glass of water;
- 0.5 kg of powdered sugar;
- 10 g of gelatin;
- a pinch of citric acid.
Course of action
First of all, fill the gelatin with boiled, but already cooled water. Leave it to swell for an hour and a half. Then place a container of gelatin in a water bath and bring it to complete dissolution. Now add citric acid to the liquid and let the mixture cool.
Sift the icing sugar several times, forming a slide from it. At the top, make a small depression and pour the gelatin mixture into it. Now it remains to knead the dough as quickly as possible - it should turn out snow-white and matte. It is very important to achieve uniformity of mass. At this stage, the preparation of mastic from gelatin and powdered sugar can be considered finished. As you can see, this recipe is even a little easier.
If you want to color the mastic, then you need to do it right now. Do not forget to intensively knead the mixture with your hands.
So that the mastic does not stick to the surface and it is convenient to roll out, wrap it with polyethylene. Of course, it is desirable to cool it in advance. If you are making figures from your mastic, use water to glue the parts. To do this, gently wet the bonding points with a drop of liquid.
Chewing marshmallow mastic
This method of making sugar decor is considered one of the most popular today. This is due to the fact that marshmallow mastic - this is what chewing marshmallow is called - is very easy to prepare, unpretentious and lends itself perfectly to modeling. It’s a pleasure to work with such a test - it takes the necessary shape effortlessly, does not stick to the skin, evenly stains and easily rolls out. From such material it is best to create a variety of figures and small details of design. Although for covering the cake, mastic made from icing sugar and marshmallows is also suitable.
To prepare such material, prepare in advance:
- 2 tablespoons of water;
- 200 g marshmallows;
- 300 g of powder.
As you can see, the set of products is minimal. And the cooking process is not particularly difficult.
Working process
First of all, you need to melt the marshmallows. To do this, transfer the lozenges into a deep container, add water to them and put in the microwave for 5 minutes. If you wish, you can melt the souffle in a water bath, but it will be a little longer.
In order to make the mastic dough as flexible as possible, during the melting of marshmallows you can add a small piece of butter to it. Instead of water, you can add freshly squeezed lemon juice to the mixture, which will save the decor from excessive cloying.
After the marshmallow reaches the desired consistency, increasing in volume, begin to add the sifted powdered sugar in small portions. Stir all components thoroughly until smooth. As a result, you get a pretty dense, dense mass.
Keep in mind that this mastic should not be too tight. You need to add powdered sugar until the mixture stops sticking to the skin. Then form a ball from the prepared dough, roll it in powder again and wrap it in polyethylene. Put the prepared workpiece for half an hour in the refrigerator. After the set time, the mastic will become more dense and less sticky. Now decorative elements can be formed from it.
Try not to abuse powdered sugar. Better to put it less than required, and then add it. After all, too tight mastic is almost impossible to fix.