this fruit's for you

Greg and I received a very nice fruit basket as a wedding gift, but it's a bit too large for the miniature marzipan fruit I made this weekend. So naturally I had to make a nougatine basket centerpiece to display them in.

Nougatine is basically an almond brittle made of glucose (sugar), fondant and almond slivers. It is used to make centerpiece displays that are truly edible - unlike pastillage - which means that I've had to tell Greg "no, you can't eat my work of art" more than once. The nougatine was fairly easy to make, and the real fun comes after you take the sugar mixture off of the stove and began cutting and molding pieces of it while it's still hot. I managed to make something nice and not burn myself, so I was pretty happy. Here is my work of art in process.

The extra pieces of brittle can be reheated and molded again, but the end product gets a little darker every time you heat it up so it's not a great option. Once I had all of my pieces ready to go, I glued them together with some very hot caramel.

And then it was time to go to the market for some fruit. Or in my case, sculpt a few pieces of fruit out of marzipan. Marzipan is very similar to the gum paste we used to make flowers a few weeks ago, but it is a little drier and tougher to work with. I had fun making my mini colorful fruit though.

The lemon is my personal favorite.

It's another fun project that is now sitting on our mantle. At least the fruit won't rot.

I would like to finish up the edges with some royal icing sometime soon, but this is how it stands for now. Hopefully Greg won't eat chunks off of it while I'm not looking. He can, however, eat chunks of my upcoming projects because we are moving on to chocolate next week...and I am really excited about it!

To give myself a head start on the world of chocolate, I made some very dense and chocolatey brownies from a recipe book Greg gave me for Christmas. 

 
These brownies were hand delivered to my family in Fort Wayne over the weekend and nuts were added to one side especially for my Aunt Val. I'm happy to say that they were devoured by all.

My final note of happiness is to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! These flowers are for you from me. Well, actually they were from Greg to me last week, but since they're still in bloom I figure I can share them with you via my blog. I hope you receive all of the candy, teddy bears and flowers that your heart desires and your house can hold. If not, you can always make a nougatine basket to put them in.