Not sure how best to decorate home cake? Take a look here, caramel is one of the best decorations.

Caramel is a thick sugar syrup. For the professional preparation of caramel, auxiliary tools are needed, a cold table on which the caramel will be poured. And the plates showing the heating temperature, as there is different types caramel and the degree of heating is different.

But we will make caramel at home. Who cooked in childhood burnt sugar or caramel figurines in the form of cockerels, bunnies, etc., he will easily understand the cooking process. Let's prepare caramel for decorating cakes and pastries.

Ingredients for 1.
A portion.

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

Cooking time:
30 minutes.

Take a thick-walled dish. Take sugar and water at the rate of 3 parts sugar to 1 part water. Pour sugar over with water. Put on fire and heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves.
Then cook the syrup for about 10 minutes until cooked over low heat. The caramel will begin to turn golden from the edges of the dishes, so stir and make sure that the caramel does not burn.
Add vinegar essence, stir, then citric acid or fruit essence. This is to prevent the caramel from becoming sugar-coated when cooled, and to add flavor.
To stop heating the caramel, you need to lower the dishes in cold water, but carefully so as not to burn yourself with the steam. And immediately start painting with caramel.
In the event that you drop the finished caramel on a spoon, it will harden without spreading.

Caramel decoration for the sides of the cake. Measure the height of the cake and cut strips out of parchment paper, brush with butter so that the caramel can be easily separated. Take a tablespoon of caramel and draw a random grid. Until the caramel is too cold, you can straighten it with the edge of a knife.
Then take it off until it's completely frozen and stick to the cream on the cake. This should be done when the cake is already on the finished platter.
Caramel basket. The basket can be made on any round object: on a scoop, on a grapefruit or an orange. Lubricate the scoop with oil, scoop up the caramel with a tablespoon and, holding over the crockery, draw a grid pattern. Thick lines first, then thin lines.
When the caramel has cooled and hardened. Just grab the basket and twist it with the palm of your hand, it will detach from the scoop.
The 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 in such a basket you can serve ice cream balls or other non-free-flowing dessert.

Drawn figures from caramel. Draw shapes on parchment paper, such as curls, flowers, hearts. And on the reverse side, draw with caramel along the translucent contour. These figurines can be displayed in cream on cakes or to decorate pastries. There is already a huge scope for your imagination.

The mesh is a spider web made of caramel. On parchment paper, randomly draw caramel strokes.
When cool, gently break into pieces.
Decorate the top or sides of the cake with them.
Caramel leaves. Draw large drops with caramel, shape the leaves with a knife, pressing the sides of the drops, while the caramel is soft, apply a pattern of veins.
Then, with your hands, pull out and rotate the leaf so that it is not flat. Leaves can be used to decorate a cake or make a caramel stem and attach the leaves to it. Any figures can be drawn from the thickened, but not frozen caramel.

Advice.

- The moment you prepare caramel, nothing should distract you.
- Prepare all additional tools, parchment paper with drawings in advance, as the caramel quickly hardens and thickens.
- Do not overexpose the caramel on the fire, otherwise you can burn it and the taste will be bitter.
- If you did not have time to draw, and the caramel thickens, just heat it over low heat, it will melt.
- To wash the dishes from the caramel, you need to pour water into the dish and heat it up. The caramel will dissolve on its own and you will not have to tear it off the dishes. Or just put some water in a bowl and leave it overnight, the caramel will dissolve on its own. Author of the recipe and photo: Vera.

Laces, spirals, monograms, whole bouquets of transparent colored caramel look very professional. However, in order to create such masterpieces at home, it is not at all necessary to be a pastry chef. Caramel is easy to cook on your own, and then form any decorations from it, from drops and cobwebs to spectacular bouquets.

The advantages of caramel decor are many. It looks beautiful on photos and videos, gives any product a professional and stylish look. After hardening, caramel jewelry is very difficult to ruin. Unlike chocolate, cream or jelly, they do not spread, do not melt, do not change color. Natural shades of caramel - all shades of gold and honey. With the help of dyes, the mass can be tinted, essences will give a pleasant aroma, which are added dropwise after cooking.

Caramel jewelry keeps 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 volumetric designs. It is better to limit yourself to cobwebs, openwork hemispheres, drops, leaves and spirals. They look unusual and stylish, but they are made quite easily. Professionals advise making jewelry with a margin, 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 icing sugar... Caramel cannot be combined with hazelnuts, grated chocolate or streusel, in which case you should choose a different decor. Losing weight should take into account that sugar decorations are quite high in calories.

How and for what confectioners use caramel

The history of the viscous sweet mass of sugar began presumably in India a couple of millennia ago. Then, as a delicacy, people belonging to the caste of the untouchables, fried chopped sugar cane on the fire, getting a kind of caramel. However, in the form in which the sweetness is known today, it did not appear until the 16th century. And the first product made from caramel was regular lollipop.

Now there are several types of caramel:

• solid
• soft,
• lollipop,
• with various additives.

There are, of course, others, but they are already a mixture of the presented ones or their varieties.

Any caramel can be used for making cakes and for decorating them, but each of them will have its own "function". So, soft cakes are usually sandwiched, and exquisite decorations are made from candy.

Caramel recipe

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

1. For 1 part of water, take 4 parts of sugar.
2. Water is poured into a stainless steel pan, sugar is poured into the same.
3. While stirring continuously, the mixture is brought to a boil over medium heat.

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

The finished caramel begins to darken, but it must not be allowed to turn completely brown. Now it must be immediately poured into glass or ceramic dishes - and the caramel can be used to decorate the cakes.

How to make caramel figurines

If it is decided to decorate the cake with caramel, then you can not just pour the top layer with it, but make unusual decorations... To do this, you need to act quickly, while the sweet mass has not had time to cool down.

If you dip a wooden stick in caramel, then a thin "thread" will be pulled behind it, which will be the main material for jewelry.

This thread can be used to write on the cake or twist it into intricate caramel figurines. 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 the spiral. It can be round or oblong. A flat round one can be made on the same silicone mat, and if you need it to be in the shape of a hemisphere, then wind the caramel "thread" onto a ladle. An oblong spiral is obtained by removing the frozen decoration from the round handle of the corolla or ladle.

But if you make a multi-colored caramel from isomalt and dyes, then you can sculpt the most different figures. This is done like this:

1. Isomalt is melted without water in a saucepan.
2. Dye is added to it.
3. Poured onto a silicone mat and cooled slightly.
4. Knead the mass with your hands, stretching it.
5. Figures are quickly sculpted until the material is frozen.

So that the material of the desired consistency is always at hand, it is divided into two parts, with one they work, and the other at this time is kept under the lamp 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, having got used to it. And she gives a huge scope for imagination.

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

Sugar caramel. Method for making caramel:

• We fill a deep plate with cold water and put the molds next to it - everything should be at hand.
• We put the pan on medium heat, add sugar there and heat it to a liquid state. Do not stir until most of the sugar has dissolved.
• When the sugar has completely melted, switch the toggle switch to the lowest heat and dip a spoon or mold into the solution. As soon as it is full, move it for 10 seconds into a plate of water, then put it on a damp towel and start with the next shape.
• Fill a saucepan with water to scrape off any remaining caramel, and remove the prepared treats from the molds. Making your own caramel from sugar turned out to be easy, right?

And now - little tricks to make your sweet treat even more attractive and tasty.

Trick 1.
To prevent the sugar from rolling off in pieces, add a drop of vinegar to the pan while heating, or lemon juice, then the caramel will be smooth.

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

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

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

So we learned how to make caramel from sugar, spending a minimum of time and improvised means. Now you can please delicious dessert both young guests and their friends - who said that adults don't like lollipops? In the future, with good practice, you can cook cockerels and other complex figures at home.

1. Caramel jewelry

Caramel is sugar syrup warmed up on high fire... The accuracy of caramel preparation is very important, the difference between a subtle and sweetish taste and a burnt one for a few seconds. It is advisable to start cooking caramel over high heat and after a minute reduce 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 forms. If the caramel has time to harden, you can gently warm 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 that it does not 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 saucepan with a thick bottom, which provides uniform and gentle heating. As mentioned above, start heating for a minute over high heat, then reduce to less than medium. Stir the sugar completely until it boils. After that, there is no need to interfere. It will take 7-10 minutes for a golden mass to begin to form around the edges of the pan, which gradually fills the entire pan. You can shake the pan from side to side to improve the process. When the golden mass covers the entire pan and all the sugar has dissolved, then the caramel is ready. We are waiting for all the bubbles to disperse (we shake the pan) and the caramel becomes transparent.

Remove the pan from the heat and lower (carefully) into a large pot filled with cold water to stop the caramel heating process. Sometimes it is advised to take a brush to dip in cold water and run from the inside along the edges of the pan during cooking (do it very carefully). We prepare 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 delicate the taste.

Problems that may arise during the cooking process:

If sugar begins to crystallize and it gradually turns into a solid mass, you will have to redo it first or heat it up easier (the main thing is not to burn it).

To peel off 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 pan cover.

Strawberries in caramel

Lubricate the surface with oil, where the caramelized strawberries will be laid out. We string strawberries on a wooden toothpick or skewer. Gently dip into caramel and spread on the prepared surface.

Caramel basket

Turn over silicone mold upside down. If there is no suitable one, you can use a similarly shaped plate covered with aluminum (foil) or just an iron plate of the desired shape and oiled (some people use a ladle upside down). Spoon the caramel 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 reach the picture - the prison bars. We are waiting for the caramel to cool slightly, 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 molds.

Candy ball

This will require a device in the form of two skewers (skewers) at a distance of 20 cm, from each other, fixed motionlessly. Take a fork and sprinkle caramel over the skewers. We collect the resulting threads from the skewers into one ball.

Homemade caramel jewelry. Secrets of caramel for jewelry

The standard caramel made from water, sugar and citric acid, used to make the well-known lollipops, is not suitable for making elegant jewelry; in extreme cases, you can make a decorative mesh from it, formed from thin streams of foil squeezed onto a sheet and chilled 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 sculpting, it is made more plastic by adding molasses during the manufacture. It is quite difficult to get molasses from the retail network, so if you want to make flowers from caramel at home, try replacing it. maple syrup or fresh, unsweetened honey (it should be poured from a spoon). As a last resort, use artificial honey as a plasticizer.

Cooking method:

The first way

1. Pour 3/4 cup water into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Add sugar, vinegar essence and mix well.
3. Bring the prepared solution to a boil again, and cook until the caramel sample is taken (taking a few cooled drops of caramel, which should not stick to the teeth or bend).
4. Pour the caramel into a chilled dish, greased 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 a caramel sample.
4. Cool the mass slightly and add vinegar essence, color and flavor, mix well.
5. The finished caramel can be bent or stretched with a wide buttered knife.

Tip: so that the caramel does not freeze ahead of time, cook it in small portions in a small bowl.

One of the brightest ways to decorate a cake is with chopped caramel spread over whipped cream or yogurt cream. To make chopped caramel, oil a skillet or a large sheet of parchment paper. Then spread the caramel over its surface so that you get a layer about 3 mm thick. Leave the caramel to harden. When it hardens, peel it away from the paper or frying pan and gently break off small pieces from it.

Also, caramel goes well with fruit, giving them a pleasant sweet and sour taste. Make caramel and garnish the cake with kiwi slices, tangerine wedges, strawberries and cherries. We are sure your guests will be delighted.

In addition, spirals can be made from the remains of caramel, which are suitable for decorating cakes. To do this, grease the sticks with butter and roll the caramel into strands. Wrap the resulting strands on sticks or a rolling pin, and leave until the caramel hardens. When the caramel has hardened, carefully remove the spirals and decorate your dessert with them.

Various abstract patterns can be made from caramel: scoop slightly cooled caramel with a knife or fork and pull it onto parchment paper. Caramel can be twisted, changed its direction, giving it any shape.

Yet interesting option- amber caramel placer. To create it, while making caramel, instead of vinegar essence add citric acid. Next, arm yourself with a silicone baking brush and parchment paper... Dip a brush in hot caramel and scatter drops over the baked goods.

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

Video CARAMEL DECORATIONS for desserts.