On my online workbook this week: Around and about the new year

Dear

This week's inspiration is a glowing start to the New Year.

The most important step of frosting fruits (and flowers) with sugar is to make sure there is absolutely no sap leaking from any part of the plant material. Cut rather than break the fruit from the stem so that you can control the wound you create. Any leaking sap will spoil the way the sugar sets.

If you are making a design that will also be edible that means setting those fruits with wounds aside and using it for something different. If you are making a decorative design there's still a way to rescue the fruit: seal the wound with a small amount of floral glue before frosting it in sugar. This should stop any juices from leaking out and also keep the moisture in the fruit so that it also last longer.

Making the berries in bulk for your design is easier if you dip a handful of berries in the egg and then place them in a container with a lid. Shake the container to cover the berries with sugar (see the picture above) and then set the berries on a drying rack to set.

Oh! and one last tip... I find using chopsticks to move the berries is a gentler way so that as little as possible sugar falls from the fruit as you handle it. (see the picture below)

Enjoy!

Every good wish,

Christine

ps: there is again two Tutorials for this week's design.