Secret Letter Rice Krispie Squares

I made this for my friend's b-day, she isn't a writer, I just thought she might find it pretty, and she seemed to. I also wanted to try out my new method of painting with natural food colouring on fondant. So first I obviously made gluten-free, brown rice Rice Krispie Squares the way you normally make them with marshmallows (we went to a bonfire to see her, with more marshmallows for toasting and we were on marshmallow over-load by the time we were done). Next I made little fondant envelopes of different sizes by cutting little triangles and fitting them together by trial n' error. I then made little "wax" seals for the envelope by pressing a metal (pre-washed) brand new, out of the package seal presser into a piece of Starbursts (which are Gluten-free b.t.w.) that I molded into a ball with the heat of my hands. It took some pressure to make the Starburst look like a wax seal but I had a lot of questions about how they were made. Next for the letters I just cut out rectangle pieces of fondant by hand and pressed a Cuttlebug embossing sheet that looked like handscribed letters that didn't really say anything, in the fondant to make it look like a letter. Any frayed pieces of left-over fondant I made into the feather part of the feather pens and I rolled out the pen part into a snake-like shape and attatched it. I added extra texture to the feather part with my knife to make it look a little more realistic. To paint the feathers, I used natural food colouring called "India Tree" I found at a store near me called "Degrees Kitchen Store". I researched and found a technique where you can use food colouring mixed with lemon extract (or Everclear vodka, but I chose to use the extract, not lemon juice) and brushed it on the fondant with a food-specific paintbrush as if it were watercolour. It worked out quite well and was really fun to do. Here are the results:

Ghostbusters Cupcakes

While visiting the Silver Snail comic shop in Toronto I picked up two delightfully nerdy ice cube trays. One with a whole set of Ghostbuster symbols and another with big and small versions of The Back to the Future logo and license plate. I thought I could do something really cool with the B.T.T.F. ones however, the Ghostbuster ones I couldn't wait for Halloween to use them. I filled the tray with melted white chocolate chips, which I melted for about 15 second intervals in the microwave so it didn't burn, until it was nicely melted, and then I tempered it by moving it to another class container that was cool so it didn't get all waxy. I made a whole bunch of cupcakes and popped the chocolates on top for a finishing touch. I brought some for my co-workers to try out my new baking. I got a lot of compliments and even shook hands with a "retired" chef and she told me they were, "the best gluten-free cupcakes" she'd ever had. That made me feel good. I wanted to use my new natural food colouring on the chocolate but failed at the first attempt. I need to research how it's done before I continue on. But anyway, this is how they turned out: