Sweet Confections - Book Review and Giveaway!

I was so excited to receive this candy cookbook, Sweet Confections, in the mail from Lark Crafts to review.  I have a big sweet tooth, but I have never really made candy before, so I was pretty sure I was going to love it.  I was super impressed with the beautiful photographs, excellent how-to section and wide range of recipes.

The beginning getting started section has clear instructions and lots of step by step photos on everything you need to know, from candy temperatures (above), how to cook sugar and how to carmelize sugar, how to temper chocolate, how to hand dip and hand roll chocolates, and also a helpful overview of ingredients and tools.

Each of the recipes in the book has a big mouthwatering photo...

And then a full page of ingredients and instructions and often more photos.  Being able to see a photo of every single recipe is so great, and the extra photos showing a cut open view and the like are super useful too.

There's also a section at the back with recipes for some of the ingredients that you could make yourself - like this candied citrus peel that is used in the recipe above.

One of the things that I was most impressed by was the range of recipes included in the book - it really covers the gamut of candy-making, from fancy stuff like chocolate truffles...

To peanut brittle, toffee, candied nuts and the like...

To chewy candies like these jellies...

And even marshmallows, yum!  I also loved the fact that it included both basic recipes (like many of the ones shown above) and more interesting, unique combinations - like vanilla cheesecake fudge, pear hazelnut truffles, and pecan pie truffles.  While I am totally new to making candy and found this book a great introduction, I am sure that even an experienced sweet-maker would find something delicious and new to try.

When I got the book, I couldn't wait to try my hand at making one of these yummy treats, and while I was tempted by many of the recipes I had no trouble deciding to go ahead with these vanilla caramels.  Soft caramels are one of my favorite candies and also were something that I had never thought to try to make before, so I was super excited to learn how!

One thing about making your own candy is that you can no longer play dumb about how bad it is for you... with this set of ingredients, no wonder caramels are so yummy!

For the most part, the recipe was clear and easy to follow.  The instructions on how to caramelize sugar (in the starting up section) were super helpful and showed exactly what to do.  After you caramelize the sugar, you add the remaining ingredients (which have been warmed and mixed together), and it kind of bubbles all over the place as you cook it until it reaches the specified temperature.  I was a bit worried that I might be doing that part wrong, but in the end the caramels had great taste and texture, so it all worked out.

The only real pitfall that I had was that the recipe instructed you to pour the cooked caramel mixture into a pan lined with plastic wrap... and maybe I was supposed to let it cool for a minute first, or maybe I have cheap plastic wrap or something, but it started to melt when I poured the hot caramel in!  I freaked out a bit and pulled out the plastic wrap and threw it out (which sadly meant I lost some of the caramel with it).  Then when the caramel cooled I just scraped it out of the pan, which wasn't actually as hard as I had feared - and the caramels were totally delicious, so I was still very happy with the result.  I will definitely make this recipe again, but next time I will probably just use parchment to line the pan.

I wrapped up the finished caramels in waxed paper as suggested and they looked totally professional!  I brought them in to my office for halloween and everyone was very impressed.  I am planning to make the pumpkin caramel recipe in the book next, for thanksgiving.  Yum!

Not only did the generous folks at Lark send me a copy to review, they also sent me a second copy to giveaway to one of you!  To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment below - I'd love to hear if you have ever tried making candy before and how it went.

Since I am paying for the shipping, the giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.  The winner will be picked by random number, and I'll keep the giveaway open through next Sunday, November 13 at 9 pm PST.  I will contact the winner by email so make sure you have an email address in your blogger profile, or leave on in your comment!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!


Disclosure: This book was provided to me as a free review copy by Lark Crafts, but all opinions expressed are my own.

Big Little Felt Universe Book Review

After I mentioned in my post about making felt food that my carrot was based on the design in Big Little Felt Universe but I didn't actually own the book, the publisher Lark Crafts contacted me to ask if I would like a copy to review.  Having had a chance to look through the book briefly, I knew how great it was and didn't hesitate to say yes!  This book really goes above and beyond in the quality and detail of instructions and, with over 70 patterns, is a great value if you have ever wanted to make felt food or other felt softies.  All the patterns in this book are handsewn, and there are a projects with a range of difficulty from simpler vegetables to an intricate cake with individual icing swirls and berries on top.

I tend to think of food first when thinking of softies to make from felt, and this book has some really great ones.  They have a really nice set of veggie patterns - I love the way they have you make a little tube for the stems, making them more sturdy and realistic.

The fruit patterns are amazing and are all designed with either velcro or internal magnets to hold together two halves that can then be "cut" apart with a play knife.  I think this is a great idea that would definitely make them more interactive for a kiddo to play with, but if you wanted you could easily modify the pattern and just make one half without worrying about the velcro part, or combine the two pattern pieces to make a whole fruit that doesn't separate.

I also loved the hamburger (or, in our household, black bean burger) with veggie toppings - I can definitely see myself making one of these in the future.

While I immediately gravitated toward the food patterns, the book also has lots of other imaginative pattern ideas, from the doctor set above, to an office set (complete with laptop, calculator, and stapler), to a little girls purse with a cellphone and makeup.  It took some serious self restraint not to include photos of every chapter intro page here, they are all so cute!

There's also a whole camping set including this adorable campfire - another one I can definitely see myself making in the future.

I wanted to try out a pattern to be able to do more than just gush about the cute pictures in this review, and while I was tempted by all the fun fruits and veggies, I decided to branch out since I just made a whole slew of felt food.  While my adorable nephew is a bit young to play with felt softies, I decided it wouldn't hurt to start making some for him that his parents can give him when he is old enough to play with them.  Since my brother is a contractor and works with tools all the time, I thought some of these cute play tools would be a surefire hit!

In addition to the large number of projects, something that makes this book stand out among other craft books is the fact that it includes full-size patterns for each project and super detailed instructions with step-by-step photos showing how to assemble the item.  I love that when the urge to make something strikes, you can trace the pattern with paper at home rather than having to run out to the copy shop to enlarge a pattern.  The patterns are well-designed and with the step-by-step instructions you aren't left wondering how they got it to turn out that way or scratching your head at cryptic written instructions.

I made the hammer and wrench and may well make more items from the set in the future.  I loved how these both had great details - the little screw adjustor on the wrench and the claw on the hammer in particular.  I was hanging out with my mom and a bit distracted when I started making the hammer and I messed up the head a bit, but it turned out great on my second try (I did tweak the order of construction a bit and found that the hammer head came together better when I slightly modified one of the pattern pieces - but I am the kind of person who always finds a way to make the pattern my own way).

There are a lot of free patterns for felt softies and especially felt food on the internet, so I imagine some folks don't feel like they need a book.  This book really takes it to the next level, though, with creative, detailed ideas - and includes a lot of complicated items like the wrench and hammer above where not only would I not have thought of the idea myself, but I would have been hard-pressed to just make up my own pattern if I was trying to wing it.  I really appreciate the fact that this book includes these types of more complicated projects - it seems like often craft books are aimed only at the beginner/intermediate level market, while this is a book that I think a crafter of any level of experience could enjoy and find a project to challenge them.

Thanks again to Lark Crafts for the chance to review this excellent book!