My Decorative Bread from the International Artisan Baking Expo

 Last week I got to spend a full and productive time at the International Artisan Baking Expo in Las Vegas with some of the biggest names in baking and bread. It was, I can honestly say, one of my favorite experiences of all time! I spent many hours working on the decorative edible bread display for the event and wanted to share the loaves with you here on the blog. Some of the loaves I baked ahead of the show and then decorated at the event. Some were decorated and taken to the event. 

For more details on this baking and decorating technique, you can visit my bread website: Decorative Bread

Henna Wedding Loaf

 Ciabatta Wedding Loaf 

 8 Strand Braided Loaf 

Dragon Bread, Undecorated 

 Dragon Bread Ready to Decorate...

 Dragon Bread Decorated

Rose Crown Loaf Undecorated 

 Decorated Crown Loaf 

Rose Embellished Loaf

 Barley Leaf Loaf 

 Hawaiian Loaf 

 Leaf Loaf 

 Beet and Barley Domino Loaf 

 Rose Bun

 Classic Italian Rose Loaf 

Rustic Hawaiian Loaf

Enjoy a little bread art my darlings!! Happy baking!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

The Bread Art Book Launch Party! This week!

 I'm sharing a lot of pictures, because I am, for once in my life, without words for how I feel. A lifelong dream is finally coming true and my first bread book was released today!  Preparations are underway for the book launch party on Friday evening and all of  you are most heartily invited to attend.

Be among the first to see my beautiful new book, Bread Art! Come taste some of the recipes and get a signed copy! I'll be at Shar's for the full event for hugs, and love! I won't want to miss seeing you and you won't want to miss the party! Plus, I'll be there with some special prizes and gifts for those who attend! Come on down and bring a friend!

Shar's Bosch Kitchen Center
1130 N. Gilbert Rd. Suite 1
Gilbert AZ, 85234
Call us: Local: 480-558-1191 

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Spider-Pan Dulce...Tutorial

With Halloween coming this next week, I thought I'd share how I make my Spider-Pan Dulce! Isn't she beautiful all perched on top of that loaf of bread? Well...she's also 100% edible! Isn't that crazy!

To make the loaves yourself, take one pound of bread dough. Today I used Sweet Potato Yeast Bread but you could easily use my 5 day bread dough as well. take a 2 oz ball of dough out of the loaf and set aside. Pull the rest of the dough into a tight ball. 

Place seam side down on a large sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Poke a hole in the center of the top of the loaf and form the 2 oz of dough into a spider, placing the legs down first and then topping with the body of the spider. 

Using a dough cutter, make deep cuts into the loaf in a diamond shape, leaving the spider on the top intact.

Allow to raise 35-45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake 40-45 minutes until internal temperature of 165 degrees.  Follow my directions for the basic bread painting here.  To get the white, use edible white gel paste. I have other methods...but that one is the simplest by far. The gel paste colors are perfect for bread too!  


There you go. I'm sharing this on  this FaveCrafts Blog Hop post,. If you take a second and pop over to vote for my bread, I'd be most thankful! Xoxo!


There you go!
Always My Very Best
Your Friend Chef Tess

Flip-Pal™ Mobile Scanner Blog Hop Week # 1-- How to Make Crystal Ice Centerpieces

It starts here. This is the first week of a series of blog entries that will be featured nationally on the Scan Your Heart Out Blog Hop with Kathy Peterson flip-pal.com . It will begin on January 6th, 2011 and continue every Thursday until February 3rd, 2011.

How it works: I, along with 6 other creative designers will create 6 clever projects for 6 weeks using the Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner! The best part is the makers of the Flip-Pal™ Mobile Scanner will be giving away a scanner a week to a reader! Please register for a chance to win your own Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner by leaving a comment Here. I want everyone to have one of these.

Meet the The Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner Scan Your Heart Out design Team:

Kathy Peterson is a Design Expert, Best Selling Author, TV corespondent on LIFETIME TV,

Product Developer/Licensor and Master Gardener.

Linda Peterson is a wonderful multi-talented designer of jewelry and mixed media projects!

Chef Stephanie Petersen baker, food display artist, and cooking instructor.
Christy Tomlinsonis a fabulous paper and mixed media artist and more!

Amy Andersonis a delightfully talented decoupage queen, knitter and loves to sew!

Melissa Langer is a fun and energetic pug artist. Her art is all about crocheting and painting pugs!

Pat Sloan is a very talented designer and quilting expert!

Shall we get started then?

Yesterday was our Fifteenth wedding anniversary. Yikes. That's a big one for me. I guess because I remember being frumpy teenager and thinking, "I'll never get married..."as if that was a bad thing. Now I realize that at age fifteen I had no concept of what life and marriage really involved. I've been told that the traditional celebration gift for the big "one-five"...is crystal. I'm not super traditional in a lot of areas. I don't think I'd even have a clue what to do with real crystal...and two very insane boys living in my house. Modern replacement being...glass. (That doesn't help.) Either way, I was inspired by the whole sentimental affair. It seemed perfectly fitting to make a illuminated crystal ice centerpiece for our anniversary dinner. Fancy as that sounds...it's actually something my 7 year old could do. Don't worry. I'll take you on a little tutorial.


With the base of ornate ediblepainted bread, it stands about 3 feet tall in the center of the table.
It's a nice dramatic piece to add to a buffet or to use on several tables at a reception. It works with almost anything in the ice. There are a few exceptions to this of course. Hand grenades...live animals...

Before we get started, it's always good to read the story behind the scenes of Our Crazy Anniversary . It's a perfectly sappy love story.

Now. The Centerpiece of glory, laud and honor. (Pause for effect). Now...

Have you ever done something and then a week later realize how totally lame it was? I won't lie...I've been wrong. This is one of those dork-fest things I wish I could take back. Who in the freakishness actually glues the last copy of their wedding invitation to a scrap book? At the time it seemed nice... Until I realized I might have children and grand children who would like to see it...or at least the picture inside. One copy?! Really?! My kids fight over the last Life-saver in the roll...I'm not seeing this end well. Ironically I mounted the invitation right next to the rings. You know what that means? Not able to scan it on my regular computer scanner. Lame.

Oh the humanity of crazy glue. Fifteen years later I'm still rolling my eyes in total disturbance.

The Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner was awesome for this. Unlike my regular computer scanner that takes a long time to load one picture at a time...I was able to scan 100plus pictures in a few minutes. It was amazing! In the middle of the night without perfect lighting like I have to do with my camera...it was perfect for the spy-like ninja operation I was taking in hand.
There it is folks. Right from our invitation. Sigh. No more fighting over Life-Savers...or pictures of mom and dad.

I also used Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner to scan some of the finer details of my wedding dress. The dress that my husband used to proposed marriage to me when buying it at an antique store. He got a tear in his eye when he handed me that glorious gown from the 1920's. It's an epic dress. I'm not cutting it up into tiny nuggets of lace to put in a centerpiece. I'm wearing it when they bury me at the end of my life. I love it. However...in the meantime, details must be preserved. I'm talking about the hand stitched satin roses with pearl centers.
I loved playing with this photo until it looked like a post card...or wedding wrapping paper.

The delicate ivory lace that cascaded from the waist... original color and every timeless detail.

The ka-zillion buttons that I had to sew on. When Ace bought the dress, it was, 4 sizes too small...so I had to tailor it a bit...and completely re-do the bodice. Did women in the 1920's not ever have booozaaams? Smugglin' lug nuts? It's shameful to even mention...ya know what...I'm going to stop right there. I digress. So. On track again. My grand babies need to see the buttons right?

Once all the details were scanned, it was time to print and press the images onto white fabric for the picture not to bleed. I tried it several different ways and so far, this was the only one that didn't end with my wedding dress images smeared purple after freezing in a block of ice. Regular photo paper would work I suppose, but I also wanted to put a light in the middle of the ice so that it would shine through or image. Picky, picky. Amen for fabric though. It was just the ticket. Did I just say "it was just the ticket"? Who says that anymore? I like this stuff. Be sure it's the print and press or that it says "washable" on the package. I read quite a few labels before I found what I wanted.

All the instructions for this part of the project are in the package. Usually runs about 8$.

It took me about half an hour to iron everything. That may be the most ironing I've done in the last fifteen years. Sorry Ace. One of my other many flaws is that I'm not so big on the ironing of the shirts. We do own an iron though. How odd.

Cut out the pictures. If you need help understanding this picture...you may be reading the wrong blog. Just saying...simple is good.

It was very cool to have a pile of treasured pictures to pick from.

I used a half gallon flat sided plastic container. In the past, I've used clean empty paper milk cartons, plastic ice cream jugs (emptied of all the contents of course). I've also used flat loaf pans...2 liter pop bottles (cut off the spout part first)...any container that has straight sides that will allow a giant ice cube to fall out of it later are perfect. I find a clear glass jar that comes within 2 inches or less of the outside bowl. This not only allows the water to freeze faster, but also gives a great location for a battery powered votive candle or light inside the ice to illuminate the final project. Slide the photo as close to the edge of the outside as possible. The closer it is, the better the final image is to see through the ice.

I lined 4 pictures along the outside of the jar and then filled in the remainder with crystals, and floral that were the same colors that we used at my reception a zillion years ago. Give or take a few years.

Fill with water about an inch below the rim. It won't cover all the details complete, but it should get pretty close. Once the ice is frozen you can add more water to cover the remaining details and freeze again...or leave a few little sweet nothings sticking out of the top. Your choice. I find that silk flowers are 100% more forgiving on this subject. Fresh will work wonderfully if you can keep them at the bottom of the water until it's frozen.

Oh. Here's another secret. To keep the glass jar from floating out of the water until it freezes, I stuff a few tangerines or oranges in the jar. Just something heavy to hold the jar down until the ice is set. The crazy oranges come right out when it's frozen. They did do that final scene from Titanic to their friends who dropped to the depths of the freezing water though. Tragic really.

There were a couple of years early in my teens when my love life felt exactly like this picture...but about me. So...put the boy in the freezer for a while. I mean...freeze solid. It takes about 12 hours for a half gallon size one. Plan for a good chunk of time here. You don't want a half frozen ice block. Unless you're making a slushy punch for the reception. In that case, please take all the pretty pictures out. I just don't see that going over very well. Again...Titanic. Just saying. Goodbye Jack. Here's an odd thing (don't look at me like that...I'm perfectly normal). Once the ice is frozen, the glass usually slips right out. Strange but true. I didn't even have to use my giant girlie-baker muscles to dislodge this bad-boy jar. Be impressed. Please. Please?

Now you have this ice cave...like the one Luke Skywalker was dragged into and hung upside down in by the horrible snow beast. That was scary. This one is pretty. (I cock my head to the side and say "pretty" like a 5 year old girl. Yes...I am weird that way.)

Return the ice to the freezer. Do it. If you forget and you start working on other junk...you'll cry later. I'm serious. It's like a housewarming gift for an ice castle huh?

The good thing with this centerpiece is that I can make it a really long time ahead. It won't get freezer burn...um...not that I've ever actually sucked on a giant ice cube full of floral. I prefer the fruity ones. So, when the event shows up, I put a base of my crown loaf using the edible paint I use for my painted bread or it would be easy to use another one of myDecorative loaves. I think this is a much nicer touch than a basket of rolls in the middle of the table. Don't you? It's edible bread art. Ooooh. Ahhhh.

This loaf had an open center.

I made a slit in the back side of the loaf to allow the base of the tiered bowl to slip into it.

We can do this right? Replace the bread like a puzzle. Stuff a few flowers in there. Er...delicately arrange some fluffy nice accent there...

Now, I wanted this sculpture to light up from th inside.
These run about 3$ and last 7 hours. Perfect...the ice will melt long before the lights go out.
Make sure it is not a "keychain" light that has to be pressed down in order to stay on. I'd hate for you to have one finger in the sculpture while trying to eat dinner. These are very liberating little guys.
At the bottom of the scuplture, they also light up the bowl and shine on the bread. Head cock..."pretty".
Like when Luke Skywalker got his light saber...but without cutting off arms and heads and junk.

Now isn't that a vision of happiness?

With second tier on top... and a second light inside the ice cave on that one as well.

Repeat after me (in heavy French accent) "It's time to commence wiz zaaa wooooing." (that's "the wooing" for you who don't speak goofball.

In all seriousness however, we've worked really hard on our marriage to get this far. It's not ever going to be perfect...but it's perfect for me. I'm so grateful my sweet husband asked me to be his wife all those years ago.

Smooches Ace. I love you forever and ever...which is longer than this ice will last.

There you go. Make an ice-tastic centerpiece.

Now...if you liked this blog post, hop on over to the other designers who are using the Flip-Pal™ Mobile Scanner on Kathy Petersen's design team for the next 5 weeks! I've been so blessed to be part of this group.

Thanks again Kathy!
www.KathyPeterson.com/Wordpress/