Faux Gingerbread Mushrooms 
Saturday, December 3, 2016 at 7:25PM
The Lone Baker in "chocolate shards how to", "faux mushrooms", "ferrero rocher", "food decorations", "freeze dried raspberries", "gingerbread mushrooms", "gold dust", "yule log", Pfeffernusse, gold, red

faux gingerbread mushrooms, gold dusted ferrero rocher balls and chocolate shards. 

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You're planning on making a Bûche de Noël (Yule log) for your Christmas centre piece? Add some quick and easy forest---y charm with faux gingerbread mushrooms and gold dusted chocolates.  

You will need Pfeffernüsse, the small spiced gingerbread cookie. I've used store bought but you could use homemade. 

Put a little melted white chocolate on the back of a cookie, using a skewer drag through the white chocolate from outside edge inwards to create the mushrooms "gills", remove any excess chocolate from the centre with the end of the skewer. Put the cookie to one side to dry and repeat. 


Once the chocolate is dry, with a small brush dust cocoa powder or brown cake dust (I used both) to colour and shade your mushroom cookies. 

Roll a piece of marzipan (or modelling chocolate, or fondant) into a snake shake and cut lengths for stems. Attach stems with a tiny bit of white chocolate, allow to dry and add shading colour if needed.  All done :) 

Add a golden touch to your truffles or bought chocolates...

I've use ferrero rocher balls.... unwrap your chocolates and using a soft brush dust your chocolates with gold cake decorating/food dust.  

Chocolate shards for surrounds: Spread tempered chocolate on a piece of non stick baking paper. Roll it up whilst still melted and pop in fridge to set, unroll and it will break into shards ready to use. 


I went with a sprinkling of crisp freeze dried raspberry pieces for colour and a burst of flavour, they are a last minute addition as they soften fairly quickly when exposed to air. We used fresh blackberries and tiny fresh strawberries with last years cake. 

Cacao nibs (often sold as cocoa nibs) are a nice addition for a more adult palate, crunch and a little bitter. 

Happy baking, don't forget the Christmas bling :) 

Article originally appeared on The Lone Baker (http://www.thelonebaker.com/).
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