Coloring Chocolate with Gel Paste & Cookie Giveaway

A little over two years ago, I decided to make a food blog to share my tips, tricks, and recipes with other foodies out there. A couple months after that, I got engaged. Wedding planning was on! I wanted to help pay for the wedding, so that my husband wasn't the only one. So a couple months after that, I made a facebook page to help sell and advertise my baked goods.

I took a giant break 2 months before the wedding and several months after the wedding. Maybe some of you noticed nothing was being posted on the facebook page during those months? I had a few old clients contact me while I was on my break, and I realized I love doing this! So I decided to end my break, and keep my facebook page active again with new posts from the new orders!

Yay! And just in case you didn't know, for the bloggers that follow me, my facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/GwensKitchenCreations. Sometimes I post photos on there, and not on here, and vice versa. I am a little inconsistent. I will try to be better!

So to thank everyone for being there to support me in my creations, and for all the nice comments about them...I decided to do a cookie giveaway. I will be giving away 1 or 2 people a dozen decorated sugar cookies. They can pick the design of their choice. These will be mailed to the winner(s). This contest is not international, and is only for people in the United States, sorry.

But before I let you know how to enter, I wanted to share an amazing, and cool tip and trick with you about the colors of these cake pops.

These cake pops were colored/dyed with wilton/americolor gel paste food color. What?!?! Yes, the chocolate did not seize up. The chocolate was still chocolate. I was always taught that water based food coloring will make chocolate seize up, and become unusual as a dip for cake pops. I was told to always use oil based colors for chocolate. I decided to do an experiment.

I took a dollop of white chocolate/candy melts, added some gel food color...and it did form some lumps. Experiment 1 failed. 

Experiment 2: So I decided to add paramount crystals to my next dollop. I added some gel food coloring. And nothing bad happened. It was still smooth chocolate. I used both wilton and americolor gel paste, and they both worked wonderfully!

Can you imagine the crazy colors cake pops will be in the future because of this? I sure can.

I even made the cake pops match the sugar cookies for the same order.

The secret is to add paramount crystal to your chocolate/candy melts. Then add the colors. I'm sure a lot of people will be thrilled to know they can make teal or tiffany blue cake pops using gel food color instead of playing with blue or green oil color. That's what I did here to these cake pops. I added teal gel paste. Getting teal was difficult using just blue and green oil colors. There's not that many oil food colors out there compared to gel food colors.

The best part is, if you use gel paste food coloring for cake pops, you can use the same color for frosting/buttercream for cupcakes...and even for fondant. To make all your desserts match the same exact color!!! This was good for me, because I had a customer that wanted tiffany blue cake pops...and tiffany blue cupcakes. I made them match exactly using a small amount of teal gel paste in white candy melts and white buttercream. They match perfectly! Yay =]

OK...now to thank everyone! I will be giving away a dozen decorated sugar cookies to 1 or 2 winners. The winner(s) will choose the designs of the cookies, and will receive them in the mail! Anyone in the United States can enter.

How to Enter: CONTEST CLOSED!

There is 3 ways to enter, and even more if you have tons of friends. Leave all comments on this blog.

1. Like my page on facebook, and leave a comment below saying you did or already do. Click here to go to my facebook page.

2. Follow me on this blog. Leave a comment below saying you are following me.

3. Let your friends know about this giveaway. If they come back here and leave a comment with your name on it, both of you will win a dozen custom decorated sugar cookies.

The winner will be chosen via random.org. The winner will be drawn on April 20, 2013 so enter before then!

Good luck everyone!

Congratulations Sarah!!! You are the winner! Please contact me within 2 weeks!