Edible Printing: Makes Boring Food Attractive

WHAT IS EDIBLE PRINTING?

It is used to decorate birthday cakes and desserts which are fit for human consumption. They are of various forms and can be used to garnish our food items and make them all the more attractive and mouthwatering.

WHERE DO WE USE EDIBLE PRINTING?

It can be seen at birthday parties, marriage functions, baby showers, office parties. Whenever there is a birthday party, a birthday cake is a must and birthday cake these days look extremely attractive because of them.

Even at marriage functions, wedding cakes are bought and we often see miniatures of a bride and a groom on the wedding cake. This is nothing butible printing.

We also buy cakes and desserts on official functions, success parties and baby showers and they are a must for such occasions as well.

VARIOUS TYPES OF EDIBLE PRINTING:

They come in various forms:

· Food pens

· Icing sheets

· Edible Inks

· Edible printing solutions

· Icing sugar

Food pens: If you have ever visited a cake shop, you must have noticed a food pen. A food pen is used to write names on cakes and cupcakes and other edibles. On your birthday, you must have asked for your name to be scribbled on the birthday cake. This is done by the food pen itself. Food pens are made from food colorings and so different food pens can give different colors as per our requirements.

Icing sheets : Icing sheets are very thin, flavorless, white colored sheets that can be passed through a printer. When it has been printed and dried; it does not break or crack easily. It is easily manageable and is placed on food items. These days, we find various graphics and even our own pictures printed on a cake. This is done with the help of icing sheets. Icing sheets are made with water, corn syrup, corn starch, cellulose, glycerin, sugar, vanilla, etc.

Edible Inks : Edible inks are used to print graphics or pictures on the icing sheets. The disposable inks come in the form of cartridges which are inserted in the printers to print the graphics on the icing sheets. The edible inks are mostly made of sugar solution and different food colorings and can print the graphics quite accurately.

Edible printing solutions : Edible printing solutions come in a wide range of colors. While buying an edition printing solution for our printer, we need to make sure that the company from which we are purchasing our product is authentic and does not cause any adverse effect to our health.

Icing sugar : Icing sugar is nothing but finely powdered sugar that can be used as frostings over ice creams and cakes. It is also called confectioners' sugar. Icing sugars can be used in recipes like fondant, marshmallows and cream fills. It is made of edible cornstarch and sugar and gives an attractive look to bakery products and desserts.

How To Play Time Management Games Online For Free

1. First a warning, playing games can be addicting so remember to manage your playing time. Also be sure to download time management games from sites that you trust and always keep your anti-virus program up to date.

2. Check your browser some time management games require the Internet Explorer browser and will not work with Firefox and some other browsers.

3. Decide if you want to play time management games online or download them and then play. Please check our "Times Management Games" section for resources that is updated regularly.

4. Let us look at some of the games that you can play for free online. As you will see there are many time management games to choose from so take the time and try several of them, you will soon find out which one you like the most.

Belle's Beauty Boutique:

'Belle's Beauty Boutique' you must help run a beauty parlor single-handedly. The owner, Belle, needs your help to give all of her customers the treatments they want. Help her wash, cut, shampoo and color a crazy cast of characters. Watch them gossip, flirt, and help Belle realize her dream of creating the ultimate beauty salon.

Big Island Blends:

After arriving on Big Island you discover that the "fortune" you've just inherited is an orchard? Well, what better way to turn your fields into a real fortune than opening a smoothie stand Serve your delicious fruit concoctions to the thirsty inhabitants of Big Island in level after level of fast-paced fun. Then, use your hard-earned money to purchase a wide variety of sparkling upgrades to make your smoothie stand the best on Big Island! Colorful, fast, and fun, try Big Island Blends for a unique taste of the tropics.

Burger Island:

Help our heroine Patty turn around a run-down burger stand located on deserted Mount Tikikola Beach in 'Burger Island'. Juggle orders from demanding customers, purchase over 30 exotic mouth-watering recipes, unlock more than 40 delicious ingredients, combining up to 9 per order, all while keeping an ever-watchful eye on the clock. With 60 increasingly challenging levels, see if you have what it takes to help Patty build the best burger stand on the island!

Burger Shop:

After receiving a set of strange blueprints in the mail, you build an extraordinary food-making contraption and open a restaurant. Your goal? Make food and satisfy customers until you discover the truth behind the mysterious blueprints. Burger Shop is a fun and addicting time-management game with several play modes including: Story Mode, Challenge Mode, Relax Mode and Expert Story Mode, each with different trophies you can collect. Utilize unique food making devices to make over fifty different food items during your quest. With four play modes, over sixty upgrade items and ninety-six trophies, you can play Burger Shop forever!

Cake Mania:

Baking runs in Jill's family. Help Jill upgrade her kitchen with state-of-the-art baking tools, while serving her ever-increasingly difficult customers. Help Jill earn enough to reopen her grandparents' bakery in this fast-paced culinary crisis.

Cake Mania 2:

After re-opening the Evans Bakery, and sending her grandparents on an exotic Hawaiian cruise, Jill is back in an all-new, out-of-this-world adventure! Explore six far-flung bakery locations; serve up deliciously original creations to 18 quirky customers, ranging from Federal Agents to mysterious Aliens, and choose the path Jill will take in 'Cake Mania 22!

Delicious 2:

Uncle Antonio needs Emily's help to get out of a financial fix. Help Emily rescue her family's finances in five all-new restaurants, each with a unique menu and theme. Use your earnings to purchase decorations sure to make your customers smile. Emily's friends and family are on hand to help, but it's going to take your serving savvy to get Uncle Antonio back on track. Featuring two game modes, all-new customers, and hours of fast family fun, 'Delicious 2 Deluxe' is just the thing to satisfy your craving for fun.

Features:

* Two Game Modes

* Five All-New Restaurants

* 60 Challenging Levels Featuring New Customers

* Decorate Your Restaurant Your Way

Delicious Deluxe:

Join Emily on her quest to make her dreams come true in two game modes and seven different restaurants. Success means more tables, bigger restaurants, and a menu full of uniquely delectable items. Tasty treats may keep your customers happy, but it's going to take quick clicks and careful timing to get Emily's ambitions off the ground. Take a bite out of Delicious today!

Features:

* Two Game Modes

* Seven Different Restaurants

* Bonuses Like Bigger Trays, Chocolate, and Stars

* Five Types of Customer

Diner Dash:

Diner Dash is the action-puzzle that brings out the entrepreneur in all of us. Poor Flo! Sick and tired of pushing paper in the world of finance, she ditched her desk job and is setting out to build her very own restaurant empire. Flo's on her own now and heading for the top! It won't be easy, though. To get there she'll have to start on the ground floor and she needs your help to survive and thrive. Diner Dash combines fast-paced puzzle action with a build-your-restaurant-empire theme. You'll start with a run-of-the-mill greasy spoon and end up in a dream restaurant that will take your breath away!

Features:

* 40 challenging levels of addictive, skill-based game play that allows you to grow your restaurant through 4 complete re-models

* Five different types of customers, each with different behaviors

* Two modes of play: Career and Endless Shift

* Fun sounds, cool visual style, flashy effects, and humorous animations

* High score tracking and automatic game save

Diner Dash®: Flo on the Go:

Flo trades in her apron for a passport to paradise! But will our hard-working waitress get a chance to relax? Seat customers, take orders, collect tips and dress up Flo in hundreds of vacation outfits in the all-new Flo's Closet".

Wedding Dash":

Help Quinn, a hopeful wedding planner, make wedding bells ring! Featuring the hilarious ups and downs of wedding day drama, 'Wedding Dash"' incorporates the plate-spinning fun from the 'Diner Dash®' series with the added challenge of pulling off the perfect wedding reception. Can you keep the bride and groom happy and Quinn's business afloat? Help couples select all the details - from tasty cakes to gorgeous flowers - but once they've tied the knot, lookout for obstacles preventing the perfect party, such as tipsy guests, falling cakes, and catty bridesmaids. When the going gets tough, keep an eye out for extra help from everyone's favorite server, Flo! It's a fast-paced challenge to execute a flawless event, but for the determined Quinn, it's all in a day's work!

5. There are several types of games available, some give you resources that you have use or spend to advance to the next level. Some time management games you must complete a number of tasks within a fixed period of time while in other games you have a certain number of lives, when you have lost them the games are over. Also there are games where you can continue to play until you figure out how to advance to the next level.

6. By now you have decided what time management game you want to play. Before you start the game check the game options, select the easiest level or story mode (where available) first time so you time to become familiar with the game.

7. As you become more experienced move through the different levels or game modes. Remember one of the advantages of playing time management games online is that you can communicate with other people playing the same game, so you can always ask for help.

8. Have fun but remember playing time management games can be addictive so take a break away from your PC every now and then.

Shortly we will look at time management games that you can download and play for free, so please re-visit or subscribe to our blog.

Warm regards,

Henrik

PS. Where can you find the games mentioned above? Please go to: http://games.aol.com/browse-games/arcade/time-management/

How to Fix Your Cheesecake - A Troubleshooting Guide

A cheesecake should be relatively trouble free but occasionally problems do come up. Over the years, we've been asked the following questions.

"What's the easiest way to make crumbs for my crust?"

Lots of folks use a food processor; we don't bother. We use a heavy duty zipper-type plastic bag and crush the crackers or cookies with a rolling pin a few at a time. We save the plastic bag for the next crust. If we're in a hurry, we just use packaged graham cracker crumbs rather than crushing crackers.

"I have lumps in my cheesecake. How do avoid those?"

Most likely the lumps are from globules of cream cheese in your batter. Before adding any of the other ingredients, beat the cream cheese and granulated sugar together until completely mixed. The sugar crystals will cut through the cream cheese breaking up the globules. In the heat of the oven, the sugar will melt further breaking up any pieces.

If your recipe calls for chocolate, either white or dark, the lumps could be chocolate. When the chocolate is mixed into the cool batter, it solidifies and creates lumps. To avoid that, make sure your melted chocolate is hot, well above the melt point. With your mixer running, drizzle the hot chocolate into the batter. With the chocolate hotter, it will disperse before setting up.

"I bake my cheesecake for the time specified in the recipe and the center is still soft. What am I doing wrong?"

You're probably doing nothing wrong. Baking times in recipes are always estimates and can be affected by the temperature in your oven (calibrated temperatures are seldom right), the depth of the batter, whether the pan is light or dark (dark pans bake faster), how cold your batter is, and other factors. Don't worry about the time and just bake it until it done. (See the next question.)

"How do I tell when my cheesecake is done?"

There are three ways. You can gently shake the cheesecake. If only the center is still jiggly, it's done. This is not very precise but with practice, you can get good with this method.

The most common way is to stick a knife in the batter about one-inch from the center. If it's done, it will come out clean.

The most precise way to tell when a cheesecake is done is with an insta-read thermometer. Stick the probe in the center of the cheesecake and see what it reads. A cheesecake is done when the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees. That's when the proteins in the eggs coagulate.

"How do I stop my cheesecake from cracking?"

A cheesecake top without a crack seems to be the ultimate measure of success. It shouldn't be. A crack doesn't affect the taste. Many cheesecakes are topped and the topping covers any cracks.

There may be a number of reasons for cracks:

- Too much air incorporated into the filling may cause cracks.













- Too much baking time will over bake the filling and is a common cause of cracks.













- Uneven baking may be a cause. If you are using light gauge, reflective pans, consider switching to heavier gauge, dark pans.













- Too high of heat may cause cracking. Consider baking at 325 degrees instead of at 350 degrees.













- It your cheesecake cools too rapidly, it may develop cracks. Don't let your cheesecake cool in a draft.

Cheesecakes with starch in the filling are less prone to cracking.

"My crusts crumble when I try to serve my cheesecake. What am I doing wrong?"

It's the butter that acts as the mortar holding the crumbs together. The butter needs to be well mixed with crumbs. There has to be enough butter, a minimum of four tablespoons per crust. The mixture needs to be compacted with firm pressure. We use a pastry tamper or heavy mug to compress the bottom and to press the sides.

Always cut and serve your cheesecake cold. That way the butter is a solid. If the cheesecake gets too warm, the butter melts and the crust will crumble.

Baking a crust is not necessary but it does tend to hold the crust together. The sugar melts in baking and tends to hold things in place once it cools and sets.

"I always seem to muck up my slices when I cut my cheesecake. What's the best way to cut a cheesecake?"

Use the right knife, a sharp, thin-bladed knife. Don't use a serrated knife as filling and crumbs tend to stick to the serrations.

Cut with a downward pressure, dragging the knife as little as possible. After each cut, wash and dry the knife so that you have a clean blade slicing through the cheesecake.

"My slices seem to stick to the base and it's hard to remove them. Is there an easy way to neatly remove my slices?"

There is an easy way to get slices to slide of the pan base. Heat a wet kitchen towel in the microwave. Lay the towel on the counter and place the cheesecake directly on the hot towel. In a couple minutes, the heat will soften the butter against the base and slices will easily slip off.

It helps to have a springform pan with a smooth base.