A Sugar mouse is not just for Christmas!! 01/02/2010

Pink Sugar Mice, White Sugar Mice, Green Sugar Mice, Yellow Sugar Mice  Orange Sugar Mice– did you know they all had their own different flavours? 

I remember how Father Christmas always used to leave them nestling in the toe of our Christmas stockings, snuggled up next to the inevitable satsuma.  Memory tells me these sugar mice were  always pink but I can't remember a specific  flavour – just a 'Sugar Mouse' flavour!

Perhaps, even then, different flavours and colours were available - just not in our suburban back water! 

Today White Sugar Mice taste of pineapple, Green Sugar Mice of lime  , Yellow Sugar Mice of lemon whilst the Pink Sugar Mice of my childhood Christmases now have a flavour of strawberry. Testing all these different flavours is not a bad way of passing a day or two!

Whilst we all admire the slogan 'A Dog isn't just for Christmas' perhaps we should also adopt the equivalent 'Sugar Mice are not etc etc'.  With their cute little cotton tails and hand painted features who can resist them?  They are hand painted (using edible inks) with Valentine's Day Messages, 'Get Well' Messages or even just 'Happy 6^th (or 60^th) Birthday' and would all be welcome gifts. If you've blotted your copy book, who could be beastly to anyone bearing hand painted apologies?  

Introduce Sugar Mice to your wedding table – we have all heard the phrase 'as poor as Church Mice'  but these plump little chaps would be guaranteed not to run amok amongst the crumbs of your feast.  As a change from the traditional Sugared Almonds or, more recently popular, 'Love Heart Sweets' why not have Sugar Mice at a wedding reception, hand painted with the date of the ceremony and the names or initials of the happy couple.  Regardless of whether the sugar mice are then kept as momentos of the day or passed on as bribes to keep the younger members of the party happy, they will bring a smile to the grumpiest of guests!

Children's party bags can be a bit of nightmare, kids are quick to spot the second rate and unimaginative these days,  Make your party bags stand out by popping sugar mice in with the cake and trinkets.  Individualise your sugar mice by painting on their backs the name of the recipient and  even the most jaded young party goer will be delighted!.

 Fondant...What is it?

Fondant, funny old word – the more you repeat the fonder you get of it. You can't help but linger over the first syllable – but what does it really mean?

Fondant literally translates from the French as 'mellow' – particularly in the context of fruit.  In the English language we apply fondant to various forms of confectionary but even then there is a little vagueness and magic (or chemistry) about it.  Fondant actually covers several different forms using different recipes.

Poured fondant is, to be technical a 'super saturated solution' essentially sugar and water are gently  boiled together until no more sugar can be absorbed into what will become the fondant.  This stage of making is achieved if a soft ball can be formed from the cooled liquid. The magic comes during the cooling process; if the solution is allowed to cool untended then beautiful, hard, clear crystals will be formed.  Pretty to look at but not fondant!  If the solution is stirred or beaten as it cools then a smooth, velvety, opaque, liquid or 'poured fondant' is created. Care is taken not to mix too soon as it cools or the result may become gritty.  What you are aiming for is the  luxurious smoothness found in the center of a Cadbury's Creme Egg. During the cooling process fondant is very amenable to having colours and flavours added – again think of the rich yellow you find nestling along side the white  inside a Creme Egg. Do you remember Frys' bars – fondant filled chocolate bars available with either white mint or fruit flavoured in appropriate colours?  Break them wrong and you would be licking the stuff off your fingers and chin – half the fun! Think of the mint filled dark chocolate wafers that are essential every Christmas (and any other time between!)

Another form  is rolled fondant or fondant icing. In this case gelatine (or agar for vegetarians) along with glucose syrup or cream of tartar is added to the mix rendering it more pliable.  The fondant can be rolled out like pastry to give a smooth flawless finish when draped over a cake. Fondant is more amenable to work with than royal icing and is easier to cut when portioning the cake out.  This easily flexible type is also great fun for moulding into small sculptures, petit fours can be made from it substituting marzipan.

Fondant creams are another favourite variation on the theme. To produce these treats, glucose syrup ,which crystallises less easily than sugar, or cream of tartar are added to the boiling mix.  The same process is followed but this form of fondant can be either poured into moulds or rolled out and cut into discs. 'fondant fancies' often have a blob of fondant perched atop a sponge below glace icing.  In the sweet shop, fondants have their very own corner to fill.  Often these flavoured fondant discs or moulds will be enrobed in chocolate to produce violet crèmes, coffee creams and many more delicious variations on the theme!  Chocolate covered peppermint fondants used to be a must when visiting the theatre.  Surprisingly the robust little sugar mice are based on  fondant poured into moulds then carefully matured so the fondant hardens without cracking. Dating back to the 17^th century these little fondant mice are probably the granddaddies of the fondants that form the basis of so many sweets today!

The Sugar MouseFactory 12/02/2010

Deep in the depths of darkest Wales lies a sugar mouse factory! This is not like the elves' toy factory at the north pole, there really is a sugar mouse factory where real sugar mouse makers work away, creating thousands and thousands of sugar mice every year.  If (heaven forbid) Willy Wonka were ever to become disillusioned with chocolate, visiting this traditional and unique factory might just re-ignite his love of confectionery.

As in the real world, sugar mice are not created overnight.  The fondant is poured, by hand, into the moulds and a little cotton string tail attached at the appropriate point.  When firm, the sugar mice are lovingly turned out of these moulds – like real mice, newly made mice are blind, with no eyes.  The new-born sugar mice are also, just like real mice, soft and vulnerable.  The sugar mice's wooden tray beds are trundled along to an environmentally controlled 'nursery' so they may ripen into handsome, crack-free, strong mature sugar mice. For the final touch, the eyes and nose are hand painted in place and they are ready to be sent out into the wide world.

They're are made in way that hasn't changed in years, the world into which these 21^st century sugar mice emerge is very different from that which greeted the originals back in the 17^th century.  Carefully wrapped in their individual beds these brave little sugar mice now cross the globe and are ready to go anywhere they are needed, to lift the heart with their cute faces and cheerful demeanour.

Remember, when you next see sugar mice tumbling together in a glass sweet jar or serried in the ranks of a sugar mice army on the confectioners shelf, that there may just be a little magic dancing in the air around them!