Edible Bandages, Yum Yum

So I realize that an edible bandage isn’t something you plan on making every day but, after sharing my Old Lady cookies with you last week, I wanted to teach you how I made the bandage on the broken heart.

Here is the batch of Old Lady cookies I made for my friend, Paula Ames’, birthday and shared in last week’s blog entry.

There is a story behind the broken heart but you’ll have to read last week’s entry to find out what it was.

To create the edible bandage I tried a new technique, using gelatin. I took 2 Tablespoons of Knox unflavored gelatin and mixed it with a half cup of water in a glass measuring cup. One packet of gelatin contains about 2 ½ teaspoons so I poured out 3 packets and measured the amount I needed from them.

I let the gelatin bloom in the water for 5 minutes then placed it in the microwave and heated it for about 20 seconds or so, until it was warm and liquid. I mixed in some flesh toned food coloring to give it a little color. I used airbrush food coloring but you could also use paste colors. The one thing I wish I would have done was added a bit more coloring than I did. As you can see in the picture, the color gets strong fast (I think that was only a drop or two) but I didn’t realize that once I thinned out the gelatin the color would greatly lighten, almost to the point of being unable to see it.

I wanted to get all the impurities out of the gelatin so I let it cool enough for foam to collect on the surface. I then took a spoon and skimmed off as much as possible. When the foam was completely removed I reheated it in the microwave to thin it back down.

Bandages have a bumpy texture on them so I wanted to try to replicate that look by using a Patterned Dots texture sheet that I got from Cakeconnection.com. With a pastry brush I applied a thin layer of gelatin on the sheet then let it set overnight to dry completely.

The next morning the gelatin had mostly separated from the sheet and I was able to easily peel it completely off. It had turned into a sheet of gelatin-type paper.

I was then able to place an actual bandage on top of the sheet, outline around it with a non-toxic pencil and cut it out with a pair of scissors.

To make the white center part, I thinly rolled out a piece of fondant and cut out a small square.

Finally, to attach it to the cookie, I used some piping gel to first attach the fondant piece to the center of the cookie. Then I dabbed a little bit on the top of the fondant piece and on the edges of the gelatin, and pressed the gelatin piece onto the fondant and cookie. There you have the finished bandage.

This was the first time I had tried this technique and I was really happy with how well it worked. In fact, Paula told me she thought it was a real bandage until I informed her otherwise. I’m sure I will come up with other uses for gelatin sheets in the future. Let me know if you’ve used gelatin on your cakes or cookies and in what form.

Until next time, God bless and Sweet Dreams.