Submitted by Karen Rutherford - @cakedecorist.com
A new baking trend sees cakes with unique and fascinating designs. Of these designs, one of the most popular cake decorations are dehydrated fruits. This is because dried fruits give you a colorful, yet elegant appearance on your cake. Dried fruits are simple to make, and you can make many different colors and flavors.
Compared with fresh fruits, you can store dehydrated fruits made with the Filterpro food dehydrator for months. So whenever you feel like baking a cake, you can grab that jar of homemade dried fruits sitting conveniently on your shelf.
Fruit is versatile in your cake construction. It can cover the curves of a cake with pretty designs, be a much crispier and sweeter option that adds flavor to your cake. So, dehydrated fruits as cake decorations are not only for aesthetics but also they are undeniably delicious to eat.
Fruit cakes with candied fruit are the ideal recipe for this upcoming holiday season. It is spicy, hearty, and delicious (not to mention, the fruits come in one convenient package for everybody to enjoy)!
What you will need:
Ingredients
- 1 cup water (100 grams)
- 1pc lemon
- 1 cup sugar (100 grams)
- 1pc orange
- 8-10pcs strawberries
- 4pcs kiwis
Equipment
- Dehydrator
- Dehydrator trays
- Saucepan
- Mandoline slicer
- Airtight container
Step by Step Instructions:
Step 1
Start by making a simple syrup, put a cup of water and a cup of sugar in a saucepan and bring to boil, then turn it off.
Step 2
Using a mandoline slicer, cut the orange, lemon, kiwi, and strawberries with a thickness of about 2 or 3 mm. You can also use a knife if you do not have a mandoline slicer.
Step 3
After cutting all your fruits, take out all the seeds and dip it in the syrup. Let it soak for five minutes and place the fruits into the dehydrator trays.
Step 4
Dehydrate it to 115º F (45˚C) for about six to eight hours.
Step 5
Store in an airtight container.
Tips and Tricks:
You can store them in an airtight container for 2- 3 months, as long as you can keep it away from humidity.
Do not slice it too fine, because it will shrink after baking and drying it. Use a mandoline slicer for more precise shapes. Soaking the sliced fruits into the syrup helps remove the bitter taste of the fruits.
Cooking time depends on the fruit that you are using, so it will vary on the thickness of the slices. Make sure to decrease the cooking time if you dehydrate the fruit to 65ºC, even though the fruit will lose some of its nutrients.
You can color your dried fruit by adding your desired color into the syrup where you will dip your sliced fruits before putting them into the dehydrator. After stacking and frosting your cake, arrange them on top of your cake overlapped with each other or cover your whole cake with dried fruits in layers.
Cakedecorist
Karen Rutherford is founder and editor in chief at Cakedecorist. You will often find her in the kitchen creating edible works of art or trying out some new recipes. As a pâtissière and baking enthusiast, Karen has decided to share her abundant knowledge with the internet audience and provide only the best tips and recipes for baking and decorating your favorite sweets.