Cream Tart for Cottage Law Bakers

We’ve all been seeing the thousands of pics floating around the internet lately of the gorgeous “cream tarts”. They’re so pretty and easily customizable. With that being said, they’re really not cottage law friendly. I know that most of us are actually baking in our homes under the cottage food laws, which means that we’re also not allowed to use a lot of what you see on every one of these tarts- fresh fruit! The flowers are another situation because you can’t just go buy some and start sticking them into food. Some can be poisonous and there are definitely things that need to be done to them before they’re safe for food. With all that said, I know these are so incredibly popular so I’ve made it my mission to make one that is actually legal for us to sell!

Here’s a few things I did differently:

I used my Red Velvet Sugar Cookie as the tart portion. You can easily use any flavor you want and customize it in so many ways!
I drew the shape I wanted onto a piece of parchment paper, cut it out, and used it as a template to cut the dough around before I baked it. Again, the customization options here are endless!
I did put my Italian Macarons on the top of mine, but again, these can be flavored in SO many ways!
Instead of all the fruit, I made my modeling chocolate and made roses! You can make roses, hearts, or really anything you like!

Here’s my step by step pictorial on how I made the one pictured! Like I said, you can change this up in so many ways and really get creative! There’s no reason why you can’t offer your clients these amazing tarts!

Before you make your dough, decide what shape and size you want your tart to be. I had a 10″ box on hand, so I knew the tart needed to fit into the box. I measured out a piece of parchment paper that would fit into the box, and then drew my heart onto the parchment paper. Once I got it exactly how I wanted it, I cut it out.
I then mixed up my dough, rolled it out, and placed the template onto it.

Now take a knife and cut around your template.

Now, here’s where it can get tricky. You can either pick your parchment paper up and place it onto your baking sheet without having to move your dough. Or you can pick your dough up and put it onto your parchment paper on your baking sheet. Obviously, the first option is the best and easiest! I did the later, and had to reshape my dough, and actually broke the second one I moved so it had to be pieced back together. Take my word, and do the 1st option lol! Do this with both pieces of dough.

Bake and let cool completely before moving on! While you’re waiting for it to cool, you can make your buttercream. Here’s a link to my All-Butter American Buttercream. I also colored it pink using Americolor Dusty Rose.

Take your first cookie and place it onto a cake board. Be careful! They’re much easier to slide than to completely pick up. Using a large piping bag with a 1A tip (you can actually use whatever tip you prefer), squeeze the piping bag and make little dollops of buttercream all the way around your cookie.