Spring and Summer Baking

I haven't been blogging, but that doesn't mean I haven't been baking.

Our favorite babysitter had a birthday in April and her favorite flavor is lemon, so we made white cupcakes and filled them with homemade lemon curd.  It was my first time to make lemon curd and while it requires a bit of prep and a lot of stirring, it was not too difficult.  I used a cupcake corer to remove the center of the cake (similar to this one).

I topped some with perfect cupcake frosting and colorful sprinkles.

And the rest with homemade whipped cream (whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla) and clear sugar sprinkles.

It's not baking, but I tried making a mini fruit bouquet for a friend's birthday.  I used mini cookie cutters to cut out the fruit.  I trimmed bamboo skewers to the right length and added the fruit.  Packaging is from Joann's.

And I was in the mood to make giant sugar cookie pops.  I used a large sunflower cookie cutter and thick cookie sticks.  I tinted cream cheese tub frosting yellow with oil-based food color, and topped with yellow sugar sprinkles.  Then I piped on chocolate tub frosting and added mini chocolate chips.  I put them in a pail from the dollar spot at Target.  (Next time I will have someone help me transport them so they don't fall off their sticks!)

A friend of mine returned from a vacation to Australia with an exciting announcement, so koala cake pops were in order.  Thank you to Bakerella for the idea.  I used my own technique for the ears -- I used a small circle cookie cutter to cut a Ghirardelli white chocolate melt into an ear shape.  Then I used a squeeze bottle to pipe gray chocolate around the white ear.  I chilled the chocolate in the refrigerator and then trimmed it with a paring knife.  The noses are dark chocolate covered blueberries from Sprouts.  Packaging is from Target.  My cake pop wrappers wouldn't fit over the ears, so I wrapped the whole thing in cellophane and tied it with a ribbon.

I decided to make my own birthday cake this year.  My whole family loves Nothing Bundt Cakes, so I tried this copycat recipe.  It was amazeballs!  The only thing I'll do differently next time is to chill the frosting a bit before piping.

St. Patrick's Day Treats

We love to make treats for our friends for the holidays.  This year we made sugar cookies and chocolate-mint suckers and packaged them for giving.  I hope they bring our friends good luck!

Valentine Pops

I made a big batch of chocolate suckers to give to my colleagues, my son's preschool classmates and teachers, and our favorite babysitter.  I like using a thinner chocolate for suckers so it settles nicely into the mold.  I used 2/3 Ghirardelli melts and 1/3 Wilton melts.

I found valentine buckets and shred at the One Spot at Target.  I found the milk bottle and ribbon at Joann's.  I think they turned out cute!

Giant Cake Pop, Ombre Cake Pops, Minnie Mouse Cake Pops

Two of my colleagues have birthdays coming up.

One of them once told me that she wanted a cake ball the size of a baseball.  I've been thinking about it ever since!  I made her a cake pop that is a little smaller than a tennis ball, but I think she'll like it.

I made it the same way I make regular sized cake pops, except I used a heaping 1/4 cup of the cake ball mix and I used a 6-inch "cookie stick" instead of a sucker stick.  I also needed a larger container for my melted chocolate.

I packaged it with a large treat bag and a wide ribbon.  I think it makes a fun gift!

My other colleague loves the color pink.  I saw an idea online for pink ombre cake pops.  I melted white chocolate and tinted it with pink oil-based food color.  After each cake pop, I added more food color.  The result is cake pops in five shades of pink.

I packaged them in a bucket from the One Spot at Target, with pink shred of course (I stocked up on multiple colors of shred when it was on clearance after Easter).

While I was at it, I made some Minnie Mouse cake pops.  I used slightly more than 1 tablespoon of mix for the cake ball.  I used Ghiradelli chocolate melts for the ears (I trimmed them a bit so they would stick better), and the bow is a Wilton icing decoration I found at the grocery store.  I attached the ears and the bow before the chocolate coating hardened.

My son saw an idea online for chocolate chip cake pops so I used a yellow cake mix, cream cheese frosting, and semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I love the look of the chocolate chips, but I found that mini chips worked better -- the regular size chips make it hard to roll the cake balls and difficult to insert the stick.  These are made from cake but taste like cookie dough!

Christmas Foodcrafting

I have a tradition of making gifts for my colleagues at Christmas.  Some things I've made in the past:

• candy cane bath salts
• stove top potpourri
• mulling spices
• gingerbread cookie mix with a cookie cutter
• peppermint bark cake balls
• s'mores caramel corn
• spiced nuts

This year I made cake pops with red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting.  I dipped half of the pops in white chocolate and the other half in dark chocolate.  I love the taste of Ghirardelli candy melts but they are a little runny.  I mixed half Ghirardelli candy melts with half Wilton candy melts -- it was the perfect combination of flavor and consistency.

I sprinkled the white cake pops with clear sugar sprinkles, and the dark cake pops with white nonpareils.  I packaged them using buckets from the One Spot at Target.  I also individually wrapped some of the pops with a ribbon and a gift tag.  I love how they turned out!

  

A few weeks ago my son told me that he wanted to give something to the kids in his preschool class.  I was inspired by something I saw pre-made at Target.  We put jumbo marshmallows on a long sucker stick and dipped them in chocolate candy melts.  Then we dipped them in Andes peppermint crunch baking chips.  My five-year old was able to do most of the work with a little guidance from me.  Easy and fun!  The only thing I would do differently next time is to use a thicker stick like a cookie stick.

Stars & Stripes

I wanted to make a thank you gift for one of my colleagues, and since it's July I went with a patriotic theme.

This cute bucket from Target was begging for some cookie pops.  I love how it turned out!

Spreading Sunshine

When I was going through a difficult time, a friend of mine brought me a "box full of sunshine."  It made my day!

I loved the idea and wanted to pay it forward.  After Easter, I bought a couple of yellow Easter baskets and some bags of yellow shred.

It's finally time to make the first delivery!  I bought some honeysuckle hand soap, a lemonade candle, and yellow note cards at Target.  I've been wanting to make smiley face cake pops, and this was the perfect occasion.  I also made a little note from stickers and card stock.  Just by chance, I found yellow pinwheels on sale at Joann's -- I couldn't resist adding one!

Other ideas for yellow things include candy, gum, lip balm, nail polish, lotion, bubbles, a mug, etc.  Check out my friend Amy's post on her Sometimes Creative blog for her version.

Spread some sunshine and brighten someone's day!

Sugar Cookie Pops

Tomorrow I am teaching a lesson to our women's group at church and the lesson uses the sunflower following the sun as a symbol for us following Christ.  I decided to send the ladies home with a little reminder of the lesson.

I made my favorite sugar cookie dough recipe.  I used my mini flower cookie cutter to cut out the dough.  I added a lollipop stick before baking the dough.

I tinted store bought frosting with food color, frosted the cookie and added an M&M.  I packaged the cookie pop with a treat bag and ribbon.

Tomorrow is also our babysitter's birthday, so I made a few extra cookie pops for a birthday cookie bouquet.

My sous chef was a willing helper:

S'mores Cake Pops

My little boy has been begging me to make cake pops that look like Oh the alien from the movie Home.

This was the first time I tinted white chocolate melts with oil-based food colors.  It was easier than I expected.  I used both purple and blue color to get the shade I wanted.  The candy dried darker than when it was melted, so I'll remember that for next time.  We added candy eyeballs, purple licorice ears, and a black marker mouth.

While we were making cake pops, I made some s'mores cake pops.  I used chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.  When I rolled the cake balls, I rolled two mini marshmallows into the middle of the cake ball.  I dipped the cake pops in dark chocolate melts and then dipped them in graham cracker crumbs (my mini Cuisinart is the perfect tool for making graham cracker crumbs!).  SUPER yummy.

Pops for Kids

As I mention in a previous post, my son and I have been having fun making pops.  He often has requests for his favorite characters and sometimes I surprise him with a character he's not expecting.  We find inspiration online and add our own ideas.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cake Pops

To make:

Dip cake ball in Wilton green candy melts

To decorate:

Fruit by the Foot Flavor Mixers

Wilton candy eyeballs

The fruit leather will stick to the candy coating

Use a tiny bit of candy melt to attach the eyes

Superman Cake Pops

To make:
Dip cake ball in Wilton blue candy melts

To decorate:

Fruit Roll-ups

Wilton icing writer

You may need to use a little candy melt to attach the fruit leather

Mike Wazowski Cake Pops
(from Toy Story)

To make:
Dip cake ball in Wilton green and yellow candy melts

To decorate:

Wilton bright white candy melt

blue M&M

black food marker

Attach white candy and M&M with a tiny bit of the candy melt

I would also add white chocolate chips for his horns

The Flash Cake Pops

To make:

Dip cake ball in Wilton red candy melts

To decorate:

Wilton bright white candy melt

Wilton icing writer

Attach white candy with a tiny bit of the candy melt

LEGO Minifigure Head Marshmallow Pops

To make:

Use a regular size marshmallow for the head

Use half of a mini marshmallow for the connector

Place the cut side of the mini marshmallow onto the regular size marshmallow

Add a lollipop stick

Dip in Wilton yellow candy melts

To decorate:

black food marker

Chocolate LEGOs

(not a pop but lots of fun for kids)

To make:

Pour melted chocolate into LEGO brick silicone ice cube tray

Pops for Gifting

Everything is cuter on a stick!  We've been experimenting with pops lately...cookie pops, marshmallow pops and chocolate lollipops.

I use treat bags and ribbon to wrap the pops, and I gift them in cute $1 buckets from the One Spot at Target.

Cookie Pops:

Make your favorite cookie recipe (mine is from Pioneer Woman)

and add a lollipop stick before you bake them

Marshmallow Pops:

Put a marshmallow on a lollipop stick and dip in chocolate candy melts

Chocolate lollipop:

Pour melted chocolate into a mold and add a lollipop stick

My new favorite candy melts are the Ghirardelli melting wafers.  They come in dark chocolate and white chocolate and are available at Kroger and Wal-mart.  I want to start experimenting with coloring the white chocolate with oil-based food coloring.